Mail-order Bridegroom Part 75

"You don't think we might share?"

If he'd thought her face turned red before, it was nothing compared to the

colour it turned now.

"I don't--I mean, I've never--' She stopped and turned away, pressing her palms to her cheeks in dismay.

Charmed, Damon turned and drew her into his arms.

"You've never been that wanton, huh?" he said, smiling.She shook her head against his chest. He was unnaccountably pleased: atleast she hadn't been there before with Bryce.

"Scared?"

She lifted her eyes and shot him a quick glance before ducking her head again.

"Don't be silly," she said gruffly.

"Come on," he said, tugging her with him towards the bath, 'let's give it a

try. "

She didn't protest. She allowed him to lead her into the bathroom, and she leaned against the door while Damon turned on the shower and adjusted the

temperature of the water and the angle of the spray. He nicked a bit ofwater at her."Warm enough?"She nodded. She didn't say a word. He pulled hisT- shirt over his head, then turned to her."Waiting for me to do it?" he asked softly.She swallowed,"N-not really." She started to lift her own shirt, but he put out his hands and stilled hers.

"I want to."

Slowly, carefully, he slid his hands under the hem of her shirt and skimmed

it upwards. His thumbs brushed against her silky midriff, then skatedlightly across her nipples. Gathering the shirt as he went, he tugged itover her head, then dropped it at their feet.

Kate didn't move. Damon lay his hands on her arms, slid them down and thenup, stroking her warm flesh She trembled under his touch."Cold?""N-no. Burning," she admitted.

j So was he.

"You can touch me, too, you know."

For a moment Damon didn't think she would. She looked at him, her eyes wideand slightly wary as she hesitated. Then she licked her lips quickly andbrought her hands up and lay them against his chest.

Her touch made him tremble. He swallowed, holding quite still as her fingerstraced lightly on his chest, then lifted to touch his shoulders and skim downthe length of his arms. Her fingers laced with his. Then she leaned forward and touched her lips to his chest, laving first one tiny hard nipple, thenthe other.

Damon let out an explosive breath.

"Don't you like that?"

"h.e.l.l, yes, I like it! Too much. I'm going to--' He shook his headdesperately.

She smiled. It was a wanton smile, a teasing smile, a very definite 'comehither' smile. And Damon had no inclination to resist. He loosed his fingers from hers, reaching out to undo the fastening of her shorts and pulldown the zip. They fell to the floor, pooling at her feet.

Kate stepped away from them. She started kissing him again, her lipsfeathering across his chest and lightly brushing his shoulders, while herpalms flattened against his abdomen. Then they stroked downwards and hookedinside the waistband of his shorts.

Damon held his breath as the backs of her fingers caressed his taut belly,then tugged his shorts down past his hips. He kicked them off and drew Kate with him into the shower.

Her skin felt soft and slick and wet as he wrapped his arms around her andnuzzled against her neck. She made a tiny, hungry, whimpering sound thatsent a fierce shaft of desire surging through him. He could have taken her then in scant seconds. Deliberately he did not.

He was no randy teenager in the mood for a quick fix. He was a man grown, a man willing and able to appreciate the finer things in life.

And making love with a woman as warm and responsive as Kate was definitely one of them.

He stepped back, reached for the soap and, taking deep, calming breaths, tried to concentrate strictly on the satiny texture of her flesh as he smoothed the soap over her shoulders and down her back.

Closing his eyes, he let his fingers stir up a lather, then slide forward to wash her small, but perfect b.r.e.a.s.t.s. They were faintly pink from being bared to the sun, and his fingers trembled as he moved the soap in gentle circles on them.

Kate trembled, too. She stood very still, but he could feel the tremors running through her. And he smiled to see her lean into the stroke of his hands. He slid the soap lower, still circling as he moved to her abdomen.

Bending his head, he kissed each of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in turn.

She reached out and gripped his shoulders with surprising force, her nails digging into his back. He left a trail of hot kisses down her belly until he reached the top of the soft triangle of dark hair at the apex of her thighs.

His hands continued stroking down her legs.

First the left, then the right, down the front of her thighs, then up the back. Around to the front again and down. He let the soap fall to the floor of the shower.

Then slowly his hands slid between her knees and he let his fingers move upwards, brushing lightly, stroking gently. Kate shifted, widening her stance. Damon smiled, pleased.

He rested his forehead against her abdomen, watching as he slowly let his fingers creep further up the tanned length of her legs until they reached the soft petals of flesh that hid her secrets from him. And then he touched her and felt her fingers let go of his shoulders only to clench frantically in his hair.

"Damon!"

He lifted his face and smiled up at her, his fingers stroking her all the while, finding her wet and welcoming, trembling themselves at her readiness to receive him. Her legs quivered and her hips surged against his hands.

"Damon! What are you doing to me!"

"Giving you pleasure."

"Yes, but you--' " Don't worry. I'll get mine," he promised. It was pleasure enough watching her, seeing a Kate he'd only just discovered--a wild, pa.s.sionate Kate who burst into flames at his touch.

She was close to doing so now. He could see it in her face, could feel it in the movements of her body, in the eager thrust of her hips against his hand.

Her fingers twisted in his hair, tugging it, pulling him up.

And he came up willingly, lifting her as he did so. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he pressed her against the wall and slid into her welcoming warmth.

As much as he would have liked to prolong it, he couldn't. The feel of her body around his overwhelmed him, and he moved with an eagerness that matched hers. He was only relieved that he brought her satisfaction before succ.u.mbing to his own.

"H-heavens," Kate mumbled as he let her body slide down his until her feet touched the floor again.

"Good grief. I've never--' She glanced up at him, then looked away, apparently embarra.s.sed. She bent over and snagged the bar of soap.

Damon kissed the nape of her neck, then leaned against the wall of theshower, his legs still trembling. The neither," he said.Kate shot him a quick look."Really?""Really," he answered mockingly.She blushed."You liked it?" she asked almost hesitantly.

Damon stared.

"What do you think?" He wrapped her in his arms and gave her a wet, soapy hug.

"So much that if I didn't think it would kill me, I'd do it again right now."

Kate beamed.

She couldn't believe she was acting this way. She was like some wanton woman

who couldn't keep her hands off a man. Not just any man.Damon Alexakis.And of course, she couldn't discuss the way she felt with anyone.They'd stare at her as if she'd lost her mind. Why shouldn't she want him?

they'd ask. Why shouldn't she have him? After all, he was her husband."In name only," she said aloud now in the still darkness of night.Really? she replied. Who was she trying to kid?They'd made love again that evening after dinner, hardly able to wait, barely enjoying the box fish and conch salad Teresa had prepared. They were tooeager for the taste of each other. And though she knew she ought to betrying to control her desire, nothing in Kate seemed to want to rein it in.

It was too new, too astonishing. She was like a child with a new toy--an amazing, unantic.i.p.ated toy. And she couldn't get enough of it. . Of him. She was, to her everlasting chagrin, wanton and embarra.s.sed by her wantonnessat the same time.

It was her insatiable need to be close to Damon that had forced her from the bed in the middle of the night.

She awoke to find herself snuggling against his back, wrap-thing her arms around him, touching him in places that would have shocked her less than twenty-four hours before.

She knew that she could awaken him, rouse him, make the world spin for both of them again. And at the same time she didn't dare. She didn't want to want him this badly. She didn't want to give in to the temptation to make love with him once more.

It was too marvelous, too exciting, too pa.s.sionate.

It scared her. She scared herself. What had become of the steady, reliable, no-nonsense woman she'd been for the past twenty-odd years, especially for the past four? Of course she'd dreamed of finding such an all- consuming love, but she'd expected to find it with Bryce, with a man she loved.

"At least," she told her reflection in the mirror, 'you found it with the man you married. "

For a year.

"A lot can happen in a year," she went on determinedly.

And you think he's going to fall in love with you?

Did she?

She pressed her palms against her cheeks, staring at her reflection, as hermind delicately probed the notion of Damon Alexakis loving her.

Twenty-four hours ago she'd have laughed at the idea. Now she wasn't sure. She only knew that in the s.p.a.ce of a day they had connected on a very basiclevel, on a level she'd never come close to with another man, even Bryce.

Damon had pleasured her, just as he'd said he was pleasured. But he'd done more than that. He'd taught her things about herself that she'd never evensuspected. He'd shared himself in a way that Bryce never had. He'd made her aware of her potential as a woman.

She shut out the light in the bathroom and crept quietly back to the bed. Inthe silver moonlight Damon lay sprawled, the sheet draped loosely over hiships. His dark hair was mussed and spiky, his cheeks and jaw shadowed with aday's worth of beard. Kate eased herself down on the bed beside him,feasting her eyes, remembering the way his hands had moved over her,recalling the tension in his face as he had loved her, and the fiercepossession when he'd made her his own.

She'd left the bed so she wouldn't be tempted to touch him. It was no use.

She stroked a lock of hair off his forehead, smiling at his restless response, at the way his hand groped, seeking hers.

His eyes opened.

"Kate?"

"I'm sorry. I was restless. I didn't mean to disturb you."

He smiled, a lazy, slumbrous smile.

"Didn't you?" And he drew her down into his arms once more, his hands tracing her curves, exploring her hollows, making her shiver and begin again to burn.

"I'm not sure a week is long enough," he said against her lips.

"What do you mean? Long enough for what?"