by JoAnn Ross
She shimmied in a remarkable way that had the dress falling down to her waist, revealing breasts barely covered by a wisp of ivory lace nearly the same color as her creamy flesh.
Although he’d never thought of himself as a cowardly man, Alec had never been more afraid than he was at this minute. Afraid of her. Of the immensity of the emotions she could make him feel.
“This time I’m the one doing the choosing.” She crooked a finger at him; her eyes, dark and smoky and, he thought, just a bit glazed, beckoned. “And I choose you.”
Alec didn’t wait for a second invitation. He was on his feet with her in his arms in an instant. “It’s about time.”
“I know.” She twined her arms around his neck and practically melded into him. “It feels so good, doesn’t it?” Her silken lips nuzzled at his throat. “You and me together like this.”
“Damn good.” He skimmed his hands up her back, then down again, slowly, enjoying the way he could make her tremble, enjoying the way she warmed beneath his caressing touch. As his blood beat in time to the pulsating drumbeat, he cupped her hips and lifted her against him. “But it could be a lot better.”
“Yes.” She tilted her head back and smiled up at him. “I think we’ve danced enough,” she decided. “I also believe it’s time we moved this to a more private location.”
Her words were slurred, her eyes perhaps just a bit brighter than they should have been. When he twirled her in a way that didn’t suit the jungle beat, he felt her stumble.
“I hate like hell to bring this up,” he said, reluctantly pulling the dress back up. “But I think, sweetheart, that you’re smashed.”
“I am not.” She twined her arms tighter around him and pressed her mouth to his. “I’m just a little bit tipsy, that’s all.” Her lips plucked at his, punctuating her faintly slurred words. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”
The muscles in his stomach tightened, then twisted like wrought iron. “That’s what you think now.” He reminded himself that the Mackenzies had always been men of honor. And men of honor did not take advantage of drunk, vulnerable women. “But you’re not thinking straight, Katherine Jeanne.”
His use of her formal name had her tilting her head back to gaze up at him again. “You look so serious.”
Because he was horribly tempted to capture that pouting mouth, to plunder that slender body, Alec put her a bit away from him. “This is serious.”
“I know.” She sighed. “It always seems to be with us, doesn’t it? Any reasonable people would have just allowed themselves a hot, one-night fling, then moved on in the morning.”
“That’s pretty much what we did,” he stated.
“True.” She closed the scant distance between them and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “But we complicated things by getting married.” She sighed again. “Why can’t it ever be simple between us, Alec?”
Tenderness warred with lust. Love with passion. Alec pressed his lips against her temple. “Because if it were simple, it would just be sex.” He tipped her face back up to his with a mere touch of a finger beneath her chin. “And you’d never settle for that.”
She was having a little bit of trouble focusing, but assured herself it was merely her eyes watering from the incense. “Would you?” she asked, honestly wanting—needing—to know. “Would you settle for just sex?”
It was not the time or place to be having this discussion. But, Alec reminded himself, it was probably long overdue. “I have.” He watched the disappointment cloud her eyes and wondered if she even understood that a divorce was the last thing she wanted. “In the past.” With his thumb, he soothed the line that was etching itself between her tawny brows. “But not with you, Kate.” Alec lowered his head until his lips were a whisper away from hers. “Never with you.”
“Oh, God.” The words shuddered out as she trembled. “I want you, Alec. So much.” Her eyes were swimming now. She blinked furiously at the hot moisture. “Too much.”
“I want you, too.” He resisted the lure of her lips, knowing that to kiss her here, now, would be madness, since he wouldn’t be able to stop. “And I need you, Kate. More than I need to draw my next breath.”
“Then for God’s sake, take me.” Her moist eyes were eloquent with emotion. “Now. Before either of us comes to our senses.”
“I will.” He linked their fingers together and lifted their joined hands to his lips. His eyes lanced into hers. “But not for God’s sake, Kate. And not just for yours. Or mine.” His heart was pounding in his throat like the beat of the tribal drums, making words difficult. “But ours.”
He watched the smooth muscles in her throat as she swallowed, then nodded. “Ours.” It was only a whisper, impossible to hear over the din now filling the smoky lodge. But Alec didn’t miss reading the single word of commitment on her lips. Or the uncensored love in her incredible blue eyes.
He wanted to carry her out of the room like some conquering soldier. No, he thought as he felt his heart tumble, then soften, as it always seemed to do whenever he was around her. He wanted to carry her like he had that first night when, over her breathless, laughing protests, he’d played bridegroom by carrying her over the threshold.
“How’s your imagination?” he asked.
“Right now?” she answered. “Incredibly vivid.”
“Good.” Deciding that she couldn’t have carried on that serious conversation if she were too looped on the pupunha, he scooped her into his arms. “It was okay to be Kate and Bogie while we were on the river. But tonight I’m switching movies. And roles.” Because he couldn’t resist, he touched his lips to hers in a kiss that, while brief, still managed to rock him to his toes. “Try thinking of me as Gable.”
“I don’t need to.” Her lips lifted to his and clung. “I don’t want Bogie, Alec. And I don’t need Gable carrying me up some sweeping antebellum staircase.” Mindless of their audience as they made their way through the throng of dancers to the door, she kissed his jaw. “All I need—all I want—is you.”
It was the admission he’d been waiting for. The muscles in his stomach relaxed even as his heart spiked with anticipation.
“Believe me, sweetheart,” he said with a rough laugh, “I know the feeling.”
14
K.J. FELT AS IF SHE WERE floating as Alec carried her across the village square, heading out into the forest. The monsoon clouds had blown away, leaving patches of star-studded sky that glittered like spilled diamonds on a tray of ebony velvet.
Fireflies—thousands of them—flitted around them, lighting the way like dancing stars. Flaming torches burning outside the ceremonial area gave the sky surrounding them a faintly orange glow.
Fortunately, the night sounds that had kept sleep at bay last night were silent. Or perhaps, she thought, she simply couldn’t hear them over the sound of her blood pounding in her ears.
As soon as they entered the hut, before he even put her down, Alec lit the lantern. The inky darkness suddenly glowed as if brightened by the equatorial sun.
“We don’t need a light,” she murmured, suddenly unwilling to let him see exactly how much weight she’d lost during their time apart.
“I do.” He put her gently onto her feet beside the hammock, holding on to her shoulders when she swayed ever so slightly. “I want to watch you while I undress you, Kate.” He skimmed a kiss up her cheek. ”I want to touch and taste and see every silken inch of you.”
The sparklerlike touch of his lips moved back down to her jaw. “I intend to see the heat in your remarkable blue eyes when I take you into the flames.” His tongue traced down her throat. “And I’m looking forward to seeing the warm, satisfied pleasure in them when we end up safe in each other’s arms on the other side.”
She was swaying again, not from the drink, but from the intoxicating feel of his lips at her collarbone, the tug of his teeth on her earlobe.
After all this time apart, months during which he claimed to have been celibate, K.J. would have expected h
im to take her quickly the first time. She’d prepared herself to be swept instantly into the heat. But to her surprise, he seemed in no hurry to undress her. Instead, for a long, immeasurable time, he made love to her with only his mouth. And with seductive words designed to make her burn.
“Have I ever told you that I love your chin?” he murmured as he captured it between his teeth.
“I believe I would have remembered you mentioning that.”
“I do.” His tongue soothed the skin that had turned from yesterday’s lobster red to seashell pink. “It reminds me of a fox. A stubborn Scots fox,” he amended as he nibbled kisses along her jawline. “There are times when you stick it out in that unspoken challenge that would drive the most patient of men to distraction.... But right beneath it there’s this lovely expanse of creamy silk.” The trail of knee-weakening kisses moved slowly, inexorably down her throat. “The kind that creates an entirely different type of distraction.”
“Alec.” KJ. clung to his shoulders. “Please.” Her voice was as ragged as her nerves. “Make love to me.”
“That’s precisely what I’m doing.” His fingers skimmed along her collarbone in a feathery caress. “But I’ve learned that down here in the jungle heat, it’s best to pace myself.” He kissed his way from throat to shoulder. Then back again. “To take my time.” When he repeated the tender torment, creating a trail of heat along her other collarbone, a purr of pleasure sounded in her throat. “After all, we’ve all the time in the world.”
That wasn’t quite accurate. In fact, the sad truth was that it wasn’t the least bit true. But unwilling to destroy this magic moment by injecting reality into it, Kate didn’t argue. Especially now that he’d moved on to the undressing part of the evening.
Possessing an almost otherwordly patience she suspected was vital in the treasure-hunting business, he took his time with that as well, unbuttoning the first button, folding back the brightly flowered cotton and kissing the exposed bit of bared flesh before moving on to the second.
“You realize, of course,” she protested with a shaky laugh as he finally moved on to the third button, “that you’re driving me crazy.”
“Ah, but I thought we’d already determined that you were crazy.” Without taking his eyes from hers, he smiled, a slow, lazy smile of satisfaction as he slipped the button free. “And I mean that,” he drawled, “in the very best way.”
Even as she smiled back, K.J. realized how true those words were. She was absolutely, certifiably crazy. About this man who could make her want to laugh with pleasure and weep with frustration all at the same time.
Just when she was certain she’d die from impatience, he reached the button at her waist and slipped the dress off her shoulders. After treating the crest of her breasts to a torment just as prolonged, just as sweet, he tugged the dress down the rest of the way, where it pooled around her feet like a spilled bouquet of bright tropical blossoms.
“I have never been able to decide what your skin reminds me of,” he murmured as he unfastened her bra with a quick deft touch that suggested this was a man who definitely knew his way around women’s clothing. After tossing the scrap of silk and lace onto the nearby tabletop, he moved his wide rough hands down her body.
“Sometimes I think it’s like porcelain.” His fingers traced concentric circles on each breast, one at a time, from rib cage to the dusky pink nipples that pebbled at his touch. “But porcelain is too hard.” He cupped her right breast in his hand and took it into his mouth in a way that caused a corresponding tug deep inside her. “And cold.”
“Alec...” K.J. didn’t know how much longer she could survive this achingly slow seduction.
“God, I love the way you say my name,” he murmured against her yielding flesh as he turned his attention to her left breast. “In that throaty voice laced with passion.” He closed his teeth lightly around the tingling nipple, drawing a gasp, not of fear, but of pleasure from her. “You’ve no idea how many times in the past months that voice has tormented my sleep. Along with memories of exactly how warm and perfect you felt in my arms...which brings me back to the subject of your skin,” he said, revealing that he was thinking far more clearly than she was at this moment. ”Sometimes I think it reminds me of pearls, especially the way it glistens in the moonlight. But pearls aren’t fragrant. Or nearly as soft.”
As she moaned, the same way she always did in those fantasies that left him hot and stiff as a pike, Alec dropped to his knees and tugged her bikini panties down her hips, over her thighs, then her calves, following the path of the white cotton with his mouth.
As she dragged her fingers through his hair, K.J. wondered how and when he’d taken control. Not that she hadn’t surrendered it willingly, she thought, crying out, just a little, as his teeth scraped her thigh. And although some women might feel uncomfortably vulnerable, being stripped naked by a man who was still fully dressed, K.J. was finding the situation incredibly erotic.
“So,” he said, tormenting her further by ignoring that hot wet place that was aching for his touch, “I’ve narrowed it down to two things. Camellia petals...” his fingers skimmed a sensual path through the copper-penny-bright curls between her quaking thighs “...or sweet, rich cream.” With that declaration, he flicked his tongue over the distended pink nub and felt her shatter like crystal.
She cried out his name, just as he’d vowed she would, but Alec wasn’t nearly finished. Not by a long shot. Utilizing his hungry mouth and fingers as weapons, he drove her up even higher, again and again, until her muffled screams filled the steamy air around them and her muscles went as lax as water. Then and only then did Alec give into her breathless pleas and lower her to the hammock.
“I can’t believe it,” she gasped as she reached out toward him, amazed that after all that, she’d still want more. Need more. “What you do to me.” The bulge in the front of his jeans made her ache in places that were still convulsing from her mind-blinding orgasms. “How you make me feel.”
“It’s us.” He unbuttoned his own shirt with far more speed than he had hers, then flung it aside with a great deal less care. When those long dark fingers she could still feel dancing over her burning flesh moved to the metal button at the waist of his jeans, K.J. somehow managed to muster up the strength to object.
“No,” she managed to whisper in a husky, sexy voice that didn’t sound anything like her usual controlled one.
“No?” His hands froze. His every muscle appeared to stiffen to stone. K.J. watched in admiration as he fought for control over mind and body, and won.
“No.” She was laughing now, not at him, but with a rich womanly pleasure she’d known only once before in her life. “I love what you do to me.” Strangely, her orgasms seemed to have cleared her head, blowing away the misty clouds created by the incense and spiked punch. It was a good thing, too, she thought as she managed to rise to her knees on the swaying hemp, because riding this hammock was almost as tricky as riding those rapids earlier that day. “It’s my turn. To do it back to you.”
“Ah.” He nodded. And relaxed. Just enough to ease the knot of tension that had settled between his shoulders. “I like a lady who believes in taking turns. It shows she plays well with others.”
A year ago, she’d fumbled when she’d tried to undress him. Tonight, emboldened with feminine power, her own fingers were nearly as deft as his had been, flicking open the button, then lowering the metal zipper, tooth by tooth, fully intending to torment Alec as he had her.
But when his sex burst free, hard and hot and virile, all her good intentions disintegrated. How could she have forgotten how powerful he was? How beautiful? As she curled her fingers around his rigid length, K.J. knew that she hadn’t forgotten a single thing. Which was why, she finally admitted, at least to herself, that she’d agreed to come down here in the first place.
Her motive hadn’t been pride. Or even a promotion. She’d been coerced into nothing. The simple truth was that she’d trekked all this way because s
he’d been dying to find out whether everything between them was as strong and inevitable as she remembered.
A part of her had been hoping that she’d exaggerated their night together. But now, as she caressed him more intimately than she had any other man, loving him as he’d loved her, with fluttering hands and avid mouth, she realized that in truth, she’d underestimated the force of the power between them. If anything, it was even stronger than it had been that night.
Once he’d made the decision to make love to her, Alec had intended to be the one in charge. He’d wanted to make her scream, and he had. And as satisfying as that had been, he now realized that somehow, when he wasn’t looking, he’d surrendered all control.
“Kate...” His hands tangled in her hair as her lips and tongue treated him to a torment sweeter than anything he’d ever known. Even better than their wedding night when, although she’d been eagerly open to anything he might propose, she’d always allowed him to lead. “You realize that you’re killing me, here.”
Her soft chuckle vibrated against his groin, sending jolts of lightning through his bloodstream. “Don’t worry, Alec.” Her fingers cupped the sensitive flesh beneath his shaft even as her tongue swirled, gathering in the pearly moisture at the tip. “I promise to be gentle.” She released him just long enough to pull him down on top of her. “Because I’m not nearly finished with you yet.”
With a strength he never would have suspected she possessed, she rolled over, taking him with her, so that she was now the one on top, straddling his thighs.
Her eyes drank in the sight of him, sprawled beneath her, confident enough in his own strength to surrender the power. At least for now.
“God, I love your body,” she breathed, as she splayed her fingers over his dark, moist chest.
