‘It’s not done with money, David.’ Her mind dictated the words. Her heart was torn with the desire to simply forget everything in the passion of coming together again.
‘The money’s irrelevant,’ he said dismissively. ‘I wanted to please you, Caitlin. To show you I’m not all take. I can give. And I’ll give you all I can.’
Tears swam into her eyes. ‘Go and get us a room, David,’ she said huskily.
He looked uncertain. ‘Are you sure, Caitlin? You’re crying.’
She nodded. ‘I’m just being over-emotional. It’s been hard for me, too. Please go. I’ll wait for you here.’
He leaned over and brushed his lips tenderly over hers. She felt his tension, knew he was barely restraining himself. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ he murmured, and left her.
Caitlin blinked the tears away. David wasn’t promising her all she wanted, but she felt wrong about holding out on him any longer. Love wasn’t a matter of barter. If it wasn’t freely given, what was it worth? He needed her. She needed him.
She alighted from the car to wait for him. He wasn’t long. He came striding towards her, so essentially male, strong, dynamic, and passionately involved with her. She moved to meet him. He didn’t break stride. He scooped her to his side, his arm almost encircling her waist with possessive fervour.
‘It’s number three,’ he said, the key to the unit held ready in his other hand.
She said nothing. Her heart had started to thump with almost painful wildness. She was intensely aware of his thigh brushing against hers.
‘I’ll tell you why you’re special to me, Caitlin. You wanted a list. I’ll tell you what’s at the top.’
Caitlin looked at him inquisitively. She didn’t know what was bringing on this flurry of words, whether they reflected the urgency of his desire or the deep well of his inner feelings.
‘You are the essence of womanhood and femininity. You act coquettishly, but you’re not a coquette. A coquette teases and tantalises for the pleasure of it. You tease, tantalise and satisfy for the pleasure of it.
‘You surprise me continuously with your range of responses to situations. Unpredictable but always logical. No woman could give more in her infinite variety.
‘You warm me, charm me, keep me smouldering. When the flames die down to embers you fan them into a roaring blaze once more. No other woman could suffice.
‘A man buys a woman when he can get up and leave her without a pang or a single regret. That never has happened between us, Caitlin. It never will.
‘When I hold you in my embrace, I know with a certainty that there can be no other woman. There is no other woman. There never will be any other woman.’
His breathing was ragged, his pulse erratic. It was a
s close to saying he loved her as it was possible to get without saying the words.
She kissed his neck. ‘Would you mind repeating all that, David?’
‘Fiend,’ he said.
They reached the door of the unit. She pushed her thoughts away. They weren’t important right now. David wanted her. She wanted him. Feeling again what they felt together was more important than anything else.
He used the key.
The door opened.
Caitlin did not hesitate.
It was another threshold to be crossed in her love for David Hartley.
She crossed it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PERHAPS it was knowing he cared that made the difference. It seemed to Caitlin that everything meant so much more...the way David kissed her, touched her, held her. He seemed attuned to her every response, nurturing it, heightening it, pleasuring her with a slow, intense sensuality as though wanting to savour every moment of increasing intimacy with her.
Despite his earlier pent-up frustration, David displayed no sense of haste. It was as though he was discovering her again as he peeled her clothes from her body, pausing to caress and love each part of her he uncovered. If she had been a goddess she could not have felt more thoroughly worshipped.