“What st-stake?”
“Me,” he growled, and crushed his lips to hers.
Chapter Nine
No more airy, virginal pecks, Sterling thought, kissing her with savage expertise. If she wanted flames, he would give them to her. If she wanted to feel his heat, she would feel it. He would set her afire. Just as she’d asked, she would feel the blazes of passion lick at her, scorch her, burn her, and finally melt her.
“Are you hot enough yet, Chimera?” he demanded, his mouth still pressing against hers, his arms still wound around her. “Have you reached the melting point, bruja?”
Chimera could not feel the sand beneath her feet. The night breeze, as it whisked past her, could not cool the torrid heat his kiss, his embrace, his passionate words brought to her. Even the moon ceased to exist. Only the man who held her, his strength wrapped around her, clasping her to him, mattered. Only Sterling mattered.
When she only moaned in reply, Sterling’s arms tightened further around her. “A groan means only one thing,” he whispered, his lips leaving hers to smooth down her chin, her neck, to her chest. “You’re not hot enough yet. When you are, even your voice will be burned from you.” Rapidly, he unbuttoned her blouse. His hand made instant contact with her warm, bare breast. He gasped when he realized she wore no undergarments.
Chimera swayed, her knees buckling at the feel of his hot palm fully cupping her breast. She opened her mouth to speak...and no sound came forth.
“A soundless moan,” Sterling whispered hotly, his mouth caressing the warm upper swell of her breast. “That’s better, Chimera, much better. Now melt—melt for me.”
He moved his palm from atop her nipple, his lips taking its place, his mouth, his tongue swirling, wetting, burning. She clutched at his back, pulled at his skin for something to hold, something to keep her standing. It was more than an ache she felt this time. It was an agony, a blaze of the purest, most exquisite pain she’d ever known.
“Sterling,” she whimpered, unable to think of any other words. “Sterling.”
She hadn’t fainted, he knew, but he supported her entire weight. Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her to another moonlit but better-hidden part of the creek shore, his mouth never leaving her breast.
She felt the night-chilled sand beneath her when he laid her down, but the coolness vanished instantly as his tongue continued to wet her with liquid flames. She felt him yank off her boots and heard them fall somewhere in the dense thicket beside her, but only the burning thirst for him building inside her was real. She writhed in his arms, her own encircling his back, and inhaled sharply when his hand slipped under her skirt and up her calf to her thigh, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. It welded her to him, and she lay there ablaze.
“You wanted to know who the man was who would make love to you tonight, Chimera,” he said huskily, his mouth leaving her breast to journey back to her mouth. “And now I will tell you.” His hand inched closer to the warm, moist triangle between her legs. His fingers reached it, brushed across it, moved lower into it. “I am, my beautiful witch, a man who wants you. And that,” he said, and slid his fingers deeply into her, “is all you need ever know.”
She convulsed at his hot invasion, a feverish sigh escaping her before his lips seared down upon hers, his tongue seeking and finding entrance into her mouth again. He was inside her in two places, both places wildly aflame, and still she wanted more of him. She wanted to be filled with him, wanted the meeting of his fire and hers. Longed for the two to mesh, blaze, burn together. She tried to tell him that, but still, she could not speak.
But Sterling knew her thoughts. Her hope. Her fantasy.
Knew it by the feel of her slender hips as they arched into his palm. Knew it by her wet warmth, her hot readiness for him.
He was burning for her, too. He would melt within her, he decided, and reached for the fastening of his buckskin breeches. He, too, wanted her fire. Wanted to feel it scorching him, igniting him with the ecstasy they would share this night. This moment. Right now.
“Now,” he told her, his voice heavy with desire. He kicked his boots and breeches off, the texture of her smooth, bare legs against his own sending another flame lashing through him. “All of you. I want to see all of you, the whole of your beauty. And I will. Now.”
She shook violently as he slipped the sleeves of her blouse off her shoulders and down her arms. His chest, naked, warm, and smooth, crushed her breasts, and the ache, the sweet, sweet pain stole her breath. Her skirt...she felt him tug it from her waist, felt it slide down her thighs, off her calves.
She was naked and felt no shame. She felt nothing but the fire. It had replaced the blood in her veins, and how she burned for him, all of him. This moment. Right now.
Sterling touched her everywhere. It seemed to her that her skin liquefied beneath his hot caresses. Flames danced, writhed, and spread over her as his fingers, lips, and tongue touched each inch of her feverish body.
Another soundless moan escaped her when his hot mouth kissed her in the most intimate of ways. Silent screams erupted inside her as the scorching pleasure mounted higher and still higher. She felt as if she were climbing a flame; and how she clutched at the fiery rope to which she hung. Heedless of the heat, she was desperate to reach the blazing crest that she sensed was only seconds away.
Sterling knew what she reached for and knew also that she’d almost come upon it. But he would snatch her away before she touched it. Slowly, he thought. She would melt for him, yes, but at the pace he set. He lifted his lips from her, his rough cheek rasping across her smooth belly as he slid it toward her breasts. “Your hair,” he demanded, his voice thick with urgency as he settled his body upon hers.
“Your black satin cloak. Spread it around us, Chimera. That fantasy is mine.”
Her fingers trembled in it, closed around handfuls of it. She raised her arms and let it fall upon his back. It flowed over him, over her, and she felt closed within it.
She felt his masculinity too: the hardness she’d wondered about earlier; the part of him she now knew instinctively would raise even higher the blazes within her; the part of him that would then quench the fire, release her from the stake, satisfy her hunger; the part of him that would brand her as his forever and always. She hugged him, her hands making the long journey down his back.
Her embrace brought Sterling an unexpected rush of emotion. Dios mio, how that simple action affected him! He took her face between his hands and looked into her wide, whiskey eyes. He saw her desire, but he saw a hint of anxiety. She craved every sensation he could bring her, yet her innocence made her afraid, too. He longed for the ecstasy he would find in her beautiful body, but he refused to take what wasn’t offered. “Chimera,” he whispered, “the magic has almost reached full circle. This is the ‘more,’ estrellita. Do we continue to the ‘all’?”
His incredible eyes held her captive, and in them she saw his willingness to abide by her decision. It filled her with tenderness that this man, this strong and sensual man, who was capable of doing whatever he liked with her, was allowing her to determine how their passion would end. Love for him welled within her. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Sterling. All. Please, all.”
He smiled and kissed her cheek before settling upon her again. “You are the tinder,” he told her on a long, hot breath. “I am the flame. Together, we will make fire.”
His declaration was the last thing she heard before he made her his. His hot, hard staff plunged into her, igniting a flicker of pain that in the next moment gave way to a searing sweet heat she yearned to have consume her. “Sterling...”
The sound of his name, spoken in that gentle, trusting voice, broke through his savage, desperate need for her. “Chimera,” he whispered in response. “I’m sorry, estrellita.”
“Sterling—”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered again, and felt hot remorse invade his heart.
“The fire,” she murmured into his ear. “You promised me fi
re.”
Her soft plea filled him with the determination to please her more than he’d ever tried to please another woman. “And you shall have it.” He gasped as her torrid sheath tightened around him. With a passion that seared all other thoughts from his mind, he wanted to feel her fulfillment. He strained to fan the flames to the highest heights.
Chimera burned. Hot, she was so very hot, she screamed soundlessly. And still Sterling kept stoking the blazes higher. Instinctively, she sought them out, longing to touch them, let them burn her further, let them melt her to him. Her hips rose with each of his fiery thrusts, and the heat was exquisite as it grew hotter still. She smoldered with the rising pleasure she knew was but the simmering beginning of the fiery, explosive climax. She willed him not to deny it to her again. Her hands clinging to his warm back, she wrapped her legs around his hot, pumping hips, and felt Sterling lift her to the summit. The exquisite blazes engulfed her body and soul, and molten lava flowed through her, the intensity of the sweet, sultry ecstasy making her cry out.
Sterling’s moan joined hers, and he leapt full-force into her conflagration. Their flames met, twisting around each other, fueling each other in shared pleasure that raged furiously and for a scorching eternity.
Trembling, panting, and thirsting for the last of the dying fire, they held each other closely, unwilling to separate. The flames grew dimmer, but continued to lick at them, slower now, cooler now, but still flickering, until at last they became embers that glowed with a tender, soothing warmth.
When Sterling finally left her, the chill of the evening breeze whispered across her wet skin, and she shivered. Her hair clung to her, to him, lay fanned out upon the ground and became his blanket as he lay beside her. Her body remained still, but her eyes slowly met his.
Melted silver, she thought as her gaze touched his. No silver she’d ever seen shone as did his eyes. Sterling silver, polished and precious.
She swept her gaze down his hard, powerful length, the sight giving her a pleasure as strong as the physical one they’d just shared. If she’d been certain of her love before... Ah, love, she mused, smiling gently, there was no truth more true than love. She loved this man and had never been so sure of anything in her entire life.
“Did I hurt...did it hurt much?” he asked so softly he could barely hear himself. Damn, what were these emotions racing through him that stole even his voice and brought an ache to his arms that only her body could fill? “Did I hurt you?” he asked again, still quietly.
“Yes.”
“Yes?” Guilt tore through him. He’d hurt her, and the knowledge brought him pain too. Dammit, why had he gone so quickly with her? What the hell had happened to his resolve? Was he some rutting animal who could not control himself?
“I mean no. Well, some, but—Oh, Sterling, yes!”
“Which is it? Yes or—”
“Yes!” she exclaimed, and rolled into his arms. “Yes, Sterling, I do. I do love you! I’m more sure now than before!”
His hands dropped from her shoulders. He stared up at the moon. Defeat, bitter and uncontrollable, crashed through him, and he knew in the depths of his soul he should not have made love to Chimera, that he shouldn’t have given into her desires—or his own.
She knew his magic now. After their lovemaking, she was more sure than ever before that she loved him. He’d heard all he needed to hear. She didn’t love him; she loved what he could do to her. She was bewitched by the magic, just like every other woman he’d ever been with.
Emptiness filled him so completely, he felt it spill into his eyes.
Chimera watched the strange melancholy dull the bright silver of his gaze. “Did you hear what I said, Sterling?”
“I did.”
“Well? What do you have to say about it?”
He picked up a handful of sand and squeezed it with all his might. How was it possible to convince her she was in love with his talent and not the man who possessed it? He’d never had to explain it to anyone before. All the other woman he’d known could have cared less. They’d been interested only in his outward appearance, his special touch, and had he fallen for their schemes, he’d have been nothing short of an ornament decorating their arms.
And now Chimera saw him like that too. The knowledge made him feel miserable. He let the sand drift through his fingers. His hand was empty now—just as the rest of him was.
His silence was agony to Chimera who mistook it for displeasure. Slipping out of his arms, she reached for her clothes and dressed quickly. “I’m sorry, Sterling,” she said softly, unable to meet his eyes. “It was my first time, and I wasn’t certain what I was supposed to do. I’ll try harder next time. I promise.”
His eyes widened. He could barely believe what he was hearing. The cool wind whisked over him, but her apology, not the cold, made him shiver. He rose and took her into his arms again. She might not be any different than all the other women he’d known, but the strange feelings he had for her remained inside him, demanding he soothe her worries. “Chimera, you’ve no need to apologize for anything.”
She wound her arms around him, breathing deeply of his sensual, masculine scent. “You weren’t a virgin, Sterling.”
Guilt rumbled through him again.
“But how thoughtful you were to allow me to think you were,” she continued. “You knew your experience would intimidate me, so you let me learn about the magic in my own way. Thank you.”
Her gratitude took him completely off-guard. “Chimera, I—”
“And thank you for the fire too,” she said, and looked up at him. “I asked for it, and how you gave it! You gave me the fire of passion, but you also gave me the molten core I spoke of. I know so much more about you now, Sterling.” She placed her hand upon his chest. “I love the man in here. How very much I love him.”
He pulled her arms from around his back and stepped away from her. Turning, he found his clothes and dressed. It was just as he suspected. She was blinded now and would never see him as anything but a worker of sensual sorcery. And what more was there to see anyway? he fumed. How the hell could she say she knew the man inside him when he didn’t?
His back to her, he kicked a stone into the stream. “Chimera, I won’t be here forever. It’s useless for you to think you love me. You’re going to be hurt when I leave, and I am leaving. As soon as Venus is old enough to travel, I’m taking her to San Francisco de Sales. From Sonora I’ll go to Tucson. I hope to God I make it there this time.”
Chimera gasped. Her knees wobbled. She reached for the slender trunk of a sapling for support. “Sterling, what have I done? Whatever it is, tell me, and I’ll—”
“Nothing,” he answered, finally turning to face her. He saw how pale her face had become, saw how the sapling shook as she clutched it. His first thought was to try and soothe her again, but he managed to subdue the urge. It was better this way. Better for them both. He would leave, and she’d forget him.
But he wondered if he would ever forget her.
He’d been with her longer than he’d ever been with any other woman, and she was so much a part of his life now. He looked forward to her cheerful greeting each morning, anticipated the next time he could laugh at one of her ridiculous spells. The care she gave to him and the boys fed a profound need inside him, and he hungered for it constantly. He took such pleasure in each of her bright smiles and surprised even himself with his determination to inspire them as often as he could.
But now...it would all change now, and he knew with sad certainty he would miss the old Chimera. He would never see the sweet sparkle of innocence in her eyes again. They’d always be aflame with desire. She’d think of nothing else. Dammit, why had he made love to her? Why hadn’t he thought things through and realized it would end this way?
“It’s late,” he told her. “We should go back to the cabin now.”
As he walked past her, she caught his hand. “Don’t do this,” she begged him. “Don’t act like this, Sterling. Whatever it is I�
��ve done wrong—”
“Chimera,” he said wearily. “You’ve done nothing wrong. Everything you said and did tonight—it was all so...so normal.”
She watched him leave for the cabin. “Normal?” she yelled at him. “You make it sound like an insult! In fact, I think it is an insult! Sterling, you turn around and look at me!”
He stopped and turned slowly.
“Did you mean to insult me?” Chimera demanded. “Because if you didn’t, I forgive you. However, if you did...well, in the words of Rousseau: ‘In all the ills which befall us, we look more at the intention than the effect. A tile which falls from the house may hurt more, but does not vex us so much as a stone thrown designedly by an ill-natured hand.’ Was your hand ill-natured, Sterling? Tell me the truth so I’ll know whether or not I should be vexed with you.”
He stared at her in complete disbelief. “Chimera, I’ve just taken your innocence, which I realize now I shouldn’t have done, and I have just informed you I’m leaving soon, which I realize now I should have tried to do a long time ago. And you’re rattling on about falling tiles and ill-natured hands! I’m sure there’s some kind of sense, somewhere in the whirlwind that spins in your head, but I’ll be damned if my mind can figure out what it is!”
She marched to where he stood. “It’s true you took my innocence. Sterling,” she snapped, “but don’t think for one moment you could have taken it if I hadn’t given it to you. I wanted to make love with you tonight as much as I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire life. And as far as your leaving...well, maybe you won’t. I’ve just now this second decided that maybe you won’t.”
He sighed heavily. “Yes, I—”
“But maybe you won’t. Maybe before Venus is old enough to make the trip to that orphanage, you will love me as I love you. I haven’t quite figured out how I’ll go about making you love me, but I must remain confident that—”
Moonlight and Magic Page 17
