“Because I couldn’t let you disappear from my life again. I nearly didn’t survive it the first time,” he rasped. “I’ve got to have you in my life, Kathleen.”
“I’m married.”
“Yes, legally. But that man isn’t your true husband.” Erik’s hands settled lightly but firmly on her shoulders. “Have you and the man you’re married to ever had intercourse?”
Then, right then, she should have slapped his face and told him her private life with Seth was none of his business. Instead, Kathleen shook her head. “No.”
“Is he the father of your son?” His hands, warm and strong, cupped her cheeks and eased her head backward.
“No,” she mouthed as his face descended until his lips rested against hers. He asked huskily, “Who is your husband, Kathleen?”
“You,” she groaned softly before his lips claimed hers and she was swept into a captivating embrace. He lifted her off her feet, bringing their bodies as close to each other as clothes would allow.
“Kathleen, kiss me, kiss me,” he urged as he raised his lips from hers only long enough to draw breath.
She met his suggestion with abandonment, offering her mouth to the plunder of his and sending her own tongue on wild expeditions. When he finally allowed her feet to touch the floor, he wound his arms around her and pressed her face into his wet shirtfront. “Don’t ever leave me again without telling me where you are. I nearly went crazy, Kathleen. God, don’t do that to me again.” She could feel the expulsion of his breath on each word as he nuzzled her hair.
“No.” She shook her head. “I won’t.” Then her voice changed and she laughed softly. “If you promise me one thing.”
He pulled back slightly and looked down at her. “What?”
“That you won’t get me all wet the next time you come after me.”
He saw that teasing, happy glow in her green eyes, which hadn’t been there since he had kissed her and waved goodbye that fateful day more than two years before. The grin he returned was open and carefree, lacking any of the hard cynicism that usually curled his lip into a parody of a smile. “I promise.”
He lowered his mouth to hers once again and played upon it. She chased his elusive lips with her own and growled in frustration when they wouldn’t be caught. When he raised his head this time, she recognized that devilish gleam in his eyes. “I didn’t bring any other clothes. What do you suggest I do?”
“Well,” she answered, as if pondering a great problem. “We’re probably going to be kissing a lot. And since I don’t want to walk around in a wet terry-cloth jumpsuit, I guess the only solution is for you to take off all your clothes.”
Erik snapped his fingers and his face brightened. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
She giggled like a young girl. “Why don’t you peel them off and I’ll get a towel.”
He grabbed her arm as she went around him. “One quick kiss before you go.”
She obliged him and then went into the bathroom. While she was there, Kathleen quickly sprayed Mitsouko around her shoulders and breasts. It seemed only natural to take off her jump suit. She walked out with the towel in front of her.
Erik was down to his underwear, and then that was no longer a hindrance to his nakedness when he turned around to face her. She caught her breath at the sight of his
body. It was magnificent in its strength and hardness.
He came to her slowly, studying her reaction and feeling confident with what he saw in her eyes. When he stood only a breath away from her, Kathleen said, “You are my Danish prince.”
“No, that was Hamlet.”
She smiled. “He didn’t have a thing over you.” She lifted the towel to his hair and ruffled through it, though it was almost dried by now. Then she lovingly dabbed the soft cloth to each feature of his face. His shoulders and arms came next, and when the towel was necessarily lowered, she heard him draw in his breath when he saw that she, too, was naked.
She flattened the towel on his chest and rubbed her hands over it to dry him. It was more a caress than a motion of necessity. Her hands moved down over his taut stomach to his abdomen. Kathleen smiled secretly at his disappointment when she removed the towel and draped it across his shoulders. He was compensated by being able to look at her without the screening of the towel.
She took one corner of the towel in each hand and pulled it back and forth across his back, working her way down and at the same time moving closer to him. When she reached the small of his back, Erik held his breath expectantly. His patience was rewarded.
She drew the towel back and forth over his hips as she settled against him. Now it was her turn to open her eyes wide in surprise and gasp in pleasure when she felt the potency of his arousal against her.
“It’s your fault,” he chided when he sensed her startled reaction. His mustache tickled her ear as he mumbled against it, “You’ve brought on the ailment, and only you can cure it.”
Finished now with games, he put his arms around her and pulled her inexorably against him. His lips covered hers, parting them with his tongue. He nipped her lips gently with his teeth.
Kathleen swayed against him, alive with prickling sensations as every nerve of her body cried out for his touch. The hands that stroked her back and teased her spine were skilled. They cupped her hips and lifted her to meet his passion.