“Is it?” His gaze accused her of the lie. “I think you’re less afraid of dealing with that madman who would like to slit your throat than you are of facing your real feelings for me.”
“My feelings?” she asked, licking her lips in unwitting invitation.
“Right. I think you’re afraid that if you stay here too long with me, you won’t have the willpower to leave.”
Though his guess was close to the truth, she laughed nervously. “You always did have an incredible ego.”
His smoldering look accused her of the lie. She knew he was going to kiss her. In the intimate room, alone in the wilderness, he was going to take her into his arms and she wouldn’t be able to resist. “Please, Zane, if you care about me—”
“I do. I told you that. I also told you that I love you.”
“Then, if you love me, take me home.”
He hesitated, pain shadowing his eyes. “This is home, Kaylie. You and me together—that’s home.”
“Not anymore, Zane,” she said, forcing the words out. “And never again.”
“You’re kidding yourself.”
“I—I think you’re the one doing the kidding.”
“Am I?” His expression darkened, and the lines around the corners of his mouth grew tight. He grabbed her wrist and slowly tugged, pulling her toward him. Deliberately he lowered his head, until his lips hovered over hers. “I can’t leave you alone,” he admitted hoarsely, his face only inches from her, his breath stirring the wet strands of her hair, his gaze moving to the pout of her lips. “Damn it, I want to, but I…just…can’t.” He tugged on her arm, and his mouth claimed hers in a kiss that burned deep into her heart.
Though a thousand reasons to run flitted through her mind, her love for him still lingered. His lips were warm, his body, hard and long, his arms strong. Tilting her head upward, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the pent-up desire she’d tried so desperately to suppress. Lost in the wonder of his male body pressed urgently against hers, she didn’t stop him when one hand tangled in her hair, the other splaying possessively against her back. He kissed her throat and eyes and cheeks, and she tingled everywhere, aching for him.
Slowly he lowered her onto the bed and she didn’t protest. His tongue slid between her teeth, flicking against her tongue, causing thrills to chase up her spine.
Her nipples grew hard, and dark peaks pressed against the thin cotton of her gown. Her breasts ached for his touch, and she moved intimately against him, rewarded by the feel of his hands slipping past the cotton, sliding the nightgown over her shoulder, exposing her whi
te skin.
His thumb grazed her nipple, and she moaned. Zane lowered his head, suckling on the tiny dark bud, flicking it with his tongue, igniting her blood. Wanting so much more, Kaylie writhed against him. Impatiently his hands slid the nightgown over her other shoulder, baring both breasts.
With a primal groan he kissed both white mounds and buried his head in the cleft between them, alternately suckling from one, then the other.
“Oh, Kaylie,” he rasped, kneading one soft mound as he kissed the other. “Don’t ever stop.” Slowly his hand lowered to the hem of her nightgown, his fingers grazing her thigh, skimming her skin that already felt on fire.
“Please…” she whispered.
He groaned, ripping the nightgown from her body and dropping to his knees, his hands on her bare buttocks as he touched her heated flesh with his tongue, kissing her breasts and abdomen and lower. Sucking in her breath, she leaned against him, her hands tangling in his hair as he explored and probed until she could think of nothing but the swirling hot void, a vortex of want, an emptiness only he could fill.
“I love you,” he vowed, his hands still massaging her buttocks as he stood.
Oh, God, if she could only believe him. The words rang in her ears. But did he know that love and possession weren’t the same? Could he learn?
Unable to resist, she boldly touched the waistband of his jeans. He made a primal sound deep in his throat, then tilted her head up to his. “Yes, love,” he whispered, eyes glazed with passion.
She slid his jeans over his legs and he kicked himself free of them and wrapped strong arms around her middle. In one swift motion, he whirled her onto the bed and was lying over her, his gaze locked with hers, his tongue rimming her lips. “Just love me,” he whispered.
“Oh, Zane, I do.”
Closing his eyes for a second, he parted her legs with his and entered her swiftly. She sucked in her breath as he began to move, slowly at first, then with an ever-increasing rhythm that drove all thoughts from her mind.
She was here with Zane, making love, and that was all that mattered. They moved together, fusing, loving, spiraling upward and soaring above the clouds. Heaven and earth seemed to splinter before her eyes and she cried his name as she tumbled on a slow, heated cloud back to earth. “Zane, oh, Zane!”
“I’m here, love,” he murmured into her hair. “I always will be.”
“I know,” she whispered, more content than she’d ever been, snuggling deep in his arms, resting her head against the soft mat of hair on his chest, listening to the loud cadence of his heart. This seemed so right, so perfect.