Cursing softly, the words ripe with misery, he bolted upright on the bed, breaking her hold. With his back to her and his head bent, the sinews in his arms stood out as he gripped the edge of the mattress to steady himself.
He looked so alone in that moment. And so ashamed.
“Are you okay?” she asked, but the words seemed hopelessly inadequate.
“Yeah,” he replied, his voice strained and hoarse. “Sorry I woke you.”
Releasing his hold on the mattress, he rubbed his palms over the scars on his forearms, then massaged his knuckles into the damaged flesh as if trying to relieve the pain. Did the old wounds still hurt?
She flattened her palm on the rigid muscles of his spine, desperate to ease his suffering.
“Don’t.” He recoiled off the bed, as if her touch had burned him. “Don’t touch me.”
He stalked across the darkened bedroom to the open terrace doors. Naked, his body looked sleek and powerful limed by moonlight, as if he were a caged animal.
He turned, silhouetted in the moonlight, and she gasped at the sight of his arousal. He was fully erect, the evidence of his need thick and heavy and jutting out from his body at an obscene angle.
Heat fired through her system like molten lava as emotion closed her throat.
“You should go,” he said, his voice grim with warning.
Beneath the threat she could hear the whisper of longing, the distress of that terrified child who had been hurt, who had needed comfort, and who had had no one. Her rational mind told her it was madness to think she could be that someone, but as the heat and desire mixed with the compassion in the milky darkness she knew she had to try.
She lifted the sheet, climbed out of the bed and walked toward him. The breeze skimmed over her bare skin.
His head lifted as she approached and she could feel the barely leashed hunger in his body as he straightened.
“I’m not kidding.” He dragged unsteady fingers through the thick waves of hair. “You need to get the hell out of here...now.”
She didn’t stop, she didn’t even falter, until she was standing in front of him, inches away, inhaling the addictive aroma of his skin. Absorbing the sight of him, both beautiful and terrifying.
“I don’t want to get out, I want to stay here...” she whispered, her voice barely quivering, reminded of her wish from all those years ago. The molten heat gathered in her sex and burned through the final barrier around her heart. “With you.”
Large hands shot out and grasped her upper arms in a bruising grip as he dragged her against him. He dropped his forehead to hers. Tension vibrated through him as the massive erection pushed against her belly and she understood the battle he was waging not to take what he so desperately needed.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” he groaned, the tortured rasps of his breathing making her heart kick against her ribs. “I won’t be gentle. I can’t be.”
She tugged her arms free and cradled cheeks rigid with tension. She forced his tormented gaze to meet hers so he could see the truth in her eyes. “I don’t care.”
His need exploded with a raw groan and strong arms bound her to him. His kisses rained over her face, exploring her neck, sucking on the pulse point in her collarbone, feeding on her cries until he finally possessed her mouth with the forceful strokes of his tongue. She kissed him back, meeting him thrust for thrust.
He held her as his mouth claimed her breast, drawing the rigid nipple into the hot suction. She bucked against his hold, the heat arrowing down. Strong fingers found the slick folds of her sex, stretching the tight flesh. After the long love-making session the evening before, she flinched, but he didn’t gentle his strokes. Instead he demanded more, his thumb circling the bundle of nerves with ruthless intent. She shattered, the orgasm battering her in fierce, undulating waves.
This was not the man who had made love to her for hours the night before with such skill and expertise, coaxing her to peak again and again. This man was raw, basic, brutal, his need primal and desperate, holding nothing back.
He shifted their positions. Her spine pressed against the cool glass of the terrace door as he lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clung to his wide shoulders, trying to steady herself, trying to prepare for the brutal invasion. But still her swollen flesh struggled to adjust as he lowered her onto the huge erection.
At last he was seated deep, so deep she felt impaled, not sure where he ended and she began. The waves of orgasm which had never really ceased began to batter her shattered body again as he grasped her hips and rocked.
She moaned, the hard, heavy thrusts forcing her back to another impossible peak with staggering speed. She clung to him, the only solid object in a stormy sea of exquisite pain, punishing pleasure. Her wild cries matched his hoarse shouts as he drove her past that final edge. And hot seed flooded her insides as he followed her over.
* * *
Jared glided on the shocking pleasure of afterglow, only vaguely aware of the tight clasp of her body and the dizzying aroma of sweet feminine arousal. Shudders racked his body and the sea breeze cooled the sweat on his skin.
But slowly he floated down from the high and awareness intruded...of his fingers digging into tender flesh. Soft breasts crushed against his chest. And the staggered sound of her breathing. He adjusted her weight, trying to relinquish the bruising grip on her hips, and heard the subtle moan. She massaged his length like a velvet fist and arousal pounded back into his crotch.
Shame engulfed him.