Western Widows Read Free Page B

worked them down my legs. Beneath the covers, I was naked from the waist down. All the while, Liam leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs and watched me. It was very disconcerting having a man look at me as I undressed, even doing so modestly beneath the protection of the quilt. I placed my white cotton drawers on top of the quilt, pulled the quilt up to my neck and said, "I'm ready."
    Liam stood, his height and broad shoulders more pronounced from my prone position. I held my breath as he approached, my knuckles tightening on the quilt. I expected him to pull back the covers and climb on top of me. Instead, he sat with his back against the headboard, his long legs out in front of him, our bodies parallel. He looked down at me, so calm, so relaxed and tilted his chin. "Come here. Come sit in my lap."
    "I thought..."
    "We'll get there soon enough, but I do this a little differently."
    My cheeks heated with embarrassment. Lowering the covers, I pushed down the bottom of my dress and came up to sit across his lap.
    He shook his head. "Put your knees on either side of my hips."
    Before I could understand his words, he grasped me about the waist and hoisted me into the air so I faced him and over his lap, giving me no choice to straddle his thighs as if riding a horse. My dress bunched up, but only my ankles and part of my calves showed and they were covered in my stockings. I lifted my gaze to meet his and discovered his face was only a few inches from mine. I could see a pale scar on the bridge of his nose, the dark depths of his eyes. Our breaths mingled.
    "I don't know what to do," I whispered, studying him.
    He gave the slightest shake of his head. "I do." The corner of his mouth turned up and I remembered our kiss and wanted more.
    "Put your hands on my chest."
    Glancing at him for a moment, I lowered my eyes to his torso. His chest filled out his shirt well, and from when I leaned against it earlier, felt hard and well muscled. Tentatively, I placed my hand on the white of his shirt, my fingers slipping beneath the dark jacket.
    He leaned forward so our mouths almost touched. Why didn't he kiss me? I licked my lips, wanting to lean in the small distance that separated our mouths and taste him again.
    "Slide the jacket off my shoulders."
    Thankful he was giving me orders, I followed them, forgetting about how he tasted and let my hands slide beneath the jacket to push the material back and then down his arms before he tugged it free. I felt his strength, his power, beneath the glide of my hands. He leaned back against the headboard with his eyes on mine.
    "My shirt next." His voice was a harsh rasp as if each word took effort.
    I was removing his clothes, not mine, which was all well and good for me. It filled my eager curiosity to see Liam's body, to touch it, feel it, learn it, a need I hadn't known I had until just now. I'd seen Richard without a shirt, but this was not the same. It had been in passing, when he washed at the pitcher and ewer, even as he climbed into bed in his drawers. I'd felt it beneath my hands as he took me, but it was all rather clinical, as he'd never offered me an opportunity to explore him. Just as he'd never had interest in seeing me. He'd just wanted to put himself inside me, move in and out and then fill me with his seed. He'd been kind to me, but I was quickly learning he'd been negligent.
    Liam, however, seemed to be the quite different. He was offering himself to me one layer at a time, patiently allowing me to fumble as I undid one button down his white shirt, then the next, exposing his hot skin and dark chest hair. It felt silky beneath the backs of my fingers and I hastened my motions, tugging the shirttails from his pants. He allowed me to part the shirt so I could look my fill, noting the dark, flat nipples, so different than my own. I couldn't resist and I ran my palms over them, making Liam hiss out a breath. I pulled my hands back, worried I'd hurt him.
    He gently