Naughty By Nature. Jule McBride
the interim, he guessed, she’d expected him to get up and leave. Ignoring that, he said, “After last night, you could wear a potato sack and I’d never know the difference, Lucy.”
She looked confused. “Last night?”
He laughed softly, loving how she was pulling his leg. Last night, she’d definitely exhibited a maddening, inventive sense of humor. Suppressing a shudder, he fixed his gaze to pretty lips that didn’t look nearly as sinful as they’d felt last night when they were circling the choicest part of his anatomy.
“Usually, I get up at five,” he confessed, uttering a rough, very male sound of longing, “but right now, Lucy, I can’t move.” He clasped his hands behind his neck. “Wish we could have breakfast in bed. Maybe an omelette and English muffins, with some champagne.”
“A rose in a discreet little bud vase?” Lucy queried dryly. Her gaze was slowly panning the room, widening in disbelief as she assessed the damage—condom wrappers on the floor, rumpled clothes, a cell phone, an overturned wastebasket. He couldn’t help but release another soft chuckle. “It was a hell of a night.”
“I’ll say,” murmured Lucy.
Glancing at the tangled bedding heaped beside him, he discovered that, in the light of day, the matching sheets and duvet were printed with pink whales and ocean waves. He bit back a grin. The covers were such a piled mess that, if he didn’t know better, he’d think somebody else was hiding under there. “A hell of a night,” he repeated, his heart tugging when he remembered how, on an emotional level, what he’d experienced with Lucy had been raw and passionate, then slow and tender. Occasionally, of course, it had gotten downright pornographic. And here, ever since his little brother Conner’s engagement to Sharon McConnell, Morgan had been thinking he’d never meet the right woman. But maybe he and Lucy would wind up together. She was so down-to-earth, his family would love her. They hated snobs. He eyed her. “What time is it?”
“Six.”
No wonder she looked so distressed. There was no time to sample another taste of what they’d feasted on last night. Drifting a potent gaze over her, Morgan didn’t stop until he’d traversed her uniform and support stockings and was staring at the toes of practical white crepe-soled shoes. “It’s risky, but maybe we could take a few more minutes….”
During a long, contemplative pause, Lucy crossed her arms, and when the movement lifted fuller breasts than what she’d possessed last night, Morgan credited himself for knowing she wore Wonderbras. He’d overheard his sisters Meggie and Fiona discussing their enhancing abilities.
“Morgan,” Lucy finally said, looking exasperated. “Do you mind telling me what you’re doing in my bed?”
“You’re so right,” he murmured apologetically. By hanging around, he was tempting fate. The Vernes didn’t usually get up this early. Vanessa, vamp that she was, stayed in bed until Morgan’s lunchtime, which meant ten. But what if today was an exception? He nodded. “The last thing I want to do is get us pink slips.”
“Then I suggest you leave.”
“Good point.” That was another thing he liked about Lucy. She was smart. Forward thinking. Reaching a long, well-muscled arm over the mattress, he fished around on the floor until he found his briefs. The sheet slid off his thigh as he moved, and when he glanced up, Lucy’s brown eyes were wide and startled, riveted between his thighs.
He chuckled again. “Meet me in broad daylight, Lucy.”
Her eyes lurched drunkenly upward, and she stared at him, slack-jawed. She whispered, “Have you lost your mind, Morgan?”
“No,” he assured her. “I’m leaving. I promise. As much as I’d love to stay, we’d better finish this later tonight.”
“Finish…?” Lucy managed to speak faintly, her eyes alighting briefly between his thighs once more before studiously focusing on the wall behind him.
“I don’t know how you feel about it, Lucy.” He couldn’t help but say it since after last night, he didn’t understand her shyness. “But that was the best sex I ever had.”
She gasped. “The best…what?”
Cursing his male insensitivity, he winced, then his eyes pierced hers significantly. “I know,” he assured her quickly. “I shouldn’t have called it sex. It was more than just sex. Much more.” He wasn’t inclined to divulge feelings this early in a relationship, but last night was so special that he gave in to his impulses, tossed aside his briefs and continued. “Two words,” he said. “You’re amazing.”
“Amazing?”
Her uncertainty was heartbreaking. “Don’t you know that about yourself, Lucy?”
She looked flabbergasted. “Well, I guess, Morgan, but—”
“Amazing,” he repeated. Surely from his response, not to mention her own, she’d realized how unusual last night had been. Smoothing a hand over his head, he tried to tame the hopelessly disheveled curls, and while he searched for the right words, he recalled how her long fingers had caught his hair in fistfuls, how she’d cooed his name during orgasm after orgasm. “I never experienced anything like this,” he admitted, taking another deep breath. “I don’t know what to say, where to begin….”
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t say anything more because—”
“I know it seems like too much, too soon, Lucy,” he interjected, feeling compelled to bare himself with her as he had with no other woman, “but after last night, we owe it to ourselves to be honest.” Pausing, he laid it on the line. “Lucy, with you, I don’t want to play the usual male-female games. There’s something more here, something real.”
Her eyes had fixed behind him again, on the piled covers, making Morgan realize how shy she was. Probably that was why she’d left off the lights last night. “You’re such a sweetheart,” he murmured.
“No, I’m not,” she denied hoarsely, taking a weaving step toward the bed. “And I think something really strange happened here last night. I think you’ve misunderstood….” Her voice trailed off. “Morgan, I really don’t think you should say—”
“Anything more?” Gently, he pushed aside the covers. Forgetting his nakedness, he rose and strode boldly toward her. “You’re wrong. What happened in this bedroom last night wasn’t strange. Just better than we expected. Maybe we didn’t count on it being the beginning of a relationship. Maybe we figured it would only turn out to be a one-night stand. But that’s why we need to talk about this, Lucy.”
Seeing how overwhelmed she was, his heart went out to her. “What are we going to do?” he asked reasonably, molding his hands over her shoulders and gazing deeply into her eyes. “Make a casual date? Go out to dinner? Start all over again and pretend we haven’t already made each other insane with lust?”
“No, Morgan,” Lucy whispered, rapidly shaking her head. “No!”
“That’s right,” he agreed, relieved she was on the same wavelength. “We can’t pretend we didn’t share the kind of passion that keeps people together forever.”
“Morgan.” She ground the word out.
Something in her tone stopped him. “What?”
“Get a grip!”
Why was she getting so upset? “We don’t need to get a grip. We need to let go, Lucy, to follow this wherever it takes us.”
Her face had turned sheet-white. “Morgan,” she said in a rush, “there’s something I have to tell you.”
Was there another man—as there had been with his ex-fiancée, Cheryl? Or had Lucy taken a job in another city? Was she moving? This didn’t sound good, but Morgan wanted to earn her trust. “You can tell me anything, sweetheart. After last night, nothing you say could change how I feel.”
“I