He might not understand the rules they were playing by, or even know the name of the game, but this was Annie. And loving her had always been natural to him.
“Come here,” he said, waiting for her to step toward him before he touched her. This had to be what she wanted. Or it wouldn’t happen.
It took her several long minutes, full of searching looks and silences. Just about the time Blake was convincing himself it wasn’t going to happen after all, she took one step forward.
Where he got the willpower to wait for her to continue he had no idea.
When she took the second step, he almost moaned with the mixture of pleasure and pain that swept through him. Lifting his hand again, as he’d started to do earlier, he ran two fingers through her long curls. And then again. Pretty soon an entire hand was buried in the silky locks. And then both hands.
“Ah, Annie, you have no idea how good this feels,” he said, shaking as he reacquainted himself with this first tender experience.
She didn’t say anything, but when she shifted forward still more, pressing her mouth to his, Blake pulled her against him and thought that he wasn’t going to ever let her go.
Even while he knew full well that, when he’d done what he came to do, he would, indeed, have to.
And never come back.
Annie might still share the intensity of his sexual desire, but beyond that there could be nothing between them.
She craved emotional strength and reassurance.
And Blake saw devils on his chest when he went to bed at night.
SHE’D PROMISED HERSELF to be detached, not to give in to the experience of being in Blake’s arms again. She’d promised herself not to lose all the strength and perspective and control she’d so painstakingly gained in the years since his disappearance. She’d promised herself that being with him one more time wouldn’t matter.
And then he touched her.Standing rigidly, Annie distracted herself with thoughts about nursery furniture, and yet she was completely, stunningly aware of Blake’s fingers brushing her neck, her shoulder, as they ran through her hair. She analyzed the sensation—or tried to.
Her entire body weakened with the need for more. Thought was harder to hold on to. Focus impossible.
Instincts she didn’t know she possessed took hold of her, wiping away memories that were too painful to bear, ideas and plans and thoughts that served no purpose here. She had to lean forward. To find his lips.
So she did.
And knew at once that she was in the right place. She belonged here. Blake’s taste was exactly the same. As if she’d had her mouth open to his only moments before, instead of years. She hadn’t even known he had a taste. Or that she’d recognize it again in an instant. His scent spoke to her, as well, as if it were a part of her. And she couldn’t get enough of either.
She kissed him, again and again. Mindless of the fact that they didn’t need to do this to make a baby.
There was strength here. Something mu
ch more powerful than muscle or one person’s determination. A cord that ran from some greater source through him to her. Pulling her in.
She had no chance to resist. No desire or power to resist.
And when his tongue met hers, she didn’t remember why she could possibly have wanted to resist. Nothing was better than this. Nothing was safer or seemed more right than being skin to skin with Blake, connected to him, on the way to being one with him.
Unless it was the act itself.
NOT QUITE SURE HOW THEY’D gotten from half-dressed, beside the bed, to nearly naked and on the bed, Annie had at least one lucid moment when Blake reached for her panties.
She wanted them off as much as he did. Needed to make room for him. To invite him in where she needed him so badly.To feel his hands upon her, working magic that only he could work.
To replace the feel of another man’s hands, body, in a place she’d once promised Blake for all time and eternity.
And yet, as his fingers slid beneath the thin elastic band that ran across her hips, she hesitated, knew a moment of unease. Her frightened eyes sought reassurance from his. Or maybe understanding.
She could lose something vital in these next moments. Exactly what, she couldn’t grasp. She just knew that to allow this one last bit of lace to be eased away, to be so completely exposed to him, she was crossing a line and would never be able to come back. She’d no longer be free of him.
“You want to stop?” His voice was raspy, but his question completely sincere.