Heaven Can't Wait Read Free Page B

sweat-slick chest, running her fingers absentmindedly through his chest hair, her body limp and glowing from their most recent round of crazed sex. She loved these nights when she had him to herself.
    An unpleasant flutter in her stomach drew her mind back to what she’d spent all evening trying to forget—her mother’s call. She was still trying to get Lissy to postpone the wedding until Will signed a prenup, dangling cash in her face as if she could be bought. Hadn’t she proved long ago that she didn’t give a damn about her parents’ money?
    But it wasn’t the usual discussion about divorce and assets that had bothered her; it was her mother’s comment about sex and love. She had quoted some study showing that couples who’d lived together before getting married had a higher divorce rate than those who waited to have sex until after marriage.
    Lissy had argued that the study, like most, was skewed from the beginning, as people who waited until after marriage to have sex tended to be people who also opposed divorce. Statistics never told the whole story. Any good journalist knew that.
    You wouldn’t be the first woman to confuse a man’s sexual attention with love, Melisande . Just wait till he gets his fill of you and the hormones wear off . Men like him marry for two things: sex and money.
    Not her Will. No way.
    “Do you realize that a hundred or even fifty years ago, we’d both be virgins?” She didn’t know she’d spoken until she heard her own voice.
    His fingers stroked the hollow above her hip. “Good thing it’s not a hundred or even fifty years ago. My balls would have burst by now.”
    “But don’t you think things were more romantic then? Sex would have been a great mystery for us.”
    “I doubt it would have been that much of a mystery. We’d probably both have grown up in the country and seen our share of farm-animal lovin’.”
    “The point I’m trying to make is that neither of us would have any personal experience with sex until our wedding night.”
    “That’s assuming that I hadn’t already charmed my way into your bloomers or found some ‘loose woman’ willing to let me defile her.” His voice dropped to a dark, velvet purr. “I can be very persuasive.”
    Lissy sat up, trying not to laugh, and glared at him. “You’re ruining my fantasy.”
    He grinned, stretched and folded his muscular arms behind his head. “Oh. Sorry. Go on. I’m listening.”
    “After the reception, we’d go to the bridal chamber, where everything would be roses and candles. There’d be a fire in the hearth—”
    “—if it were winter.”
    She ignored him. “You’d undress me first and then yourself. I’d probably never have seen a naked man before, so I’d be shy and afraid—”
    “Oh, Will, it’s soooo big! Please, don’t hurt me!”
    “—but you would soothe me and assure me that everything was going to be fine. Then you’d undress yourself, carry me to the bed and make passionate love to me.”
    He reached out, ran his fingers down her hair. “Are you sure that’s how it would go? I think you’ve read too many novels. If it were a hundred years ago and we were both virgins, I think it would go more like this.”
    “Do tell.”
    “We’d have been raised to see nudity as shameful, so the room would be dark, and you would have changed from your wedding gown to a proper white nightgown and gotten into bed before I entered the room. I’d come in, wearing my nightshirt, and crawl into bed with you. You’d be worried that it was going to hurt, and I’d be worried that my dick might not work. I’d lift your gown up to your hips, spread your legs, and it would be over in a minute. You’d hate it, and you’d get pregnant—with the first of my twelve children.”
    She fought back a giggle. “Thank you for that enchanting vision of romance.”
    “You’re welcome.” His knuckles grazed a nipple, sent heat skittering into her belly.
    She batted his hand away. “You’re