Devlin caressed her cheek and kissed her lightly beneath her eyes. “Yes, she did.”
Abby pulled back, not believing what she was about to say. “Do you think it could be possible that the light and the chimes really are Alice still looking for her lost lover?”
Devlin smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure.”
He pulled Abby into his arms and rested his chin on top of her head. She’d never felt so safe in her life. She settled against Devlin’s chest and listened to the steady thud of his heart beneath her ear.
She wanted to stay here forever with his arms around her and feel the warmth of his body. But everything inside her, down to the center of her soul, felt that the laughter she’d heard at the castle and the sound of the chimes connected to Devlin and his past.
Abby pulled out of his arms. “Why did you keep the clipping about Alice’s murder?” She already knew the answer but hoped he would open his heart and tell her.
Devlin tried distracting her by nibbling on her neck. “Let’s not talk about that now.”
She longed to give in to his husky, sensual voice, but she couldn’t. She stepped back to put a little distance between them. “I think we need to. Tell me, Dev. Please.”
He frowned. “I felt responsible.” There was a gentle softness in his voice.
Abby raised her hand and touched his face. “For what?”
Devlin’s body stiffened, and his expression grew still and somber. “For Victor coming back to the island and killing Alice.”
Abby sighed and tilted her head to the side. “You aren’t responsible for Victor’s actions.”
His face turned ashen, and pain filled his eyes. “He’s a monster, and I’m his son. I bear some responsibility for what happened.”
She inhaled a quick, calming breath and exhaled. “No, you don’t.” Unable to bear the anguish in Devlin’s eyes a moment longer, Abby glanced around her. The fog grew denser. The vaporous cloud obscured the forest from her view, but Devlin was with her.
No one could harm her as long as he stood at her side. She saw only him. Nothing else. Abby felt the cool ocean waves wash over her feet and listened to the water hiss as it seeped into the sand. The sound soothed her.
Being alone on the beach with Devlin made her feel as if they were the only two people in the world. Abby laid her palms on Devlin’s chest and looked up into his eyes. “Make love to me.”
Chapter Ten
Devlin gazed into Abby’s eyes and saw the reflection of her heart. Should he believe? Dare he believe that she wanted him, cared for him? Helpless with desire, he tunneled his fingers through her hair.
The cover of fog began to dissipate, allowing the rays of the rising moon to shine through. He tilted her head to catch the light. A wave of desperation gripped him. He drank in the beauty of her face, needing to hold her and make her his in the most elemental way.
His heart burned with fear that he might lose control and harm her. His skin felt tight and hot and needy. Waves continued to wash over their feet and caress their ankles. A rather large one splashed against their legs, and the ensuing spray wet their clothes, but neither seemed to notice.
“Please, Devlin.” Abby’s soft plea nearly undid him.
He tried to fight against the current of emotion urging him to take what Abby offered. But how could he say no? He lifted her into his arms. She laid her head on his chest. His heart beat wildly, and a feeling of euphoria swept through him. The fog had receded from shore, and Devlin could see the beach, the forest, the sky scattered with stars.
He headed toward the blanket where they had shared supper. He laid Abby on the blanket and brushed a strand of damp hair from her face. Moonlight filtered down through the tree branches that hung over the beach, and illuminated her skin and eyes.
“Abby, you’re beautiful.” He watched as tears pooled in her eyes.
“No one has ever said that to me before except my mother.” She smiled slightly. “And she doesn’t count.”
He caressed her face, and watched her shiver as a breeze blew over her wet body. “What’s wrong with the men in Great Britain?” He wanted to touch her, really touch her, but should he? “You’re cold. Come on, let’s get you home and into some dry clothes.”
When he tried to help her up, Abby shook her head. “No, Dev. I don’t want any dry clothes. All I want is you, holding me, kissing me, skin to skin.” She pulled her damp dress over her head and tossed it aside.
Devlin touched his finger to the side of her neck and felt the pulse throb beneath her skin. “Are you sure, Abby?”
Slowly, she removed her panties. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
She was so beautiful, he nearly swallowed his tongue.
Then she began unbuttoning his shirt. As she slipped each button from its hole, her fingers caressed the skin of his chest. She sat up with her legs wrapped around his waist and kissed his neck and chest, licking the water droplets from his skin.
He sucked in a ragged breath at the feel of her incredibly soft mouth and her warm breath blowing over his skin. Desire shot into his gut, then lower into his groin. Devlin reveled in the sultry heat emanating from her body. He’d never wanted a woman more in his life than he wanted Abby at that moment. But if he took her, could he live with himself?
If Abby decided she couldn’t live with the knowledge concerning his past and walked out of his life, a piece of his soul would go with her.
Devlin tried to grab her hands to stop her. She gently brushed them aside and gazed into his eyes. With the fog gone, starlight sprinkled down, making her look like a very sexy angel.
Her hands unsnapped his jeans.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?”
“Yes.”
In a moment, his jeans were gone, and he knelt before her, hard and ready. Water droplets glistened on her skin. One sparkling pearl of water clung to the nipple of her left breast, enticing him. He lowered his head and licked it away with his tongue. She gasped and arched her back, offering him more.
“I want you.” He trailed soft kisses over her face and neck. “I want you so much.” His heart thrummed in his chest, and a tiny voice in his brain rose above the sound of desire rushing through his veins. How could he? And how could she want him, knowing what he was and where he came from?
She was like a perfect gift, but without wrapping or ribbons. Instead, she made him believe he could have a real life, that he could be important to someone and end the loneliness of his days. Devlin wanted to forget that Victor was out there, waiting to strike, like a deadly spider. Making love with Abby would wash away every trace of ugliness from his life, if only for a little while. Should he? Dare he?
She raised a hand and stroked his face. “What are you thinking about? You look so sad all of a sudden.”
Her skin felt soft and innocent beneath his fingertips. Innocent. How could a man like him, with his past, allow himself to take her -- but how could he walk away? He looked into her blue eyes filled with trust. “Abby, you’re the best thing that has ever happened in my life, but --”
She laid her hands on his shoulders. “But what, Dev?”
Her eyes gazed deeply into his with a profound truth. He felt hot and cold at the same time. “I almost forgot. You know everything.”
Abby nodded. “If you mean about your mother and the rape, then yes.”
He closed his eyes and felt shame burn all the way down to his soul.
“Look at me.” Her quiet entreaty urged him to open his eyes, but he couldn’t ... not yet.
Hearing her tender voice made him feel sad for all the years that he’d lost. But how could he have lost them when he hadn’t even known she existed? It was as though she’d always been there just beyond his consciousness, tempting him, wanting him, making him need something he couldn’t see or touch or control.
She lifted her head and planted a soft kiss on his lips. His arousal twitched and ached at the contact with he
r mouth. “Just because Victor Morgan is your father doesn’t mean that you’re like him. I know you would never hurt me.”
Devlin opened his eyes and looked at her. His heart filled with overwhelming need to touch her, hold her, let himself sink into her. “Abby, I --”
She pressed two fingers over his lips, and he kissed them softly. Abby stared deeply into his eyes. “I want to be with you. And it has nothing to do with your past.”
When he tried to look away, she nudged his face back around. “Dev, look at me. You need to be with the woman who loves you.”
He knew what she was saying, but no one could ever want him like that -- certainly not Abby. Why should she, when she could have any man that she wanted?
A man who came from a good, upstanding family.
Not a man who was spawned from violence.
They were both naked as they day they were born, but Dev felt as though his soul was exposed, too, raw and bleeding.
“You need to find the path to the love that you’ve denied yourself.”
He wanted to say something, but the words caught on a bubble of happiness lodged in his throat.
Abby dropped her chin and gave him a wicked smile, a smile he’d never seen on her prim face before.
“What are you up to? Are you trying to distract me?”
She slid her hand down between his legs and wrapped her cool fingers around his erection. “Yes. Am I succeeding?”
The blood drained from his head and shot to his groin. “Yes.” He barely managed to utter the word. His prissy, straitlaced Abby was turning into a vixen. She rubbed her thumb over the head of his penis, and he nearly came in her hand. “Kiss me, Devlin. Kiss me.”
He took her mouth and her lips gave. They were soft, wet, and supple, as he knew her body would be when he slipped inside her. He tasted her with his tongue, like a man lapping up the last drops of water to quench his thirst. Oh, how he thirsted for her.
If she hadn’t come to Wolf Island, he never would have met her. She wouldn’t be here now, in his arms. But here she was.
He’d done something good. He’d helped save his brother and Miranda. Now Abby was saving him. The thought soothed him like a warm caress. Maybe, just maybe, there was goodness in him. Perhaps he had a chance for a happy life, after all.
Devlin forgot all the reasons why he shouldn’t touch her, make love to her, or make their bodies one. Her hands roamed over his skin, inciting desire, lust, and licks of fire. He’d never been touched so sweetly and with such tenderness.
Her mouth became rapacious, her lips nipping at his. She played with his tongue, telling him without words what she wanted him to do with his body.
Arousal rose like a flood tide in his blood with each kiss, each eager sweep of her hands over his body, until he felt her in the marrow of his bones.
She pulled her legs up and locked them around his waist. “I want you inside me.” Her velvet command felt like a balm on his wounded soul, brightening the shadows that his father’s cruelties had caused to haunt his soul for so long.
He wanted nothing more in the world at that moment than to make her his. “I have no protection for you.”
“I’m on the pill, if that’s what you’re worried about. My periods aren’t very timely, so I’m using them to regulate my cycle. I don’t have any diseases, and I don’t sleep around. That is to say -- well, this is quite unusual for me, actually.”
A joy he’d never known he could feel poured through him. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Her liquid gaze melted into his. “Touch me.” Her softly murmured words soothed him.
Him. She wanted him even knowing about his past. His heart felt big and sore inside his chest. Devlin probed his fingers through the damp nest of curls at the apex of her thighs. She was open to him, waiting for him to fill her. He pushed a finger inside her tender body and felt the muscles clench.
The essence of her need for him poured over his hand. He removed his finger from her body, grasped her fanny, and moved his hips forward. The tip of his penis entered her warm, willing body. The muscles in his belly shook with restraint. He wanted to shove deep, but he still feared hurting her. “Are you okay?”
He felt her buttocks flex as she tried to bring him further into her. “Dev, please. I want you. I need you.”
“But what if --”
She opened her eyes, glazed with passion, and laid her palm on the side of his face. “You won’t hurt me, Dev. I know that.”
She trusted him.
He felt reborn. It was time he found out if he could truly cherish a woman without fearing his father’s violent curse. Devlin shut his eyes, thrust his hips forward, and drove himself home.
Abby opened her eyes wide and arched her neck. A sigh shuddered from her lips. She started to move, the rhythm of her hips a sensuous pleasure beneath him. Sweat broke out on his brow, and finally, for the first time in his life, Devlin surrendered totally to his need to mate. He thrust in and out, letting the feel of her supple, wet body squeeze him, hold him, love him.
He drove himself into her until a ball of heat plunged to his groin, gripped him tight, and slowly wiped his brain clean.
The world narrowed down to Abby, only Abby. Always Abby. The orgasm pounded through him. He felt Abby’s internal muscles clench, release, clench, and release yet again. A guttural cry issued from her lips.
Devlin slumped on top of her, his face nestled between her neck and shoulder, and just breathed her in. “I promised myself the first time we made love would be in a bed, and here I’ve taken you on the beach.”
She turned her head and kissed him on the cheek. “And I loved every minute of it. We do have a problem, though.”
He damn well couldn’t think of one. “What’s that?”
Abby patted him on the fanny. “No way am I putting those wet clothes back on, so how are we going to get back to the castle?”
He rose up on his elbows and tunneled his fingers through her damp hair. “Good point.” He glanced over at a tree growing close to the edge of the beach, then back at Abby. “I have an idea.”
Devlin found two branches for each of them -- one to hold in front and one for the back. Once they started walking, Abby couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
“It’s a first for me, too.”
In a few minutes, they came up over a rise and saw the castle looming upward. The highest turrets seemed to pierce the sky. Devlin stopped, dropped the branches he was holding, and looked at Abby. “Come here.”
A half hour later, thoroughly sated from making love, Devlin folded Abby in his arms and drew her close. How could he have been so lucky to find such a woman?
A siren blared into the peaceful evening and stabbed Devlin’s soul.
The sheriff.
The patrol car’s lights flickered along the road as it raced up the mountain toward the castle. “Something’s wrong. We’ve got to go.”
Devlin snuck them into the castle through the solarium door. They scooted up the back stairs, dressed quickly, then ran downstairs together. The voices of Otis and the sheriff echoed from the front of the castle, but Devlin couldn’t hear the exact words.
“Mr. Dev! Mr. Dev.” Otis ran down the hallway toward them. He looked them over. “You all right? When you didn’t come back, I got worried. You never stay out past midnight.”
Was it that late already? Making love with Abby had made all time stand still.
Devlin grabbed Otis’s arm. “I saw the sheriff’s car. What’s happened? Did Victor leave something else?
“Yes. Only this time it’s worse.”
Devlin thought of the little orange kitten. Small, loving, and totally helpless against a monster. “Was it Sam?”
“No.” Otis opened the door to the kitchen. Abby followed him through into the kitchen. “He’s right over there.” Devlin turned his head and saw the kitten nestled on a cushion in front of the fireplace, his eyes closed, his leg secure in the little blue cast.
Relief made Dev dizzy.
The sheriff sat at the table, drinking coffee. He nodded in greeting, and Otis laid a hand on Devlin’s arm. “There, on the table.” Otis motioned with his hand. “I found it hanging outside by the kitchen door.”
A set of twisted chimes lay on top of the table. The way the wires twisted around the neck of a crude effigy simulated a hanging. The doll, obviously representing Devlin, sported a knife through the doll’s heart, and a spattering of a substance resembling blood covered the chest area.
Abby walked up beside Devlin and put her arm around his waist. “Oh, my God, why would someone do this?” She turned to Devlin and looked at him with worry clouding her eyes. He didn’t want her to worry. Not now. Not ever. “Tell me, Dev. What’s going on?”
“My father wants me dead.”
Chapter Eleven
Abby flung open the refrigerator door and rooted out a leftover slice of fudge cake. If she had to stay there and wait, chocolate was an absolute necessity.
She found a fork and dug in. She’d eaten little at the dinner on the beach. Now she was ravenous.
After the first bite, she glanced at the clock. Two a.m. Dev and the sheriff had been gone only ten minutes. Dev had asked the sheriff to walk the castle’s perimeter with him once more before he returned to the village. Even though all of the castle’s locks had been changed, Dev wanted to make sure he hadn’t overlooked another way Victor might gain entrance to the castle.
She’d tried to convince him everything was okay, but Devlin insisted he had to go. He’d simply given her a quick kiss and headed out the door.
Abby convinced Otis to go up to bed while she waited for Dev, assuring Otis that nothing would happen with Dev and the sheriff right outside.
She padded over to one of the kitchen windows, drew the curtain aside, and peered through the glass. Outside lights illuminated the sheriff’s car. Clouds shrouded a pale moon.
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