"Sometimes when I look at you . . . listen to you . . . touch you . . . I think there’s no way you can be of this world." His fingers trailed down her cheek to the corner of her mouth, where they stopped. "You’re such a fragile creature, Sami Adkins, so ethereal. I’m afraid if I don’t keep my hands on you, you’ll disappear."
Tracing across the fullness of her bottom lip, he tugged on it, and his head descended with tantalizing gradualness until their lips met and his tongue slipped inside, running along the delicate tissue with a touch of velvet. Sami gasped, overcome by the incredible sensation. Daniel groaned at the soft sound coming from her lips and hungrily took possession of her mouth, curving her urgently against him.
Sami twined her arms around his neck, running her fingers up into the dark thickness of his hair. The fire in the fireplace had caught and was flaming brightly. But that wasn’t the warmth she was feeling. There was a burning fire inside her, a fire so powerful that it was threatening to consume her entire being.
Daniel’s lips moved over her face to her ear, nipping at the lobe. "I knew I had to have you from the first minute I saw you—a honey-haired woman-child with wild golden eyes," he muttered hoarsely. "There was no way I was going to leave you in that place."
Lowering her onto the rug, he positioned himself beside her, shifting one hard-muscled leg between her own. She was throbbingly aware of the way his long, sensitive fingers had started a slow, sensual excursion down the scented skin of her throat, and farther down to the neckline of her top. He paused, and Sami took a deep breath of expectation, her breast beginning to rise and fall rapidly.
Leisurely, he began fingering the ruffles, the heel of his hand rubbing, almost accidentally, on her. His touch went deep into her, and there was a sort of agony to the restraint he was using. She wanted more. "Daniel!"
Immediately, his hand slipped beneath the top, freeing her breasts to his full view for the first time. "God! I want you so."
The firelight cast its incandescent glow over them, entrapping them both in the shadows of its blazing light. With exquisite gentleness, Daniel touched his lips to her achingly rigid nipple, stroking around it with his tongue and then taking it fully into his mouth, gently suckling.
Tears came into Sami’s eyes at the overpowering surge of emotions that knifed straight through her. Giving a helpless little cry, she arched into his mouth and had the satisfaction of feeling him increase the pressure. The knee that lay between her own raised under her skirt, until it was pressing up into her through her panties.
It was all so new to her. Her insides were hurting with a strange pleasure . . . and she didn’t want it to stop. She moved restlessly against his knee, trying to ease the terrible aching, and his knee began an erotic, rhythmic massage against her.
Daniel’s mouth released her nipple and burned its way over to the other one, branding her with the searing warmth of his lips and the magic kneading of his hands on her breast. A tremulous weakness melted through her, and she grasped his head, urging him back up to her with the murmured words, "Daniel . . . kiss me again."
Willingly and obediently, his lips returned to her mouth, where they encountered traces of her tears. "Sami?" His voice was low and husky. "Sami, what’s wrong?"
She shut her eyes against the sudden concern in his expression and shook her head back and forth. More tears appeared from under her lashes, and her body began trembling in reaction to an elusive need.
Daniel muttered raggedly, "Dear God, why didn’t I see it?" Raising her top back over her breasts, he sat up and pulled her into his arms. "Oh, Sami"—he breathed the words against her temple— "you’ve never been with a man before, have you?"
"It—it doesn’t matter," she managed to whisper.
"Yes, sweetheart, it does." He smoothed her hair away from her face. "I’ve taken a lot of women in my life, but none of them have been virgins."
"Daniel, I—"
"Sssh, let me finish. You’re an entirely different matter. I don’t know what you did or where you were before you came into my life, but in a lot of ways, it’s like you’re brand-new." Cupping her face, he kissed her forehead. "You’re very special. I’ve rushed you, and I shouldn’t have. I want you to take your time. I want you to be sure."
"Oh, why do you always have to be so damned proper, Daniel?" Sami sniffled.
A smile played around his lips, and he wiped away her remaining tears with the tips of his fingers. "If you only knew what it was costing me." For a long time afterward, Daniel held her in his arms, his gentle touch, his soft words, and the heat of the fire slowly soothing the tension out of her body.
Quietly he asked, "Did you get any sleep today?"
"No."
"You must be exhausted. My guest room is still vacant. Will you stay here tonight?"
"I never sleep at night. I can’t."
"Since you’ve been without sleep for so long, you might tonight. At any rate, I think you should try."
She regarded him from beneath her lashes. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
He was silent for an endless length of time, taking in the luxuriant cloud of honey-colored hair falling across his arm and the luminous golden eyes looking at him so solemnly. "If I told you, it would scare you to death."
Despite her assertion that she never slept at night, Sami fell into a restless, troubled sleep. It had been over thirty hours since she had last slept, and they had been thirty of the most traumatic hours she had had to live through in recent years.
The dream came, as it always did when she had been disturbed in some way, a combination of old terrors and ever-present fears. She was a small child again, so helpless against the cruel giants who ruled her life. The governess, Miss Simon, her face distorted by rage, was yelling at her, pushing her toward the closet. "Please, oh, please, I didn’t mean to do it," Sami whimpered. "Please, I didn’t mean to spill my milk. I’m sorry."
Miss Simon slapped her face hard, making her fall backward into the closet, and darkness closed in around her as the door was slammed shut and locked. Sami began clawing at the door. "Let me out, let me out!" Hysterical sobs wracked her body as she thrashed violently. She was so scared. Dear God, would the terror never end?
From a distance, she heard a voice. "Sami, Sami, you’re having a nightmare. Open your eyes."
She couldn’t. She knew what she would see if she did—an awful infinite darkness, a terrible, suffocating blackness. Barely conscious of hands on her arms, which lifted her, she hit out at the solidness of the door. "I’ve got to get out. I can’t breathe!"
"Yes, you can." The voice was soothing, concerned, and somehow familiar. "Listen to me, Sami. Open your eyes. Look at me."
She tried, but everything was a blur. Shivers of pain shook her body, and she felt herself gathered into an enveloping warmth.
"Wake up, honey. You’re okay. You’re safe. You’re with me."
"Daniel?"
"Yes, baby." His body was absorbing the tortured heaves that shuddered through her body, rocking her back and forth. "It was just a dream. Nothing and no one is going to hurt you. Believe me."
Sami nodded, her cheek rubbing against the bareness of his chest. He lifted her in his arms, turned around, and sat down on the bed again. Arranging the sheet around her nakedness, he rested against the headboard, cradling her in his arms.
"Now, suppose you tell me what was frightening you so much."
His voice was low and soothing, and he wore only the slacks he had had on earlier in the evening. Sami lay her hand on his chest, weaving her fingers through its hair, wanting beyond anything to hold onto him. "I—I can’t," she whispered.
"Yes, you can. It’s important."
"I don’t know . . . I’ll try. I’ve had it before . . . the nightmare. All my life."
He placed a tender kiss on her hair. "Is that why you don’t like to sleep at night?"
She nodded.
"Tell me about it." He placed a hand on top of the one she had on his chest, and she
could feel the steady beat of his heart against her palm. "I want to know what scared you so badly."
It was something she rarely talked about. "No—it’s nothing."
"That I don’t believe."
She shook her head.
"Sami. I want to know. I need to know. Please tell me." He wasn’t commanding her. He was asking gently.
She sighed. "It’s always the same. I’m a little girl again, and I get locked in a closet for being bad."
She felt Daniel go still. "That actually happened to you, didn’t it?" he guessed perceptively, his voice sounding oddly taut. "And that’s the reason you’re afraid of the dark and small, enclosed places?" He drew her even closer, until the side of her face rested in the warm hollow between his shoulder and neck, and he didn’t seem to notice that she hadn’t answered him. "And you’ve had nothing but trauma since yesterday. No wonder you had the dream again. No wonder you can’t sleep. No wonder. "
"Did I wake you?" she asked, reluctant to move.
"No, I was awake. I had my door open so I could hear in case you needed anything."
His words vibrated under her cheek, and she rubbed her face against the sound. She felt so safe in his arms. "Will you stay with me for a while?" Did his heart actually miss a beat, Sami wondered, or was that just her imagination? "Please?"
"I’ll stay as long as you need me." He ran his hand up and down her spine. She knew he meant to comfort, but an insidious warmth began to seep through her veins. He gave a little laugh. "It’s too bad I didn’t have a nightgown here you could wear."
"I never sleep in nightclothes anyway."
She knew it wasn’t her imagination this time. His heart missed a beat and then began to thud faster. He made a slight change in his position, and Sami asked, "Are you uncomfortable holding me?"
He let go of her hand, which still lay on his chest, and moved his down to the curve of her hip. His long fingers curled caressingly over the soft flesh that was covered only by the sheet.
"No," he whispered hoarsely. "I could hold you all night."
Her hand roamed restively through the thick hairs, by chance grazing the flatness of his nipple, and she felt a tremor shudder through him.
"Sami," he muttered thickly. "Lie still."
A hot wave of abandon tingled along her skin, and her senses spun. She moved her fingers back to the nipple, running her finger across the pebble-hard tip.
"For God’s sake, Sami!" His fingers bit into her soft flesh, his breathing ragged. "What are you trying to do?"
Throwing her head back, she looked straight into the blue depths of his eyes, which showed the same fire she was feeling. "Make love to me, Daniel."
"Do you have any idea what you’re saying?" He groaned, beginning to run his hand compulsively down her thigh and back up again to her hip in long, slow strokes.
"Oh, yes," Sami breathed unevenly. "I want you to touch me, to kiss me, to make love to me . . ."
"God!" Daniel bent his head, taking her mouth in a fiery kiss and thrusting the sheet away from her.
Sami’s pulse raced out of control, and it felt as if every bone in her body had melted. As she opened her mouth to his tongue, he slid his hand up to her breast in an encompassing embrace, while at the same time rubbing a finger back and forth across its pointed crest. Her blood rushed, wild and chaotic, through her veins, and she moaned incoherently.
"There’s never been anyone like you, Sami," he ground out. "I ache with wanting you."
He lay her back on the bed and paused for a moment to shed his pants. Then he was beside her, molding her to him with sure, gentle hands, kissing her with warm, moist lips, beguiling her senses, bedazzling her mind, making her crazy with the magic that could only belong to Daniel. His fingers moved sensitively over her body, exploring her gently, bringing her to a heretofore-unreached level of passion.
"Please, oh, please," she moaned into his mouth.
There was such an incredible sweetness to the way Daniel made love to her, Sami thought hazily through the fogged mists of her desire. And when he moved over her, whispering, "Don’t be afraid," she could only answer, "I could never be afraid of you, Daniel."
He eased into her slowly, pausing every time she made even the slightest sound. His motions were beautifully gentle, and when the pain came, he stopped, holding her tightly, murmuring softly to her, allowing her time to absorb the sensation. Then, with infinite care, he commenced again, and this time there was no pain.
Unending circles of pleasure began to radiate out from the center of her being, growing stronger and more intense. Sami tensed, wanting desperately something she couldn’t put a name to.
"Easy, sweetheart. . . relax," Daniel murmured huskily, ". . . just go with it . . . it’ll come."
He bent his head to kiss her, deliberately holding himself back, thrusting slowly and deeply into her, until the pleasure turned to fire and the unending circles expanded, taking her higher and higher into a world of rapture and light. Only then did Daniel let go his restraint and join her with a fast, driving motion, and the lights exploded, splintering into a million brilliant fragments.
Some time later, Sami made a sound of protest as she felt Daniel move away from her. "Don’t go."
"Sssh. I’ll be right back." And he was. Parting her legs, he placed a warm, wet washcloth against her, gently and oh, so tenderly cleaning the area. "You bled a little," he explained quietly. Once finished, he lifted her into his arms and carried her down the hall to his bedroom, to his bed. Sami didn’t even open her eyes. She just turned back into him with a contented sigh, throwing her arm across his broad, finely furred chest, and went to sleep.
Sometime in the night, she awoke to kisses being rained across her face, down her throat, and onto her breasts. Once again, a slow fever began to build in her, and this time, Daniel drew her with him easily, bringing them both to a spectacularly fulfilling crest at the same time.
Chapter Five
The morning light woke her—or was it Daniel?
Daniel.
She opened her golden eyes to his. There was a texture to the touch of his eyes, and it was sensuous in the extreme.
"Good morning," he murmured, and dipped his head to kiss her softly. "I think we’ll have champagne for breakfast. We have something to celebrate."
"Only one thing?" Sami smiled, stretching lazily.
Daniel chuckled. "Do you realize you slept the whole night through? Well," he amended with dry humor, "most of the night, anyway."
Sami sat up, and the sheet fell to her waist, exposing her bare breasts. "That’s right. I did! I can’t even remember the last time I slept at night."
Daniel pulled her back down to him. "You’ll do it again tonight."
She shook her head. "No, I won’t. Last night was an exception."
Leaning over her, he spread her hair out in a wild, tangled glory about her head.
"You’ll sleep again, because you’ll be here," he said, his voice low and husky, "in my bed, beside me."
Something warm and infinitely wonderful unfurled within her. "Are you asking me to come back tonight?"
"I’m asking you never to leave, Sami. I’m asking you to live with me."
She suddenly remembered what Jerome had said. "But you never ask any of your women to live with you."
Amusement lurked in his eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Gee . . . uh . . . I don’t know. Rumor, I guess."
The comers of his mouth turned up humorously. "Well, as it happens, this time rumor is absolutely correct. I never have. Until now."
Sami hesitated. "What’s different this time?"
Daniel didn’t. "You."
Searching his face for some clue, she asked, "Do you feel obligated because you took my virginity? Because if that’s it, let me tell you, you took nothing. I gave it to you willingly."
"Good to hear, but I don’t feel obligated. I feel compelled." His mouth captured hers in a long and especially tender kiss, and only after she was cli
nging helplessly to him did he raise his head. "From the first moment I saw you, things have been out of my power. I love you, Sami."
She tensed at his words. His long fingers trailed across her forehead and down her cheek, as if he wanted to brand the knowledge into her head. "I’m sorry if it distresses you, my love, but it’s an irreversible fact." Resting most of his weight on his elbows, he moved over her, far enough down her body so that his fingers could brush lightly back and forth across both her breasts. Every nerve in her body tingled to life.
"And you love me." He caught her protest with his lips, pushing his tongue into the sweetness of her mouth.
"No," she said with a groan, and at the same time contradicted her statement by arching into his hand.
"Yes, my love, you do. You just don’t realize it yet."
It couldn’t work out between them, of course, and she’d have to tell him. But not now. Not now, when she was finding it so hard even to think.
"You’re not leaving here."
"I have to . . . Ohhh, that feels so good . . . There are friends I have to see . . . Daniel . . . Ahhh, Daniel! . . . I need clothes . . ."
"You don’t have to go," he growled hoarsely. "We can call your friends. I can buy you all the clothes you want."
Sami’s senses were reeling, her pulses pounding. She felt her legs being parted and then Daniel’s throbbing hardness nudging gently at the softly delicate entrance between her thighs.
"Say you won’t leave."
"I have to, Daniel." She sighed achingly, attempting to move against him. It was no use, however. With slight thrusts of his hips, he made only light, teasing contact with her again and again.
He was determined. "Say it!"
He won. "I—I won’t leave."
He entered her immediately, moving with a rhythm that was hard and urgent, taking them both to a realm where neither of them had been before, where nothing was important but their mutual, splintering, shattering climax.
And in the end, they compromised. She went home that day to reassure Jerome and Morgan, to putter in her workshop, to change clothes, but she came back that night . . . and every night thereafter.
For the Love of Sami Page 6
