Hawk's Way (17 page)

“Angel. I want you. I need you.”

He never gave her a choice, just swept her into his arms and found his way to the bed. He laid her down and followed her with his body, fitting them together as he had longed to do. His mouth found hers in the dark, to still any protest. One of his hands caught both of hers above her head and held her captive, while the other hand shoved her flimsy T-shirt up and out of his way. He groaned when he realized she wasn't wearing anything—at all—under the shirt.

Then he was suckling her, teasing first one breast and then the other, until she was moaning and writhing under him. He kissed his way down her belly, to the portal below and kissed her there, too.

“Dallas, no. You can't—” She struggled against his hold.

“Don't be afraid,” he murmured. “I only want to bring you pleasure. I won't hurt you. And I'll stop if you don't like it.” He let her hands go and she grasped his hair.

Angel's whole body was tense, taut as a bowstring. He kissed her again, his tongue darting inward to the soft nether flesh, evoking feelings she had never expected, never even suspected she could feel.

“I want to feel everything, do everything with you, Dallas. I want—” Angel felt her body tauten as his kisses deepened, as he caressed her with teeth and tongue. The tension increased until she couldn't talk, couldn't breathe, couldn't
move
. A hoarse, animal sound forced its way out of her mouth. The pleasure was so intense it was almost painful. She writhed against his hold, fighting the sensations, fighting the loss of control.

“Don't fight it! Let it carry you away.
Feel
it!”

Angel clutched at Dallas as her body surged toward the ecstasy he had promised. She cried out as she felt herself pulled under, and succumbed wholly to the tremors that shook her.

She didn't know how long she lay quiescent, unaware of her surroundings. She became conscious gradually of Dallas's bristly cheek against her belly. Of his callused hand smoothing over her breast. Of her hands entwined in his hair, holding him close.

“I…I don't know what to say,” she murmured.

He chuckled. “I think your body already said it for you.”

“I…you didn't…we didn't…”

“The night isn't over yet.” Dallas turned his face and kissed his way back up to her throat. He threaded his hands into her silky hair and held her still for his kiss.

She could taste herself faintly on his lips. Then their tongues mingled, and he began to mime the thrust of lovers joined. She pictured them together, their bodies linked, and her hips lifted to him. He cradled himself between her thighs, and she felt the hardness of him, rubbing against her, teasing the sensitive flesh he had so recently kissed.

“Dallas, please.”

He didn't join their bodies right away. Instead, his hand slipped down between them, touching her intimately, his thumb stroking, his finger slipping inside her.

Angel should have felt embarrassed. She didn't. She wanted him to touch. Everywhere. Everything. She arched toward him, signaling her desire, and he put another finger inside her. Angel froze, aware of the feeling of fullness, of being stretched for the larger part of him that was yet to come.

She smoothed her hands through his hair, slid them down his back and felt the taut muscles in
his buttocks. “Now,” she urged. “Come into me now.”

She lifted her hips, opening to him, but he didn't take her all at once. Instead, he merely put the soft tip of himself against her and teased his way slowly inside. She felt the barrier give way as she lost her innocence. At last Dallas thrust inside, filling her. She heard his groan of satisfaction and smiled.

Dallas's every thought was for Angel's pleasure. He couldn't help the fact that everything he did for her doubled his own enjoyment. Until finally, when he was seated deep within her, he knew it was too late to worry about losing his heart. It had long since been forfeited.

He loved her with his body and with his soul. He gave a part of himself he had never thought to share with any woman. And found himself enveloped in love.

Dallas shuddered as he climaxed, conscious of filling her with his seed, claiming her for all time, now and forever.

It was a long time before either of them had enough breath to speak, let alone strength to move. At last Dallas levered himself off Angel and pulled her into his arms. He laid a possessive hand across her breasts and dared her to deny him.

Angel had no intention of doing any such thing.
She inched herself back into the curve of Dallas's body and settled down for the night.

Neither of them had spoken a word of love. Neither of them had mentioned commitment. Yet both of them struggled mightily to figure out how it could be done.

“I think we should talk,” Dallas said at last.

“All right. What do you want to talk about?”

Dallas opened his mouth to say
marriage
and couldn't get the word out. “Will you tell me why you're afraid of the dark?”

Angel grasped at the chance to avoid confronting the real issue between them. “The matron at the orphanage where I grew up left me in the root cellar as a punishment for stealing. The things I couldn't see turned into monsters in the dark. In the past anything I could see I could handle. What I couldn't see terrified me.”

“That's how I've always felt about getting involved with a woman,” Dallas murmured. “I could handle the physical relationship. What you see is what you get. But falling in love, giving my heart…It was too dangerous. How can you be sure that a woman loves you as much as you love her? How can you be sure you won't end up getting hurt?”

“I don't know,” Angel admitted reluctantly. “I still haven't gotten over my fear of the dark. But
I haven't let it stop me from living a full life. I simply light a candle and make a safe place for myself in the darkness.”

Dallas smiled against the back of her neck. “Will you be my candle in the darkness, Angel?”

“Is that a proposal?”

He felt his throat thicken and swallowed painfully. “I love you, Angel. Will you marry me and live with me and bear my children?”

She answered him with a kiss, a timeless sort of thing. It didn't feel like the past or the present or even the future. It felt like endless love.

She leaned over to kiss Dallas full on the mouth. It was an even sweeter thing to love him now, knowing that they were committed to each other. She let her hands roam down his chest to his belly and beyond.

Dallas groaned. “Angel…”

“What?”

“You're killing me.”

“You don't like it?”

“I love it.”

“Then shut up and enjoy it.” She trailed her fingers along his thigh and belly.

He groaned again.

“So that feels good?”

He slid his own hand into the same spot on her body.

Angel gasped. “Oh, my.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he grated. His callused hands were rough against her skin, tantalizing, teasing. His mouth found hers and he mimed with his tongue the ageless act of love.

Angel gasped for air when his mouth slid to her ear and he teased it with his tongue. Her hands grasped for flesh and locked on his shoulders. Crescents appeared in the golden flesh as she moaned her delight.

“Dallas,” she said breathlessly. “I love you.”

Angel waited for him to say the words in return. When they didn't come right away, she stiffened, afraid he couldn't say them because he didn't feel the same way about her as she did about him.

Dallas sensed Angel's withdrawal and lifted his head to meet her eyes. He felt a lump in his throat that made it hard to speak. But speak he must.

“I love you, Angel. I think I have for a long time.” He kissed her eyes and said, “I love you.” Then he mouthed the words against her lips. “I love you.”

The more he said it, the easier it was to say it. The lump eased as he saw the blazing smile on her face, the happiness in her slumberous blue eyes.

“Love me, Angel.”

“You don't have to ask,” she whispered.

It took a matter of moments to join them, one with the other. How good it felt to be together this way. As though they always had been, as though they always would be.

Dallas moved slowly at first, making sure he wasn't hurting Angel and that she was keeping up with him. He didn't want to leave her behind. But he needn't have worried. For soon, Angel's urgency forced him to greater heights of pleasure, until he couldn't wait any longer.

“Angel, I can't—”

“Dallas, I—”

They reached together for the pinnacle of pleasure and found it. The woman from the past. The man of the future. Making together a child of the present.

“Don't move,” Angel said after he had spilled his seed within her. “I don't want it to end.”

“I'm too heavy.”

“It feels good. Please.”

He stayed as he was, his head relaxed on her breast, their bodies still joined. As their skin cooled, he levered himself off her and pulled the covers up over them. He drew her into his embrace, thanking whatever gods of fortune had taken him into the cave and brought her into his life from another time.

“I love you,” Angel murmured.

“Go to sleep, wife,” he said.

It sounded good. It sounded fine. It sounded like forever.