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“Dustin …”
“My price, if you recall.” He covered her mouth with his. “Several minutes. That did not include conversation.”
Laughing softly, Nicole twined her arms about his neck. “As you wish.”
“Ah, my love, this is only the beginning of what I wish for us.”
He took her mouth with a possessiveness he made no attempt to hide, fitted her body against his until she shivered at the blatant evidence of his arousal.
“Nicole.” He breathed her name, his tongue stroking hers, his arms tightening, drawing her closer, harder, against him. “Do you have any idea how much I want you?”
She was shaking—and not with fear. “I think so,” she whispered. “Yes.”
“Tell me you want me.”
“Oh, Dustin, you already know I want you.”
“I dream about being inside you.”
“Oh … God.” Nicole shuddered, clinging to him as his hand shifted, easing upward to cup her breast. Her nipple hardened the instant his thumb brushed across it—once, twice—and without even realizing it, she leaned into the contact, invited more.
“I go up in flames just touching you. When I finally have you, I think I’ll die.” With the greatest effort, he lifted his head, watching her face as he continued to stroke her nipple. Slowly, he bent, surrounding the hardened peak through her gown, tugging lightly.
She whimpered, and Dustin acted at once, straightening to cover her mouth with his, capturing the muted sound. “You’re beautiful,” he managed in a voice too rough to be his. “And I’d best stop now before every shred of my sanity dissipates and I forget where we are.”
“I’ve already forgotten,” she admitted breathlessly. “But that comes as no surprise to you, does it?”
In answer, Dustin drew away, framing her hot face between his palms. “You have the mistaken notion that I’ve traveled this road before. I haven’t. Ever. With anyone. What I’m feeling now is as new to me as it is to you and equally as precious. If you believe nothing else, believe that, because I’m not leaving this cottage until you tell me you do.”
A dreamy smile touched Nicole’s lips. “Then perhaps I’ll alter my original decision to say I believe you. In that way, I can delay your good-byes indefinitely.”
With a groan, Dustin lowered his head again, kissing her until the very earth seemed to move. “Once I have you, there will be no good-byes,” he breathed into her lips. “I’m going to stay inside you, fill you until we’re one, pour my soul into yours until neither of us is ever empty again.”
“For how long?” Even as the question tumbled out, her amethyst eyes widened with dismay, clearly conveying her desperate wish to recall it.
“Forever.” The need was too great, the words emerging with a will all their own. “Nicole, don’t you understand? I love you.”
The declaration hovered, then sank in, feeling more right than even Dustin had imagined.
Nicole’s lips trembled, and two tears trickled down her cheeks.
Irrational fear tightened Dustin’s chest, and his arms locked about her, staying any chance of flight. “Sweetheart, don’t be frightened. And for God’s sake, don’t pull away. You don’t have to answer. You don’t have to say a bloody th
ing. I promised you time, and I intend to give it to you. Please darling, don’t cry.”
“I won’t pull away. I can’t help crying. And frightened? I’m more than frightened. I’m terrified.”
“Why? Because I love you?”
“No,” she replied, her slender body quivering with emotion. “That alone wouldn’t terrify me. The reason I’m terrified is because I love you, too.”
Twelve
NEWMARKET WAS BUSTLING WITH activity, much as Dustin had expected. With the second spring meeting commencing the next day, thoroughbreds were beginning to arrive, both from the nearby stables and from afar by rail, and anxious owners were muttering to trainers who, in turn, were issuing last-minute instructions to their head lads.
“Shall I accompany you, my lord?” Saxon inquired quietly as Dustin alit from the carriage.
“That won’t be necessary, no. I have yet to delve deep enough to frighten whoever’s at the helm of all this into ordering his hoodlums to stifle me. However, my open and intensive grilling of his conspiring jockeys should change that.” Dustin’s gaze swept the small crowd of people. “Even then, I doubt those bastards would be stupid enough to accost me in the center of Newmarket.”
