Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (14 page)

She snorts dismissively.
“I never s
upposed you did. You’re
a selfish-
”

I wave away her words
.
“Yes, yes … we’ve already confirmed tha
t. I’
m a selfish prick who is using you
to try and save my own skin. Is
that
the reason
you followed me down here to remind me of my sins or
is
there a more productive argumen
t somewhere
in
our
future
?”

Her eyes narrow dangerously, then a shutter comes down over her featu
res and it’s as if her anger has
been an illusion.
“I want you to let me go with my family.
Tomorrow morning.
We don’t have to go back to Antigua
right away.
I have some small savings for Aubrey’s college.
”

Her change of atti
tude, her lack of animosity towards me for
the last few days makes sense now.
“Ah …
s
o we get to the bottom of
your metamorphoses
,
don’t we? These last few days
were your way to try
and convince me to l
et you go? By behaving nice? A
m
I
right?
”

The stillness of her body convinces me as nothing el
se could have of her guilt
. And … and I’
m robbed of breath for several heartbeats as I try to wrap m
y mind around the
r
eason why I feel an emptiness which suddenly breaks open int
o an instant obsession to take something from her. As if in these last few days I’ve actually come to need her.

I shake my head harshly.
None of this makes sense
. I don’
t feel anything
remotely
substantial
for Daphne, other than desire.

But she’s being naïve if she thinks that my letting her go will solve the problem of
Emmanue
I
. With or without me, he’ll eventually find her and I can’t bear to think of what will happen once he does. I need to convince her to give up this foolish notion. And I have to try through the only way in which I can reach past as the distrust and hostility that my actions have brought about between us. I move deliberately towards her.

She doesn’t back up. M
y blood rises to the challenge, and unable to stop myself, I grasp her
shoulders. Letting
my fingers
travel greedily
down
to
her
slender
hips. They
settle into the
tin
y flare of
her hip
s
and then backwards. I cup the fullness of
her
neat
, pert
bottom
.
I close my eyes an
d groan as I massage her flesh, her breath catches and she rocks against me. I shudder at the friction.
I
ne
ed to
put a
stop
to
these stupid games we’ve been pl
aying.

I lean down and nuzzle the delicate
skin of her
neck, she trembles beneath my touch
, her breathing escalates
bu
t
she
doesn’t
make
a single sound
of protest
.
Does that mean that she wants this as much as I? I don’t know.

I should stop.
I
know that I have the power to do so.
To make her go back to the house.
But I don’t
. Before Daphne had met me, she had been innocent, untouched and now I’ve tossed my conscience aside and
I’m trespassing on her body like a vagabond drifter.
Which I suppose I am.

But that’s not so
important 
anymore
. I nip the tip of her
earlobe,
feel her shudder at the sensations.

“Do you want me to
make love to you?
”
I ask
her
softly, running my hand through the soft
wool of her hair which
feels like a
decadent sponge you
could
spend countless hours smoothing over your body
until you have to stop for fear of embarrassing yourself.

I hear her breath hitch as a shudder goes through her body.  S
he rears back in the demanding
circle of my
arms,
our eyes meet in the
dim light. “Yes.
”

Her chin comes up and s
he steps back out of m
y arms a
nd I force myself to let her go instead of tearing the clothes from her body,
but my eye
s stay fixed
on her. I don’t want to miss a second of marveling
at the sleekness of the lines in her body, the wonderful jumble of her hair framing her achingly beautiful face.
She makes me feel free, worthy, feelings I’ve thought
lost
forever to me.

She begins to undress. He
r movements are slow, hesitant and my
body which is already imagining itself crushed against hers explodes into life
. My
desire goes into warp speed
, my hands become sweaty and my nostrils flare,
I have to grit my teeth to
keep myself from launching forwards and tearing th
e remainder of clothing from off her supple
body.

With a supreme effort I
keep myself still, though I shake
with the effort to do so.

She easily disposes of her scrap of a blouse and her
fingers flare
out over the darkened tips of her
nipples
which sit high on her firm, young breasts.
I gulp, as they li
nger there. Her head is bent so I cannot see her face.
I open my mouth to ask her to look up, to look at me. I want to see her
when she touches herself b
ut only a strangled groan passes
my lips.

She goes further down, over the flat, smooth surface of her tummy, the metal button on her denim skirts snaps open with a pop and a grown escapes my lips as it slides down the length of her
long, shapely
girlish legs
.

She steps out of it with a slow, sensual mo
vement. My eyes bulge
at the pic
ture in front of me. She’s not
wearing any panties.

I move swiftly,
unable to stop myself.

Capturing her lips roughly, I delve
into the softness of her mouth. S
he tilts her head to the side
to take the force of my kiss, allowing it to deepen.
I grasp her face, demanding to control this kiss, my body demands tha
t I ravish her the way I want
. W
e go at each other for long seconds, which drag out under my hungry lips.

Finally I manage to summon the wherewithal to release her. I groan
and nibble on
the soft skin of her neck as I catch my br
eath. She does the same as she heaves
against me, causing her naked breasts to rustle against my chest. “When did
you become such a vixen?” I ask
,
my voice cracking with need.

There is no
doubt now that I must have her. T
he only question is where. I glance around
at
the
cocooning
darkness of water, sand and trees.

She tips her head back and maneuvers herself so that we are facing each other, “You should know, you made me this way.”

She is right. I took her innocence and have brought alive the type of woman that mos
t men
only dream
about
.
Open, bold and
extraordinarily sexy.

She reaches forward and skims her fing
ers down the length of my chest beneath the t-shirt and
it feels as if she’
s opened a trail of fire down my skin
.

That’s it.

I’m
a man, a
nd a
tiny voice whispers gleefully in the back o
f my mind, that I’
m more t
han that
to Daphne
.
I’
m her husband in every possible sense of the word
. I have already
claimed her untouched body and
now
she belongs to me.
Regardless of what she wants or what I believe.

I reach for her and pull her roughly into
my arms.

Chapter Six

Daphne

Nate’s
hands, large and strong
are
like
big squares of sandpaper
which
rove all over
my body
unhindered
. E
ven
the hairs on my head react from the friction like the
part
s
of a well-
oiled
machine.

Tiny spasm
s
shoo
t
through me at every touch of his finger
s
. T
hey tighten then release at these spots on my body that
I would
never
have
thought in
a million year
s could be the recipients of
this type of mind blowing
pleasure
.

I close my eyes,
ro
ck
back on my heels
which
have su
nk into the sand under the pressure
building in my body
,
and let loos
e a guttural moan that is part
desperation and
part need
. All of which merge into a rampaging
desire that is demanding
to be satisfied
.

Nate
chuckles as
he traces a fingertip down the center of my back, tickling my spine, his hands then bunch around my buttocks,
weighing, kneading the flesh.

My hips answer with a grinding rotation and I squirm
restlessly in his grip. I have to have
a counterpoint and I reach
do
wn and catch
a fistful of his
thick
silky hair
between
my fingers.

He yelps playfully but doesn’t reprimand
me,
instead his silver eyes glow devilishly up at me.
“You like it when I touch your bottom, don’t you?”

Oh
God the man is a beast and he enjoys torturing me, and to prove it
he stops
touching me
and
sits back on his hunches waiting
for my answer. I give an
other spirited tug of
his
hair to get him to continue, but
he
just grins widely and waits! Then h
e leans forward
and like the devil he is blows
more
hot air into my nav
el!

A
cry of frustrated delight
spills from my mouth and I
know I
have to submit to get him
to continue. “Yes … y
es you bastard, I like it!
”

But h
e
doesn’
t resume
h
is massaging
of my
bottom
as I
’m eagerly anticipating
and when seconds tick by and nothin
g happens I’
m forced to search out where his
delicious fingers have gone.

They are sitting on his lap and his face is
turned up
to me
,
his beautiful
eyes intent.
“I’m glad that you want this Daphne. I don’t want the anger from the l
ast time to mar this between us
. Let’s,” he stops and I see him
look off into the distance, then he clears his throat,
faces me again,
“if we can,
let’s
make this the start of something new between us. No running away, alright?
”
H
e leans forward and nuzzles my belly button
, placing quick gentle kisses all around it.