Magnificent Folly by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page B

relentless as he murmured, “Later, Lily. Right now I want to tell you about my dream. You were naked, and your breasts were beautiful in the moonlight. I put my mouth on your nipple and I could feel it harden as my tongue touched it.”
    Her nipples were hardening just then, and she could feel his gaze on the front of her T-shirt, watching the transformation.
    “Yes,” he said. “Just like that, Lily. You bent over me, and I held your breasts in my hands while I sucked and nipped at those pretty—”
    “Shut up,” Lily said hoarsely. “I don’t want to hear this.”
    “No, but you want to feel it.” Andrew smiled. “And you won’t let me touch you, so I have to dream—and you have to listen to my dreams.”
    “I don’t have to listen to anything.”
    “Then get up and walk away, Lily,” Andrew said gently. He leaned back on one elbow, his gaze on the evidence of her body’s betrayal of her will revealed by her clinging T-shirt. “If you don’t walk away, you’re most certainly going to hear the rest of my dream in great detail.”
    She didn’t
want
to leave him, dammit. Why couldn’t he just be quiet?
    “Then I rolled you over in the sand and moved between those gorgeous long legs of yours, but I didn’t enter you right away, love. I wanted to play for a while, so I opened your legs and …”
    His words went on for a long time, each sentence creating pictures that made heat buildwithin her until she could scarcely bear it. She should have gotten up and walked away from him.
    She sat there, not looking at him, listening.
    It rained that night, a hard, gusty downpour that swept the surf against the rocks of the shore.
    Even Andrew wouldn’t be stubborn enough to wait for her on the beach in weather like this, Lily assured herself as she looked out her bedroom window. It would be crazy for anyone to be out in such weather.
    But Andrew would be there waiting for her.
    Because the stupid man was quixotic and impossible and utterly tenacious, and it only served him right if he caught a chill and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.
    A bolt of fear shot through her, exasperation and emotional turmoil in its wake. She certainly didn’t care if he got sick. Then he’d have to leave her and Cassie alone.
    Another jagged burst of lightning split thedarkness, followed immediately by a crash of thunder.
    Cassie …
    No, the storm wouldn’t disturb Cassie. She always slept so soundly, a freight train could have rolled through the house without waking her.
    The only victim of the storm would be that idiot down on the beach.
    Maybe the lightning would strike him or he would slip on the rain-slickened rocks and hit his head.
    Stupid. So damned stupid.
    Then Lily was running from her room, across the living room, toward the front door.
    Puddles of rain had already formed on the deck, soaking her slippered feet as she flew through them and down the steps. She lost the slippers a moment later as she dashed down the incline toward the sandy beach.
    In minutes she was drenched, the cotton nightgown and robe plastered to her body, the rain trickling down her cheeks. Nothing existed in the world but darkness and lightning and thunder.
    Then she saw him coming to meet her.
    “Idiot!” She had to shout to be heard above the surf and the thunder. “Go away. Don’t you have any sens—”
    His mouth was crushing hers, hot, open, moist, invading.
    She groaned as she collapsed against him. “No, Andrew, this isn’t—”
    “Yes, it is.” His hands were quick, jerky as he stripped her robe away and let it fall to the sand. “Don’t lie to yourself, love. This is why you’re here.” His hands were warm, hard, as he cupped her breasts through the damp cotton of her gown. “Lord, you feel so good.”
    She arched helplessly toward him. Sweet heaven, he was right, that was why she was here. All the rest was lies.
    He pushed down the clinging cotton of the bodice of the nightgown, his fingers plucking feverishly