Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5 Read Online Free

this…” He tapped her chin. “This tells me that you are probably not a woman to take lightly.”
    She tensed. “What do you mean by that?”
    “You have a strong jaw. I think you probably have a stubborn streak a kilometer wide.”
    She burst into laughter, and the tension eased out of her. “I’m afraid you’re probably right about that. So what else can you tell about me?”
    With her tacit permission, he moved his hands down to her shoulders, which were broader than he would have expected given her height. Long hair fell past them and straight down her back. It was soft as pseudosilk in his hands.
    “You have beautiful hair,” he said, stroking it gently. He could have played with it longer, but she tensed as if she was uncomfortable so he moved on. Feeling her arms, he found more muscle there as well as in her shoulders, and he knew she must have worked hard to put it there. When she’d moved before, there had been a lithe strength to her.
    “You are strong for your size,” he said. “I bet you dance well.”
    “I’ve been known to dance,” she admitted. “What else can you find?”
    He ran his hands along her body, carefully avoiding her breasts. “You are slender.” His hands rested at her waist, the narrowness surprising after the width of her shoulders. “Very slender.”
    “You missed a spot,” she said, sounding amused. “A couple of them in fact,” she added as if to drive the point home.
    Well, if she was going to be that way about it. Roan moved his hands up to cover her breasts. Small like the rest of her, but soft and easy to hold under the loose gown she wore. As he touched them, the nipples pebbled under his hands as if begging for him to caress them.
    “Wow,” was all he could say.
    “You like?”
    “I like very much. Will you marry me?”
    She erupted into laughter. “That’s it? You feel my breasts and promptly ask to marry me?”
    “I’ve wanted to marry you since the moment I attached to you. This just seemed like a good moment to ask.” He wasn’t sure if he should be offended or not. “How should I ask?”
    “Well, not with your hands on my breasts. And I think you should at least kiss me first.”
    For a moment Roan wondered which of them was conducting this courtship. At the moment it didn’t seem to be him. However, who was he to ignore another blatant invitation? Gently but firmly, he pulled her into his arms and tight against his body. Her curves seemed to dissolve into him. Those few parts of her that were soft became a blessing against his hardness. She made a small gasp of surprise, which was lost when he lowered his lips to find hers.
    And then he was the one lost as their lips met and mingled. She was experienced at kissing, but he didn’t mind as she let him take control. She let him use his tongue to open her mouth and taste the inside. She tasted sweet and clean, her teeth smooth and her tongue more than talented as it wrestled with his. It was the first time he’d kissed a woman this way, but she made it easy for him.
    She opened to him and melted in his arms, her body clinging to him as he pushed her onto her back. The padded cushion of the platform gave as her body flattened and then he was on top of her, pressing her farther into the yielding surface. The breasts he’d felt were soft against his chest, and as he covered her, his hardened shaft fell into the cradle of her thighs, pressing against her sex. He let her feel the length of him and slid forward just a little, rubbing them together and making her gasp. She moaned, and he knew she felt desire just as strongly as he did.
    Supporting himself on his elbows, he felt her warm breath on his cheek. He kissed her again, putting all the frustration of ten years of waiting into it. This was the woman he’d waited for, the woman to be his wife and take her place at his side. She was the one he wanted.
    When he pulled his mouth from hers, she wasn’t laughing. Every part of her seemed tense and