‘them.’ I can’t condemn you. I know you too well.” She pulled his head down to hers, parting her lips for his kiss. “And I love you too much.”
Chapter 27
A rumpled pile of clothes lay forgotten on the floor, skirt, petticoat, breeches, shirt discarded by impatient hands. The sheets felt soft and cool beneath her as Nicholas lowered her to the bed, his touch gentle and strong as his fingers glided along the curves of her body. Her heart pounded with a rhythm as tender and fierce as the kisses they shared, while the lamplight bathed them both in gold.
Balancing his weight on his braced arms, he lifted his mouth from hers, eyes sparkling with what might have been a trick of the light... or dampness. Sam felt her heart unravel as she realized he was still trembling, still overwhelmed by the words she had spoken.
Twining her arms around his neck, she whispered them again. “I love you.” She pulled him down to her, wanting no distance between them, ever again. “I love you, Nicholas Brogan.”
He gazed at her as if he would be content simply to look at her for all eternity. Then his name on her lips became a sigh of desire as his mouth covered hers once more, his hands caressing, claiming. The rough silk of his beard against her jaw, her chin, sent tendrils of fire unfurling through her, the mat of hair on his chest creating delicious friction against the sensitive tips of her breasts.
She opened beneath him, welcoming the satiny glide of his tongue against hers as she welcomed the heat and hardness of his body. His weight pressed her down into the mattress, his fingers seeking her feminine heat. She gasped as he parted her intimately, heard his groan of pleasure and need as he discovered the hot rain below.
His mouth left hers to close over the tight pearl of one breast, wringing soft cries from her lips. The heat of his mouth, the wet touch of his tongue made her arch beneath him, offering more of herself. All of herself.
With feather-light brushes of his thumb, he teased the downy triangle between her thighs, the sensitive bud hidden within, until she was writhing beneath him, pleading, whispering helpless words of need. She buried her fingers in his dark hair, drawing him back to her, wanting more of him. All of him.
His arms circled her as if he were embracing life itself, holding on with all his strength. Her lips parted as their mouths met in a kiss so deep it felt infinite, their breath and longing joined, pulses racing. They had been away from one another only a few days and it felt like an eternity. Dear God, she had missed him.
She had ached for this, during too many long, empty hours—for his kiss, his tenderness, for the indescribable feeling of having Nicholas with her, beside her, part of her.
Losing him had shattered her heart, but with every kiss, every touch, every emerald-fired glance, he mended and healed, restored and renewed. He made her heart beat wildly and her soul sweep toward the heavens, with his.
They were both sheened with sweat, shuddering in the grip of passion before he gave in to her, to them both, pressing her back into the sheets. He gathered her beneath him, enfolding her in his strength, his potent power, every muscle taut as he positioned that rigid, male part of him at the damp entrance to her body.
He brushed fevered kisses over her cheeks, her lips, her jaw, then pressed forward in a single thrust that dragged a groan from deep in his chest. She instinctively arched her hips, taking him deeper inside her, moaning at the feel of his heat and hardness becoming part of her in that ancient, mysterious way.
Every part of her felt shimmering and alive as he began to move, withdrawing and then surging forward until he possessed her completely. The sensation of being utterly joined to him made time seem to slow, to stop. The night, the glow of the lamp, the smooth sheets beneath them faded from her awareness and there was only the two of them, together. The sound of his breath, the musky scent of his body, the way they fit so perfectly together, as if God had made them exclusively, exquisitely for one another.
Each slow stroke sent a cascade of pleasure through her. Her silken depths yielded and enveloped him until whirls of fire spun tight within the