‘What…what do you mean?’
‘You know what I mean. I mean this.’ He pushed back the sleeve of her robe, stroking his fingertips the length of her inner arm until they rested on the furious race of her pulse.
Sadie could feel her body yearning towards his, wanting him, wanting everything he had denied her earlier.
‘And this,’ he continued gently, as he raised his hand to brush his fingertips across her throat. ‘You love me, don’t you?’ he demanded.
He was so self-assured, so arrogant, that part of her wanted to be able to deny his words, to shake her head and tell him that he was wrong. But she couldn’t. Not when he was teasing tender little kisses along the length of her collarbone, pushing back the neckline of her robe so that it slid off her shoulder, offering up the creamy swell of her naked breasts to his touch, showing him the eager dark flush of her nipples. No wonder he was cupping her breast and teasing her nipple into an even harder peak, tugging it gently with his thumb and forefinger so that it stiffened even more, when her longing arched through her from where he was touching her to the heat of her sex.
‘What happens if I say yes?’ Sadie asked huskily, made bold by the look in his eyes. A heady euphoria was taking possession of her, encouraging her to dare to tease him in response to that look. It was like learning to dance, Sadie decided a little breathlessly, and suddenly discovering that by some kind of magical empathy your steps were fitting together so well that you moved as one, without hesitation or awkwardness.
‘This,’ Drax answered her softly, cupping her face in his hands and then stringing tiny kisses along the line of her lips, alternating kisses with the words, ‘I love you, Sadie Murray,’ so that they became a paean of loving sensuality and desire that dissolved her doubts and melted her resistance.
‘In that case, perhaps I should say it,’ Sadie whispered back to him. ‘I like to hear you telling me that you love me.’
‘I think you’d like it even more if I showed you as well as told you,’ Drax murmured.
Sadie b
arely felt the robe being slipped from her shoulders. It was all she could do to respond unsteadily, ‘You do?’
‘I do,’ Drax said, and then he gathered her up in his arms, almost crushing her to him as he kissed her with all the fierce passion she’d been longing for.
The time for teasing and flirting was over.
Could there be anything more heart-soaringly beautiful and meaningful than this? Sadie marvelled as she lay on her bed in Drax’s arms while he kissed and caressed her and whispered to her how much he loved her and how sorry he was for ever doubting her.
‘I love you so much,’ Sadie whispered back. ‘I want you so much,’ she added truthfully. ‘Take off your clothes, Drax, so that I can see you and touch you.’
‘You do it,’ he urged, taking hold of her hands and placing them on his body. ‘While I do this…’
How was she supposed to concentrate on fabrics and fastenings when Drax was kissing his way down the slope of her breast and then sensitising the dark aroused flesh of her nipple to the point of such exquisite and unbearable pleasure that it made her cry out his name? Wildly Sadie arched up to his mouth, her fingers digging into the hard muscles of his arms as she shuddered in the vortex of the surges of erotic need induced by the sensation of his lips closing round her aroused flesh. She was lost, taken over, filled by the intensity of her own fierce desire. She wanted to hold his head against her breast; she wanted to arch up against him, naked flesh to naked flesh; she wanted to wrap her legs tightly around him and draw him down to her so that he was within her and she was holding him, possessing him, drawing him deeper into that place where she ached for him.
But Drax wasn’t responding to her passionate nonverbal pleas. Instead he was smoothing her gently onto the bed and then kissing his way down her body, his hands on her hips, his tongue circling her navel. Shivers of the most exciting and erotic sensation radiated out from where Drax was caressing her. He stroked his fingertips slowly and gently over the tops of her thighs, brushing her skin so lightly and delicately that she immediately yearned for more, for a stronger, more intimate touch. Of their own free will her legs softened and parted, inviting the movement of his hand to cup her sex whilst she closed her eyes to absorb the warm intimacy of his touch.
The pulse of her own need was hot and heavy, so fast and urgent that it was consuming her, making her arch up against his hand, small sounds of longing escaping from her lips until Drax took them from her in a possessive kiss. The tip of his tongue probed gently between her lips, almost mirroring the movement of his fingertip, stroking apart the swollen heaviness of the soft lips that protected her sex. First one and then the other parted in eager welcome, urging him to deeper intimacies. Whilst his tongue meshed and danced with hers, weaving a pattern of erotic enticement, his fingertip stroked the same message of promised delight along the wetness of her sex, until it reached the tight, excited centre of her pleasure.
She cried out, a muffled, almost disbelieving sound, riding the rhythmic storm of her pleasure as it possessed her, leaving her quivering in awed delight in the shelter of his arms.
‘I want you, Drax,’ she whispered passionately to him. ‘I want you inside me. Now…’
His arms tightened around her. She could feel the hard urgent throb of his erection, and her fingers reached eagerly for it so that she could stroke and caress him. But even though she could feel him growing ready beneath her touch, even though she moved invitingly against him, he did not cover her and take possession of her. Instead, he kissed her tenderly and told her softly, ‘Not yet. I love you, Sadie, and I want our first time to be a special pleasure. I want you to marry me, Sadie.’
‘Oh, Drax.’
‘Is that a yes?’ Drax demanded.
When Sadie nodded her head, Drax kissed her tenderly.
‘You never told me your brother was your twin,’ she accused him as he released her, suddenly remembering that she hadn’t yet told him about seeing his brother. ‘At first when he walked into the garden I thought he was you. He looks like you. But I knew somehow that he wasn’t you—even before he spoke to me.’
‘Most people can’t tell us apart even when they’ve known us for a long time.’
‘Maybe it’s because I love you that I can?’ Sadie suggested softly. ‘Not that it wasn’t a bit of a shock to discover that you hadn’t warned me that there are two of you.’
‘Vere is so much a part of me that I tend to take it for granted, I suppose.’
‘You’re very close, then?’