her damp face, then turned away to pick up his shirt.
To Elissa’s amazement, her hand reached out to protest when he started to put it on.
He looked up in surprise, then gently drew her hands to him. “Go ahead. Indulge yourself.”
“You don’t mind?” she asked, savoring his hair-roughened skin with hands that had never known a man’s body.
“Mind? Not in the least,” he returned. “Come here. I’ll teach you how.”
She hadn’t known there was a right and wrong way to touch a man, but with his hands showing her how, urging her mouth to his skin, teaching her what excited him, what pleased him the most, she felt her confidence grow, and with it a new sense of womanly power. She didn’t protest, not even when he guided her hands and let her experience him in a way she’d never dreamed of.
Finally he emitted a low groan and slid her arms around his waist.
“Sometimes I forget how innocent you are,” he said in her ear. He bit it, laughing softly, and his cheek nuzzled hers. “You make me forget,” he whispered. He drew his mouth across her cheek, then raised his head to search her eyes. “You shut out the world while I’m holding you.”
He kissed her gently then, and she understood. She blotted out his hunger for Bess—that was what he meant.
But I love you, she wanted to say. I love you, and I want so much more of you than this. Two years of friendship, and it had never occurred to her just how necessary he’d become to her, just how possessive she’d become of him. Nothing he’d done to her was unwelcome. She realized she could lie with him and give herself and live on it for the rest of her life, despite all her hard-won principles. Was that lust? Or was it the natural hunger for oneness, for total knowledge?
With his mouth still over hers, she frowned and opened her eyes, only to find his eyes open and watching her. Her heart went wild. His tongue penetrated her mouth, his hands came up under her breasts, and she couldn’t sustain the look a second longer. She closed her eyes with a hungry moan, and he kissed her deeply, thoroughly, before finally releasing her and putting her from him. She straightened up and smoothed out her dress as best she could.
“Don’t brush your hair,” he said when she reached for a brush on his dresser just as they were about to leave the room.
“Why not? I must look a mess.”
“Because I want her to see you like this,” he said gruffly. “With your mouth swollen and your hair in a tangle and your skin glowing. I want her to know that we’ve been making love.”
“That’s cruel,” she whispered.
“I have to be cruel, don’t you see? My God, Elissa, he’s my brother,” he groaned.
“Yes, I know.” She stood in front of him, reaching up to smooth away his frown. She smiled gently, drowning in new fantasies, brimming over with her new knowledge of him, new memories to put under her pillow and cherish.
“Too bad you’re such an innocent,” he said with a sigh.
“What would you do if I weren’t?” she teased gently.
“I’d take you into my bed and work Bess out of my system with a vengeance,” he said honestly. “And I could, with you. I’ve never wanted anyone so much in all my life.”
“I wish I could let you,” she replied. “I think I’d like sleeping with you, King. Lovemaking is more beautiful than I ever realized.”
“I’m glad you think of it that way, and not as something to satisfy a passing physical urge,” he said. “Ideally it is an act of love. With you,” he added quietly, bemusedly, “it feels like it. I don’t understand...”
She drew in a slow breath and went to turn the radio off, flushing at the reason it had been turned on. She looked across the room and found him watching her.
“There’s no need to blush,” he said quietly, once again reading her mind. “You did my ego a world of good—believe me. If it hadn’t been for our houseguests, I wouldn’t have given a damn if you’d yelled the place down.”
“It’s embarrassing to feel like this,” she whispered. “They’ll see...”
“Yes,” he agreed tersely. “Thank God.”
She couldn’t answer that. She opened the door and walked ahead of him.
Bess wasn’t there. Bobby looked up with a sly grin. “Bess has gone for a walk on the beach,” he murmured. He cleared his throat.