“There was one place we never managed to get to last time around,” he told me in a low murmur.
“Was there? We did the show, the museum, the garden…?”
“Follow me,” he said with a cryptic twinkle in his eye.
He brought me down the hallway to the door which I remembered having been locked and guarded. Now, though, the door had been removed, and the opening in the wall revealed a domed room with a massive telescope stretching from floor to ceiling.
“Are we even allowed to be in here?” I asked in a whisper.
“Public telescope,” he told me, pointing at the sign. “Rumor has it the observatory received such a massive donation a few years ago that they were able to upgrade to near-Hubble standards, and relegated this one to a life of entertaining the masses.”
“The masses appreciate it,” I cooed to the equipment as I trailed my fingers over one of the viewers.
“Ready to travel the Milky Way?” he asked, mimicking the announcer’s voice from the light show.
“You know I am,” I laughed.
I pressed my forehead to the cradle at the top of the eyepiece and peered through. Instantly, my breath was snatched away. There, far beyond the light pollution of San Bravado, were more stars than I had ever seen in my whole life, twinkling in a tapestry of filmy color over Vantablack. Beside me, peering into a second eyepiece, Blake gasped.
“Have you ever seen it like this?” he asked in a reverent whisper.
“Never,” I breathed. “Look how many colors there are! Emeralds and rubies, twinkling up there alongside all those diamonds. Why doesn’t anybody ever paint the colors?”
His hand slipped into mine, interlacing with my fingers, and he squeezed.
“Because most people can’t appreciate nuance the way you can,” he said in that same reverent tone.
I blushed, happy that our eyes were hidden from each other in that moment. His tone, those words… He had moved beyond validating my existence, and was now dangerously close to making me feel special. I winced, imagining Nina’s reaction if she had overheard my inner deprecation. I really need to stop doing that to myself, I decided.
He was looking at me, almost mesmerized.
“You just keep getting better,” he told me, his eyes shining like the moon.
“It’s this place,” I told him, shrugging his lofty assessment of me away. “There’s something about being this close to the stars, so close that you could swear that if you just tried hard enough you could reach out and touch them, that makes everything seem a little bit more possible. Diamond planets spin through a raspberry sea, slipping like beads over strings made of nothing but physics; with a reality like that dancing right in front of you, how could you feel like anything less than magic?”
I watched him melt in front of me, and then I was in his arms. He kissed my hair, my face, my lips, soft as butterfly wings, hot as a dwarf star. Pulling away, he cleared his throat, gazing into me with those incredible eyes.
“That’s why I brought you here,” he told me, cupping my neck in his hands as he caressed my cheeks with his thumbs. “That magic. I wanted a chance to start over with you, right here, right where we began.”
Emotion pressed up through my chest, building into a ball in my throat. Struggling to contain the tears of joy and wonder, I took a quivering breath.
“Oh, Blake, I never needed a do-over of that night. It was perfect, absolutely and completely perfect.”
He made a sound somewhere between a relieved laugh and a shuddering sigh, then his lips were against mine once more. I could feel his hunger growing with mine as he tasted me, as he offered himself like a sacrifice at the altar of my mouth.
I drank him in, breathing his scent, molding my body to his as he dipped into my open, wanton lips, teasing and tantalizing me with his tongue.
I shivered with a rush of heady sensation, my body awakening under his touch. As warm desire built up between my hips and my thighs began to shake with need, I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was the one.
Destiny. It had to be destiny, the way our lives had braided together so delicately, coming together and growing apart only to intertwine once more. He had been chosen, by forces beyond myself, to be the one to strip the last evidence of girlhood from me; to finally graduate me into the ranks of womanhood. Who was I to argue?
“Come home with me,” I suggested in a husky murmur against his lips.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
Blake’s touch never left me; as we walked through the observatory or as we drove back to my apartment, he always kept a hand on me as if he were afraid that I would turn into a pumpkin if he let me out of his sight for an instant. His eyes were filled with desire, and the instant the elevator doors shut us away from the errant gaze, he had me wrapped tight in his passionate embrace once more.
Chapter 9
Rhona
I don’t remember walking through the hallway to my door, but I do remember double-locking it just to be certain that we wouldn’t be interrupted. His fingers were in my hair, his mouth devouring mine as we stumbled through my apartment, bumping into walls and rolling along them, unwilling to part for even a second until we clumsily found our way to my bed.
My knees hit the mattress first and I folded backward, pulling him down with me as I fell. Propping himself up on his elbows to gaze down at me, he brushed stray hair out of my face with his fingertips.
“I want you,” he murmured huskily. “More than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything. But if you aren’t sure, if you’re not ready, I’ll walk out that door and treat myself to an extremely cold shower or six.”
I laughed, pulling him back down so I could kiss him again.
“Blake, darling, I have never been more sure about anything in my whole life. Really, you could ask Nina; I’m never certain about anything.” I kissed him again and again, trailing my lips from his mouth over his chiseled jaw to his throat, inhaling his intoxicating masculinity. “But I am about this.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” He almost growled the words, and the next thing I knew, I was flying onto the bed. He followed me up, stopping to toss away my shoes before wrapping his strong, warm hands around my ankles.
“But I did promise you that tonight would be special,” he said, flashing that grin at me with just a touch of wickedness. “And I am wholly intending to set you up with some utterly unreasonable expectations.”
I laughed in spite of myself. I didn’t know if laughing was a particularly sexy thing to do, but I couldn’t help it. There was something about him that just made me happy to be alive, and the laughter came whether I invited it or not. Blake didn’t seem to mind.
I gasped in shock and then pleasure as he kissed the tender bone at my ankle. In my wildest dreams, I had never imagined anyone doing that, but it was electrifying. He followed the trail of lightning heat up my calf, stroking the backs of my knees with his hands as he breathed warm air over the sensitive skin above.
Liquid desire pooled between my hips as he worshiped every inch of me from my ankles to my thighs, stopping short of the quivering, aching need at my center. My valiant efforts to contain my noises failed, and I was whimpering and moaning under his touch within moments.
Just as he had in my fantasy, Blake grinned up at me from between my thighs; at that moment, if he had so much as breathed on me, I would have plummeted over the edge of ecstasy.
“I love the sounds you make,” he murmured against my thigh.
“I…I…um…” It was useless, my brain was full of sensations and my words had disappeared into the mists. With a sexy, warm little chuckle, he pushed my dress up over my hips and took me in with a greedy gaze and a hungry groan.
“Rhona,” he breathed as he swept my dress up and over my head, leaving me nearly naked in my lacy match set.
I flushed under his penetrating gaze, keenly aware that I had ever been this exposed in front of a man before. Instinct twitched at me to cover myself, but then his mouth
was on mine once more, his hard, muscular body pressing me into the mattress.
Clothes. He had too many clothes on. Hell, I had too many clothes on. But as I fumbled with his buttons, he took my wrists and pressed them firmly into the bed.
“In good time,” he told me. “Patience, my love.”
“Well, when you put it that way,” I said breathlessly, melting against the pillows as he trailed kisses down my throat.
Breasts straining against my thin bra, I curved my body into him, writhing like a cat under his caress. Gentle, dangerous nibbles along my collar bone reignited the electrical storm deep in my core, stealing my breath in sudden little gasps.
“Oh, Blake,” I moaned as his mouth moved over my bra, his hot tongue teasing my erect nipples through the lace. He twirled and flicked, nibbled and kissed, until I cried out at the intense, almost painful pressure between my thighs.
Desperate for release, I arched my back, pressing against him. Finally finding his mercy, Blake slid one large, powerful hand down my waist to my hip, meeting my desperate wiggle with a forceful finger pressed against my panties.
It was as if he had flipped a switch. Instantly, with a force I had never experienced in my entire life, a screaming orgasm ripped through my body.
“God, oh God yes!” My voice sounded wild in my ears as his touch transformed me into some kind of sex-crazed animal. Crying out his name again and again as the waves of passion crashed over me, I felt my last shreds of decency and sanity slip away.
Quivering in the aftershocks, I pulled at his shirt, desperate to have his skin against mine. This time, he didn’t stop me, but instead released me from the confines of my underthings.
Kneeling before me a moment later, muscles glistening like some sort of savage demigod, Blake granted me the briefest of grins. Lips and lids heavy and dark with desire, he traced my contours with his gaze.
My own eyes swept over his strong chest and cut abs, over the V at his hips, down to…my eyes widened with disbelief, and I glanced up at him, full of unspoken questions.
“I’ll go slow,” he promised, trailing his fingers over my body. “I promise it’s not as intimidating as it looks.”
“Prove it,” I dared him breathlessly.
His groan was almost a growl, and he moved as if to plunge himself deep inside me. Without meaning to, I flinched, and he hesitated.
“I want you fearless,” he whispered as he lowered his head to my belly, scattering kisses over my torso. “I want you begging me for it.”
“Oh,” I breathed as he moved lower and lower, sparking fires along my skin with his mouth. With a gasp of shock and a groan of pleasure, I greeted his tongue against my aching, dripping center.
His soft, tender kiss soon turned savage as I bucked against his mouth, everything in my body screaming for more. He gave willingly, sliding one long, thick finger into me.
The new sensation was more than I could take. Sobbing with pleasure I tightened around him, the beginnings of a second climax stirred. Before I could catch my breath, Blake had added a second finger to the first, doubling the intensity.
“Oh, yes!” I screamed, driving my hips like a piston, sliding over his talented fingers, dying for something I couldn’t quite name.
He left me on the cusp, withdrawing his fingers to lick them clean.
“Now you’re ready,” he growled.
Anticipation bordering on terror shook my heart in my chest as he spread my legs wide, positioning himself between them. Slowly, carefully, he slid his member along my slit. My eyes rolled back as I moaned, blown away by the velvety feel of it, a texture I had never experienced before.
He pressed into me and I parted easily, as though I was designed for him alone. Gasping with pleasure, trembling with need, I met each half-thrust with rocking hips.
As he explored deeper and deeper with ever-quickening thrusts, a buzz of deep pleasure accentuated by exquisite pain overtook my being, igniting a firestorm within me. With an animal growl and final thrust, he buried himself inside of me up to the hilt, pausing there as his own eyes rolled back.
“Sweet Jesus,” he groaned, sliding back only to bury himself once more. “You feel so good.”
Not as good as he felt, I was sure, but I was far beyond words by now. Whimpering, I rocked my hips, begging him to take me with the furious passion I could feel building within me.
Groaning, hot and slick with lust, he gave me what I needed. Filling every inch of me again and again, he pounded against the door to my ecstasy, stoking the flames of my fire.
Needing more, more, always more, I tangled my legs around his, bracing against him as I arched my back, sliding down along his length even as he pressed into me, grinding my clit against his hard belly.
It was like the Milky Way itself split inside me, exploding and slamming down upon itself again. Lightning struck my spine from my tailbone to the base of my skull, setting fires across my nerves only to put them out again under a torrent of hot waves of bliss.
The storms built until I was sobbing, driven by the power of the sensation, utterly out of my mind. Screaming wordlessly into eternity and beyond, I lost myself to the climax, clinging to Blake for dear life as I tumbled through wave after wave of ecstasy.
He fell with me, crying out my name into my hair as he pulsed hot within, filling me up as he emptied. Still, I clung to him, trembling and panting, utterly and deliciously spent.
Chapter 10
Rhona
Saturday dawned in golden-red streaks across his sleepy face, reassuring me that it hadn’t all been a dream. A smile spread lazily over his expression, stirring emotions and desires deep within my soul.
“Morning, beautiful,” he murmured, stroking my cheek.
“Good morning.” I sighed happily, stretching out against him. Taking it as the invitation it was, Blake rolled me into his arms, cradling me in his warm embrace.
Still deliciously achy from the night before, my body responded to him, silently asking for a repeat performance. Much in the same condition, Blake dropped kisses over my face and throat as he moved against me.
I was just beginning to feel my heart beat fast between my thighs when the hazy moment was shattered by the sound of a strange ringtone.
“Damn,” he growled softly as he rolled away.
Sliding out of bed, he gave me a fantastic view of his well-toned body as he rifled through his pants for his phone. He shot me a grin and a wink as he answered, and I took it as his intention to return to love on my body as soon as he had finished. To that end, I stretched out over the covers, giving him a mini show, which he appreciated with a lingering gaze.
“Lexington,” he answered. “Yes, I did. Wait… No, no, that wasn’t supposed to happen, who authorized that? No, I didn’t. She’s mistaken. All right, hold down the fort, I’ll be right in.”
He hung up the phone with an apologetic glance to me. Awareness tempered my anticipation, which gave way to disappointment. Sitting up, I pulled the sheet over my nakedness and offered a small smile.
“Sounds like an emergency,” I said tentatively.
“Seems to be, unfortunately,” he said with a sigh. “I love enthusiastic employees who take the initiative, but sometimes they get a little too enthusiastic, you know?”
“That doesn’t sound good,” I said, concerned.
“Ah, it’s no big thing,” he said with a grin as he slipped into his clothes. “I’ll fix it; I’ve got great people around to catch these things before they wreak irredeemable havoc.”
I laughed at his casual attitude. “How did you ever get successful being so chill?”
Shrugging, he tied his tie as he stepped into his shoes and kneeled on the bed. He grinned into my eyes, his tantalizing lips mere millimeters from mine.
“I lead a charmed life…” His gaze traced down my face to my lips and up again. “Obviously.”
My face heated and I ducked, but before I could hide in the sheets he caught my chin and tipped my head up to kiss
him. A simple touch, but it did so many incredible things to my entire being—synapses misfired, nerves caught fire, my belly became a puddle held together by butterflies with the sense memories from the night before. I was a wreck, but I think he liked me that way. His grin only widened as he pulled away.
“Hey, I just got a great idea,” he murmured softly before ducking down to tie his shoes.
“Tying your shoes?” I asked, raising a brow.
“No,” he laughed, shrugging into his jacket and spinning back around to face me. “What do you say you and I get away?”
“Right now?” I asked eagerly.
“No…unfortunately,” he said with a gesture of regret at my still-naked form. “End of the week? I’ll cut out early Friday, we’ll make a real adventure out of it.”
I finally slid out of bed and into my robe as he moved through my bedroom door.
“Won’t they call you away again?” I asked, hopeful but trying to be realistic.
“We’ll go somewhere without cell service,” he said with a wicked grin. “Maybe out to the mountains, where we can really see the stars.”
“That sounds like absolute heaven, I’d love to!”
Tempering my expectations was increasingly difficult, and, in a rush of impulse, I stopped trying. He was so much of everything I ever wanted, and he was into me too; why shouldn’t I enjoy the fall? I threw my arms around Blake and kissed him happily, thrilled when he wrapped my waist up in a tight embrace and lifted me clean off the floor.
My foot kicked up, and for a magical moment, I was a doe-eyed actress in a black-and-white movie and Blake was the rugged, handsome star. I wasn’t ready to let the fantasy end, but he set me down far too soon and left me with an apologetic smile and a kiss on the forehead.
Disappointed but already dreaming of Friday, I leaned against my front door with a blissful sigh. If I’d known what falling in love was like, I’d have done it years ago.
I twirled into the kitchen to make breakfast, stopping just long enough to scoop my phone out of my hastily discarded purse. Humming lightly, I dialed Nina’s number.
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