by Terese Ramin
Cameron gazed at her breasts until her nipples peaked in anticipation. Then he dragged his thumb across each in turn, smiling when they roused even further to greet him. "What you do to me…" he breathed thickly, then gave in to the impulse to taste, to suckle, to nip.
Acasia clutched him to her, her head falling back, her back arching, as her body begged to feed him more. He pulled her forward, and she came to him, lifting herself over his thighs, settling where he fit her best.
His fingers replaced his mouth on her engorged nipple, and he called himself back from the sweetest torment to see her face, greedy with desire.
"Acasia," he murmured as she wrapped her legs around him and her hips moved. "Acasia."
"I’m here, Cam."
He took her breath, purged her thoughts. He felt so good beneath her. Every smooth contour of muscle knew her touch, bulged when he flexed and twisted to help her rid him of his clothing. Belly and breasts rejoiced in the skin–to–skin contact, strained closer, wanting to surround, to be surrounded and invaded.
"Love me, Casie."
The words were sighed into her neck, and Acasia drew breath and sat back one last time to look at Cameron, to be sure. She saw passion and desire, and something she was afraid to hope for, but no doubt.
He saw her hesitation, the moment of questioning, the uncontrolled desire to retreat, and caught her chin to prevent it. "What?" he demanded. "Look at me, Casie. Tell me."
Tell him. Always the impossible, the easy, the hard: Be my lover, be my love. Tie me to you, but hold no strings. Love me, but let me go. I love you.
"Say it," he demanded.
"You’ll just get smug if I do."
Laughter rumbled in his chest. "Me?"
It was all right. He was laughing. She inhaled, and serenity, infinitely wondrous, filled her. "So?" she whispered, stroking his chest idly.
"So," he answered, drawing her head down.
Their mouths met sweetly, finding an intensity of emotion that was shattering. With sudden clarity, Acasia knew the step she was about to take was one she had no business taking. The risks here dealt with more than just emotions she’d thought long dead; they were risks it wasn’t fair to ask Cameron to take. Forever wasn’t something she could promise to herself, much less to him. Oh, God, she couldn’t, she shouldn’t.
She tried to pull away, but Cameron’s arms locked around her, anchored her to him, made her part of him. "Don’t think."
He kissed her fiercely, melting her last reserves, daring her to deny what was happening.
As if she could, she thought. Tears flooded her eyes, ran down her cheeks. She made no attempt to check their flow, was in fact grateful for this new release. Cameron freed her mouth, concern shadowing his eyes.
Acasia shook her head, sniffling and hiccupping through breaths of bleary laughter. "You are truly the most intoxicating man I’ve ever met."
He knew what every word cost her, what each small admission meant. "Love me, Casie."
How could she not? "Yes."
He hugged her tightly, at a loss for words, eyes that held the moon saying what lips could not. Mutely Acasia stroked his face with quaking fingers, the poignant kiss he placed in the hollow between her breasts making her heart pound beneath his lips. To hell with wisdom. To hell with complications, with tomorrow, with her job. To hell with it all. Everything that mattered was here and now. And now was all the forever she knew.
She surrounded him with arms and legs, kissing him everywhere she could reach, sharing a joy that overwhelmed her.
They’d had two days in sixteen years. She forced the thought away, telling herself to concentrate on the here and now.
Cameron crushed her to him. "I need you, lady. I want you. Stay with me, be with me, make love with me."
Stay with him? Where did he think she was going at 3:00 a.m., half–naked, when everything she wanted in the world was here?
"Silly man," she crooned affectionately. "What do you think we’re doing?"
She unwound herself from him and stood up on the mattress to slide the last scrap of cotton off her hips. Cameron watched it float to the floor like a flag of surrender, then looked up at her, moving slowly to kiss each knee, his hand gliding up the inside of her thigh and through the dewy mound at her core, just ahead of his mouth. A soft murmur, like wind, grazed his back, and Acasia folded over him, lips brushing his hair, nails raking fever down his sides.
"Casie," he murmured, and she unbent at his prompting to let his tongue find her ripeness in a way that made her whimper with longing, her knees nearly buckling beneath her.
"Be still," he whispered, his lips sliding across her belly, lingering in the hollow of her navel, traveling upward until he stood with her, mouth–to–mouth, tongue–to–tongue, his thumbs circling the tips of her breasts, her hands relieving him of his pants and closing around him so that he gasped convulsively and growled his pleasure.
"Cam," she whispered, stroking him, dancing with him, hands slipping round to mold his buttocks, striving to bring him where she wanted him to be.
"Aaaahh, Casie!" He dipped his head and let his tongue taste her throat while his hands flattened over her hips, tipping her so that he could probe her wetness.
Her head fell forward to his chest, and her shuddering hands smoothed his back. "I want to be whole. Make me whole, Cam."
"Yes, Casie, yes. I will." He captured her face, kissing her with such tenderness that it left her shivering.
"Now, Cam," she pleaded, and he kicked his pants aside and drew her down with him onto the sheets, finding his way between her legs, delighted when she lifted herself to him urgently, offering, wanting….
"Don’t move," he whispered.
He hovered over her, teasing until the pleasure became unbearable in its intensity, rocking her until she knew she would scream if he didn’t enter her soon.
"I need—"
"Don’t move."
Lips trembled together; desire left sweat pooling in hollows,
Acasia’s hips quivered. "Cam, please, I—"
"Shh," he whispered, his mouth touching hers so gently that hers followed when he drew away. "Shh," he said again. "Let me…."
There was an instant of awareness as the memory of the first time he’d said those exact words made them both smile. Then Cameron moved, and Acasia cried out, nostalgia forgotten in the relief of having him finally home. He braced himself on his arms and paid her damp face silent homage, caressing her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her tongue….
Then simply being inside her was not enough, and he began to move in the ageless rhythm that made Acasia tighten around him, moaning as he filled her, weeping at his harsh gasp in her ear, laughing jubilantly when they spiraled high and then higher, their passion spilling over, anointing one another with their mutual release.
Words blended together in a chorus of shaken whispers, in thick, wondering laughter, in complacent sighs.
Cameron lay atop her long afterward, drained, locked in her arms, head on her breast, ear to her heart, and Acasia giggled helplessly, marveling at the extraordinary, deliciously satisfying weight of him.
"What are you laughing about?" Soft stubble tickled her breast when he lifted his head to lave a pouting nipple.
"I don’t know." The giggle caught, then changed to a sharp gasp when he tugged the nipple into his mouth and sucked deeply. "You feel so good. I can’t believe how good you feel. I didn’t remember… Making love is…"
"Not something you’re going to do with anyone else again ever," Cameron assured her firmly, rolling onto his back and taking her with him.
"Ditto," Acasia returned, equally serious. She lay quietly, resting on his shoulder, feeling his pulse jump under her cheek.
"No fear there, lady mine." He brushed wisps of her hair away from his lips. "You spoiled me years ago. Everything else has just been marking time."
"For me, too."
She flattened a hand and ran it over his stomach, enjoying a sense of power when
his muscles contracted. Her fingers roved upward, found a flat nipple, chafed it, took pleasure when it pebbled. Gently Cameron caught those lusting fingers and brought them to his lips, where his tongue flicked lazily, sensuously, between them, stroked each sensitive pad.
"Oh, my," Acasia groaned, her body rippling provocatively into place along his. "My, my, my." She draped a leg across him, massaging, and Cameron inhaled sharply.
"Casie?"
Boldly she raised herself on an elbow and let her tongue traipse wickedly where it would. His fingers tightened in her hair; his hard body stiffened beneath her caress.
Cameron exhaled, sighing. "Damn, woman, what are you doing to me?"
"Don’t you know?" she queried innocently, suggestively, and straddled him, poised, tempting, tormenting.
"Witch," he rasped.
"Lie still," she commanded severely, mimicking him.
Then she laughed when he swore and growled firmly, "Witch, come here," as he caught her waist to bring her down on top of him.
* * *
Reality crept in as dawn painted the sky outside their window with smudges of pink and streaks of gray. They lay drowsily, bodies entwined, not yet ready for sleep.
"When you were little—" Acasia yawned "—who did you think you’d wind up being?"
Cameron smiled. "I remember this conversation. We had it seventeen years ago this October. What I wanted then was that Cobra of my father’s… the one you parked in the pond. I thought it would make me…" a self–deprecating laugh "…more than I was. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be recognized as something more than a rich, absentminded geek."
"You got that." Idly Acasia stroked his chest.
Cameron arrested the movement, lacing his fingers through hers. "Yeah, and now I’m not so sure it’s what I wanted after all—or at least, not all I wanted, or the way I wanted it. There’s too much other junk thrown in, too much glitz, too much press coverage, and not enough challenge. Or something." He ran a foot up and down the back of her leg, snuggled her closer. "So I came down here."
"Pretty drastic way to deal with boredom, don’t you think?"
Cameron laughed and stretched. "It worked. You’re here, and I’m not bored." He turned his head to kiss her nose. "Come home with me."
"To keep you from getting bored?"
"Because—" he began, then stopped. Because I don’t want to let you go implied more commitment than he felt capable of giving right now—was, he knew, more than she was capable of accepting. She’d taught him a long time ago not to squander his commitments and to protect his emotions at all costs. "Just because."
Acasia’s mouth formed a bittersweet moue against his throat. "Just because," she repeated wryly, and shook away the penny wish to hear Cameron’s undying protestations of love. She didn’t believe in wishing wells after all. "It’ll be two or three days after you’re back in the States before you’ll even be able to think about getting home. You’re going to have questions and debriefings and reports, and so will I. There are bound to be media people all over you. I can’t be seen with you like that. Discretion is the only safe way to go in my game."
"Which is? Tell me straight for once, Casie."
"Security, what else? I’m a traveling consultant to corporations all over the world. I look for flaws in existing systems, make recommendations, find people who are lost in the worst places on earth to go missing—whatever the client needs. Pretty routine stuff, nothing big."
"Unless Zaragoza is on the agenda."
"Rescue and recovery is part of what Futures and Securities does, yes."
"A large part?"
"Sometimes larger than others."
He felt as if he were pulling teeth. And as close, as intimate as they were, Cameron knew Acasia was editing each reply. "You said you work with Paolo, not for him. What does that mean?"
"I’m a partner. So’s Jules. By popular demand, Paolo’s our director. Jules flies, Paolo meets the public, I…" Again he felt her look for the circumspect answer. "…do things. We don’t generally tell people what. It’s safer not to."
"But you’re telling me." Cameron kept his voice neutral, not wanting to press too hard, willing Acasia to trust him.
Acasia moistened her lips. Not everything. Not yet. Lying here with him, she didn’t want to remember everything she did—or why. Or that she couldn’t let herself stop.
"I have to tell you, don’t I? To give you everything I can without…" She floundered, feeling she was saying both too much and too little. Cameron stiffened, and Acasia tried to soothe him. "Don’t—I meant—I want to…. You complete me. You mean everything to me, but—"
"But if I had any notion that you might quit your job, I can forget it," Cameron stated flatly.
This time she didn’t hedge. "Yes. I have commitments. What I do is important to me and to others. I can’t walk away, even though part of me wants to. The other part of me is, as you said, afraid." Afraid of who I am and of all the unfinished business you’ve managed to bring back to me, she finished silently. She moistened her lips and stumbled on. "I don’t even have a home. I live out of my pack and a suitcase. I keep clothes in New York and London. That year with you is still the longest chunk of time I’ve ever spent in one place in my life—if you don’t count being down here so much—and ‘here’ doesn’t exactly prepare you to live in polite society." She swallowed hard. "You—this—I want to have it. Whatever else goes on in my life, I want to have this, with you."
He knew what she was saying. This was all there was. That was what she was saying. This was as good as it got. But he wanted more. He needed more from her.
"Acasia, damn it!" In one swift movement he rolled over and sat astride her, pinning her shoulders to the bed. Acasia blinked at him in surprise. "What?"
What? Good question. What was he looking for? What hadn’t he asked? What was she holding back? What had he the right to demand?
"Right this second, Casie, what are you sure of? Tomorrow?" he asked softly. "Today?"
Relief was a constricting pressure in her lungs, a timorous curving of her lips, a heartfelt nod. "Yes."
"Okay." He rubbed the moisture from the corners of her eyes. "For now. I want the rest, too, but I can be patient."
"Cam." The word was a throaty sigh.
"What?"
She worked her arms out from underneath him and began to draw long, lazy circles on the insides of his thighs. "Maybe that’s something you could teach me. Patience."
"Maybe." His legs spread to allow her strolling fingers better access.
"Teach me, Cam." Her hands moved over him, bringing him to urgent arousal. "Teach me to be patient."
Not now, he thought with a silent laugh. He couldn’t be patient now.
His finger touched her nose, outlined her mouth. Acasia closed her lips around it, tugged. Cameron withdrew it, began to trace her breast, rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Looking at her, taking pleasure in her, Cameron knew he couldn’t walk away from her. They would have to sweat this out, come what might. He slid backward and bent to kiss her stomach, painting suggestions with his tongue.
Acasia moved restlessly. "Patience, Cam, you were going to teach me patience."
"Was I? I don’t think we have the time for that right now."
He lifted himself on his hands, one knee insinuating itself between her thighs. Acasia breathed in excitement, opening for him.
Now, he thought. Now, now, now!
"What do we have time for, Cam?" She was almost purring, her tongue wetting her lips expectantly.
Cameron grinned and bent to nip her full lower lip. Then he lifted her hips around him and, with a powerful thrust, showed her.
Chapter 9
THEY WOKE SLOWLY, drowsily, tangled in sleep’s embrace, Cameron pillowed by Acasia’s softness, Acasia trapped happily within his arms.
Sunlight stroked them, raising beads of sweat on their skin. Tree frogs chirped steadily, heralding rain, and a toucan burred some
where close by, rattling its bill indignantly. Voices rose and fell in the clinic, subsiding when a loud flapping filled the air.
Acasia froze, then remembered that it couldn’t be Dominic, and relaxed with a fleeting sense of disaster narrowly averted. Cameron only smiled sleepily at the sound, imagining it to be blood, his and Acasia’s pounding in unison. The flapping faded, and Cameron raised his head.
"Hi," he said, pleased to see her.
Acasia stretched like a preening cat, equally glad to discover he was not the product of another vivid dream. "Hi, yourself."
"Sleep well?"
"Oh, yeah."
Mouths met in luxurious hello, curving idiotically.
"You are definitely coming home with me somehow," Cameron informed her.
"Oh? Now who’s being arrogant?"
"You thought I didn’t learn anything from you when we were kids?"
"No, actually, I thought you came down here to take a refresher course in dictatorship from Sanchez."
"Hell, no. I knew all that stuff a long time ago. How do you think I keep my employees in line?"
Acasia grinned. "Hire someone to do it for you?"
"Ouch. That’s low." He turned his head to nibble Acasia’s ribs until she was breathless with laughter. "Doesn’t constantly tap–dancing on my ego bother you at all?"
"Uh–uh. A truck could run over your ego without damaging it. Besides—" she grabbed the hand that had begun to tickle her other side and tugged Cameron up level with her mouth "—somebody’s got to do it."
Cameron nuzzled a corner of her smile. "And you were elected by popular vote."
"Nope, self–appointed. You know, like you’ve appointed yourself my keeper." She drew the tongue tracing her upper lip into her mouth and sucked it deeply until Cameron groaned and grew hard along her thigh.
In retaliation he tangled his hand in her soft yellow curls, teasing her thighs open to steal liquid pearls from their heated safe, beckoning her hips with the rocking motion of his hand. Acasia drew up a knee and lifted herself to him, offering, taking. "You feel too good." She sighed. Tendrils of flame licked at her core, and she arched and gasped and gave herself fully to his control.
