Part 34 (1/2)

Wordlessly, she obeyed. His muscles tensed. His shoulders were as unrelenting as stone, as sleek as satin under her clinging hands.

Her heart thundering, she prepared to be conquered as he'd conquered her this morning. Only to discover he meant to woo her to rapture.

He tilted his hips forward. She felt sliding heat against her moist cleft. Then slow, delicious pressure.

At last...

She caught her breath and flexed her fingers against his damp skin. He breathed harshly, and a lock of hair tumbled over his forehead. The veins in his arms stood out in stark relief. She couldn't doubt control cost every ounce of concentration.

There was something viscerally satisfying about being the object of that unwavering focus. Last time they'd made love, he'd been lost to pa.s.sion. That had been exciting. This was deeper, purer, sweeter.

He penetrated farther. She gasped as still-tender flesh stretched to accommodate him.

Of course he heard her. He paused in his tormentingly gradual invasion.

”Am I hurting you?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

She raised her head and kissed him briefly, then returned for a longer foray. This morning she'd felt desired, and the knowledge had been heady. Tonight, she felt cherished.

”Charis?”

”Don't stop,” she whispered, and dug her fingers harder into his shoulders.

He pushed forward. The feeling was strange. Uncomfortable. Exciting. With every incremental incursion, he took over her body. With her body, her soul.

She moaned and moved to ease the blinding pressure. He went deeper. She gasped for air as if she drowned. His shoulders under her hands were slick and his face was gaunt, the skin stretched over his bones.

The ferocious expression in his black eyes as they burned into hers should frighten her. Instead, it made her belly knot with arousal. He edged farther. Paused.

Had he reached his limit? She braced against him. Then something inside her relaxed, opened with sudden welcome.

The tension drained from his back. His muscles bunched again. And. with a deep groan, he seated himself fully.

The sensation was extraordinary. Indescribable. It was like her love took on solid expression, breath, life.

Time stretched to eternity before her. For all their previous lovemaking, she'd never felt so close to another person. The dark intimacy was all-encompa.s.sing.

His breathing was ragged. The eyes that met hers were glazed with pa.s.sion. He withdrew in one smooth movement and plunged back. Heat streaked through her, brilliant as lightning.

As he changed the angle, her pa.s.sage closed hard around him. The fresh sensation made her jerk and tremble. Twice tonight he'd shown her bliss. But what he did now was prelude to something infinitely more powerful.

He thrust again, and she clenched in barbaric possession. Every parting and joining jolted her body. Vaguely through the gathering storm, she felt him dip one hand between them. Then the press of his palm at the juncture of her legs, the flick of his fingers.

Her eyes fluttered shut as fire engulfed her world.

Consuming flame rushed along her veins. Every muscle tightened to an agony that was the greatest pleasure she'd ever known. Nothing existed except the roaring inferno.

Through it all, one thing alone anch.o.r.ed her. The man who thundered into her as she convulsed with ecstasy. She held on to Gideon while unshakable love filled her. Indelibly part of the s.h.i.+ning bliss, but somehow separate, immortal, and immovable like the sun.

Gideon was her sun. Her moon. Her sky. He created her anew in the fiery kiln of his pa.s.sion.

Love flooded every particle of her body with liquid gold. The connection was transcendent, eternal, unbreakable.

Gradually, her shuddering calmed. Reality slowly returned. The earth became the place she lived in instead of a mere memory to someone lost in the stars. But radiance lingered like the last glow of light on the horizon after a perfect summer day.

Opening dazed eyes, she found Gideon staring down at her in wonder. His lips tilted in a smile that, did he but know it, told her he loved her as she loved him.

She was exhausted, spent, lost in languorous joy. Her joints were so loose, she felt like a rag doll. He could pound her into oblivion now, and she wouldn't utter a squeak of protest.

He looked equally strained. She suddenly realized he hadn't yet found relief. Shocked, she made an almighty effort and reached out to touch his chest. One glancing contact, and her hand flopped back to her side. Her muscles had the resistance of woolen stuffing.

She quivered from the extraordinary conflagration that had swept her up into blissful oblivion. She'd had no idea. Nothing in her life had prepared her for those transforming moments in his arms.

Gideon released a shaky breath and began to s.h.i.+ft in and out of her body in a leisurely glide. The soft friction soothed. He bent to lick the peak of one breast.

”I can't...” she protested on a dying whisper.

”I know,” he soothed, drawing her nipple between his lips.

Sluggish response trickled down to where his body joined hers. He slid out and, with excruciating slowness, slid back in. He bit down softly on the pebbled peak.

She sighed, and this time when he moved, she rose to meet him. Immediately she felt new heat. The joining was deep and essential. An expression of love as much as desire.

Again, she stifled words he didn't want to hear. But her every heartbeat declared she loved him.

Instinctively, she rolled her hips, testing the sensation. He groaned against her breast and released her nipple to trace kisses across her collarbone. She laced her fingers in his thick hair, then gasped as he dragged her up to sit before him, still joined flesh to flesh.

He gazed into her face with the fixed concentration that was now familiar. A premonitory thrill shook her, made interior muscles tighten. His hands were ruthless, demanding, as he grabbed her hips and began to slide her up and down.

Her fog of satiated exhaustion, so overwhelming only minutes ago, vanished in an electric instant. Her legs automatically curled around him. She gripped his arms for balance. Desire bloomed in her belly.

She soon caught the rhythm. With a velvety laugh, he let her have her way. He leaned back on his hands, yielding to the summons of her pleasure.

The pleasure was astonis.h.i.+ng.

Until now, it had never occurred to her that she could control what happened between them. The power, the delight made her head swim. She arched back, relis.h.i.+ng the push and release inside her. He made her feel like a G.o.ddess. He made her feel like a woman in love.

Her breath escaped in broken gasps. She edged closer to another of those extraordinary peaks. Closer but not there. She sobbed and twisted, struggling to reach what she wanted.

”Not yet, my darling,” he whispered. He rolled and pressed her down into the mattress. She cried out and twined her legs around his hips. Still, he moved in and out of her body. Relentless as the tide.

His bare, scarred skin was hot, slippery under her clinging hands. He groaned and trembled.

For her.

That knowledge shuddered through her like a cannon blast. With every thrust, he stole another inch of her soul.