by Laura Taylor
"I still daydream about the way your nipples tasted when I sucked on them." He smiled at the flush that filled her cheeks. "They always reminded me of the flavor of wild honey. So did the rest of you, for that matter."
His bluntness aroused her. How could it not?
Dev drew her crossed arms away from her body. He stroked one taut nipple and then the other. Jessica shivered violently. He brought his fingertips up to brush them across her lower lip.
"I dream about the scent of your skin and the way it turns to hot silk as you come alive beneath my hands when I touch you. I dream about how wet you get when you want me. I dream about you, naked and mine to love," he admitted in a rough tone as he lowered his hand to an even more sensitive part of her body.
She felt the width of his palm and the strength of his fingers as they curved over her. Jessica bit her lip to keep from moaning, although she felt certain that nothing could conceal the arousal simmering within her or the tremors of desire shaking her.
"I dream about the tight, wet heat that makes room for me and then closes around my flesh when I’m all the way inside you. And I still hear the sounds you make, Jessie. They’re the most beautiful sounds in the world, and I want to hear them again. I need to hear them again."
His words created images that her mind and her heart coveted. "Oh."
He chuckled, but he sounded rueful. "Oh?"
"I feel like an idiot right now."
"You’re my favorite idiot."
She smiled. "Thanks, I think."
The humor left his eyes. "I don’t want to disappoint you, either."
Emotions welled in her throat and filled her eyes. Strengthened by his compassion and sensitivity, she felt her courage return.
Easing free of his embrace, Jessica removed her clothing under his burning gaze. Then, she knelt at his side, urged him onto his back, and drew his jeans past his narrow hips and down the length of his long, muscular legs.
She remained on her knees beside him, smoothing her fingertips over his hair–roughened body with lingering, tantalizingly delicate strokes meant to seduce. His sex jutted up, proud and strong and emblematic of the control he’d exercised over his desire for her. He was totally naked, profanely masculine, and she adored having the freedom to re–explore what had once been hers alone to cherish.
When she closed her hand around his thick length and stroked up and down, he couldn’t bite back the low groan that passed his lips. She lowered her head and took him into her mouth, and the sound of her name burst out of him as a tremor of shock seized his entire body.
She left invisible trails of fire in her wake, and she stimulated every nerve he possessed until he was drawn as tightly as an archer’s bow. She tried to evoke fantasies he wouldn’t have ever been able to articulate, and she hoped to provoke desires that hadn’t yet occurred to him.
When he reached out to her after long minutes of carnal torture, she brushed aside his seeking hands, nearly crowing with pleasure when he fisted his hands in the blanket that had covered them while they’d slept. He sucked in a sharp breath, groaning as she continued to tantalize him with her lips and tongue. She felt her own body begin to swelter in wet, hot anticipation of their physical union, but Jessica ignored the need throbbing deep within her own body in favor of driving Dev to the edge of his tolerance.
She needed to fulfill one of the many fantasies that she’d nurtured in the privacy of her mind during their years apart. As a result, she promptly delivered him into the arms of sensual madness with her stroking tongue, nipping teeth, and slick tongue as she began to reclaim him as her own. She took her time, though, because she saw no need for haste.
His muted groans of pleasure and the pulsing power of his sex conveyed far more than his emotional and physical vulnerability. His willingness to surrender his control and simply trust her empowered Jessica. She didn’t think she’d ever felt more alive or more attuned to the desires of another human being than she did now with Dev. She also knew that no one but Devlin Mackenzie could make her feel complete as a woman. No one.
She protested and then laughed with delight when he suddenly seized her, rolled her onto her back, and tucked her beneath his powerful body. She smiled up at him as he knelt between her parted thighs.
"Surprised you, didn’t I?"
"No shit, woman." Crouching over her, he used his arms to support his weight. Air raged in and out of his body, and he shuddered violently.
Jessica recognized his struggle to tame the very impulses she’d fostered. She ran her hands up his arms, across his broad shoulders, and then down his chest. Plunging her fingers into the dark pelt that covered his chest, she searched for and found his nipples. She stroked them into hard nubs of tingling desire, all the while gazing up at him with a tender smile upturning the edges of her lips.
He hovered above her, his features dark and dangerous, his eyes as black as the sky at midnight, and his body tense with self–imposed restraint. "You’re trying to kill me."
A sigh escaped her. "I dreamed about us, too."
"Wanton witch."
Jessica’s purr of satisfaction transformed into a hunger–filled moan when his teeth closed over her nipple and the broad head of his engorged sex nudged against the now weeping entrance to her body. She quivered, arched, trying to impale herself, and then clutched at his shoulders when he denied her what she sought. Her fingernails made white half–moon impressions on his skin.
She surged against him a second time, trying to create the ultimate tender trap. And, yet again, Dev shifted his hips. Jessica muttered incoherent words of protest, but those words turned into sounds of tortured pleasure as he suckled her nipples into sensitive points of flame.
He moved downward, tracing the taut flesh of her quivering belly with his lips and tongue. Then, he shifted lower still to sample the essence of her core.
"It’s payback time, Jessie love," he cautioned in a low growl that sent shivers up her spine.
She cried out when he teased the swollen folds of her sultry core with feather–light strokes of his tongue. The wind screaming across the exterior landscape and the explosive sound of thunder beyond the closed cellar doors drowned out her cries. Cradling her hips with his hands, Dev brought her closer still to his questing mouth and devoted himself to her pleasure.
He tormented her senses, and then he inflamed them to flash point. He incited the desire rioting throughout her quivering body, and he shocked her with the invasive intimacy of his loving. He sapped her resistance until she screamed for relief. Then, he delivered her into a sparkling world of sensory delight. Her body shuddering with release, she completely unraveled, his name a gasp as it spilled from her lips.
Jessica couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. And she couldn’t prevent the tears that crept from her closed eyes. She thought her heart would burst when Dev moved up her shattered body, gathered her into his arms, and held her as she recovered.
When her tears abated and she felt in control once more, she turned to him, her lips and hands seeking. "Hot," she murmured when her fingers closed possessively around his hard flesh. "Your skin’s on fire."
His body tensed. "Careful," he cautioned. "I’m near the edge, thanks to you."
She lovingly stroked him before trailing her fingers through the thick, dark curls at the root of his sex. Jessica savored his groan, just as she savored the knowledge of his deteriorating control when she cupped him and gently massaged the sensitive orbs.
"I’ve been to the edge and beyond, thanks to you, and the view is magnificent." She angled her head so that she could see his face. "I want you. Now, please."
"So… polite," he ground out.
"Always."
To emphasize her desire, Jessica claimed his lips, tangled her tongue with his, and duplicated the stroking motion of her too clever fingers as she stroked his hard flesh.
He lifted his mouth from hers, but only to say, "There’s no rush. We have all the time we want."
"I don’
t want you to wait," Jessica answered.
"You don’t?"
She shook her head.
"Why?"
"I need you. You need me."
"What exactly do you need?" he asked as he shifted over her.
"You," she breathed.
He dipped his head and captured one of her nipples. She moaned and arched her back, delighting in the sensory havoc he wreaked with his lips and tongue.
"I can’t hear you, Jessie."
"I need you inside me, Dev."
He peered down at her through narrowed eyes. She could feel the taut pulsing strength of him nudging against the entrance of her body.
"Now?" he asked.
"God, yes. Now."
"Now, Jessie love."
He thrust into her. Then he stilled, filling her so completely she lost her breath.
"What else do you need?"
"Everything… but… only with… you," she managed to gasp.
"Everything… only with me… and nothing less?" he confirmed, his voice a whisper in her ear as he gathered her close.
She clutched his hips, her nails digging into his flesh. "Yes!"
"Thank you, God."
Dev partially withdrew, and then he plunged more deeply, all the way to the hilt. Again and again, he claimed her. Jessica trembled with the relief of a woman who had lived in fear for far too long that she might never experience the passion of her soul–mate.
He repeatedly penetrated her, withdrawing almost completely, and then thrusting yet again with even greater force. She clutched at him, basking in his consuming possession. His pace escalated, and their bodies slammed together in perfect counter–point.
Starbursts of pure pleasure cascaded into her bloodstream, and sensations unlike anything she’d ever experienced rippled through her womb. She gloried in the power and force of his desire for her.
"What else do you need, Jessie?" he demanded as his control began to wane.
Unable to speak, she surrendered to the world of glittering sensation he’d created for her. He quickened his pace even more, driving deeply into her and taking her to the precipice of orgasm.
"What else, Jessie?" he managed through gritted teeth.
"Only you." She clung to him as the force of another shimmering orgasm claimed her.
Her words humbled him, destroyed his control, and catapulted him into his own thundering release. Those same words also served to partially restore a heart broken ten long years ago.
8
Pelting rain and vicious winds continued to ravage the mid–South as day turned to night.
Although she’d slept soundly throughout the storm’s fury, Jessica wakened with a start. Sprawled naked atop Dev, she lifted her head from his shoulder, shoved her hair out of her face, and peered into the semidarkness of the storm cellar.
Only two of the half–dozen pillar candles she’d lighted earlier that day still provided illumination. She realized that several hours had passed since they’d fallen into an exhausted sleep. She guessed that it was very late, perhaps near midnight.
The portable radio was silent, an occasional hiss of static the only sound the device offered to the night. Before she could wonder whether or not it needed fresh batteries, Dev stirred beneath her. She pressed a kiss to his warm skin, and she savored the flex and flow of the muscles in his arms and chest as he drew her more snugly against his body. More emotionally content than she’d felt in years, despite the current weather crisis and their somewhat primitive quarters, Jessica smiled and cuddled even closer.
When his hands drifted up and down her back and then skimmed over her hips, she surrendered to the sensations tingling across her skin. Jessica trembled when he cupped her buttocks with both hands, moved lower, and then suddenly dipped his fingertips into the dark cleft beyond.
Her gasp of surprise soon gave rise to a low moan of pleasure. As he stroked her, his touch simultaneously erotic and gentle, Jessica felt as though he were painting streaks of molten gold across her tender flesh with each intimate caress.
Unable to remain passive, she placed her hands on either side of his head and lifted herself into a crouch over him. His touch grew bolder, and she no longer heard the sound of shattering glass or the wind that howled like a thousand demons.
Dev responded to the dazed pleasure in her eyes and the undulation of her graceful body. Capturing a nipple, he sucked it between his lips and flicked his tongue back and forth across the distended tip. She arched, the feel of his mouth and fingers almost too intense to withstand, but also far too seductive to resist.
Shudders rippled through her, adding to the erotic image of her sleek, writhing body. Willing and eager, Jessica quickly succumbed to the tender mercies of his hungry mouth and delving fingers. But in the midst of their preoccupation with each other, the sudden silence that replaced the roaring winds and hammering rain shocked them both into stillness.
Jessica sucked in a sharp breath. Eyes wide, she sank back down across Dev like a puppet gone limp. He swore, the succinct epithet more a sign of his frustration than any real anger on his part.
They stared at each other for a brief moment. A heartbeat later, they both burst free of their shock, scrambled to their feet, and retrieved their clothing. Both recalled the tornado earlier that day. And both understood the danger they faced if the inn was severely damaged or destroyed by a funnel cloud.
After hurriedly stepping into his jeans and boots, Dev grabbed Jessica’s hand once she clothed herself. He hauled her against his body and seared her lips with a hard kiss before setting her free.
The silence continued, the absence of sound almost deafening as they found their flashlights and extinguished the two remaining candles. Dev scooped up a stack of spare blankets, the bag that contained his computer and cell phone, and then he met Jessica’s frightened gaze.
"The farthest and sturdiest structural point from the cellar doors?" he confirmed.
She jerked a nod at him, leading the way to the rear of the concrete–and–rock storm shelter. Dev hastily arranged a pallet with the blankets. Flashlight in hand, Jessica suddenly remembered their radio, picnic hamper, and water bottles. She dashed back across the cellar for them.
The deathly stillness abruptly ended with a shattering explosion.
In her haste to rejoin Dev, Jessica tripped and nearly crashed to her knees. He caught her before she could go sprawling across the cement floor, relieved her of the items she carried, and added them to their other emergency supplies. He then dragged her into the safety of his arms, sank down upon their make–shift pallet, and drew her into his lap. They held tightly to one another, his arms encircling her, her face pressed into the warm curve of his neck.
A second thunderous explosion sounded above them, which was quickly followed by the sickening squeal of a wooden structure being ripped apart. Heavy objects thudded and crashed against the inn’s walls. Windows detonated.
And Jessica’s control and composure finally shattered.
She started to shake. She tasted fear, and she wondered if they would die. She instinctively resisted the notion that death was a very real possibility, but what if the inn collapsed atop them? Would they be trapped forever? Would anyone even think to search for them?
Tears filled her eyes. Panic clutched at her heart. She loved Dev. She couldn’t lose him again. She grabbed his shoulders, intending to reveal the depth of her love for him, because she feared that she might not get another chance.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words never made it past her lips. Jessica whimpered instead when a series of stunning explosions that sounded like bombs going off in a war zone rocked the foundation of the inn. Her panic spiked, eclipsing her legendary self–control, and she wept in helpless frustration.
Dev shifted her body so that she wound up astride him, her legs curved around his narrow hips, her feminine core pressed tight against the hard ridge of his lingering desire.
"Jessie, focus on us. We’re all that matters. C
ome on, baby, focus on us."
Cupping her head with his hands, he kissed away her tears before taking her mouth in a devastating show of possessive passion. Jessica clutched at his shoulders, greedily feeding on him and the reassurance he offered. He tasted of courage and strength and barely leashed desire, despite the jeopardy of their situation.
Angling her head, she deepened their contact in a desperate attempt to block out the tornado’s destructive sounds. With feverish kisses to his lips and a fierce tangling of her tongue with his, she tried to immerse herself in Dev.
She wanted everything he had to offer, and then she wanted it all again. Nothing else mattered. Nothing, Jessica told herself. Because her world had been reduced to just the two of them, she owned that knowledge. It was about them. Only them.
Dev’s hands slipped beneath her sweater. Ripe, quivering flesh and tightly budded nipples awaited him, and the violence unfolding beyond the cellar doors seemed inconsequential in the face of the violent need suddenly churning inside him. He cast her sweater aside and drew her against his chest.
Jessica’s skin felt hot enough to scorch, but he welcomed her heat and the generous feel of her high breasts. Dev barely heard her quick, shallow breaths thanks to the cacophony of chaos above them, but he could feel them. Her grasping hands revealed her frantic emotional state. In truth, he felt her touch right down to his soul, but he also sensed the combination of panic and desire that seemed on the verge of consuming her as she stroked him.
He groaned as her fingers skimmed with haste across his skin. His body clenched, and his need of her spiked into the stratosphere when she dragged her fingernails through the narrow strip of dark hair that traced the center of his flat belly and arrowed down to his groin. Capturing her busy fingers when she started to tug at the fastening of his jeans, he locked her wrists together with one hand and grabbed her chin with the other so that he could see her face.
He knew he had to slow her down, but he also knew it was useless to compete with the storm’s noise. Reluctant to shout at her or risk frightening her further, Dev released her wrists and tried to soothe her with gentle hands and tender kisses. He soon realized that she was too aroused, too needy, and far from willing to be calmed.
