The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!'. Cathy Gillen Thacker

socks followed. Brady swallowed. The only thing she had left was her panties. Before he could even make a move, those followed, too, and they were just as lacy, just as transparent as her bra.

      He heard her laughing, then the sound of her footsteps moving toward her bedroom. His lower half surging to life, Brady headed for the stairs.

      KELSEY WAS ALREADY BENEATH the covers in her bedroom. Her cheeks were flushed but there was a telltale devilry in her eyes, and a challenging tilt to her chin. “Are we going to get this over with or not?” she said.

      Brady looked at the elegant line of her bare shoulders, and her satiny smooth skin. She had the covers tugged well above her breasts, but what little he could see, coupled with the kiss they had exchanged not too long ago, had him already hard as a rock. “I’m not the kind of guy who plays around,” he warned, wanting there to be no mistake about his intentions. “If we do this, if we begin a sexual relationship with each other, there’s no going back. I expect exclusive rights to your bedroom and I’ll give you the same to mine.”

      “Fine,” Kelsey said as she watched him methodically take off his shirt, boots and jeans. Her pretty green eyes widened as he stripped off his socks and low-slung red briefs, too. “But I reserve the right to say when and where it’ll happen.”

      Brady had no problem with that. Once she was his woman, he figured he could convince her to make love with him anywhere, anytime the need struck. And if not, he thought as a smile curved his mouth, he’d sure have fun trying.

      Naked, he climbed beneath the sheets.

      To his frustration, although she was naked, too, Kelsey kept her arms on top of the blankets, the covers pressed tightly against her. She had a funny look in her eyes, too. Sort of excited and scared and nervous and yet ridiculously brazen and full of bravado, too. “If I didn’t know better,” he teased, “I’d think you’d never done this before.”

      “Ha, ha, very funny.” Kelsey gave him a withering look. “Can we just get on with it, please?”

      Irritated at the way she kept calling all the shots and ordering him around, Brady frowned. “Sorry for the delay, ma’am.” And with that, he lifted the barrier of sheets still between them, shifted over top of her and lowered his head to hers.

      THE FEEL OF HIS LIPS against hers was even more tantalizing and electric than before. Kelsey gasped as Brady’s mouth brushed against hers. She quivered all over as he slipped his tongue inside her mouth and rubbed it against hers with lazy, sensual strokes. His hands moved to her breasts, and still kissing her, he shifted his weight, so he was lying beside her, one arm beneath her neck, one leg thrown over hers. When he’d brought her nipples to hot, aching peaks, he let his hand trail lower still, across the flat of her abdomen, and that was when panic, unlike Kelsey had ever felt, set in. Kelsey broke off the kiss and, hands splayed against his chest, pushed him away with all her might. “Stop!” she said. “I can’t do this!”