The Danforths: Marc, Tanya & Abe: The Laws of Passion / Terms of Surrender / Shocking the Senator

Running the flat of his tongue around her belly button, he sucked, lathed and nipped with abandon. When Marc ran into the waistband of her jeans, he opened the zipper with a quick rip before either one of them could think about it, dragging the denim down over her hips and pitching it over his shoulder.

He was lost in her softness. In the little cotton and lace panties she wore and the quiver she made when he covered her mound with his mouth. Kissing his way down one thigh and back up the other, he delighted in her strangled cries and the dampness at the juncture of her legs.

Clutching at his hair, she tugged him back up her body and kissed him with a violent need. Marc loved that she seemed as frantic as he was. Dana, the tough FBI agent, desperate and wild with passion for him.

He was helpless to do anything else but meet her demand for demand. When she reached for his zipper with trembling hands, he helped her by shifting to rid himself of the clothing. Then he straddled her hips, bending over to take her breast into his mouth one more time.

Her eyes grew suddenly wide and she reached for his rigid sex. She touched the tip, running her finger down the smooth shaft with pleasure. A bead of moisture erupted under her touch and he had to move away from her before he lost it altogether.

Reaching out to him with both arms wide, she writhed and moaned. “Please, Marc. Please.”

He took the invitation, pulling her panties off with abandon. She spread her legs and he touched her intimately, judging her readiness. Hot. Wet. And inviting.

Her hands moved over his chest, finding his nipples and running over his muscles. Bracing himself with one arm, he urgently caught her buttocks with the other hand and lifted her hips toward him. At last. He entered her on an agonizingly slow slide, while a shudder tore through him at the tight, perfect pleasure of it.

Dana tensed against him. And it suddenly hit him that she was too tight, too tense.

He stopped, lifting his head to question her. “You’re not a virgin. That can’t be.” He moaned with the shock of it and tried to gather his badly scattered wits.

“Please, Marc. I need you,” she demanded with passion.

That simple but frantic plea might not have been enough to send him over the edge of reason. But then she wound her legs tightly around his waist, gripped him internally and arched once more, sending him spiraling deeper into her glorious warmth.

He found himself in a maze of heat and pulsing passion. With Dana swirling all around him—whimpering, begging, squirming under him.

“I…I can’t…” Her sobs were those of a woman who was completely out of her element and didn’t quite know…

He reached between them, flicked a finger over her center and dove into welcoming depths. Her cry was savage and feral as she shuddered around him. She dug her nails into his arms and bit his neck as her body continued to quake and jolt.

Marc loved the frantic joy in her voice, the ferocious animal-like movements she made. He pulled her up tight, thrusting violently—until he, too, let go. Until the world and all its problems were nothing more than dim memories. Until he and Dana were the only souls left on the face of the earth.

Throwing his head back, he howled with the welcome of his release—the passionate proof of his desire.

Eight

What have I done?

Dana couldn’t catch her breath while her heart still hammered in her chest. It’d just hit her that making love with Marc was the most powerful…the most startlingly beautiful experience of her entire lifetime.

He pressed a kiss against her neck. A gentle kiss, it was filled with a tenderness that was threatening to break her heart.

In her head the whole thing had been way over the top. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Probably thousands of women lost their virginity every day. They couldn’t all feel this same stupendous surge of…of…power. That was the only word Dana could think of that explained what she’d felt—was still feeling.

Marc had been crazy with his need for her. When she’d hesitated or when she begged for more, he complied with her every wish. She’d been the boss, the one in control. And he’d been the one to show her what her body was capable of feeling.

As if he sensed her disquiet, Marc lifted his upper body, leaning on his elbows above her. “Dana,” he groaned. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, but had the feeling she wasn’t going to like having any conversation with him right now. His tone of voice sounded guilty and full of regret. Dana wasn’t in the mood.

“You were a virgin.” He blurted it out as if it were an accusation—not like the statement of fact it was.

“True,” she admitted. “But just leave it be. We don’t have to talk. It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.” He idly stroked his hand along her shoulder and down her arm. “You’re so…sexy…sensual.”

The blazing morning sun made the red highlights in his brown hair gleam, sparkling like the glassy reflections off the top of the ocean’s waves. He was so good-looking she nearly cried just staring up at him.

“Thank you. So are you,” she managed on a half-choke.

His expression turned grave. “Oh hell, Dana. I thought since you weren’t a schoolgirl—and you’re an FBI agent, after all.” He looked so exasperated and so adorable. “I was too rough…and I forgot to use any protection…and I didn’t use my head at all.”

He bent and murmured against her lips. “Forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” She tried to choose her words carefully. “Where I grew up, sex was a dirty word. If a girl was easy, she was just as likely to get gang raped as she was to snare a boyfriend. So, very early on I made a vow not to let any boy talk me out of my virginity…to become tough enough to fight my way out of potential hot spots. I learned to fight…not make love.”

Dana twisted so she could look up into his eyes. “By the time I entered Quantico for training, the idea of being the world’s oldest virgin was too humiliating to contemplate. I didn’t dare date anyone who might tell the others. I just pretended that I had a boyfriend who lived out of town, and stayed to myself on off hours.”

She swallowed and continued. “But this morning I wanted to be with you. When I saw you looking at me with that…desperation…and desire in your eyes, I wanted you to be the one. I gave myself permission to take what was offered—for the first time in my life.” Touching the tip of his beautiful Roman nose, she let her finger wander down to trace the line of his lips. “And you were worth waiting for.”

“Dana…” He sucked her finger into his mouth and pressed his body hard against hers, his chest brushing her breasts and their hips jamming together. “I thought I’d never make love to another woman. Just the idea of it seemed totally impossible after last year. But then suddenly—I was desperate for you. I’m still desperate for you.”

Marc kissed her with a fierceness that stirred her soul, drinking from her lips as if she were his first sip of water after an impossibly long thirst. “I want more. Again and again,” he groaned against her lips.

He moved his powerful upper body closer to hers. Dana jolted as surprising new sensations began spreading from the point where his hard arousal pressed inside her body. She’d thought he would take a long while to recuperate. But all of sudden, he was moving, pushing, sending rippling currents of need and pleasure to every inch of her.

Slow and searing.

Marc stoked the fire between them once again as his lips moved across one breast at the same time he teased the other nipple between two fingers. Dana felt the fire ignite under her skin. Felt her mind growing soft along with her body.

The eruption of her senses came fast this time as he shuddered into her, gripping her tightly enough that the world spun and shook with wild explosions rocking between them. After all that, she thought that both their hearts must’ve stopped altogether. But he kept her secured in his arms and firmly rolled them over on the blanket together.

They lay sated and drugged with pleasure as the sun beat down on their naked bodies and the gentle ocean breeze caressed their hair. With her still cradled snugly against him, he closed his eyes and Dana listened as his breathing evened out and slowed.

She lay still and watched him sleep, then began to take inventory of what she was feeling. Nothing hurt. Nothing that is except a general achy feeling in the vicinity of her heart.

Dana gazed at the long smooth lines of his legs and hip, as he sprawled on the blanket next to her. The man was genuinely beautiful. She took in every inch until the torture of wanting him became a poignant, depressing pain running through her entire body.

Oh man, she’d really gotten herself in a world of trouble this time. Wanting anyone this much was bound to turn out wrong.

The sun dipped behind a cloud and Dana felt a cold chill run across her skin. They could never have a lasting relationship. She wasn’t positive that either of them would even know how.

Their situation had just become impossible. Unless…she could find a way to go back. Go back to being a tough, law enforcement professional, using her knowledge and connections to help a man who needed her. Go back to nothing more than friendship.

Determined to somehow put aside what the last few hours had really meant to her, she eased out from under his arm and sat up. The sun eased through a hole in the clouds and she realized it must be nearing mid-morning. Sighing, she reached over and grabbed a handful of warm sand, letting it slip between her fingers like the minutes of the time they had left.

Her first experience of desire was becoming just a memory. It had to be put behind her and forgotten. That was the only way. The best way.

A gentle tickle, like the flutter of butterfly wings, moved across his skin and pulled him from sleep. When Marc opened his eyes, he remembered where he was. And he remembered…Dana.