her entire being feel tense and alive. She liked being with him, she liked it when he kissed her and when he made love to her. Added to his other attractions, she knew that Julius had a depth of character other men lacked. She was confused as to how she should feel and think, but that didn’t really matter one way or the other, because she was going to love him. It was happening and she couldn’t stop it.
Julius came up behind her and his hands settled on her shoulders. In the mirror she watched him bend his dark head, felt his warm lips against the curve of her neck sending tingling sensations down her back.
‘You’re very beautiful, Beatrice. I suppose you don’t want to hear it, but it’s true. I feel we are well suited to help each other. A rare jewel. That’s what you are.’ She was very still, unable to move as he drew her hair aside and placed a kiss lightly in the nape of her neck, before whispering in her ear, ‘And quite irresistible.’
She wanted to contradict him, but her tongue remained silent. The rest of her body began to sing and her pulse raced at the warmth of his breath on her neck.
He looked deeply into her eyes, wanting to show her what he felt when he looked at her, not just what he saw. ‘Will you do something for me?’
The raw emotion in his voice registered on Beatrice and she felt her bones begin to melt. ‘What? What is it you want?’ she asked with a nervous tremor in her voice.
Julius raised his head and his lips curved in a smile, while striving to keep his raw hungry need to be inside her at bay. ‘I know exactly what I want; if you come to bed with me now, I’ll show you. I want to see you naked on the bed with your hair spread across the pillows. I want to look at your face while I touch you and make love to you, because I badly need to know how you feel.’
Mesmerised by the seductive invitation in those eyes and the velvet roughness of his deep voice, Beatrice stood up and wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck, knowing that, for him, this was a moment of atonement. Julius swung her into his arms, driven to try to make amends to her in the only way he knew how. Carrying her to the bed, he lowered her gently onto the quilt and followed her down, his lips finding hers in a long, deep kiss.
When he could finally tear himself away from her to remove his clothes, Beatrice watched him unashamedly, glorying in his magnificent body. Slipping out of her robe, she slid beneath the covers and waited for him to join her. When he did, he gathered her to him.
‘You’re trembling,’ he said in the gentlest of voices.
‘I know,’ she admitted nervously. ‘I don’t know why.’
‘Don’t you?’ he asked softly. ‘Perhaps this might help,’ he murmured, placing his hungry lips on hers to still their tremor, tasting the hot sweetness of her mouth.
Feeling as if her heart would surely burst with what was inside her, Beatrice made a tiny, smothered sound of desire and answered him with a melting kiss of her own. It was enough. Julius gathered her tightly to him, pulling her against his full length, clasping her against his rigid thighs while his lips were both rough and tender. When he lifted his mouth from hers, she felt an aching sense of loss that was replaced by sweet torment as he slid his mouth down her neck to her breasts, nuzzling them slowly before his lips closed tightly over her taut nipple. She moaned in helpless pleasure, desire streaking through her, her hands tangling in his hair, her back arching in helpless surrender.
Deliberately taking his time, Julius slid his hands over her like a connoisseur, caressing with skilful reverence, claiming every inch of her for his own, heating her skin and making her ache with soon-to-be-fulfilled yearnings. Eager to do some exploring of her own, Beatrice heard the quickening of his breath as her fingers inched tentatively over his bare flesh, savouring the sculpted hardness of his chest and abdomen. His hands slid lower, curving around her hips, his lips trailing lower and nuzzling closer to the curly triangle between her legs. Beatrice gasped, tilting her head back, her hand gripping his shoulders, her head pounding like a maddened