My Heart's Desire (Barrett 1)

“I can’t wait.” The words were wrenched from inside him, an admission of weakness that he could no longer deny. Even as he fought against it, he was pressing her thighs apart with his knees, reaching down to touch her where he so desperately needed to be. She was warm and wet and soft. And he was frantic.

“Alex,” he murmured her name, sliding his fingers up and down, stroking gently, feeling her tense at the unexpected caress. “It’s all right, sweetheart. I won’t hurt you. Let me touch you.” He shuddered. “God, you are so wet, so warm.” He slid his fingers inside her. “So tight.” When he heard her ragged moan of pleasure, felt her open to his penetration, something inside him snapped. “Now, love.” He withdrew his fingers and positioned himself at the entrance to her body. He slid his hands under her, lifting her to meet him. “Take me inside you. Wrap yourself around me … Alex, love me.”

With those words he surged forward, tearing the thin membrane that guarded her womanhood, making her his wife.

The pain was a sharp stab within her, suspending the intense pleasure and making her cry out. She tensed her legs, and her hands, which had been clinging to Drake’s back, moved around to his chest, trying to push him off her.

Drake was aware of Alex’s pain, her bewilderment. But he was more aware of the incredible, euphoric feeling of being inside her at last. She was so very small and tight; he could feel her stretching to hold him, feel her body struggling to accept his intrusion. He gritted his teeth at the intense pleasure that coursed through his body. He knew he had to reassure her, to comfort her, but he could not speak, was afraid to move.

It took every fiber of his self-control not to spill himself at that moment. But he wanted more … he wanted it all. And he wanted it with his wife.

It was her soft shudder of pain that gave him the strength he needed. He pressed his lips into her hair, his thumbs making lazy circles on her hips.

“Don’t leave me now, love,” he whispered. “I promise you, the best is yet to be.” He inhaled the scent of her hair and felt his body throb helplessly inside hers. “I’ll wait,” he managed, “until you get used to the feel of me.” He rocked his hips gently against hers, giving her a small taste of what it would be like for them.

Slowly, slowly, he felt her begin to relax beneath him, felt her thighs unclench and ease. Without moving his body he slid his hand between them, finding and caressing her where their bodies were joined, immersing himself in her dewy wetness.

The pain receded. The passion was reignited at a fever pitch. Alex whimpered, arching helplessly against Drake’s fingers, tightening all around him, but this time not in pain.

The final barrier was swept away, annihilated in a tidal wave of desire. Madness took over, invading them, possessing them. Drenched in sweat, Drake devoured Alex’s mouth, her throat, her neck, her breasts, crushing her against his pounding body, desperate to be deeper inside her, lifting her legs higher around him.

Alex called her husband’s name over and over, wrapping her legs around his waist and meeting his frenzied thrusts with her own. She threw back her head, panting, wanting, needing, and, at last, begging Drake to end the torture, to relieve the taut knot of escalating pressure that coiled tighter and tighter inside her, threatening to devour her very soul.

Her soft, desperate pleas took Drake’s last shred of sanity. He plunged wildly inside her, grinding his body against hers, withdrawing only to bury himself inside her again and again.

“Alex …” Her name was torn from his chest. “Come with me. Now, love, it has to be now.”

She opened her eyes at his broken command, and in that frozen moment in time just before the spasms claimed her, she knew that she was in love with her husband. She closed her eyes against the intensity of the emotion, then cried out as bursts of nearly painful pleasure convulsed her body. She buried her mouth against Drake’s shoulder, tasting the salt of his sweat and dying in his arms.

Drake felt the wild pulsations of Alex’s climax all around him. He tensed above her, every muscle taut and straining, as his own climax built higher and higher, beyond bearing, until it exploded, tearing him apart, flooding from his body into hers in powerful spurts of completion that seemed endless.

And Drake knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that despite his reputation as an accomplished, controlled lover, he was utterly, entirely lost. For the first time he was unable to think, unable to breathe, incapable of holding back or remaining untouched. All he could do was to surrender himself body and soul to the only woman who had penetrated his walls of self-protection.

To his wife.

Chapter 15

“IT SEEMS ALMOST TOO quiet, Captain.”

Smitty leaned his chin on his folded arms and gazed out over the lake, worry evident on his weathered face. “Rather like the calm before the storm.”

It was true. They were well into their second day of travel, and there had been no sign of American military ships on Lake Ontario. To the contrary, all was peaceful, with little traffic about them.

“I’m not terribly concerned, Smitty,” Drake replied from his position at the helm. “Initially this war appears to be on paper only, a formal declaration of hostilities without any bloodshed. Remember, it took nine days for news of the war to reach York. Many Canadians are still unaware of its onset. That is why I wanted to leave York as soon as possible, before panic had set in and before the battles had begun.”

Smitty nodded. The weather was their ally, the skies a brilliant shade of blue and the crystal waters of Lake Ontario glistening beneath them. The favorable westerly winds blew fiercely, propelling them toward the point where the lake narrowed into the Saint Lawrence River.

Smitty relaxed a bit. “With any luck we will be within sight of Kingston by daybreak.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I am hoping. The sooner we clear American waters, the easier I will rest.”

Smitty turned and glanced at Drake. “We have some distance to cover before that will occur,” he reminded him. “These will be dangerous weeks, Captain. I pray we can reach London safely.”

“We will.” It was a statement of fact. “I presume our men and our guns are prepared, should they be needed?”

“Of course, Captain.”

Drake tightened his hands on the wheel. “Then nothing can stand in our way.”