“You mean you’ve decided you’re attracted to me now.”
“Well, yes. Strictly on a physical level.”
“Are you that desperate for a man?”
If he happens to be you…
“Not desperate. But we’re both here, and we’re alone. Why not make these moments as pleasurable as possible. No one else ever has to know.”
She waited to hear his answer. When none was forthcoming, she took it as a yes and scrambled down the ladder with her heart pounding like a jackhammer.
It was taking a gamble, the biggest of her life. But if she could just get him to kiss her, then maybe he would break down enough to admit he loved her. Greer had ended up proposing to Max. Olivia would do the same with Luc. She would confess she was painfully in love with him and wanted to marry him if he would have her. Whatever was in his past, they would deal with it together.
The darkness gave her an edge. She couldn’t see Luc’s expression, and it seemed to bring her senses alive.
Something told her it wasn’t pain that made his breath catch before it turned shallow the second she touched him. The skin on his upper arm felt warm to the touch. It pulsated with life.
This close to his body she breathed in his own male scent. Intoxicated, she leaned over and brushed her lips against his hair-roughened chest. She’d wanted to do this for such a long, long time.
He made no move to touch her back. She didn’t mind doing all the work. From the beginning he’d been a challenge. Like a wild stallion that had never known a rope around its neck, he’d put up an enormous fight.
Gentling him was taking time and patience, but she was winning the fight. Even a thoroughbred who ran alone was vulnerable to a little comfort once in a while.
She started to massage his shoulders, marveling at their strength and breadth. “Doesn’t this feel good?” she whispered. Being able to play with those corded muscles was ecstasy. A man and a woman had been designed with opposites in mind. Beautiful opposites that were meant to fit together as one pulsating entity.
“Do you have any idea how desirable you are to me?” Unable to resist, she found his chin with her lips. “Um. You have a little beard growing there.”
She felt the rasp of his jaw over and over again before her lips slowly moved to his ear. “I love everything about you, Lucien de Falcon. In fact I think I need to take a little bite out of you.”
Her teeth grazed his earlobe. She relished the sensation of his hair brushing against her nose. In the next breath she buried her face in its vibrant texture. Maybe it was because she was so blond, but there was something erotic about kissing hair as black as midnight.
Instinct caused her mouth to travel over his forehead to well-formed brows as dark and luxuriant as his hair. “Your eyelashes are tickling my cheek.” She smiled before kissing each eyelid, then his aquiline nose. The kind that added a hawk-like quality to his features, denoting his aristocratic Falcon heritage. It set him apart from other men.
“You’re the most breathtaking man I’ve ever known,” she confessed. Still on her knees at the side of the bunk, she cradled his face in her hands and started nibbling at the corner of his mouth.
The journey to get this close to Luc had been long and arduous. Almost two months in all. Now that she’d arrived, she intended to take her time and savor what she’d been yearning for.
“I didn’t know you had a little scar there,” she said when she felt the tiny ridge at the other corner. “It’s not visible, but it tells me something about you, even if you won’t. So does the tiny nick on your neck.”
She kissed both spots again, then closed her mouth fully over his, aching for him to sweep her away. “Darling? Help me out,” she begged, feeling feverish at this point.
Just when she was afraid the miracle would never happen, a tremor passed through his powerful body. Suddenly she wasn’t doing all the work anymore. His mouth began to respond.
At first it was like the soft, experimental caress of love’s first kiss between two young teens who’d been anticipating the moment, yet couldn’t quite believe it was really here.
Olivia was running on primal instinct now. Her lips opened of their own accord, unaware of what she was unleashing. Beyond control, all she knew was that the driving force of her desire was coaxing him to take their kiss deeper.
With her mouth fastened on his, she climbed on the mattress, needing to get closer to him. She would be careful not to hurt his leg.
“Finally,” she murmured in rapture when she felt his arms close around her. “I’ve waited so lo—”
Her cry was replaced by little moans because the startling hunger of his kiss had engulfed her. He caught her to him in an explosion of need. The pleasure was so exquisite she felt it to the tiniest nerve ending in her body.
They moved and breathed together, arms, mouths and bodies locked in a melding as old as time itself. She forgot where she was. Time…place…nothing had any meaning except to go up in flames with the man she loved beyond reason.
Suddenly he shifted her away from him. Caught up in a frenzy of overwhelming passion, she was slow to understand she might have done something to injure him. In a clumsy movement, she rolled off the bed and stood up, but her legs were trembling like jelly.
“Forgive me if I hurt you. I didn’t mean to.”