as if in a distant tunnel, but she couldn’t respond. Suspended in time, her mind could only focus on Harry.
His lips claimed hers in a slow dance of feathery-soft pressure, increasing until his tongue pushed past her teeth, delving deeper to claim hers. Edie’s eyes widened, her vision blurring around the edges. So, this was what all the fuss was about. Had she known all the fabulous sensations a single kiss could inspire, she might have broken through her shell long ago.
Edie’s hands pressed against Harry’s chest, skin against skin. She’d never felt a man’s muscular body. Electrical pulses skittered across her nerves sending molten blood throughout her body to collect at the juncture of her thighs. Liquid fire pooled in her loins, throbbing so hard she thought she would spontaneously combust. And she didn’t care.
Harry was kissing her like she’d never been kissed before. Well, she hadn’t.
His hands snaked up her sides, tugging her white cotton shirt from the waistband of her khaki skirt. The cool air against her naked skin served as a reminder she was standing in the hallway.
What was she doing? How could she let this complete stranger take such liberties? But with her traitorous body responding, how could she not?
He teased her lips, tugging at them with his teeth. Nipping and kissing along her jaw line, he paused with his nose against her neck and inhaled. “Umm. You smell like a fresh field of wild flowers.” His tongue flicked her earlobe and he sucked it into the hot moistness of his mouth.
A shiver started at that earlobe and quivered all the way down her spine to the tips of her toes.
She should stop him from this craziness, but she couldn’t. He filled her world and touched her body in ways she’d only dreamed.
Warm, rough fingers found their way beneath her shirt, sliding up her bare skin to cup the swell of her breasts. His thumbs circled over her hardened nipples through the lace of her bra.
She leaned into his hand, her head dropping back against the wall, exposing more of her neck to his lips and tongue. Awash in a sea of carnal delight, she forgot where she was. Her sex throbbed, aching for more. She’d seen x-rated movies before, when she’d been brave enough to rent them. The mechanics of sex were elementary. But the raw sensations were something new. Her body physically cried out to be filled by him.
He shoved his knee between her legs.
With her thighs clamped tight around his knee, she rubbed her dampened crotch against his leg. Now, she knew what Mrs. Fetterrmine’s poodle felt when he humped old Mr. Fettermine’s leg. Instead of the animalistic urge shocking her, it only made her wetter, hotter, more needy.
The hard ridge beneath his fly pressed against her belly. Edie reached down and cupped him, amazed at the solid length extending past her fingertips. Again, another move she’d only seen in the erotic movies or in her even more erotic dreams. Now she knew how it felt. Oh God, she wanted him inside her. Now!
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” Mrs. Bartelli cried out.
Over Harry’s shoulder, Edie could see the shock on the older woman’s face.
Harry’s hands smoothed down her belly to the slide beneath her skirt, the other woman’s presence not affecting him in the least.
More than anything, Edith wanted to continue what they were doing, explore to completion, but Mrs. Bartelli stood watching, her face a study of horror.
“Stop.” Edith pushed against Harry’s chest. “I wish you’d stop.”
Thunder shook the narrow hallway and immediately, Harry’s hands stilled.
Mrs. Bartelli plunked her hands on her ample hips. “Edith Ragsdale! What would your father say?”
Chapter Three
The urge to fulfill her wish had swept over Harry with such compelling force, he couldn’t resist. He had to comply, had to make her dream come true.
Harry couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed a woman. Hell, if you counted all the years between the dig and now, it