It was as if he had opened her private Pandora’s box and instead of curiosity, he unleashed more volatile emotions. Passion. Desire. Lust.
Feeling was good.
“Alex?”
She shook her head, unable to respond. She couldn’t think, only feel.
“Alex?”
“What? What is it?” She blinked up at Garrett, nearly crying out in protest at the absence of his hands on her body. Gradually, she realized he was sitting up and the candlelight bathed him in a flickering halo of light. His hair was disheveled, his chest bronzed and beautiful before her, and she reached out, needing to touch his warm skin, but he caught her hand in his and kissed each of her fingers and then her palm.
“I want you, Alex.”
He could have her. If he would just stop talking and continue to touch her like he had been, she would give him anything he wanted. Her body was a tightly coiled spring, ready to snap.
“What do you want?”
“What?” Her heart raced as she watched Garrett smile at her.
He leaned down and pressed his mouth to her temple in a featherlight kiss. “I want to know what you want.” He moved to her cheeks, his lips skimming her flushed skin with gentle kisses. “What you need.” His mouth hovered near her ear. “I want to hear you say it.” His tone was husky and the whisper of his breath brushed her feverishly hot skin.
“Say what?” She gasped, closing her eyes and lifting her chin as his lips nuzzled the curve of her neck and the now-skipping beat of her pulse.
His laugh was low and husky, sending shivers down her spine. “Do you want me to touch you here?” His hands spread out over her shoulders and down her arms. “Or here?” He cupped her breasts, his thumb drawing delicious, provocative circles around her nipples.
“Garrett,” she breathed.
“So you like this?”
Her eyes flew open and seeing the smoldering intensity in his eyes, her languid, dazed delirium gradually cleared. He was teasing her, taunting her, knowing exactly what she liked. What she wanted and how she wanted it. After all, he was a rake.
Well, two could play at this game.
She might not know all the rules, but Garrett had taught her some and she had always been a fast learner. Emitting an almost feline purr, she sat up and twined her arms around Garrett’s neck. She touched her lips to his ear and dropped her voice to a low, sultry tone. “Do you want to know what I really want? What I really need?”
“Ah…” Garrett cleared his throat. “Yes.”
She felt her cheeks burn at her daring, but hearing Garrett’s stuttering response emboldened her. It was almost as arousing as his touch…almost.
“I want your hands on me. I want them to touch and caress me everywhere. My arms, my breasts, my stomach, my thighs. I want you to kiss me so deeply and so thoroughly that I can’t hold a coherent thought.” She threaded her fingers through his hair, thick and soft to the touch. “You see, you have taught me well, for I have learned the pleasures of just feeling. And tonight…” She moved her mouth from his ear to let her words fall in a breathless whisper against his parted lips. “Above all else, I want to feel you making love to me and you letting me love you back.”
Delighted with Garrett’s stunned expression, she locked her arms around his neck, planted her lips firmly on his, and with the weight of her body pressing into his, she eased him back into the pillows. She slid her hands over his hips, buttocks, and then his firm thighs. He was hard, all angles and sleek, well-toned muscle. Her battle-hardened soldier. His abdomen against hers was flat and taut. His body fascinated her.
Sleek and beautiful and…wounded.
Her fingers flitted over his smooth skin until she reached his jagged scar. At her touch, his body finally came alive with a jerk and he emitted a grunt of protest. Shushing him, she slid her body down his and pressed her lips to the puckered skin that snaked along the curve of his hip.
She heard his sharp indrawn breath as her tongue reached out to skim the mean scar. He could have been killed, but he had survived. After a minute, she felt him exhale and his body relax. “Thank God, you lived,” she breathed. “Thank God you lived for me.” She kissed his healed skin, and then lifted her head to press her lips to the pulsating beat of his heart.
“ALEX.” GARRETT GROWLED her name, yanked her to him, and devoured her mouth with his.
An experienced lover, he had satisfied and been satisfied by many women. It was a carnal itch scratched, mutual desires satisfied. Nothing more. He thought it was enough. Thought he was incapable of feeling more.
Alex was teaching him otherwise.
“Good Lord,” he breathed when she broke the kiss to draw breath. His gaze drifted over her soft features and kiss-swollen lips, the golden strands of her hair cascading in an intimate canopy around them. He noted the bright flush staining her cheeks, but noticed no more when her hand reached between them and closed over him.
He bucked at her touch on his aroused shaft. The tentative feel and sight of her delicate fingers sliding along his burning erection nearly drove him mad. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and he gritted his teeth as his body hardened and tightened. He needed to stop her before he made a fool of himself.
“My turn,” he grunted. He cradled her close and twisted her around so that she lay beneath him. Braced on one arm, he lowered his free hand and slipped it between her legs to cup her moist center. She gasped and her body shivered.
His forehead dipped to hers. “Are you all right?” Silence answered him, and he paused until he heard Alex’s barely audible response.
“Don’t I feel all right?”
He blinked, not sure he had heard her correctly, but when he lifted his head to cock a brow and saw her cheeks burning brighter than the candle flame, he grinned. “You feel perfect.”
He slid his fingers inside her wet folds, stroking her as his mouth swallowed up her responding whimpers. Her knees rose, her heels dug into the mattress, and her hands fisted in the sheets.
“Oh, God, I don’t think I…”
“I must be doing something wrong if you’re thinking, perhaps I should…”
“No!” Alex cried and grabbed his hand.
Obliging her, he found the most sensitive spot between her legs and let his thumb move over it, smiling when Alex gasped and bucked beneath his hand. “Easy,” he murmured. A sheen of sweat broke out on her body and, unable to resist, he dipped his head to press his lips to the soft, delicate skin of her inner thigh.
Gasping, Alex grabbed his hair and pulled him back up. Laughing, he relented, moving away but keeping up the assaulting thrust of his fingers inside her, his own breathing becoming as ragged as hers. She was so damn responsive. Wet and ready. He gritted his teeth, struggling to draw deep breaths and cool his own rising sexual tension. Not yet.
Moments later, he watched Alex’s back arch and she grabbed his forearms as her release exploded from her. Spasms shook her and she clung to him. “Garrett!”
The combination of his name on her lips and the feel of her nails digging into his arms as she climaxed was like tossing a match onto his smoldering desire. He was on fire. His pulse spiked and his heart thundered fit to explode. He grasped her knee and urged her leg to his hip, needing to be with her, be inside her.
It took him a moment before he noticed Alex’s sudden stillness and that her hands had moved from his forearms to vise around his wrists. When he lifted his head, he saw her bite her lip, her eyes two wide blue pools of uncertainty, a clear sign of belated nerves kicking in.
Dear God, she was an innocent. She might be vocal about her wants and open in her passionate response to him, but she was still inexperienced and forgetting so made him an ass.
With an iron will, he stamped down the fire raging in him and ignored the growing, taut pressure in his loins. He braced himself on his hands and leaned low to press his lips to her forehead and then each cheek, kissing her with featherlight brushes. She closed her eyes and her hand on his wrist
loosened.
“It’s all right, Alex. We can stop.”
Her eyes flew open. “No!”
“No?” He teased, for she had blurted the one word he had advised her to use to stop him.
“No, don’t stop. I’m all right. I want…” Her voice trailed off. As she met his knowing gaze, a pink flush seeped down her neck.
“What do you want?” he breathed. Needing to hear her say it.
Her gaze drifted over his features and her eyes softened as she lifted her hand to cup his cheek. “You. All of you.”
Heart pounding, his eyes met hers in the dim light and he rested his forehead against hers. “Finally,” he breathed, “because I’ve wanted you damn near forever.”
When he lowered his mouth to hers, he kissed her softly at first, only deepening the kiss with her response. She removed her hand from his cheek and slid her fingers into the hair curling around the nape of her neck. Drawing back, she sighed his name in a breathless whisper as her eyes drifted closed.
With his name warm on her lips, he haltingly settled his hips between her thighs. He watched her face as he positioned himself and slowly entered her. She was so damn wet and he was desperate for her. His arms nearly shook from bracing himself above her as he slid home, thrusting deep inside her. She cried out at his initial penetration, her hips instinctively bucking up, and her eyes flew open to stare into his, unsure.
“Shh, relax.” His voice was hoarse as he struggled to reassure her, but she felt so good and he had waited so long. It took all his control to hold still and let her body become accustomed to the size and feel of him. He moved slowly, sweat breaking on his brow, as he watched her lips part. “Are you all right?”
She shifted her body slightly, stilling at his deep groan. “Do I feel all right?” she murmured, her fingers again gripping his arms as she echoed her earlier words.
She was killing him. “If you felt any better than you do, this would end before we’ve even started.” He burst out in a half laugh, half growl.
“There’s more?” Her eyes widened.
He was definitely dying. “Perhaps I should show you.”
“Mmh, perhaps you should.”
He moved his hips, thrusting gently, distracting her with his words and kisses. “God, you feel too good.” His heart raced and his breathing labored as he tried to rein in his stampeding need. “I’ve waited for this for damn near forever.”
After a few moments, a frown furrowed her brow. Garrett recognized that look, and thanked God for it. She was thinking again, wondering, and attuned to her needs, he vowed to dispense with that.
He quickened his pace, moving in rhythmic strokes, creating a moist, sliding friction that tore whimpers from her as he embedded himself deeply within her. He withdrew only to torture her again in quick thrusts and retreats that had her hips reaching up to meet him after each withdrawal. It was a sensual dance, a merging of bodies that teased and tortured and brought him to a near boiling point. He didn’t think he could hold back much longer.
“God, I need you, you are incredible,” he rasped.
“Garrett, I feel…I feel…”
“I know!” he cried out as her nails dug into his shoulders. His rhythm increased with each thrust. Heat fused between them, and his breathing quickened to match hers. Her legs tightened their grip around him, her ankles digging into his sweat-slicked back as she lifted her hips to meet his when he moved faster and deeper. He lowered his body and his arms tightened around her, drawing her into him as their bodies merged again and again, drawing out her pleasure. Her moaning whimpers ratcheted up his already skipping pulse rate, and he lifted his head to kiss her fiercely.
“Garrett!” Alex’s eyes opened and she bucked beneath him, her release exploding from her, her body gripping him tight. She shivered as spasms gripped her. Garrett leaned down and devoured her mouth with his, kissing her again and again, her climax pushing him to the edge, arousing him to a fevered pitch, and he gritted his teeth to hold on to the moment.
When he lifted his head and saw her languid smile, his breath caught. Wearing that smile, her lips swollen, cheeks flushed, and her hair in golden disarray, she had never looked more desirable.
He swallowed, sweat breaking out over him. He wanted to savor the moment before he joined her in his own surrender, but when she slid her hands over his buttocks and clenched them tight, his control snapped. Emitting a guttural growl, he embedded himself deeply within her. She was so hot and wet. His own release rolled over him again and again in a fierce, pulsating wave that shook his body. His back arched and Alex curled her arms around his waist, holding him close as the spasms shuddered through him.
A long time later, he collapsed on top of her.
Together they lay entwined, spent, dazed, and exhausted.
It seemed an eternity had passed before Garrett grunted and somehow summoned the energy to lift himself off her. Alex sighed but smiled when he gathered her into his arms and lay beside her, cradling her against him.
She pressed her cheek to his shoulder and lifted her hand to his chest.
Garrett watched her eyes close and her breathing level as she drifted to sleep. He drew her closer, his arm draped around her waist. He closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of her head, inhaling the subtle fragrance of lavender that rose from her hair.
He smiled at the memory of her coming into his chamber. His heart had pounded so loud he was certain it echoed in the room, yet he hadn’t been able to draw a breath when she’d reached up and let that god-awful nightgown pool at her feet. Bathed in the glow of candlelight, she was breathtakingly lovely. High-breasted, slim-waisted, and long-legged, her hair a soft, golden cascade down her back. His angel.
Alex’s words resonated with him.
Thank God he had lived. For her. For this.
He would ask her to marry him in the morning. But the morning was a long time away, and he had plans for tonight.
ALEX STRETCHED, GRIMACING at the unfamiliar burn of muscles she had never felt before. The sound of masculine laughter brought her fully awake.
Garrett was propped on his elbow. His hair was deliciously mussed, a strand falling over his forehead, and his eyes sparkled.
Her cheeks flamed. After all they had done she shouldn’t be embarrassed. But it was disconcerting to awake to a naked, gorgeous man in bed with her. He watched her with a knowing look and for the first time in her life, Alex understood what that look meant.
She had surrendered everything.
They had made love not once, but twice. She had awakened earlier to the feel of his hands roaming over her body and his mouth cajoling her response. Her heart had taken flight and her body soon followed. Garrett made her feel more alive than she had ever been. Her body had been asleep, and Garrett’s touch had awakened it, turning her body into an instrument that only his touch knew the notes to make sing.
She would never be the same.
A shiver of fear slid over her. She had lost her head, her heart, and her innocence to this man. What more could he take from her that she could give?
She feared it was her soul.
“Good morning.” He brushed a strand of hair from her face and leaned over to kiss her cheek.
She caught sight of the bedside clock. The hour was early, near dawn. Relief flooded her. Once she garnered her courage, she could escape to her bedchamber without anyone knowing what had transpired. Except for she and Garrett. She would never forget. His touch was branded on her body. She would always relive the way his lips…
Her eyes snapped to Garrett’s when she heard his rumble of laughter.
“You’re thinking again.” Grinning, he shook his head. “I don’t approve of it so early in the morning, but if it’s a habit of yours, we’ll have to ensure your thoughts are about me.”
His hand cupping the back of her head, he leaned forward and thoroughly kissed her. She laid her hand against his bare chest but hadn’t the strength to push him away. The morning had yet to f
ully awaken, so why rush the day?
He drew back and scattered featherlight kisses along her cheeks, lowering his head to press his lips to a sensitive spot on her neck. Tipping her head back, she sighed.
Garrett smiled against her skin. “That’s better. We’ll have to make sure we wake up every morning like this. I don’t know if we’ll ever leave this room because I can’t get enough of you. Cook can send up our meals. I’ll make sure she sends peaches, lots of peaches because you know they are my favorite.”
His mouth slid down to the curve of her breast and her breath caught as he aroused a pliant peak.
“Kit and Brandon might worry.” She finally managed to find her voice in a halfhearted protest.
“I’ll have Stewart get rid of them and the boys. They were useful during the courtship, but now we’ll lock ourselves in here and make our own babies. You like children, so we’ll have a couple. A girl and a boy. One of each.”
“What?” Alex’s eyes flew open.
“All right, four, but no more.” His lips slid down her stomach and he spoke between kisses. “We’ll name our firstborn Arundel. He’ll demand to be called Wellington. Our next child will be a girl who is a practical, independent blue-eyed beauty who will climb trees and keep Wellington in line. She’ll be—”
Alex came alive and frantically shoved at Garrett, scrambling from his arms to flee the bed, nearly tripping in her flight. She scooped up her nightgown and held it to her, a cold chill seizing her.
Courtship? Babies? He was talking madness. Talking about a future that could never be.
Garrett sat up, swung his legs over the bed, and started to rise. “Alex, what—”
“Stop!” A hand shot out to ward him off. “Don’t come any closer. You don’t understand.” She blinked at the rush of tears blurring her vision, struggling to hold herself together. “I can’t. We can’t.” She shook her head frantically, her unbound hair hiding her face as she edged to the door. “You don’t understand.”
For the Love of a Soldier Page 25
