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He closed the space between them in three quick steps, taking her by the shoulders and dragging her into his arms.
Eight
“Rafe!” She squeaked and struggled, but he caught both wrists in one big hand behind her back, arching her against him and rubbing his body back and forth against hers, feeling the heady rush of arousal course through him. Her body was soft and warm and when he bent his head and covered her mouth, she didn’t fight him but opened to his probing tongue as if she’d been waiting for him.
Maybe she had. He hoped he wasn’t the only one who’d been driven crazy by the hours and the night they’d spent apart.
Lifting his head a fraction, he said, “Do you know how I felt when I realized you were gone?”
Her body stilled. “Furious?” she ventured.
“Well, that, too.” He framed her jaw with one big hand. “I was worried sick. Not that you had decided to travel independently—” He forestalled her when she would have spoken again. “You’re pregnant. You shouldn’t be running around the globe.” He paused for a moment, and his next words were more of a thought spoken aloud. “I don’t want you away from me overnight ever again.”
Her eyes widened. They stared at each other for a moment and again he recognized that something had changed between them. But her body was calling to him, soft and enticing against him, and he couldn’t think of anything but making her his again in the most basic way there was, telling her without words how much she meant to him.
Putting a hand on her hip, he explored the inside of her mouth as he urged her toward the high, antique bedstead with its tapestry canopy. When the backs of her knees bumped against the mattress, he slid his free hand around to palm one smooth, rounded buttock, but the fabric of her skirt got in the way.
Releasing her wrists, he muttered against her mouth, “Get these clothes off,” as he plunged his hands beneath her skirt and tugged both her knickers and her tights down and off. She was unbuttoning the line of tiny buttons running down the front of her blouse when he stood again. Impatiently he pulled the blouse and her slip over her head in one smooth move, then tossed them aside and reached for her bra. As he unclasped the garment and drew it aside, her breasts fell free. He cupped them in his palms, feeling their cool weight warming beneath his touch as he slipped his hands around and around in small circles, brushing repeatedly over the sensitive nipples that rose to meet his stroking.
He leaned down and kissed her again, then dropped his head to her shoulder and pressed a kiss to the fine-grained flesh he found there, marveling at the bounty of feminine beauty he’d exposed. She was making small noises in the back of her throat and she brought her hands up between them to deal with the buttons of his shirt, shoving it aside and dragging up his T-shirt beneath to expose his broad, rough-haired chest. He felt her breath hot against him and then he jumped at the startling sensation of tiny teeth closing gently but firmly over one of his flat male nipples, using her tongue and her teeth to draw it into the same nubbin of aroused flesh that he had called from her.
Arrows of desire sizzled a path through his nerve endings from her teasing tongue straight to his groin, and he groaned, abandoning her breasts to slide his hands around her bottom and pull her higher against him. He pushed a muscled knee between her slim legs, parting them and moving steadily forward until she rode one hard thigh. She brought a hand down then, exploring him through his pants, and the feel of her small palm rubbing over his cloth-covered erection drove him wild. Holding her in place, he fumbled with his belt, roughly unzipping his pants and then stepping away from her momentarily to discard the rest of his clothing.
Elizabeth stood with her back against the bed, her chest rising and falling with her quickened breathing, her arms braced behind her on the mattress. He stepped forward again, pulling her against him, and they both made anguished sounds of frustration and delight at the feel of naked flesh against naked flesh. His hot, pulsing column pushed at the mound of her belly and when she slowly rocked back and forth, caressing him with the small motion, he closed his eyes and threw his head back, giving himself to her ministrations.
With his eyes closed, every touch of her fingers to his skin made him tremble. She smoothed her hands over his chest, flicking lightly over his nipples again, then made small circles that moved steadily lower and lower. Over his rib cage, down into the tiny well of his navel, then even lower until she was brushing the thicket of black curls that surrounded his aching hardness. She toyed with him, straying down to the creases where his thighs met his torso, stealthily sliding her fingers along those folds to the heavy sac that hung between his legs, gently cupping him in her hand with her fingers slowly slipping back and forth. But she didn’t touch him as he longed for her to, and he felt himself getting harder and larger, and more and more frantic for her touch.
Finally he couldn’t take another second of her sly teasing. “Touch me,” he growled, dropping his head to seize her earlobe between his teeth and deliver a not-so-gentle nip of warning. He slid his own hands down her body to her hips and held her firmly with one, while with the other he dipped boldly into the shadowed cleft between her legs, finding her hot and wet and unbelievably slick and ready.
She wrapped her fingers around his straining shaft, feeling the silky heat, running her thumb up over the tip and discovering the slipperiness already forming there. She rubbed her fingers around the broad head, then down again, clasping him in a firm hand and beginning to stroke him rhythmically.
“Like this?” she whispered.
His breath whistled in and out between his teeth in agonized pleasure. His hand between her legs pushed her thighs apart until she widened her stance, then found the humid entrance to her and pushed one long finger steadily, slowly but firmly up into the tight feminine channel. “Like that,” he managed. He matched his finger’s motion to the strokes of her hand, feeling the pace quicken far too fast, knowing this was going to be over in a matter of moments, but he couldn’t bring himself to drag her hand away. Instead, he found himself covering her hand with his free one and showing her an even more intense rhythm, tutoring her in the hot, fierce pleasures of sensual fulfillment.
But all too soon, he began to shake uncontrollably with the effort to retain control, and he had to force himself to draw her hand away, twining her fingers with his when she made a sound of protest and reached for him again. The tip of his erect staff brushed against her belly and he groaned. He knew he didn’t have much time. Withdrawing his hand from her steamy center, he grabbed her by the hips and boosted her up to perch on the edge of the high bed, placing her in a perfect position to receive him. His body was so ready for release that he groaned aloud as he clasped himself in one big hand and positioned himself for the final claiming. Then he pulled her off the edge of the bed.
She slid onto him in a deep, s
mooth stroke so perfect she might have been made for the moment, wrapping her legs around his hips and drawing him even more closely to her. He thrust deeply into her and she cried out as her most sensitive knot of tiny nerves banged against his pelvis.
She threw her head back and looked up at him, her eyes wide, pupils dilated with passion. “I can’t…I can’t—”
“Yes, you can.” Scarcely able to restrain himself, but still in control enough to know that he didn’t want to go without her, he pushed his hand between them and found the little bump of pouting flesh with his thumb. Her body was quivering around him and he’d barely started a steady circling when her back arched and she screamed.
Inside her, strong muscular contractions squeezed his bursting flesh, and as she shuddered and heaved in his arms, Rafe felt himself gathering into one giant sensation all centered on the hot flesh snugly ensconced within her body. His hips thrust, withdrew and thrust again, slamming against her, and she screamed with each contact of flesh against flesh. His body drew taut, sensation dancing down his back, starting deep within him and pushing his seed up and out, arching him against her again and again, bucking wildly as he emptied himself into her receptive woman’s well.
Finally there was nothing left to give, nothing left to feel but satiated pleasure and drowsy exhaustion. His legs trembled; her ankles slipped from their clasp behind his back and her legs slid to the floor.
He reached behind her to the gold coverlet, pulling it back before lifting her and placing her gently on the crisp sheets. Drawing the cover up around her, he walked around the foot of the big bed to the other side and climbed in. She turned to him as she had the night before on another continent and he slipped one arm beneath her, drawing her close, conscious of how small and fragile she seemed. Her hand came up to rest on his chest and she nestled against him with one leg over his thigh; the mound of their child pushed into his side, cradled between them and he felt her give a deep sigh.
Rubbing his thumb over the silky skin of her upper arm, he turned his head and kissed the top of her head. “Tired?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She snuggled closer.
It was amazing what a warm, sweet woman cuddling up to you could do…when it was the right woman. He lifted a hand and put a finger under her chin, tilting her face up to his so that he could kiss her, long and tender. “Then sleep. I’ll hold you.”
He woke before she did. Easing his arm out from under her head, he grinned when she grumbled and curled into a little ball next to him. Shifting himself onto one elbow, he took a moment to study her features.
