His tongue slid into her mouth and she was lost.
“Do you want to come inside?” she whispered shakily a minute later as he pressed his hot mouth to her neck.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he replied.
Chapter Eight
Once they were inside the cottage, Nick whipped his coat off and draped it on a kitchen chair. Deidre was trying to unbutton her coat when he interrupted her by cradling her jaw in both of his hands and lifting her face. He seized her mouth in a searing kiss.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you all day long,” he said a moment later as he helped her draw her coat off her arms. He laid it on top of his, took her hand and led her out of the kitchen.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you, either,” Deidre admitted as she followed him. When they reached the bedroom, Nick switched on the bedside lamp to its dimmest setting. He drew her in front of him and began to unzip her dress. His breath came in uneven puffs of warm air against her neck.
“I hope you don’t think this is crass,” he
mumbled as he brushed the dress over her shoulders, “but this first time might be short and sweet. I feel like the past twelve hours has been ten years, waiting to touch you again.” He groaned when he pushed the dress down to her ankles and she stood wearing only a black bra, panties, thigh-high hose and heels. He ran his hand along her naked hip and stifled a groan. “God, you’re beautiful. Better make that very fast and very furious.” His glance at her was hot and entreating. “I’ll make it up to you afterward. I promise.”
Deidre laughed, flattered by his admission. She turned in his arms. “I believe you,” she said truthfully. She went up on her toes and met him in a kiss. Their mouths clung when he lifted her against him and moved toward the bed, sitting heavily on the edge of the mattress. Deidre’s knees parted as she straddled him. She couldn’t get enough of the taste of him or the sensation of his molding lips and searching tongue. She shivered uncontrollably when he ran his hands over her from shoulder to hip. He placed both hands on her bottom and slid her closer into his lap. She moaned feverishly into his mouth when she felt the strength of his arousal.
No wonder he’d said things would be fast and furious.
Her sex clenched tight at the mere thought.
She became transported with heat...with need. She whispered his name as she rained kisses along his collar and began to tug at his tie. He helped her and she was free to unfasten his shirt. She opened the fabric a moment later and ran her hands over his chest and the erotic swell of his shoulder muscles. It felt so good she leaned down to sample the dense flesh with her teeth.
Nick hissed and his hold on her buttocks tightened. Deidre heard the hard edge of arousal in his tone, and it thrilled her. Her mouth moved over him hungrily, sampling his chest, tasting a small, rigid nipple. She felt feverish...liberated by her desire. She went lower, leaning down and tilting her head to scrape her teeth lightly against the side of a rib.
She began to unbuckle his belt, holding his gaze as she unfastened his trousers.
“Deidre,” he grated out when she took his length into her hand. She wondered anew at how hard and heavy his erection felt against her palm and stroking fingers. His eyes seemed alight with need as he watched her through narrowed lids. “This is how you treat a man when he tells you he’s hurting for you?”
“It’s how I treat you,” she whispered back in a quiet challenge. She braced herself with her hands on his thighs. She slid between his legs until her knees hit the carpet.
“Damn it, Deidre,” he groaned when she took him in her hand again. He combed his fingers through her hair and cradled the back of her skull, the gesture gentle and possessive at once. He halted her from leaning forward.
She looked up at him, admiring the image of his lean, muscular torso between the opening of his white dress shirt, his tie draped around his shoulders. She recalled all too poignantly how she’d once considered him cold, relentless and calculating. He seemed the opposite of that in that moment. He seemed undone by desire, and she loved it.
“I want to,” she told him, her lips moving but no sound coming from her mouth.
His jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. “Far be it from me to stop you then. But I’m going to get you back later.”
“I look forward to it,” she assured him before she leaned forward and tasted him.
* * *
A while later, Nick landed one last kiss along the softness of Deidre’s thigh and rose over her. She lay naked on the bed, her head on the pillows. He was glad he’d left the light on. He wouldn’t have wanted to miss the sublime expression on Deidre’s face at that moment for the world. He lightly licked her upper lip and tasted her sweat, letting it blend with the essence of her on his tongue.
“So proud of yourself for getting back at me so well,” she murmured with a hint of a smile. He dipped his tongue between her lips and heard her soft moan of renewed arousal.
Who had he been kidding? he wondered hazily as he plundered Deidre’s mouth and she responded so wholly, so sweetly...without an ounce of reservation. He’d thought he could maintain at least some level of objectivity when it came to her, but that had been before he’d tasted her...before he felt the perfection of her deepest embrace.
This courageous, beautiful, wounded woman deserved only happiness, and he knew now he would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. But what if they discovered she wasn’t really Lincoln DuBois’s daughter? Would she blame him for the pain she felt if that were true? Would she blame him if he were honest with her about facts over which he had no control?
She arched against him, her breasts pressing against his chest. He answered her need wordlessly, gritting his teeth as he entered her, feeling her muscles clench around him, drawing him deeper, urging him into the center of her heat. He thrust and watched her face through a narrowed gaze, unable to look away from the image of Deidre’s desire, of her acceptance of him.
It’d slice him deep if she withdrew that acceptance.
The thought of Deidre being alone in the world cut at him even worse.