Into The Spirit

by Marie Harte

  Caitlin gripped him hard and satisfaction flared somewhere deep within her when he moaned, his breath sending a few stray strands of her hair flying as he bowed his head over hers. The fabric of his breeches seemed thin as she traced the length of his erection with a fingertip and it jumped against her touch.

  In one swift movement that sent her hair streaming about her face and a cloud of perfume up from the wildflowers, Aaron swept Caitlin’s feet out from under her and lowered her onto a springy, fragrant bed of flowers and their leafy stems. Her hair spilt over the vegetation, intertwining with purple, red and yellow blossoms. He lay beside her, his breath hot on her mouth as he sought her lips with his.

  They were both breathless when the kiss ended. Aaron broke eye contact with her, letting his eyes travel the length of her body from where the neckline bared her shoulders and the upper swells of her breasts to where the hem had fallen mid-thigh when she’d landed.

  Caitlin could feel his gaze on her body just as well as she could see it, and she blushed, feeling as if she were already bare before him. As if he knew her thoughts, Aaron traced her collarbone with a fingertip, opening his hand when he reached the edge of her cleavage. Her breast disappeared beneath his palm and she sighed as it moulded to his hand and her nipple strained the fabric of her dress, responding immediately to his touch. The other did the same, rising like a tiny pyramid, hopeful for his attention. He saw and bent to kiss it, his lips brushing the tight bud through the fabric as he tightened his other hand. An intense flutter somewhere in Caitlin’s middle caused her to gasp, and Aaron rolled on top of her in response, parting her thighs with his. He pressed against her hard, as if he would have entered her had their clothing not acted as a barrier between their bodies, and she felt the inflamed flesh between her thighs begin to dampen.

  She shifted slightly beneath him, which heightened the sense of impending penetration as their bodies ground together. She gasped again and he reached up immediately, tucking his fingers into the neckline of her dress, causing it to go taut. His grip felt so strong, and the dress seemed flimsier than ever. Caitlin’s nipples tingled and she held her breath, keeping her eyes trained on Aaron’s hands as she waited for him to free them. He, on the other hand, had begun to breathe a little harder.

  He flexed his hands and the white fabric slid over the peaks of her breasts and down over their lower halves, baring their round, pale swells and pink caps to the sunlight. She finally exhaled, quivering slightly as she waited for his hands to descend on her again. For a moment he only stared, his breath streaming over her nipples as he admired them, his lips slightly parted as if eager to admit them. Then he reached out with one hand and caressed the slope of one breast, tracing around the edge of the areola with a fingertip and watching it contract, rising towards the sun that hung in the sky directly above. Then, without warning, he grasped the breast firmly and pressed his lips to it, his fiery locks spilling down its slope as he brushed her nipple with his tongue.

  Caitlin wrapped her arms around his neck, sighing. He released her nipple and lifted his face just enough to touch his lips to hers, though not so lightly as they’d touched her a moment ago.

  She responded with passion, lifting her head from its pillow of forget-me-nots as she clung to his neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. He pressed against her hard from below, shifting his hips and sending a jolt of sensation up through her core and all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes.

  Apparently, he’d felt it too, for he abruptly ended the kiss, leaning on one elbow while with his other hand he seized the neckline of her dress, which had been forced down to around her waist. He pulled it over her hips, baring her inch by inch until he’d slid it over her legs and her toes, abandoning it among the flowers.

  As he settled between her legs his cock throbbed against her body’s threshold, his strained breeches holding him back. Eager to remedy it, she let her hands drift to his hips and pulled the hem of his shirt from his breeches, pushing her fingers beneath and pressing her palms against his flat stomach. He trembled slightly beneath her touch and she tucked her fingers into the waistband, beseechingly.

  He rose reluctantly from on top of her, abandoning her body to be washed by the sun’s rays again as he knelt between her thighs, pulling his shirt over his head. His hair fell back in fiery disarray, the ends brushing his bare shoulders.

  Caitlin’s breath caught in her throat as she looked upon him completely shirtless for the first time. Leanly muscled, his skin perfectly fair, his body was beautiful. The red-gold locks that skimmed his shoulders seemed to be begging for her touch. Raising herself onto an elbow, she reached out, placing a hand against his stomach and marvelling as the muscle beneath tightened. His eyes rested on her breasts while he moved his hands slowly towards the laces of his breeches.

  Caitlin watched with a fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach as he unlaced himself, his skin suddenly as hot as coals beneath her fingertips. The laces had been strained by his erection, and they sprang open at once now that he’d unknotted them. This little bit of freedom made his cock appear even larger, and she took the edge of his breeches between her fingers, her cheeks burning as she realised that the sight of him so barely contained thrilled her, making the skin between her own legs ache and tingle more severely than ever.

  His cock rose from his breeches as she peeled them down, stretching towards her from a bed of fiery locks. She relinquished her hold on the fabric, reaching for him instead. He sighed as she grasped him and slid her hand down his smooth shaft. His skin there was surprisingly soft, belied by the hardness she’d felt beneath his breeches and still felt now. He peeled them down over his hips as her knuckles brushed red hair, and she was forced to relinquish him so he could remove the garment entirely. When he had, they were both bare among the wildflowers, save for a few stray petals that clung here and there to their bodies. He descended on her again, with nothing between them this time.

  She parted her thighs willingly, opening herself and lying ready, trusting, awaiting his entrance. He embraced her and she revelled in the sensation of her body’s soft curves conforming to his body’s hard lines. He buried his face in her hair, kissing the hollow of her neck. Her nipples touched his as her breasts were pushed against his body.

  She tilted her head back and the soft edge of a forget-me-not brushed her cheek. Each kiss landed a little higher on her neck and brought him a little closer to entering her. The skin between her legs was slick, and the head of his cock glided against it, a hair’s breadth away from penetration. She tilted her head back further, the forget-me-not blossom skimming across her lips as she panted anxiously.

  He lifted his head, his cock retreating far enough down the length of her thigh that her heart beat just a little slower as disappointment filled her where he should have. She opened her eyes, which she’d closed as he’d kissed her, and found him looking down at her, his clear blue eyes unblinking.

  “Caitlin,” he said, “I love you. I realised after you disappeared that I hadn’t told you so, but I knew then that I loved you, and I wished I’d said so.”

  “I love you too, Aaron,” Caitlin whispered as tears sprang up seemingly out of nowhere, pricking the corners of her eyes. Sudden visions of Aaron lying still in bed with blood-flecked lips filled her mind, accompanied by the memory of his laboured breathing and her own desperate keening. She remembered her own futile rage at being trapped outside, away from him, helpless to save him, and she remembered watching him die. She blinked back the tears, chastising herself. How could she think of those things now, when she rested in his arms and all seemed to be repaired? If she shed any tears, they should be for his family and her own, who had been left to mourn, confused. Still, she cried as the recollections cut through her like tiny knives.

  Something wet hit her cheek. She opened her eyes, blinking away the moisture, and was surprised to see that several tears had slid down Aaron’s face, leaving damp trails in their wake. He smiled faintly, one corner o
f his mouth curving.

  “I thought I’d lost you, too,” he said, and entered her.

  She gasped, moisture streaking down her cheeks and onto the petals of nearby flowers as he slid inside her with one deep-reaching stroke.

  “Is it all right?” he asked after a moment’

  “Yes,” she gasped, her tears drying as the feel of him drove out her sorrow. She had expected it to hurt, but it didn’t. Not here—not now. It seemed that physical pain was one of the things they’d left behind. Without it, there was only pleasure, and more of it than she’d ever known. His cock throbbed inside her, making her want to writhe. She wriggled her hips against his.

  He drew his hips back and flexed them again, moving slowly but deliberately, filling her until he heard her gasp again beneath him. She arched her back automatically, her nipples brushing his chest. He filled her well—both her body and her mind—until she was aware of nothing save for him. She noted his every breath and the way the sunlight made his eyelashes flash golden-red when he blinked, and welcomed every inch of him into her body. The sun itself—or the world, for that matter—could have vanished, and she wouldn’t have known or cared. There was only him, and her, together.

  “Aaron,” she breathed, wrapping her arms around his waist, “I love you.” It had been said, of course, but it felt good—felt right—to say it again.

  “Mmm…” he moaned as he pressed deep inside her. “I love you, Caitlin.” An errant lock of hair had fallen over his eye, and he tossed his head to remove it, blinking down at her. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you found me.”

  Maybe not, Caitlin thought—she couldn’t think of words sufficient to convey her emotions, either—but he could show her how he felt, and he was doing a fine job of it. His every movement made her want to cry out, to dig her fingers so deeply into his hair or back that she’d surely hurt him. And, besides that, there was just the closeness of it—the feeling that this was where she belonged, that their two bodies had always been meant to be one.

  She let her hands slide over the smooth, taut expanse of his back and the muscular swell of his buttocks. He felt strong, moving beneath her palms. He could go harder if he wanted to. She gripped him, pressing her fingertips into the cleft between buttock and thigh, urging him to do so.

  He sighed, his breath hot and sweet, and obliged her, moving with more speed and deliberate force. She squeezed, then let go, finding her hands suddenly weak against such a powerful body. Blossoms brushed the back of her fingers as they fell and she let sensation overwhelm her, crying out to the rhythm of Aaron’s bold strokes.

  It wasn’t long before she felt a strong stirring at her core where he touched her, beating a fierce rhythm against her womb. She wrapped her arms around him when it began, gripping him hard enough—she hoped—to convey her urgency.

  He understood and responded, reaching deeper with each stroke than she had thought possible. Her body gripped him, tightening around the hard length of his cock as if determined to keep him there always. The pleasure washed through her in waves, each one more intense than the last. His low moan was lost beneath her cry.

  When her climax ended, her chest was heaving, her breasts rising to meet his chest, then falling, only to repeat themselves. He moved at a more moderate pace now, clenching his fists and squeezing his eyes shut as if he were restraining himself.

  It was an amazing feeling, Caitlin thought—intoxicating, really—to see him react in that way to her body, driven to the brink of losing control. She’d caught a glimpse of him in this state once before, on the day of her disappearance, when they’d touched and teased each other in the wildflower field. It had been exciting then—fully manifested now, it made her sigh and grip him again.

  “Oh, Caitlin…” he sighed, his breath coming in gasps now.

  She reached up and buried her hands in his hair, pulling his head down so their lips met. He kissed her passionately, his hips speeding up to match. She moaned and his lips vibrated pleasantly against hers as she did so. He cried out suddenly, then slowed, reining himself in again.

  “Don’t hold back,” Caitlin said, tightening her grip on his hair. Already she could feel the stirring within herself again, the beginnings of another climax. If he didn’t oblige her, she’d have to scream—something she’d thought she’d left behind along with her silver hair.

  Aaron abandoned his efforts at restraint, driving himself into her with a force that surprised her. She’d been impressed before, but now… She held him tightly against her as ecstasy unfolded again, sparking a slow burn within her core. He felt like the centre of her world, shedding light into a place that had been so dark without him. She gripped him hard and they cried out together.

  A fresh wave of perfume washed over them a few moments later when Aaron withdrew from her body, tumbling off her with a sigh to lay in the grass and matted flowers beside her. A forget-me-not caught in his ruddy locks paled in comparison to his eyes, which he turned upon Caitlin. She stared back, sure that he was more beautiful than ever before. He reached out to take one of her hands in his, and for a moment they remained that way, their eyes locked and their breath stirring each other’s hair as their breathing gradually steadied. “What now?” Aaron asked when Caitlin’s own heartbeat had ceased to ring in her ears.

  She reached up to pluck the forget-me-not from his hair, holding it close to her face and breathing its faintly sweet fragrance. “I was thinking,” she said, twirling the blossom between her fingers and watching it shed a petal, “that maybe we could do it again.”

  Aaron rolled onto his side, leaning so close that their lips nearly brushed. “I’d like that.”

  About the Author

  Ranae Rose lives on the US East Coast with her husband, child, horses and dog. Romance is her genre of choice for both reading and writing, and she strives to write passionately.

  Email: contact@ranaerose.com

  Ranae loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.totallybound.com.

  Also by Ranae Rose

  Eternity and a Year

  Highland Storm

  Spirited Away

  Clandestine Classics: Wuthering Heights

  THE SOUL WITHIN

  Nancy Adams

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  BMW: BMW

  Mercedes: Mercedes-Benz, Daimler AG

  Porsche: Porsche SE

  Thermos: Thermos GmbH

  Band Aid: Johnson & Johnson

  Jeep: Chrysler Group LLC

  Sig: SIG Sauer

  Chapter One

  The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves…~Proverb

  The right honourable Brad Rhodes jumped at the knock on his office door. Quickly closing the files on his laptop, he called out. “Yes, who is it?”

  “Security, Mr Rhodes.”

  “Shit.” He muttered under his breath. “One sec.” He glanced nervously over at the door to his private bathroom.

  His hands shook as he ejected the flash drive from his laptop, and slid the data on the new Defence contracts into his pocket. He stopped before the door, took a deep centring breath as he buttoned his suit jacket and smiled, his nervousness now hidden behind a mask of absolute confidence. Opening the door, he had only time to gasp before he went flying back into the room.

  The sheer force of the kick to his chest had him gasping for air. With his chest burning and head spinning Brad was quickly pinned to the floor by two men. Stunned, he stared up at a masked face leaning in close. The vivid blue of the eyes that stared back were beautiful, divine and yet deeply disturbing. Those eyes saw more than just the government employee, husband and father, those eyes saw the dark secrets sitting on his soul.

  “Who are you?” There was no answer as he was quickly patted down. A hand stopped on the pocket that held the F
lash drive. Pulling it from his pocket the man with the blue eyes held it up and tossed it to his partner. He then stood, settling his celestial eyes on him, before stepping over him and proceeding behind his desk.

  “Now, Bradley,” The second attacker began. This man was different from the other—his eyes were black, empty chasms. “You know very well who we are.”

  The quiet words sent a shiver through him. “Oh, God!” These men were part of the Guardian Project and they were here. That meant the other members knew what he had been up to. That meant these men were here to kill him. “But you can’t…I’m a member on the committee that sanctions you.”

  “Yes, you are.” The man reached into a pocket hidden on his sleeve and withdrew a syringe.

  “That’s the reason why we didn’t shoot you. We don’t want any unwanted attention, so you will die of natural causes.” The man squatted down next to him. “Your wife will be taken care of for the remainder of her life and your child will only know of a father that worked incessantly to improve our country.” The masked man paused and shrugged casually. “If you ask me, that’s pretty good considering the amount of shit you stirred up.” The man turned to his partner who was behind the desk. “Ace?”

  “Just cleaning his hard drive.” There was a brief silence before he announced, “Done.”

  The man, Ace, walked around the desk and stopped by his feet, giving his partner a quick nod.

  “Wait.” Brad began to panic. “Please. You can’t do this. The people that want this…”

  “Are dead.” It was ‘Ace’ who finished. “Just like the soldiers you sold out.”

  “I didn’t know they would kill so many. Please…” Brad held up his trembling hands, his face now coated with a light sheen of sweat. “I have a…my family.”

  “Those soldiers had families.” Ace gritted out between clenched teeth.