A Warrior s Desire - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,40

water, rubbing her against the length of his arousal, driving her to a frenzy of wanting.

She circled his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest, rocking her hips.

The water splashed between them.

"Do you want me?" Charlie said against her mouth.

"Yes."

"Hold your breath."

He fell back, pulling her with him underwater.

As his tongue dove into her mouth, he lifted her hips and pushed himself deep inside her, filling her in ways no man ever had.

Filling her body, her heart, her soul.

She knew nothing in her life had ever been so right.

And feared it would never be again.
Chapter 15
Charlie reared up out of the water, pulling Tarrys with him, lifting her hips, then pulling them down again, driving himself deeper inside her with every plunge.

Her head was thrown back, her face a mask of intense pleasure, mirroring the incredible sensations spearing him.

The feel of her was like nothing he'd ever known.

Every stroke, every thrust rushed through him on a wave of pleasure almost as intense as a full-blown orgasm.

Tenderness built like a pressure in his chest.

The sweet grip of her hands at the back of his neck, the brush of her soft breasts against his chest.

He wanted to come inside her over and over again and never let her go.

The slender expanse of her neck beckoned and he had to taste it.

With a sudden certainty, he knew he'd die if he didn't have his mouth on her somewhere.

He kissed her throat, then the underside of her chin, then her cheek, drawing her heavy-lidded gaze to his.

Sweet heaven, she was an angel.

His mouth captured hers as he continued to drive into her, swallowing the small moans and gasps that rose on soft bursts from her throat.

Colors exploded behind his eyelids, brighter and brighter with every thrust until they were more brilliant than a rainbow, more beautiful than a thousand crystal mines in full glow.

And still he drove into her.

Her moans rose to shouts of desperate need as she clung to him, her fingers digging into his hair.

Each plunge into her depths thrust him higher and higher until he wondered if the building explosion would be enough to send the mines crumbling around them.

He didn't care.

Need raged until he was so far past anything in his experience he no longer knew what to expect.

Tarrys's cries buffeted him like driving winds, tearing him loose from his moorings.

Her heart pounded in sync with his as if they'd merged into one tempest.

One being.

It was a good thing their pursuers were more than a mile back.

Her cries rose, quicker, faster, and he knew she was near the peak.

As the triumphant cry of her release echoed off the crystal, her deep inner contractions pulled him toward his own, urging him to set himself free, to give himself up to the chaos of the storm.

No.

Deep inside, something rebelled, fighting for control.

Fighting off the chaos.

As his own climax crashed upon him, Charlie opened his eyes, jerking back to himself as he fixed on the pleasure of the release pounding through his body, rejecting the pull of the tempest.

When his passion was spent, he held Tarrys against him, their hearts thundering out of sync.

Holding her, he felt oddly alone.

As if she'd ridden the storm and left him behind.

As if, at that critical moment, they'd become two instead of one.

Two was good.

Jesus, he didn't want to be one.

Not with anyone.

But he didn't let her go.

Instead, he stroked her wet back, the water lapping gently around them, as the aftershocks of the most cataclysmic sexual encounter of his life rolled through his body.

It was just sex, he tried to tell himself.

But he knew better.

He'd had more partners than he cared to remember, yet never had he experienced anything even remotely like this.

The other encounters might as well have never happened.

Tarrys's hands slid into his hair.

She lifted her head and met his gaze, those eyes pulling him down into their warm violet depths.

Slowly, she leaned forward and kissed him tenderly on the cheek.

"I love you, Charlie Rand."

Her words went through him like a shot, ripping away the last of the lingering pleasure riding his body.

Love.

If there was one thing that could ruin a private moment for him, it was talk of love - the nail in the coffin of any relationship.

The moment his partner-of-the-moment started making noises about feelings or futures, he was gone.

Except, dammit, where in the hell was he going to go? He released her, pulling out of her slowly, his body resisting the separation even as his mind rejected the fierce need to