He had her mind and body so consumed with him and the pleasure he was introducing her to that she wasn’t sure what made her realize she’d reached the point of no return without hearing what she needed to hear from him. Not that she had the will, or, certainly, the desire, to stop what was happening either way. It would make her pleasure complete, though, to have confirmed what she already took for granted.

The words came out between the gasps, and not very coherently at that. “I thought . . . Shouldn’t you . . . There is the question of . . .”

He must have understood what she was trying to say, because he replied, “This isn’t the time for important questions that could tie up the tongue.”

So misleading, that remark, and yet so reassuring. She assumed that he was talking of asking her to marry him. And she had to agree, after her own garbled speech, that it was rather impossible to put two thoughts together at the moment. Besides, there was no opportunity to say more, when he was distracting her with his kisses again.

His large body covered her gradually, carefully, so as not to alarm her. She was beyond that, comforted instead by his weight, even as the pressure heightened her arousal. He grasped her hands, held on either side of her head. He kissed her deeply as he took possession of her. The pain was so swift, it was there and gone before she really felt it or had time to stiffen against it, and was as soon forgotten in the onslaught of pure sensual delight that followed, of feeling him buried deep within her.

Briefly she thought that was the end of it, that nothing could be better. How naive. Even his “pleasure unimagined” didn’t do justice to the incredible bliss that steadily grew as he began moving in her, then burst and spread through her body in unrelenting waves.

In those few moments of utter ecstasy, nothing else mattered. They would work out the marriage arrangements later, she was sure. For now, she savored the knowledge that Vincent Everett belonged to her.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

THE PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE DIDN’T COME AFTER the lovemaking as expected. Not surprising, though, when Vincent removed his weight from Larissa, pulled her close to his side, and promptly fell asleep. And she lay there also, too much savoring the whole experience, the happiness she was feeling, and the unexpected comfort of being held by him even in sleep to consider waking him now when she finally realized that part of the evening’s agenda hadn’t been finished.