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Maybe it was foolish to ask. But she... Dear God, she was in love with him. She couldn’t not be.
She opened her eyes, though she couldn’t remember shutting them, to find his ferocious gaze fixed on her, ten times more intensely than he’d ever looked at her before. She couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to. So she didn’t.
She lost herself in his power and in their pleasure until the bough broke again. More spectacular. Vastly superior in sensation. Her scream this time was of pure ecstasy, and the fingers digging into his back pleaded for it never to cease.
He kept moving within her, kept up the sizzling tempo until he gave a long, guttural groan. His magnificent body grew taut, and then convulsions rippled through him.
For the longest stretch of time, the only sound in the suite was their snatched breaths and racing hearts. When they calmed, he withdrew from her body. Maddie barely managed to curb a whimper, and watched in silence as he left the bed and entered the adjoining bathroom.
Boneless, she collapsed on the bed, her every sense still struck by the awe of what had just happened. Was it like this every time? How soon could it happen again?
She was still drifting on a sea of sated bliss when Remi returned and scooped her up.
‘What...where are you taking me?’
The sound of a bath running and the scent of bath oil drifted through her senses, answered her question.
‘A bath will do you good,’ he said, before lowering her into warm, jasmine-scented water.
Maddie couldn’t stop the blush that suffused her face as the water closed around her. Expecting him to leave her to it, she started in surprise when he nudged her gently forward and slid in behind her. She would have thought what they’d done in the bedroom was intimate enough, but having him share her bath introduced a whole new level of intimacy that wrapped itself around her heart—much as she wanted him to wrap his arms around her.
When he did just that, a moment later, all the barriers she’d attempted to erect around her heart crumbled. She wanted this. Wanted him. For ever.
The weight of that need terrified her—so much so that she stiffened.
The arms around her tightened. ‘Is something wrong? Are you sore?’
She pulled her knees up to her chest, shook her head as another blush flared into her cheeks. ‘I’m fine,’ she blurted.
‘You’re not,’ he countermanded smoothly as he nudged her head against his shoulder. ‘It’s okay to be overwhelmed.’
Maddie wanted to laugh, but feared it might morph into a sob. She wasn’t fine. Far from it. She was hopelessly in love with a man who would never belong to her. Perhaps even now she was on a countdown to when he’d walk away from her.
The heart that had soared minutes ago in her new marriage bed dipped alarmingly, grey despair filling the empty spaces. Terrified of giving herself away, Maddie kept her head tucked into his shoulder, not protesting when he picked up a washcloth and began gliding it over her skin.
For one absurd moment she wanted to ask whether he’d done the same for Celeste. Thankfully that curiosity passed unuttered, but it did nothing to dissipate the knot of tension in her belly as she withstood his ministrations.
Perhaps it was the warmth of the water, his powerful but gentle hands, or the acceptance that she had truly passed the point of no return, but Maddie slowly began to relax as other sensations pushed themselves to the forefront of her consciousness.
She became acutely aware of Remi’s solid body enfolding hers, the back-and-forth motions of the washcloth over her breasts and belly, the slight hitch in his breathing. She didn’t know what prompted her to lift her head, glance up into his face. Once she did, she couldn’t look away.
They stared at each other for an interminable minute before his gaze raked over her face to rest on her lips. Unable to stop herself, she lifted her hand to his taut cheek, wild need urging her to explore further. She smoothed her thumb over his lips, his faintly stubbled chin, the bridge of his patrician nose, the sleek wings of his eyebrows. He was perfection, and she wanted to weep with the heartrending knowledge that he would never be hers.
But he’s here now. He’s yours for now.
She felt his manhood stir against her hip and gasped at the renewed thrill in her veins. Seeing the fierce hunger in his eyes, she drew her hand down his neck, over his superbly honed chest and hard six-pack. There she hesitated, her face flaming all over again at the thought of touching him so intimately.
‘Touch me, dea,’ he encouraged thickly.
Goddess. That was what he’d said the word meant.
Her insides melted. It was dangerous to be this affected by the endearment, but it was already too late. The word flowed into her heart, joined all the other pieces of gentleness and desire and attention she’d received from him.
Like a miser tucking away precious gems, Maddie gathered every scrap and stored them in her heart. She would need them one day, maybe one day far too soon, when he turned away from her.
She slid her hand over his hot skin, beneath the water to his groin, her breath dissolving in her lungs as she grasped his thick girth.
His hiss of arousal made her flinch, but the look in his eyes encouraged her to continue on her path. Emboldened, she grasped him more firmly, explored his glorious length until he hissed again.
