Mail-order Bridegroom Part 74

"Oh, Kate! I can't--I need--' His thrusts became quicker, stronger.

Kate's did, too, because something else was happening, something new,

something powerful. She forgot Bryce, forgot the past, forgot everything but

Damon. Her own movements became more abandoned, her body more responsive to

the delicious friction growing between them.

And then as he tensed and his muscles contracted, the same thing happened to

her own.

It was as if she was still in the water, being lifted and lifted and lifted

by the surge of the ocean's power, and then, at the peak, she felt herself

slip over and fall headlong into the rush of the wave.

It was liberating, shattering, mind-boggling.

It had never happened before.

Kate shut her eyes and delighted in it, revelling in sensations, in the

feelings, in the weight of the body lying on top of her own. Her heart

slammed against the wall of her chest. She turned her head and her lips

brushed a faintly stub bled cheek.

She drew back and opened her eyes to meet Damon's brown ones. And then the

crush of reality weighed more heavily than her husband's body.

She held her breath, waiting for him to roll away, to leave her the way Bryce

always had, or--worse--to

tell her, as Bryce had, exactly how disappointed he was, how unresponsive she was, how little she met his needs.

But though Damon did move off of her, he didn't leave. Instead he settled himself in the sand alongside her, their bodies still touching, one of his hands stroking lightly down the length of her.

She felt his fingers tremble.

"Well," he said after a moment, giving her a faint grin, 'that was worth waiting for. " And the husky, ragged tone of his voice made her pull back, startled.

"What do you mean?" she said cautiously.

"Do you suppose it was the frustration that did it?" he mused, still smiling.

"Or is it the chemistry between us? I think we ought to find out, don't you."

And before Kate realised what was happening, it was happening again!

Damon's hands skimmed over her, learning her curves and hollows. His mouth explored her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, laving them leisurely, suckling deeply, setting off tremors within her. She arched her back, clutching at him, moaning.

"You like that, do you?" he whispered. The, too. "

But then he pulled back and instinctively Kate reached for him. Then she looked up from beneath heavy lids to see him positioning himself above her once more.

He settled himself between her thighs, urging her legs to part for him. And they did, flexing and lifting so that her heels pressed against the back of his thighs as he slid into her.

"Yes," Kate murmured, 'oh, yes. " Because this was the way she knew loving was supposed to feel. This was the connected ness she'd always hoped for, that she'd sought with Bryce and never found.

"Oh, my love, yes."

And then she felt the hot surge of his seed within her, felt her own body contract around him and her mind explode at the climax of her desire. She shut her eyes. Her heart hammered, then gradually slowed.

Her muscles relaxed and she began to hear again the soft beat of the rippling waves against their bodies, the cry of the gull overhead, the whisper of the wind through the palms.

Slowly, with considerable trepidation, she opened her eyes. Damon still lay on top of her, but he had braced his torso with his hands alongside her arms, and he was looking down at her, his expression unreadable.

Tentatively Kate smiled.

And Damon smiled back. He levered himself up and off her.

"Amazing."

And Kate's smile broadened because, yes, it had been.

Damon got to his feet and held out his hand to her. When she took it, he pulled her up beside him. Then, lacing his fingers together with hers, he led her into the water.

It was more than Eden, Kate thought. It was heaven the warm clear water and the soft blue sky. It didn't even feel as warm now. Or maybe, she acknowledged, that was because the heat of frustration and anger no longer tormented her. She was basking in the glow of fulfilment.

She supposed she ought to be worrying. She'd made love with a man who had never said, "I love you'. She'd shared her most intimate self with a man who was going to be gone in less than a year.

And yet she couldn't regret it. She tried. She couldn't. It had been too beautiful. Too fulfilling. Too wonderful to second-guess or to wish it had never happened. ^ She slanted a sidelong glance at this man who was for twelve short months to be her husband, and she couldn't help thinking, yes, this is the way it's supposed to be. This is the point at which two souls connect.

And what if she never came closer than this? What if for the rest of her life she was destined to miss such connections? Wasn't it better to have experienced it once?

Was she a sinner to have enjoyed it? To have found with Damon's help a part of herself that no man, certainly not Bryce, had ever touched?

No, Kate decided, she was not. They were married, for however long or short a time. They had a right to the happiness they could find.

And after?

But Kate knew better than to ask the answer to that. She knew better than to count on happily ever after. She'd done that once to her everlasting regret.

For now it was enough to live in the moment. And to share with Damon that most elemental connection that two human beings can share.

She studied her husband's unyielding profile. Her eyes traced the hard lines of his face, unsoftened now by his dark wavy hair which was plastered wetly to his skull. He was, she thought, even more handsome than usual, more striking, more vitally masculine. Damon Alexakis was the essence of what was truly male.

And for the first time in her life, in Damon's embrace, Kate felt as if she'd touched that essence.

Who'd have believed it?

Damon sat silently in the stern of Silas's boat and studied the woman he'd married less than three weeks ago. Whoever would have thought there was all that pa.s.sion, all the eagerness b.u.t.toned up inside the proper, professional Kate McKee?

Not me, that's for sure, Damon thought now.

And yet. . .

And yet, hadn't she attracted him almost from the first? Hadn't he wanted to touch her ivory skin, kiss her delectable mouth, ruffle that s.h.i.+ny, silkybrown hair?

His hormones had known, Damon thought wryly, even if his rational mind hadn't.

And his hormones were pleased. He couldn't help grinning. And when Silas looked at him and muttered about newlyweds, then shook his head, Damonlaughed aloud.

Kate turned and caught them both looking at her. Beneath her alreadysunburned cheeks he saw a hint of deepening colour. But when they continuedsmiling at her, she began, albeit shyly, to smile, too.

And when she did, he wanted her again.

He'd thought an afternoon's loving would do it. He'd expected that learningher mysteries would quench his desire. In fact, what he'd learned had onlywhetted his appet.i.te for more.

She'd been so responsive, so abandoned, when he'd touched her. And afterwards she'd seemed almost astonished by it all. Hadn't her husband made her feel like that? Damon wondered.

Then he thought, of course he had. She wouldn't have loved him so much if he'd left her unsatisfied in bed. What Damon had tapped in her was, quiteobviously, a well of long-denied yearning.

Maybe she hadn't loved a man since her husband's death. It hadn't taken longfor him to realise that she clearly hadn't been interested in Stephanos.

Maybe he was the first to have touched her in four long years. Of course she'd have exploded like match- struck kindling, if she hadn't known intimacyin all that time. Of course she'd have been eager.

He wanted to strike a match to her desire again. And again."You look like you done got the catch of the century," Teresa said when shesaw them coming up the walk. He had his arm around Kate, had done since they'd left the village, and she hadn't pulled away. "You be smitin' big."

Teresa smiled even bigger in demonstration.

"Or maybe," she said, c.o.c.king her head, 'you got other things make you happy.

"Maybe," Damon agreed.

Kate stepped on his foot and nudged him in the ribs. He grinned at her, but

he didn't let go."Silas is bringing the fish up when he cleans them," he told Teresa,"We got a box fish."Teresa nodded, pleased."That be almost cause for those smiles. I'll stuff it for dinner.""We'll be here around seven," Damon said, leading Kate towards the cottage.This morning he'd hated the cottage. Had spent the first part of their time fis.h.i.+ng, trying to contrive a means to stay out of it for as long as

possible. It had seemed like the cage containing all his frustrations.Now he wanted to lock the two of them in and throw away the key. He wantedall the privacy the honeymoon cottage would allow.

He knew that getting to make love to Kate was more than he'd bargained for.He could scarcely believe his good luck. It was turning into a far betterhoneymoon than he'd had any right to expect. She could make the year theyhad to spend together a h.e.l.l of a lot more pleasant than he'd antic.i.p.ated itbeing.

"You can have the shower first," she said to him as he opened the door.