The gravel voice scored across her, as rough and raw as she felt. She clutched the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up over his shoulders. He lifted for a moment and sat back, discarding the clothing onto the floor. His body golden in the firelight. Hard muscle, with that intoxicating sprinkle of hair across his chest. His eyes on her, all dark heat. Nostrils flaring and he was primal, like some wild untamed thing reserving his passion all for her.
‘Now you.’ Again, a command. He gave her no time to follow it. His hands gripping her top and easing it over her head. Taking her bra with it. She lay, exposed. He hissed, his gaze raking over her as her nipples ruched tight and needy in the night air.
Under his scrutiny, she shifted uncomfortably. The promises she’d made herself pricking at her consciousness now that the fog of Rafe had lifted a fraction. She shifted an arm, to cover herself, and he grasped the hand and pinned it above her head. A flood of heat roared through her at the dominant move. She couldn’t breathe, every inhale a brief suck of air because he stole all the oxygen from the room.
‘This is the dessert I prefer.’ His eyes held hers. ‘Look at you, laid out for me like a feast.’
His hand drifted low, easing up the hem of her skirt. She should stop him. Push him away because of the promises she’d made. To herself.
‘Rafe.’
His name came out high-pitched. A breathy plea. He released her trapped hand, and his free fingers trailed her stomach. Lower and lower till they teased the edge of her underwear. Her hips bucked into him. Wanting, craving his fingers to ease the burn that bit with the edge of pain.
‘Shh... I know. I’ll take care of you.’
No one ever had and she wanted it, wanted him to make everything better. He slid his fingers underneath the edge of her panties. Gentle, teasing lower and lower till they found the spot she craved. She arched, head thrown back. Gasping as he circled. Everything centred on that point between her legs. The craving that consumed her. The noises she made. Moving her hips in time with the inexorable swirl of his fingers as he drew on her slick, desperate flesh.
And any thoughts of promises were blinded in the bright light of pleasure that gripped her body and began an inexorable spiral tighter. He lay on his side now, beside her, stroking her. Murmuring she didn’t know what because language was meaningless in the face of this. The deep dark tone of his voice inflaming her as much as his fingers did. Then he drifted his hand further, to the entrance of her body. Slid inside. One finger. Withdrew. Two. Touching some place deep inside. Making her trembling and frantic. Every nerve screaming for the release only he could give her.
‘Please, please, Rafe.’
‘You deserve kisses, everywhere.’
‘I need more.’
Through fluttering lashes, the haze of arousal, his triumphant smile cut through. She didn’t care. Everything centred on his touch. The heat of it scorched her. Burning between her thighs. She clutched them together because the ache threatened to overwhelm her. Rafe bore down. Eyes all fire and dark desire. He took one nipple in his mouth. His tongue swirling. When she thought he couldn’t ignite more heat inside her, she realised how wrong she was. Then her left nipple. His tongue making a slow trail down the centre of her stomach. Soft kisses and licks. Lower and lower still.Her hips squirmed, he gripped them with strong, warm hands.
‘Open for me.’
Her legs relaxed. He kissed her inner thigh, up and up. Till he was there.There.His breath warm at the apex of her thighs. The touch of his lips, light and gentle. Then his tongue. She arched back. Light exploding behind her eyes. The pleasure. He didn’t stop the slow slide, the tease driving her wild. Everything centred on him, between her legs. A finger now, easing inside. And nothing could hold back the brutal pleasure that built and built and roared over her as she held her breath, clenched her hands tight and rode wave after wave of trembling ecstasy.
He moved over her, his weight pressing her into the couch. His lips on hers, the salt sweet of her own arousal. The thrum of desire still coursing through her. Rafe had broken her apart. She’d been lulled by a belief that a kiss with this man could be so simple, when Rafe was anything but. A cold thread of recrimination wound through her veins. Dark, destructive. The desire that had overwhelmed her, flooding her with an intoxicating warmth, disappeared as if she’d been doused with frigid water.
Before she could push Rafe away he stopped, broke the kiss, gazed down at her with dark eyes burning hot like the fallen embers in the fireplace.
‘I want you. To be inside you,’ he murmured, and his voice slid over her like midnight velvet. ‘What do you want?’
It would be so easy to whisper the word,you. He had the power to make her forget everything, but she hadn’t earned that right.
She never would.
‘Off. Please.’ Her hands splayed on the warmth of his naked chest, the crisp hair teasing under her fingertips, but she didn’t push him away. He was the one to move. Lifting from her. Sitting back on the couch as he dropped his head and raked his hands through his hair.
‘Lise.’Her name on his lips was like a groan. Impassioned. Pained. Stabbing through the very heart of her. All this interlude had proven was that she was weak. Once again, her self-interest had guided her.
What sort of Queen was she if she couldn’t keep vows to the dead?
‘I can’t... Ican’t.’
She stood, naked in body and soul. Rafe would see right through her if he looked hard enough. He always had.
Lise didn’t stop. Didn’t collect her clothes. She turned and fled up the stairs.
Rafe stood in the country kitchen, gulping down a strong, black coffee, Lise’s grass and flower crown withering on the benchtop. How magical she’d looked crowned in flowers, like the hopeful Princess he’d known her to be before life overtook them both. It had seemed like a new beginning, till everything fell apart again.
He glanced at the staircase, at the clock ticking away the hours on the wall. The cold of a brisk, mountain morning nipped at his exposed skin. He’d not slept last night. Listening for any sound from Lise. Alert to every creak and crack of the ancient floors, which in his fevered fantasies meant she was coming to him to finish what they’d started, all the while drowning in the frustration of lust and desire unfulfilled. He’d had plenty of that over the years since he’d first set his sights on Lise but now... Cataloguing those moments on the couch, the taste of her pleasure, the sound. The scent of her arousal that he couldn’t wash away.
That he never wanted to.