“I reckon so,” he murmured, reaching for his belt. “Lift up a bit.”
She raised herself on her knees while he dealt with his shoes, pants, and shorts, sliding them down and off. Then she lowered herself, rubbing against him and feeling the wetness.
“We’d better take it a little slower this way, darlin’,” he said, taking her waist in his big hands. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
But she would have none of it, taking him into her hands and guiding him to her opening then coming down hard on him. She cried out, the pain/pleasure taking her by surprise, but she wouldn’t allow him to control her motion, as she set a fast pace, rising and falling on him like a piston.
“You’re a wild thing, you are,” John said through clenched teeth, but she heard approval in his voice as his hands shifted to her breasts, allowing her to take the lead in their coupling.
She didn’t speak—she couldn’t, for she was too caught up in the pleasure.
Then he suddenly placed his big hands under her arms and lifted her off him.
“No!” she screamed at the loss.
But he only laid her on the floor, pulled her legs up over his shoulders, and entered her in one long, hard thrust. She screamed again at the startling invasion then sank her teeth into his shoulder. He roared his pleasure, flooding her with his seed.
A long time later, Meg stirred, feeling the warmth of the fire on one side and the cool air of the room on the other. His weight had her pinned to the hard floor.
“John?”
She felt him inhale deeply then he rolled to his side, keeping her between him and the fire. In another moment, she felt the afghan from the couch settle over them. He pulled her leg over his hip. He was still deep inside her, and feeling him stir, she squeezed her inner muscles.
John chuckled. “Can’t get enough, eh?”
“What just happened?” she asked, in a tiny voice, utterly shocked by her own behavior.
“I’m thinkin’ we might have made a baby.”
She stiffened then abruptly relaxed. “Do you really think so?”
“I’m hopin’ so, Meg darlin’, ’cause I sure want to give you a reason to stay with me.”
She managed to lift her head far enough to look down at his face. “I don’t need another reason,” she said, reaching out to trace his lips with her fingertips. “I wasn’t planning to go anywhere. I love you.”
He nipped at her fingers and smiled.
“I’m right glad to hear that, ’cause I surely love you.”
“If we did make a baby,” she said, moving her hand to play with the fur on his chest, “it would probably be a good idea for us to get married. Don’t you think?”
He reached up to caress her face. “I think that’s a really good idea—even if we didn’t make a baby just now.”
“Okay.”
She laid her cheek on his chest with a sigh and heard his chuckle. “’Course, we might want to try again, seein’ as how a baby would be a really good thing.”
“Maestro Campagnone might not think so, losing a second violinist to maternity leave so soon.”
“He’ll get over it,” John said rolling over and covering her once more.
Meg smiled. “I guess he’ll have to,”
41
Kitty Konstantine slammed the telephone onto her desk and jumped up, knowing if she didn’t move, she’d break something. She crossed the wide expanse of her office to stand and look out the floor-to-ceiling window, hugging her arms tightly to herself. It wasn’t just the frigid air conditioning making her cold all over. Her father’s harsh voice continued to ring in her ears.
“I made you the Head of our Music Division, and you can’t even manage to get our best band to play at Opryland! You do realize they are our best band, don’t you? You do realize how much it would mean to have one of our bands headlinin’ at Opryland, don’t you? Or do you?”
“Of course I know what it would mean! I signed The Four Saints, didn’t I? It was one of my people who found them; I was the one who got them under contract!”
“Oh, you got them to sign with us, all right, but their contract is crap!”
“I’ve told you: Bartholomew Saint is their manager, and he wouldn’t sign with us—or anyone else, for that matter—unless they had the final say in where they perform. No exceptions.”
“That’s bull crap and you know it! Anyone with balls—and I’m told you’re supposed to have steel ones—could’ve brought them around. Why, if your brother was still here…”
“Well, he’s not!”
Silence, then, “Get, those Saint boys to sign an Opryland contract, or you might not be here much longer, either!”
“Bart Saint is coming in this afternoon to talk to me. I’ll do what I can.”
“You’d better get it done, no matter what it takes. Hell, I’d suggest you sleep with him, if I thought it might improve our chances, but I’m bettin’ it would only make things worse!”
On that scathing note, he’d hung up, leaving Kitty trembling with emotions she couldn’t even identify.