Chapter Forty-Five
Lily allowed the massive wolf to guide her towards the hollow where they had been together the night before, the dip in the grass covered earth a sign of the hours they had spent reveling in each other’s bodies. As if by mutual agreement, they stopped by a nearby log, that had fallen so as to form a natural resting spot. Lily sat on it, and the animal gently pressed its muzzle once against her cheek, before moving back a few paces. It tilted its great auburn head at Lily, and then there was a small blast of something invisible, something that Lily had never felt before, that softly rocked her in her seat.
She opened her mouth to exclaim in surprise, but a shadow fell over her face. She was stunned again as Col stood in front of where she was seated, his human form towering over her.
And the thought flashed through her mind, as it had earlier when she was looking at the toddler,our children will be like this. But the immediacy of his presence, the intensity of his look pushed aside all suppositions of the future. All that mattered in this moment was the here and now, the nearness of this man who stood before her.
He was wearing the heather grey t-shirt, fatigues and boots from earlier, when she had studiously avoided looking at him. And now she couldn’t stop. The fabric stretched across his board, muscular chest, the short sleeves revealing the massive biceps of his corded arms.
And his beautiful hazel eyes. That look they held couldn’t be from duty. Because if he could turn that on and off at will, he had missed his calling as an Oscar winning, Tony award-getting, Emmy-sweeping actor. Actually with his voice, he’d have a Grammy to brag about too.
Maybe she was a little bit biased. But she was definitely mesmerized. And aroused.
And then he knelt.
Down on his knees, so that he was close to eye level with her. He reached out, and took her hands into his own, and keeping his eyes on her, he kissed them, one at a time, brushing his lips over her knuckles.
She sighed softly, breathing in the nighttime air, the foliage surrounding them, his masculine scent that liquefied her insides, made her ache for more contact.
“Tell me,” his voice was low, deep, and filled with yearning. “Tell me how I can win your forgiveness, for however I might have transgressed against you.” He bent his head to kiss her hands again, and looked up at her. She groaned, and pulled him towards her, so that his head was in her lap. He wrapped his arms around her bare legs, and she stroked his hair, the hair that was the same color as the fur of his wolf.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Lily said. “I just need to know. Are you…is what’s happening between us, is that all because you feel a duty to find yourDestine?”
He jerked his head up, his eyes wide with surprise. His arms tightened around her legs, and the contact of his skin against hers was exquisite.
And then he laughed. It was a low laugh, but a laugh all the same. What the hell was so funny? She felt the ire rise, but then he bent his head to kiss her knees.
“No, my Lily,” he said, his voice reverberating against her legs. “Forgive me, if I have given you that misbelief. I have been struggling — mightily and pointlessly — against joining with you, against bonding with you, because of my own misbelief.”
What? Lily’s jaw dropped open.
Col continued, in that warm, deep voice.
“My foolish misperception that the manner in which you make me feel…”
He dropped a kiss on her knee.” —the manner in which you make my senses come alive…” And then the other knee. “—the manner in which you affect me…’
She closed her eyes, and felt the little flicker of his tongue on the underside of her knee, right where the skin was thin and sensitive. “—all of you is at odds with mine duty.”
For the second time,What? Her eyes blinked open, meeting the piercing intensity of hazel. Did she hear right? She was a bit distracted, after all.
“What I feel for you, fair Lily, is not duty, although I know not how else to characterize the sheer force of it, for it far outpaces that of anything else I have ever felt in my life.”
His eyes moved to her bottom lip, “The yearning I have for but a single kiss from your lips, to be graced with a single smile, to be favored with your touch -- that yearning burns higher than any fervor I have ever had for battle.”
She could feel the potency of his fierce longing permeating through his body, like the thrumming of a powerful motor. It was familiar, for it matched her own.
With an inchoate cry, she launched herself at him, and they fell back together, he easily cushioning her on the grass, capturing her lips as at last they kissed, hungrily, grabbing at one another.
She felt his thickness against her, and she pressed her hand on it, wrapping her fingers around the hard ridges through the fabric. He groaned, and together they made light work of the barriers in the way of their skin meeting, in between hot kisses that scorched the ground beneath.
Col’s large hands swept over her naked body, before finding the damp heat at her core. His mouth closed over one rosy peak, as she writhed with the laving of his tongue, the suckles that pulled at the stiffened tip.
She parted her legs, giving his fingers access to her depths, as his thumb swirled over her sex. His mouth moved to her other breast, latching on as his hand continued stroking her, over and over until she shattered against him, crying out his name.
When the last tremor had been wrung from her body, he kissed her deeply, careful not to let too much of his weight on her. She ran her hand over the contours of his back, his muscles rippling under her fingertips. His tongue swept against hers, and her body arched towards his, wanting more of him. His hands slid over her sides, and with a sudden move, he had flipped her so she was on top of him, her breasts flattened against his powerful chest.
She felt the blunt tip of his thickness against her belly, and she slid herself against it, eliciting a deep moan that throbbed through his muscled body.
