Danger Close (Shadow Warriors) (41 page)

Jesus, he felt soaring anguish and it scored his heart and tore open his soul. As he felt her slender calf, her knee and moved up to her long thigh, Boland felt her tense, felt her wanting him.

Leaning down, kissing her softly rounded belly above her panties, Jim settled his hands around her hips. Hips that were pitifully lean, that were not rounded because she had nearly starved herself to death, unable to eat. Because she was grieving for the loss of him in her life. A soft cry caught in her throat as he moved his lips across her belly, the flesh so soft, so yielding beneath his mouth. This was the woman he wanted to carry his child.

Easing away, Jim stood and discarded his clothes, allowing them to drop on the floor. Cathy watched him through drowsy eyes, the look in them making him feel so damn strong and good as a man. Yeah, he wanted her in every possible way, but right now, he was going to give her every bit of tenderness he owned. Nothing rough, just healing.

Cathy felt her insides quiver with anticipation. She made a soft sound as he stood naked before her. Jim had lost weight because of the coma, but he was powerfully built, his shoulders broad and chest dusted with dark hair. Her heart ached with relief that he was here, with her. Standing with his shoulders drawn back in natural confidence, his gray eyes holding hers, sweet tension swirling between them.

As his knee depressed the mattress near her hip, she opened her arms to him. Jim lay at her side, cupping her cheek with his hand. “The greenness in your eyes deepens when I touch you, did you know that?”

Cathy drank in the burning look in his eyes, felt his love, his voice deep with barely held emotions. “Because I love you.” She allowed her fingers to trail down his arm, feeling his muscles tighten wherever she grazed his flesh. “I need you, Jim. Now…please…?” The war between the anguish and love in his eyes touched her. Cathy could feel Jim, her senses acute, so attuned to him as they had been before. “I know there’s a lot to talk about.”

“Right now, babe,” Jim said, his voice rough, “we need one another. I need you.”

She wrapped her fingers around his darkly sunburned arm and he placed it across her, near her waist. The feral look in his eyes, the look of the hunter that he was, sent sheets of curling, languid heat deep into her womb. Jim leaned down, his chest hair rasping against her sensitized nipples. Tiny flames leaped and tightened her breasts and she gasped, the sensation wild. Freeing. Tears beaded on her thick lashes as she clung to him, feeling the sledgehammer beat of his heart against her breast. “Love me…” she murmured brokenly. “I’ve missed you so much. You’re all I’ll ever want….”

Murmuring her name, Jim eased beside her on the bed. Cathy slid her fingers over his shoulder, feeling his muscles tighten. “You’ve lost a lot of weight,” she whispered, running her hand across his shoulder once more.

Jim placed a series of kisses along her temple and the delicate line of her jaw. “We’re both scarred, babe. Neither of us is whole right now,” he said huskily. “Together, we’ll heal one another.” Jim moved his hand lightly across her right thigh where the flesh was still angry and puckered from the recent wound. His eyebrows dipped as he gently closed his hand over the wound.

Cathy’s lips parted and she reached up, caressing his cheek. His hand was warm and tender against the torn-up flesh. She felt as if he were somehow absorbing her pain, taking it away, replacing it with his love for her. Jim molded his mouth against her awaiting lips and he tasted the sweetness that was only Cathy. “All we need is one another,” he told her thickly. “We’re strong together, you and I….” Holding her luminous gaze, he rasped, “And I love you, babe. With every cell of my being, I love you.”

Cathy pressed herself against him. Time dissolved into an awareness of only one another. It was not the act of making love that was important, but the imprinting of each other’s pulse, breath, heartbeat and fusion of their flesh confirming what they held in their hearts for one another. They drowned themselves in each other. The look of worshipful love in Cathy’s eyes made Jim excruciatingly aware of how much he always wanted that look to be there.

Words were primitive for what Jim experienced with her. Each touch of her fingers was communication, the highest form of love. As starved as he was for Cathy, he allowed her to set the pace for them. He didn’t know her emotional state yet. She had been pushed until everything had been extruded from her. And even as she ran her hands lightly over his body, Jim could see that she was in shock, as if she really didn’t believe he was here, in the flesh, with her.

Jim allowed his experience, his own internal senses to guide him with Cathy. He caressed her small breasts, tasting the hardness of her nipples, suckling her and drawing the honey from her body.

The sweet curve of her flesh against his palm made her moan. Cathy pressed her hips against his, wanting him, feeling his erection against her belly. She felt his roughened fingers move down and ease beneath the elastic of her panties. Breath hitching, she closed her eyes, her skin contracting as his fingers followed the curve of the band.

A fiery ache blazed within her and she felt damp as his fingers slid the panties away and removed them. Needy, wanting him to touch her, Cathy wasn’t disappointed as he slid his hand up her left thigh, opening her, curving his fingers inward. A low moan caught in her throat as she felt his fingers move slowly, grazing her opening, teasing her.

Her lips parted and she arched her hips toward his fingers so close to her aching entrance. Gripping his arm, clenching his thick muscles, she felt her breath grow uneven and shallow.

He found her mouth, taking her as he slid his fingers within her. Instantly, she moaned, arching, desperate as she moved against his hand. A quiver shook her as the pleasure heightened and fire streaked white hot through her clenching womb. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, tearing her mouth from his, sobbing his name.

The pressure, like a reservoir overfilled, grew like a cauldron of jagged fire throughout her as he moved within her, teasing that knot of nerves near her entrance, beginning to dismantle her until she could no longer think. Her mind dissolved beneath his movements and she keened, face pressed against his chest as her body was triggered by his knowing touch. A violent, intense force ruptured through her lower body and raced like scalding ripples down through her.

His lips captured one of her nipples, suckling strongly and she felt herself flying apart, the intense sensations meeting, twisting and causing her to mewl. The orgasms rolled through her and all she could do was pant and twist in his arms and against his strong body.

Weakness flowed through her as her body glowed like a furnace from within. She felt him ease his fingers from her, felt his lips on her damp brow, temple and, finally, worshipping her mouth. Dazed, caught in the webs of fire wreaking through her, she felt him span her waist.

Jim gently drew her on top of him. There would be no way with her leg in the condition it was, that he could place his weight on her. He held her until she could position her thighs against his hips. Opening her eyes, she could barely think, much less speak. Gradually, he brought her down against his hips and she straddled him.

“Okay?” he rasped, watching her expression, her eyes trancelike, caught in the pleasure he’d milked from her giving, beautiful body.

Licking her lips, Cathy managed a nod of her head, her heart pounding, the sensations still intense as she felt her wet core connect and slide against his erection. Lashes dropping against her cheeks, Cathy gripped Jim’s arms as his fingers wrapped around her hips. Fire ignited once more within her and she moaned softly. She felt him tense, heard the harsh breath expended as she slid wetly against him.

“I want you in me,” she whispered, opening her eyes, holding his dark gaze. “You…” Her voice broke with emotion.

Jim lifted her hips easily and allowed her to control just how much of him she wanted. The instant she sucked him into her sweet, hot juices, an explosion of fire ripped through him as he barely made contact with her hot, womanly core. He heard soft cries lodge in her throat, sounds of pleasure, and she drew him deep into her, lost in her own ecstasy.

A guttural sound rolled from deep inside Boland as she welcomed him into her heated, moist confines. He lay there frozen and tense, afraid that he might have hurt her as she had sheathed down upon him. Her fingers loosened against his biceps and relief flooded Jim as he saw a translucence in her softened features. Her passion easily matched his own. Gripping her hips, he thrust slowly into her, and then out, watching her lashes flutter in response, her lips parting, a dulcet sigh escaping. The naturalness of her response, the yielding heat of her core carried them forward, time flowing to a halt. All that mattered to Jim was the look of joy in her slumberous green eyes. Her nostrils were flared, her breathing became a pant, and he thrust quicker and deeper. He took them into that exquisite molding of oneness. An unbreakable bond was forged within the stubborn flames of their love—a love that refused to die.

Jim felt her so close to orgasm once more. Her fingers dug deep into his chest, her back arching, head thrown back as it occurred. He felt the squeezing, fistlike tightness around him as her heated juices rippled outward and her whimper turned into a keening cry of exultation and joy. Her body froze in frantic elation as she gifted him with herself. Then, and only then, did Jim allow himself to release. As she fell limply against him, her face pressed against his neck and shoulder, he growled her name, taking her swiftly, thrusting, starving to claim her, make her his. The eruption ripped up and out of him, jerked his body, caused his breath to explode. They were locked in a wild ecstasy that took them into rainbow-shattered joy where it was impossible to do anything other than feel the waves of pleasure and intense sensations undulate through them.

Cathy whispered Jim’s name, weak beyond words, nuzzling against his jaw as he suddenly relaxed beneath her. She laid her head on his shoulder afterward, her smile tremulous. Satiation thrummed through her, their hearts united and wildly beating in oneness against one another.

Jim eased her off him once he got his strength back. He tucked her gently up alongside him and pulled a sheet over them.

Cathy lay quietly in his arms, caressing him with her eyes. Jim’s embrace made her feel secure and content as they lay spent, wrapped in the lingering feeling of intense fulfillment. She pressed a kiss to the damp flesh of his neck, her hand roving across the soft hair on his chest. She closed her eyes and for the first time since they had lain in each other’s arms in Hua Hin, she slept soundly.

JIM STIRRED almost an hour later. Cathy continued to sleep deeply after he kissed her smooth brow and got up to take a shower. Champ was barking downstairs and Jim pushed the paisley curtains aside after he pulled the black T-shirt over his clean body. He slipped into a pair of jeans. His parents were home. An overpowering sense of peace stole through him. Everything was all right. The woman he loved was safe. Jim turned and absorbed Cathy’s sleeping form. There wasn’t a trace of tension in her face, only a muted radiance that bordered on complete serenity.
Home
. After walking alone through hell for the past six weeks Cathy was home. With him, as it should be.

CATHY STIRRED, inhaling the smell of bacon frying and the tantalizing odor of fresh coffee perking. Aware of Jim’s arm around her, she lay quietly, simply absorbing his shallow breathing, the wonderful scent of him as a man and the protective warmth of his flesh against hers.

Sunlight poured into the room, making a brilliant rectangular patch of light on the opposite wall near the slightly ajar bedroom door. A sense of happiness smothered Cathy until she thought her heart might burst from elation. Fragments of sleep dissolved slowly and she languished in those cradling moments.

Hearing a dog’s paws striking the wooden stairs, Cathy watched Champ poke his long black-and-white nose through the partially opened door and slip inside. The Border collie wagged his thick, brushlike tail, coming to rest on the rug on her side of the bed. His dark brown almond eyes regarded her solemnly and she smiled, patting the dog’s head.

“Good morning,” Cathy murmured.

She felt Jim awaken, content to allow him to draw her against him. Cathy turned over and nestled her head on his shoulder, a softened smile on her lips. Somewhere in the apple orchard, a rooster flapped and crowed in a jarring stiletto voice.

Jim groaned.

Cathy laughed huskily. “I think he wants us to get up,” she suggested, easing herself out of Jim’s embrace and sitting up beside him. Pain lanced through her thigh and she pursed her lips. As gentle as Jim had been when they made love, her leg had become mildly aggravated.

Groggily sitting up, Jim pushed the pillow up behind him. His eyes were hooded and puffy with remnants of sleep. He pulled Cathy back into his arms, holding her against him, kissing her temple. How many times had he dreamed of doing exactly this? Having her warm and soft, in his arms after a deep night’s healing sleep?

“I suppose so,” he grouched. “That damn rooster always gets right under my window to crow in the morning. All the rest of them stay around the chicken coop to do it.”

Cathy smiled, giving him a hug. “I love it.” She saw some merriment come to his eyes and a partial smile tip one corner of his mouth. She felt languid and yearning all over again for him. His mouth was strong, commanding, yet incredibly gentle and coaxing upon her own.

“You would,” Jim accused her good-naturedly. And then he became serious, studying her upturned face that glowed with an inner joy. “You slept for so long. How do you feel, babe?” Her eyes were sparkling with renewed life—and love—for him. He saw it in the way her lips parted, the way she looked at him beneath her thick lashes and her hand sliding provocatively up across his chest to his neck and jawline.

Leaning up, Cathy kissed him. “Like I’m going to live.” Her heart mushroomed with such joy she thought she might die of happiness. The look in Jim’s eyes made her realize just how much he loved her.