AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fresh tears wet her cheeks. She now did n't only have Alberto and her Papa to worry about, but also her dearly beloved Michael. “Yes. I do,” she sobbed, wiping her tears with the back of a hand.
“Maria, I even plan to find a way of releasing Nathan Hawkins's hold on you. I cannot bear to think of that man's hands on your body. How it sickens me.”
“He is most unpleasant. . . in . . . bed,” she murmured, looking up into Michael's eyes, then breathed deeply as his lips lowered to hers, making her mind turn into colorful swirls. “Michael, I love you. Oh, how I love you,” she whispered, pulling his lips even closer, tangling her fingers into his hair. When he lifted her up into his arms, she rested her cheek against his chest, sighing leisurely. She knew what was to soon follow. Her thoughts of Nathan were no longer. He didn't even exist. There was only Michael.
“If Nathan awakens and finds you gone . . . ?” Michael said, placing her atop the bed, already working with the buttons of her dress.
“I shall say that I was restless. That I needed a breath of fresh air,” she murmured, reaching up, stroking his cheek with the back of a hand. “I had admired the river earlier. I will say I had a carriage take me to the levee so I could look down upon its peacefulness.”
She closed her eyes, tremoring as he succeeded at revealing her breasts to his eyes. When his mouth lowered to her and began to suckle on a nipple, as a baby might do, Maria could feel it swelling with warmth. She reached upward, squeezing, kneading her breast, urging it further into his mouth, realizing that a throbbing was beginning deep inside her womb, awak ening, desiring, yearning for his manhood to enter her. With her free hand, she unfastened the buttons of his breeches and slid them downward.
“Darling,” Michael whispered. “We must undress. Fully. I must caress every curve of your silken body. If not now, I might just explode.”
“Yes, Michael. Yes,” Maria sighed, moving from the bed. Unable to keep her eyes from him, she removed her clothes in haste. And when he bared his full flesh to her, her heartbeat became erratic, as she saw once again the broadness of his chest that was d
ecorated so with curly, blonde hair. His hips narrowed and now revealed his fully distended manhood, and he knew that his passion for her had fully crested.
“Maria,” Michael murmured, moving to her. His hands traced her body gently. “My Maria.” He lifted her onto the bed, then stretched out atop her, nudging her legs apart with a knee. He didn't enter her, though. He didn't want to end this moment together that quickly. He wanted to move slowly. He wanted to enjoy caressing her body. He knew that this might possibly be their last time together. He knew that Nathan Hawkins stood between them now, even dangerously so.
Maria squirmed, moaning with lustful pleasure. His hands held a strange magic in them. Each finger was a wand, and as they touched her, sensual sparks were ignited to travel across her skin, upward, settling around her heart, making it to race even more.
His lips sought hers out in a soft warmth, making exquisite pleasure surge through her body. She moved a leg around him, urging him closer. Then she let a hand move downward to wrap around his manhood and guided him inside her.
“Now, Michael. Please,” she cried. Her body ached for him. The tension and desire were mounting, making a slow, sweet pain begin deeply inside her. As he began to thrust, over and over again, she arched her back, meeting him. Then their bodies ignited, sending waves of rapture through them both.
Maria sighed languidly, now feeling so content and rapturous. She sought out his lips and pressed hers against them as his hands framed her face and let his manhood move inside her once again. “I love you, Michael,” she whispered, tracing his back with her hands, feeling the tautness of his muscles.
He continued to labor over her, kissing her still, first on the lashes, then nose, and down to the hollow of her throat. “There will never be anyone else for me, my darling,” he murmured, then kissed and nibbled a breast, making her moan anew.
“I could spend a night, a full night sharing this with you, Michael,” she panted, feeling the passionate desire racing through her once again. She wrapped both legs around him and closed her eyes to the spiral of colors that were flashing off and on inside her brain. He continued to press down inside her. . . deeper and deeper. .. .
“This can't, this won't be our last time together,” he said. He wanted to free her hair from its bondage, to pull his fingers through its softness, but he knew that to do so would cause her added stress when the time came to say goodbye, since she would have to work at it to-return it as it was when Nathan had last seen her. This wasn't the time to set Nathan Hawkins's mind to wondering about his new wife's possibly being in another man's bed.. ..
Thinking of Nathan Hawkins and Maria together made Michael thrust almost angrily inside Maria, causing her to let out a small cry, then together they climbed to the highest plateau of feeling until they both lay spent, panting, still clinging to one another.
“It's always so beautiful with you, Michael,” Maria purred, tracing his lips with a forefinger.
Michael's brows furrowed. “You should be set free from Nathan Hawkins's bonds.. . .” he said, then stopped when Maria covered her mouth with.a hand and gasped.
“Nathan,” she murmured, scampering from the bed. “I must return to Nathan.” Her face had paled. She began dressing, all the while wondering what Nathan would do if he discovered the truth about Michael and herself.
Michael rose from the bed and reached down to pull his breeches on. “If he so much as ever lays a hand on you, I'll kill the bastard,” he said icily. “Maybe I should anyway. Then all our problems would be solved. Just that quickly.”
Maria moved to him and placed her fingertips to his lips, sealing them. “Shh, Michael. Please don't talk of such violence. Things will work out. You'll see.”
Pulling her next to him, he studied her facial features, memorizing them. He knew that his dreams would be filled with only her. “You are so damn beautiful,” he whispered. He reached up and traced her birthmark, smiling amusedly. “Even your birthmark. It makes you even more unique, you know.”
Maria lowered her eyes. “You've never mentioned it before. I thought because you thought that thing of red was ugly.”
Michael's lips touched the birthmark ever so gently, then he ran his tongue over it. “Hmm. it not only looks like a strawberry. It even tastes like one. So sweet. So very, very sweet.”
Maria giggled, reaching up-to push his hps away. “That tickles,” she murmured. Then she grew serious. “You truly don't think it's ugly? Nathan said that it should be covered with a heavy makeup.”
Michael laughed hoarsely. “And what does he know? His scraggly face could use some of that makeup he speaks so freely of.” His face darkened with thoughts as he turned to walk away from Maria. He went to a window and pulled a drape aside, looking downward onto the nightlife of his great city of Saint Louis. Only recently the gaslights had begun to be replaced by electric, which lit the streets in a more cheerful fashion, encouraging shoppers to be less afraid of the city streets after night had come. And now, both women and men were strolling along, staring into the pane glass windows of the most elaborate shops.
Turning on his heel. Michael suddenly blurted. “How can you stand to let that man's lips … touch … you, Maria? How can you . . . ?”
Maria fastened the last button of her dress, then pulled her cape around her shoulders. “I have no choice, do I, Michael?” she whispered, then rushed to his arms and fell into them, sobbing weakly. “As I have no choice but to take my leave of you now, darling,” she whispered. She raised her lips to his and moaned as his crushed downward.
