The Australian (16 page)

“I don’t know anything, and I’m afraid,” she answered. She looked up at his broad face with its firm lips and twinkling eyes and dimpled chin. “John, you aren’t going to hurt me, are you?”

He brushed the damp hair away from her face. “I’ll try not to. I don’t think it’s going to be so difficult. All virgins don’t have a rough time.” He bent and kissed her mouth tenderly. “You know I’ve been a long time without a woman,” he reminded her. “Is that what frightens you? Are you afraid I may go wild in your arms?”

She touched his chest nervously. “You’re so strong...”

“And so intent on pleasing you,” he countered amusedly. “It may not be heaven the first time, but if it isn’t, I’ll more than make it up to you by morning. Now relax.”

“We aren’t going to...in here, are we?” She hesitated, wide-eyed.

His hand slid over her shoulder, against one full hard-tipped breast, down her waist and her flat stomach and the silken skin of her inner thigh. “Why not, love?” he asked, letting his eyes hold hers as his hand moved with expert precision on her soft body.

She gasped, and he took the soft sound into his mouth as he kissed her for the first time with total possession. She stiffened a little, but seconds later she yielded to him, and he felt her fingers grasping helplessly at his arms.

He turned her, knocking the drain with his foot so that some of the water seeped out while he was kissing her senseless. He touched her lovingly with expert, seeking hands, exploring the satin of her skin, the tender innocence of her body.

“I’m glad,” he breathed roughly as his head went to her slippery breasts. “Oh, God, I’m so glad you kept yourself for me, that I’m your first man.”

Tears welled up in her eyes at the sharp, sweet twinges of pleasure he was causing. “So...am I,” she moaned. Her teeth bit at his shoulder, and she began to move, not because she wanted to, but because she couldn’t help it. He was making her feel things that shocked, frightened, fascinated her. Priss’s eyes opened wide as he did something new and intimate to her body.

She cried out, and he lifted his head.

“It’s all right,” he whispered, shifting so he was above her. His eyes held hers. “Relax for me. Just relax. We’ll go at your pace, so don’t be frightened, darling.”

And all at once, before she had time to be afraid, he was making her a part of his own body. Her eyes dilated, and she started to stiffen, but he stroked her and smiled down at her. His own lack of urgency, his evident self-control, made it possible for her not to fight him. She let her body sink in the water with a breathless little sigh.

His large hand under her hips lifted her gently. “You see?” he soothed. “It’s not going to be difficult, is it?”

“I didn’t think—” She couldn’t manage to tell him what she didn’t think, because he moved unexpectedly, and she saw stars. Her breath caught in her throat as his hips shifted and she clung wildly to him, really frightened of the sensations that were making her shudder helplessly.

His mouth eased over hers, and just before he took total possession, he looked straight into her eyes.

“Now,” he whispered shakily, as the hunger and need and newness of being with her took his control. “Now we’ll make up for all the long, lost years. We’ll make them up here, now, together.... God, Priss, love me!” he groaned against her mouth, and his big body shuddered with fierce need. His fingers dug into her slender hips, lifting her. And it began. She almost fainted as he brought her to the precipice and let her back down again, only to start once more, arousing her and calming her, over and over, until at last there was no coming down from the peak.

She clung and wept and shivered, hearing his rough breathing suddenly stop just before a harsh cry burst from his lips. She felt him shudder, too, and only then realized what was happening. And by that time, it was happening to her, too, and she gave her mind up to it.

They lay together in the churning water, clinging, kissing softly, tenderly, as trembling passed and their heartbeats calmed at last. He brushed back her wet hair and gave a low triumphant laugh.

“This is one memory we’ll never share with our children,” he murmured devilishly. “That we came together for the first time in a whirlpool bathtub filled with bubbles.”

She kissed his shoulder and snuggled against him, loving the feel of his body. “I love you.”

“Yes, I know. I’ve always known. That was what made it so very difficult to let you go.”

Her fingers traced a slow pattern in the hair over his heart. “I guess I was pretty obvious,” she murmured.

“That much love is hard to hide,” he said tenderly. His hand smoothed her hair. “It was all that kept me going sometimes—knowing that you hadn’t stopped loving me.”

“How did you know that?” she asked curiously.

“Renée told me.”

“My mother sold me out?” she exclaimed, lifting her head.

His eyes were solemn. “There was a time, only once, when I was ready to do something drastic. I thought of selling the station to Randy and joining the service. When Renée found out, she told me.” He kissed her eyes closed. “I lived on it,” he breathed huskily. “I lived on it for years! Then you came home, and it was so difficult to get close to you again. I was sure you hated me. Then when Randy told you the truth, I was terrified that it was pity you felt. When I told you I only wanted your body, it was because I was hurting. It wasn’t true.” He kissed her mouth slowly, passionately. “Only later, when I started asking myself why you had stayed a virgin all those years, did the pieces fall into place. That was when I decided I still had a chance. And I went after you with every weapon I could find.”

Her heart pounded heavily, and he felt it, because his hand was cupping her breast.

He lifted his head and rolled over, so that her body was resting atop his. His hands smoothed up and down her back while his eyes grew drunk on her pink bareness. “Priss, it was never only physical, except maybe for that afternoon in your bedroom. After that, it was an obsession that got completely out of hand; that took over my very soul. I came to Hawaii after you because I was dying without you.”

Tears sprang to her eyes. “You loved me?”

“Darling,” he breathed roughly, “I still do. I always have; always will. Otherwise do you think I’d have been celibate for five damned years? Didn’t that give me away?”

She stared at him blankly. “I never dreamed—”

“Greenhorn,” he chided, “it’s nothing short of sainthood for a man to go that long without sex!”

“Oh,” she exclaimed. Her eyes searched his. “But...but there was Janie Weeks...” she began hoarsely, and the pain wrenched her.

His arms folded her gently against him in the warm water, and he sighed bitterly. “I never touched her,” he said at last, feeling her stiffen with shock. “That’s right, never. Oh, we went out enough times, and I’ll admit that I hoped at first she would take my mind off you. But I never saw her again after I got back from Hawaii. I didn’t even want to.”

“But why?” she ground out. “Why did you tell me that lie? And my parents—they told me you were seeing her, too.”

“I made them promise to back up my story,” he said quietly. “Because I knew the fiction of another woman was the only way I could keep you from rushing back here and sacrificing yourself for me.”

“I loved you,” she wept. “It wouldn’t have been a sacrifice!”

“Inevitably it would,” he corrected, his voice even. “You were too young to cope with it all. I couldn’t risk having your feeling for me turn to hatred in the face of all the obstacles. Remember, Priss, I wasn’t even sure I could salvage the station at all. My pride was in the dust. And as it was, I had to go to work for Randy. That was rough. It changed me.”

“I knew you’d changed, yes. I just didn’t understand why. And I hated you for Janie.” Tears ran down her cheeks onto his hairy chest. “Oh, John,” she wailed. “Five years. Five long years, and I grieved for you so!”

His arms tightened around her. “So did I, for you,” he confessed under his breath. “Ached for you, hungered for you! There was never another woman. My God, how could there have been? After the first time I kissed you, I couldn’t have touched anyone else.”

“You said you tried,” she reminded him.

“Yes. When I thought you and that pommy were going to make a match of it. That was before I spoke to Renée.” He sighed. “I stayed drunk two days after I tried, Priscilla. I felt as if I’d tried to commit adultery.”

She smiled wobbily. Her fingers traced patterns on his chest. “John, could you say it, just once, do you think? I’ve waited most of my life to hear it.”

There was a look of infinite tenderness in his face. His eyes searched hers reverently.

“I love you,” he whispered huskily. “With my heart. With my mind. With my body and my soul. I’d do anything for you.”

The tears rolled slowly down her cheeks, and she laughed with delight, triumph, shyness. “Oh, John,” she moaned, pressing down hard against him. “Oh, John, I love you so much!”

“How would you like to come into the bedroom and show me how much?” he murmured dryly, but it wasn’t completely a joke, because his body was already telling her that he needed more than words.

She bent and kissed his eyes, his nose, the dimple in his chin, and his hard mouth. “Will you let me?” she implored daringly.

His eyes opened, blue fires staring up into hers. “All the way?” he asked softly.

“Yes.”

He searched her eyes. “I’ve never let a woman take me,” he said quietly. “Not in all my life. But I suppose being my wife does give you a few privileges, Mrs. Sterling,” he mused.

She bent and kissed him softly. “I’ll be very gentle with you,” she whispered, teasing, but he pulled her mouth down hard, and the kiss he gave her was anything but humorous.

It was the most incredible experience of her life. He lay sprawled on the mattress like a sacrificial victim, letting her make new discoveries about his body and its responses. Letting her touch and taste and stroke him, until he groaned aloud, until his big body trembled. And all through it he smiled and laughed, and his eyes blazed like blue coals while he watched her, guided her, whispered and coaxed and gloried in her fascination, the laziness of his smile at variance with the tension that built to explosive force in him.

When he was just seconds away from losing his mind, he ended the torment himself, whipping her over and crushing her under him, dragging her down with him into a maelstrom unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. It took him a long time to be able to move without shuddering, to speak. Her own plateau had been nearly as high, and she trembled gently in the aftermath.

She smoothed his hair, kissed his flushed face, stroked his chest and arms until he calmed.

“My God,” he breathed, opening his eyes at last, and they were filled with wonder as they searched her face.

“I can’t believe I really did all that,” she said flushing. Her eyes fell to his mouth. “I’d never even read about some of those things.”

“It’s called instinct,” he managed. “When it’s coupled with love, it goes a long way. I’ve never climbed that high before,” he added with a slow smile. “I’m having trouble coming back down again, as you see.”

She blushed again and slid down against his body, holding him. “Does this help?”

He caught her hips and moved them against his. “This helps more.” He eased himself over her body and smiled at the shock in her eyes. “Yes, I know.” He laughed. “The books say this is impossible, don’t they? Lie still. This time,” he breathed as his mouth opened over hers, “is going to blow your mind...”

She could hardly stand in the shower later while he soaped her body under the warm spray. She clung to him weakly, and he laughed.

“Worn out already?” he teased. “You’ll have to take vitamins.”

“You’re marvelous,” she whispered at his lips. “Worth waiting all my life for.”

“I could return that compliment,” he murmured, smiling as he kissed her. “No lingering doubts? No second thoughts?”

She shook her head, and her eyes adored him. “I’ll take care of you all my life. I’ll be the best wife you could ever want.”

“You already are,” he said. He held her against him warmly, without passion, his head bent over hers. “It won’t be easy sometimes. We won’t have a lot at first. But I’ll work hard to give you the best life I can. And even if we don’t have money, Priss, we’ll have love. Of the two, that’s the more important.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ll spend the rest of my life making up to you those five years we lost.”

“I’ll do the same for you,” she promised. “Darling, darling, I can hardly believe it’s happened! It’s like a sweet dream. I’d rather die than wake up and find it isn’t real at all.” Tears stung her eyes. “I’ve lived on dreams for so long...”

“So have I,” he whispered, nuzzling his face against her damp hair as he held her. “But we have each other now. Forever, Priss.”

She kissed his chest affectionately. “Later on, I’ll give you a son.”

He trembled a little. His hands contracted. “How much later on?” he whispered.

She looked up at him quietly. “Whenever you like.”

He was breathing unsteadily. “I’m thirty-three already.”

“Then...we’d better not wait...too long,” she whispered at his lips.

“A few months—no more,” he whispered back. “I’d like a baby.”

“So would I.” She pressed herself completely against him, loving the freedom love gave her to be so intimate with him. She closed her eyes. “You’re a nice bloke, John Sterling.” She grinned. “Gone to the pack, of course, but...ooh!”

He pinched her and laughed at her expression. “Shut up and wash my back, woman. I want my tucker.”

“Big, bad Australian,” she teased. “I can see right off that you’re going to be a horrible bully.”

“Not to you, mate,” he murmured and kissed her.

She smiled under his mouth, loving the feel and taste of it. The years ahead were going to be the best of her life; she already knew it. And the best part was loving this big, burly Australian who’d given her his wild heart. Dreams did come true, it seemed. Because she was holding hers in her arms.

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