Spicy Excerpt from A BIT OF SASS

Copyright © Sarah McCarty 2005
All rights reserved

“You have too many clothes on.”

She shook her hair out of her eyes, suppressing a moan as the move produced a shimmering pressure where she was most sensitive. “I repeat—lech.”

His smile let her know he’d heard the catch in her voice. His touch was feather light as he slipped the straps of her bra from her shoulders. “A lech who’d very much like to see you without these sexy pieces of silk.”

The hunch of her shoulders was instinctive. She’d never let anyone see her naked after the babies were born.

The sheets rustled as he shook his head. “It won’t work, you know.”

The scrape of his nail down her spine sent shivers of delight spearing to her core and goose bumps springing across her flesh.

“What?”

“Hiding yourself from me.”

It would if she kept her elbows spread. “I’m not eighteen Jacob and—”

“You’ve had two kids,” he finished for her as he persistently tugged the scrap of lace and silk from her clutches. “I think it’s time you understood, sweetheart, that these imperfections you think you have don’t exist for me.”

His hand slipped between her breasts. A quick flick and that fast, her bra was gone and he was looking at her. Sass closed her eyes, and thought she’d drown under the weight of each stretch mark, each imperfection. The mattress shifted beneath her as Jacob leaned forward. His hair brushed her arm and then, with a caress as tender as the touch of a butterfly’s wings, he kissed the outside of her breast. She opened her eyes and looked down. He caught her gaze and held it as he repeated the caress. Once. Twice. Three times. Once for each stretch mark.

“You’re beautiful baby. Always.” His words seeped into her soul, warming that cold kernel of insecurity that said her prime was long past. That she couldn’t measure up. Her breath caught on a sob.

He shook his head at her, pulling her chest to his with one hand as he scooted them back until the headboard supported his back, and he supported her. His lips whispered across her eyelids, soothing the burn of tears she wouldn’t let fall. “You have the prettiest breasts.”

She had to ask. She’d spent too many nights dreading this very unveiling not to. “You don’t think they’re ugly?”

Jacob blinked. She had to be kidding. She was in his arms—sweet, hot and willing to drop her inhibitions—and she thought he could possibly find one single thing about her ugly? He brushed the hair off her cheek and tipped her chin so she couldn’t avoid his gaze. “There isn’t a damn thing about you that isn’t beautiful.”

Some of the fear left her gaze, but a niggle of concern still hovered in the flutter of her fingers on his arm, and the nervous flick of her tongue over her lips. He leaned forward. Her tongue flicked out again. He tagged it with his, feeling the jolt go through her as they connected. He took her gasp into his mouth. He loved those little betrayals of surprise that overtook her when the passion flared between them. No matter how often they made love, she always reacted like it was the first time.

“I tell you what,” he countered, shifting her above him so his cock notched securely against her pussy. Through the thin silk, the searing heat of her tight sheath beckoned. She was always so tight. So eager. So perfect. “You don’t make fun of my bony hips, and I won’t lie and say I find you anything but the most desirable woman I’ve ever seen.”

“You don’t have bony hips.”

She was talking in that tight, soft tone that meant she was still worrying. He tucked the persistent fall of her hair back behind her ear so he could see her face “Uh-huh.” He touched his finger to the faint frown between her eyes. “You’re worrying again.”

She blinked. The frown disappeared, to be replaced by a very shaky smile she no doubt meant to appear brave. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to worry about.”

Her gaze bounced off his. Her lower lip disappeared between her teeth. “I have a lot more on my stomach.”

The utter vulnerability exposed in those few words squeezed his heart. It had been a mistake letting her call the shots for the last few months. Instead of calming her, his cooperation with her wishes had just cemented in her mind the validity of her worries. And the one thing Sass was good at was worrying.

“Your stomach, huh?”

She nodded.

“I guess I’d better check it out.”

He let his fingers ride the ridges of her vertebrae until he got to the high waist of her french cut panties. Not doubt purchased because they both concealed what she wanted hidden and accentuated the full curves of the hips he loved. He watched her face as he tucked his fingers under the smooth elastic, watched how her full lips pursed to a pout and the deep amber of her wide-set eyes darkened to golden brown in anticipation and uncertainty. Another of those telling stiffenings and then a cautiously whispered, “Maybe we’d better turn out the light.”

He shook his head, kissing her delectable mouth. “Uh-uh. You promised me no darkness and no hiding tonight.”

“But–––”

He stilled her panic with a finger over her lips and a string of kisses down her throat. The shallow valley between her breasts beckoned with an enticing scent. Even her perfume drove him wild. His fingers found the crease of her buttocks and slipped between, easing downward. “Not until I see these supposed imperfections.”

The smoothness of flesh beneath his fingertips gave way to the crinkle of muscle. Her body jerked against his as he pressed delicately. “And probably not even then.”