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He&039;d have sworn the world stopped For one rushingbut Mia, tall and curved and beautiful All alabaster and fire, she wore only a slim silver chain that nestled a moonstone between her breasts and an anklet made up of tiny Celtic knots above shoes that were no more than a trio of narrow straps and stiletto heels His mouth watered
"You want me" Her voice was a low feline purr "Your body aches asyou has always been the easy part"
She stepped to him "Then this should be a snap" She ran her hands up his torso, over his chest
"You&039;re tre closer, she rubbed her lips over his shoulder, over muscles that were tensed rock-hard "So am I"
His hands flexed, fisted "This is your answer?"
"I don&039;t need an anshen I don&039;t have a question" She lifted her head until their eyes met "I have needs, just as you do Desires, hot and restless inside me As you do We can both take e need, and harm no one"
She leaned in, nipped sharply at his bottom lip "Let&039;s take a walk in the woods"
When he jerked her hard against hiher into his arms The moment of victory was hot and sweet
"Here," he said "In this house Ininside her clouded her h to have hiled "No, not here"
"It can&039;t be all your way"
"I won&039;t be with you here" The minute she hit the bed, she rolled, but he pinned her
"Yes, you will"
She fought hiainst his hold She could smell the lavender she&039;d planted outside the , and the sweetness of it tore at her heart She hadn&039;t come for sweetness, nor for intiathered herself, reached for composure and derision "All you&039;ve proved is that you have superior strength"
"Yeah That&039;s the breaks," he said Her voiceoff her skin "I&039; theto ht me" He yanked her arms over her head "I don&039;t want it easy And I don&039;t want it fast"
He handcuffed her wrists and used his ht She could da threat of violence added a slippery thrill that fed the reckless need inside her She could hate herself for wanting that, for the part of her that reveled in being overpowered, undone, taken But she couldn&039;t deny it
He ravished, his ing with sweat and her senses tangling into one mass of molten pleasure Her body twisted, arched, but he siy that burned inside her whipped to flash point, ripped a cry from her throat as he drove her to the first brutal clilorious release only fueled a hunger for more He felt her body quake, heard her breath catch Beneath his lips her pulse beat like fury Her flesh was da that she fought theh his blood
He rode it, recklessly, until they were both quivering
When his mouth conquered hers, the kiss was a kind of ht, no rooues and teeth, they fed on each other When he felt her fly a second time, he released her hands to takerestlessly over the bed in a search for dominance andthrough the s turned to gilt She rose over hi hisher in like breath
She lost herself in the frenzy of sensation Gave herself to that feral need to take and be taken Here there was only desperation, and the one es, thealive raced inside her
Time quickened, then sprinted past her, as the stor, she wrapped herself around hi on as if for her life Her heart quaked, and threatened to break open
She heard his harsh murmurs as his body slid over hers, as his lips skittered over her face, her throat She shook her head, quick denial, as the Gaelic stroked her aching heart Light, warm and blue, pulsed from him
"No Don&039;t"
He couldn&039;t stop What they&039;d brought to each other sapped his control The need to cohra A amhain" My love My only The words tu its mate even as his body craved But when he brushed his lips over her cheek, tasted tears, he squeezed his eyes shut
"I&039;ed, he buried his face in her hair "Just a ht for control, to pull the ic back inside hiht to force her to share that part of herself
She felt hiled to pull it in It would hurt hi the blood and starving the soul
Still, he held her while he locked himself away Held her while she listened to his breath tear out against the pain of it
She couldn&039;t bear it, for either of theave hi hiilded red against his deepening blue The brilliant thrill flooded her, swaed, streamed inside them both She let herself fly on it, rose to him as he filled her
There was a rush like the wind, a streas plucked at once The air swelled All she was, and all he was, laid open
The air shilow Even as he ift, he took her hands Linked fingers curled tight and sparks swirled frohtened, building, building toward a flash that burst like lightning And on that burst, he met her mouth with his, and fleith her
He nuzzled at the curve of her shoulder, rubbed his cheek to hers, whispering soft and foolish endearments His power continued to whisper inside her as well Her body felt unbearably soft And though her heart continued to pound, she knew its beat was no longer for her alone What had she done?
She&039;d stripped aside, by her oill, the last of her defenses She had given him all she was, taken all he was
She had let herself love hierous
Even knowing it, she could lie here with his weight pressing against her and want to gather hi to the dreaet away, clear her head of him And consider what to do next She lifted a hand to his shoulder, intending to nudge hiers slid into his hair
"Mia" His voice was thick and sleepy "Allaina So soft, so lovely Stay with ht Wake with me tomorrow"
Her heart trembled, but when she spoke her voice was brisk and even "You&039;re speaking Gaelic"
"Hive his shoulder a little nudge "Which means you&039;re about to fall asleep on top of me"
"No, I&039;aze down at her "You make my head spin" He dropped a kiss on her forehead, then the tip of her nose "I&039;lad you dropped by"
It was hard to resist the easy affection "So a with her hair, he studied her face "I&039;oing to have to get rough with you again You know you liked it"
"Please" She pushed at hi down, he lightly bit her shoulder
"Maybe, under this li I needed an outlet for the excess energy that last night&039;s spell worked up in ht her chin in his hand "I ht now, I&039;ot leftover Chinese takeout"
"Yummy But - "
"Mia, we need to talk"
"Talk isn&039;t the usual activity e&039;re lying naked in bed and you&039;re still inside me"
"There is that" He slid his hands under her hips, lifted them Slid deeper into her "Tell ht "I&039;ain" He kneaded her hips, his thrusts slow and steady "Just let me watch you"
He left her no choice He exploited her weakness, drained her ith a ruthless tenderness He watched her surrender, to him, to herself, to the rise of sensation And when she crested - one long wave - it rippled through him And he lifted her, wrapped her close
"Stay"
With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder "I could eat"
They ed forinto a box of dry cereal, the edge was off Saood sex Nothing like it to sharpen the appetite"
"I had two muffins, a sandwich, cake, and a bowl of rotini And that was before the sex Givein
"It was a potent spell"
"Now that we&039;ve very efficiently cleaned out my kitchen of all edible products, let&039;s take that walk in the woods"
"It&039;s getting late, Sam"
"Yeah, it is" He took her hand "And we both know it" He glanced down at her bare feet "Since I don&039;t see how you can walk anywhere in those shoes you had on, maybe we should head to the beach instead of the woods Easier on your feet"
"I&039; barefoot in the woods" It was best, she thought, to deal with it As long as they were talking, or eating, or seducing each other, she wouldn&039;t have to think about loving him Or what she would do about it
"You want me to explain the spell, and I&039;m not sure I can"
"I don&039;t want the nuts and bolts" He drew her across the laard the shadows and the path "But I&039;d like to know, first, how long you&039;ve known you had that kind of power"
"I&039;m not sure I did - not exactly Felt," she continued "As if there was a switch inside waiting for me to flip it"
"It&039;s not that simple"
"No, it&039;s not" She could sht, you could s the senses "I&039;ve worked on it, studied, practiced I&039;ve gathered myself You understand that"
"I also understand that to pull that out the way you did the other night, without any real preparation, is beyond anything I&039;ve experienced"
"I&039;ve been preparing all ht, it&039;s been my one and only love
"Still I couldn&039;t finish it It wasn&039;t quite enough" Deterhened her voice "But I will finish it"
"That&039;s where you and I have a probleerous, for you It didn&039;t have to be"
"The risk was minimal"
"If you&039;d told me what you could do, what you&039;d obviously planned to do, given the opportunity, I could have been prepared I could have helped But you don&039;t wantas they passed the little strea ti your help"
"I&039;ve been back for over two one over ten years I learned to do a great deal without you in that length of time Without anyone," she added, "as Ripley cut herself off fro the saiven and honed it, built it"
"That&039;s right, you have I wonder if you would have if I&039;d stayed"
She rounded on hiht have been, as the saht had come to her
"Is that a new rationalization? A new reason for what you did?"
"No" Hewere coe the results You&039;re stronger than you would have been"
"Should I thank you for it?" She angled her head "Maybe I should Maybe it&039;s ti for both of us I saw you as the beginning and end ofin between But you weren&039;t I lived without you And whether you stay or go, I&039;ll continue to live, to work To be I can enjoy you noithout illusions It&039;s a nice bonus to share myself with so in return but pleasure for pleasure"
It rubbed at his temper, as he supposed she&039;d intended it to "Don&039;t thank me too soon You wondered why I&039;dI needed to show you, and maybe to prove to myself, that there&039;s ain, she began to walk "There&039;s h I didn&039;t initially believe it, a shared love of the island We have mutual friends"
"We were friends once"
"We&039;re friendly now" She breathed in deeply "How do people live without the sea close? How do they breathe?"