The Midnight Hour (25 page)

She had called Hawk earlier, after taking her shower and had told him that Drake now knew the truth, and how badly he had taken the news. Hawk felt that eventually Drake would come around and see that every decision that had been made had been for the both of their protection, and that she had not betrayed him as he wanted to believe.

She knew Hawk was right and that Drake was battling shock and denial and she needed to give him time to come to grips with everything.

What had she expected?

As she curled under the covers, she knew exactly what she had expected. It had been a forbidden dream that would creep into her sleep-induced unconsciousness every once in a while. In this dream she would tell Drake the truth, that she was alive, and then he would sweep her off her feet, tell her how much he still loved her and then carry her to the nearest bed and make passionate love to her, wiping out five years of need, separation, and turmoil.

But that was not the way it happened. It hadn't even come close to that.

She heard the sound of water running and knew he was Preparing to take a shower. She tried to remove both him ^d his anger from her mind and discovered that she could not. A part of her resented that he felt that he was the only one who had suffered, and that she had outright betrayed him when she had made the ultimate sacrifices to make sure he was kept safe.

Tori was glad the cabin had two bedrooms and was grateful she'd had the foresight to be ready for bed when he returned. She couldn't deal with him and his anger any more tonight, but she knew that tomorrow they had to talk. She needed to let him know about the CIA's plan to use them as pawns.

Her breath caught when she heard footsteps outside of her door. Moments later Drake moved on. She turned in bed. She would deal with him soon enough in the morning. She knew his anger and he knew hers. But tomorrow, they needed to put their anger aside to deal with the issue of keeping them both alive.

Tori couldn't sleep. She spent her time tossing and turning in the most comfortable bed she had ever slept in. But still she was restless, angry, and even worse, agitated and frustrated.

She eased out of bed, making sure all the buttons on her nightshirt were securely fastened. She wanted to go outside for some fresh air but knew that would not be a good idea.

Deciding it was safer to go into the kitchen for a drink of water, she opened her bedroom door. A light that shone under Drake's bedroom's door indicated that he was still awake. The lights in the other parts of the cabin were off but the silhouette of the moon shining through one of the windows provided just enough illumination for her to see.

She had started down the darkened hall to the kitchen when she suddenly bumped into a hard, broad chest. Immediately, she went into a defense mode, ready to put her skill as a karate expert into action.

"It's me, Tori."

Drake's voice almost knocked the breath out of her. She had been more than prepared to take him down. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. "Drake, I thought you were in your room."

"I was but I couldn't sleep so I got up to check on things."

"Oh." She tried not to let the fresh scent of his recent shower get to her, but a jolt of desire rammed through her body anyway. And the bad thing about it was that she was still mad at him and knew for sure that he was still angry with her. But her mind stopped dealing with anger when Drake stepped out of the shadows and into the flow of the moonlight. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and a pair of sweatpants rode low on his hips. She was suddenly bombarded with a heated sensation.

"Where were you going?" he asked, leaning back against a wall, crossing his arms over his broad chest. There was a "climb into bed with me" look about him. She was all too familiar with that look.

She wondered if he could hear the pounding of her heart. "To the kitchen. I was thirsty and wanted something to drink."

"Milk?"

Tori lifted a brow, wondering if he was getting suspicious about anything.

"What makes you think I'd want milk?"

"Because you seem to drink a lot of the stuff. I'm sure you're keeping some dairy farmer happy."

She shrugged. From his tone of voice she could tell he was trying to downplay his anger for the same reason that she was. Emotions were suddenly taking over their senses. They were together for the first time in five years, not as strangers or two people who barely knew each other and who had met less than six months ago. But they were two individuals with a deep history; two people who had once loved each other… and had lost each other.

"Tori."

"Drake."

They said each other's names at the same time that he pulled her to him and captured her mouth. His lips were firm, his mouth eager, and his tongue hungry. And that hungry tongue took control of her mouth, making her senses swim. She became entrenched by feelings she hadn't felt in a long time. His tongue was leaving no area in her mouth untouched and untasted.

Moments later when he slowly broke off the kiss, she felt consumed with a need so great, she wanted to forget Cross and mainly concentrate on their awareness of each other, their reaffirmation of life and the realization that they were together again.

Right now, at this very moment, she only wanted to dwell on the man who was building an incredible ache all through her body; an ache she had to have filled.

"Knowing who you are is making me crazy," Drake whispered against her lips, taking the tip of his tongue and outlining her mouth from comer to comer. "Just to think you're here and with me again is driving me insane."

That makes two of us, she thought, her panties completely drenched. The air was chilly but they were building up a lot of heat and the scent of aroused bodies permeated their surroundings, adding an extra zing to their lust.

They were desperate. Hungry. Out of control.

It seemed that all the anger of that afternoon was gone, but she knew it was still there. It had only been put on hold. It would resurface in the morning and they would have to deal with it. Something within them crashed at the same time their control snapped. Emotions they had tried holding at bay toppled over in a heated frenzy as their tongues continued to mate desperately, urgently, relentlessly.

Moments later Tori pulled back, drew in a sharp breath, taken aback by the intensity of the kiss they'd just shared and the need that was ramming through them. She was suddenly feeling delirious with desire, hot with a need that only Drake had the ability to quench.

She wanted him to take her, hard and fast. Now.

He must have seen the deep hunger in her gaze, heard it in her breathing, felt it in the shiver that raced through her. In one smooth feat he reached out and gripped her nightshirt, sending buttons flying across the room with the strength of his pull on the silk material. With no buttons to hold the garment together it fell open, exposing her body. Before she could say anything, utter a single word, he pushed the nightshirt from her shoulders, leaving her standing before him stark naked.

The look in his eyes, fervent and aroused, caused the longing in her to rise to another feverish pitch. Mindlessly delirious, she reached out and tugged at the waistband of his sweats. "I want you, Drake. Now!"

As if that was all he needed to hear, she watched as he took a step back, quickly discarded his sweats and swung them away. He wasn't in the mood to take things slow. Neither was she.

When he stood totally naked in front of her, she was unable to think about anything and anyone except him. Get ready to meet your daddy, she silently communicated to the child she carried within her womb. He's coming for a visit and Mommy intends to make him feel very welcome.

She met Drake's gaze and all the love she could ever have for one man was there, shining in her eyes, although she doubted that he could see it. She was opening herself m the only way she knew how for the second time in five years. The turbulent storm that had been raging inside of her had finally come to a head and it was almost next to impossible not to get caught up in it. She was too far gone.

He quickly covered the distance separating them and pulled her to him, kissing her with a hunger that matched her own. He released her mouth to let his tongue trail a path downward to her breasts. Catching a nipple between his teeth, his tongue went on the attack, tugging, licking, sucking, as she moaned out his name. And when she felt his hand dip lower to stroke her intimately, she inched closer, wanting everything.

"Drake!"

"Do you have any idea what it means having you back with me? What losing you did to me? Do you know how much I missed you?" he growled in her ear.

"The bedroom is too far away," he said, swinging her up into his arms. And then he was gently laying her back on die pool table, opening her legs in the process, and drinking in the sight of her positioned that way before him, seeing everything. Tori felt no shame, just need, and her eyes fluttered close just thinking about how much she wanted him.

"For the last five years I have been a man living on the edge, not caring if I lived or died," Drake said huskily, his voice the one of a man whose life had been torn. "Living a life without you was more than I could bear. Believing you were gone nearly destroyed me. My life virtually ended the day I thought you died."

He saw the tears sliding slowly from her eyes. "Look at me. I want you to see how much I missed having you with me. How much I missed loving you."

Tori met his gaze. She swallowed with the intensity in his dark depths. And then he smoothly eased to stand between her opened legs and before she could catch her next breath he thrust into her, pushing past her ultra-damp flesh while going further, moving deeper, making the flame within him scorch her already hot body.

He threw his head back and she saw the tightening of the muscles in his neck. He groaned and the sound echoed in the room and came across like a male animal that was about to mate.

He pushed deeper and when he had gone as far into her as he could go, he leaned over and skimmed a fingertip down her breast, while looking down at their connected bodies. He inhaled deeply and she knew he was taking their aroused scent into his nostrils and somehow she could tell it made his own need flare to greater heights.

She felt wild, wanton, out of control being spread atop the pool table, yet at the same time she felt a sense of feminine satisfaction that she was the one who had put that deep look of heated lust in his eyes.

Suddenly he began moving, holding her hips tight in his hands while thrusting in and out of her, mating with her in a way that had her emitting breathless cries to mingle with his rough groans.

She dug her nails into his back with the feel and sound of bare flesh slapping against bare flesh. Their mating was intense with no sexual restraints; passionate in the most overpowering way. And when he spread her legs wider for deeper penetration, she knew that for as long as she lived she would always have special memories of this night with him.

Tori couldn't stop the convulsions that began shuddering through her, racking her body, sending her over the edge. And when she felt him stiffen before pushing into her for °ne hard final thrust, she knew what was coming.

They were.

A crescendo of sexual sensations that she felt all the way J? her toes ignited into an explosion that tore through her.

at same explosion tore through him as well and she felt him come, in a torrential release deep inside of her. She cried out his name at the same time he cried out hers. Her inner muscle tightened, clutched him, loving the feel of him buried deep inside of her, coming in her that triggered her own climax.

He leaned down and captured her mouth in a kiss while doing all sorts of things to her with his hands, as the two of them climaxed and shuddered uncontrollably. Together.

And Tori knew as sensations after sensations continued to explode inside of her that Drake Warren had done more than come for a visit. He had come home and she had a feeling that no matter what problems they had to face, he intended to stay.

It was twelve a.m.,.

Drake came fully awake as memories of the past hours flooded his mind. He glanced down at the woman sleeping beside him as emotions, stronger than any he'd ever encountered before knotted his stomach.

First he had taken Tori on the pool table, not once but twice, with an urgency and desperation that had nearly driven him insane. Their mating had been wild, uncontrollable, and intense. Then he had placed her in bed and made love to her again, several times, before the both of them, mindless with exhaustion, sated with passion, had succumbed to sleep.

And now he was wide awake and dealing with the fact that Sandy and Tori were one and the same. He leaned up, rested on his elbows and studied her. In his mind, Sandy was dead. She had died five years ago in that explosion. The woman he held in his arms looked nothing like her, and a part of him was having problems accepting that she was, although he knew it to be true.

But then there was something his mind wasn't finding it hard to accept. What she had said was true. He had acted like a selfish bastard when she had told him the truth. Now that he had come to grips with a lot of things, he was glad, thankful that she was alive. And he had a slew of questions to ask her… as well as wanting to ask for her forgiveness.

He thought of some of the things she had said, about all the surgeries she'd had to go through, and the type of life she had lived over the past five years. She had known he was alive, which had to be just as bad as him thinking that she was dead. And she had done it to protect him.

It would probably take a lifetime to make up for the way he'd acted earlier, but Lord knows that he would try. It didn't matter to him whether she was Sandy or Tori. What mattered was that he still loved her, and would always love her.