I start to protest that he needs to stop protecting me when I've told him I'll go with him wherever he needs me to go. But then I realize this isn't about protecting me, but about protecting himself.
He's fighting hard to hold it all in. To push it all back. His memories. His fears. The dark desires that he loathes.
I want him to stop fighting--to let it out--to share with me all of what happened in there, in the dark. To tell me what it is he craves.
I want that--even more, I need it. And I know that he needs it, too.
But I don't say a word. I can't push him on this. Not now. Not when we're both still raw.
"Jane?"
I hear the concern in his voice and force a smile to my lips. "I love you," I say. "I just wanted to tell you that I love you."
"Oh, baby."
He pulls me to him and kisses me gently, then eases me down onto the area rug. It's soft and thick, and I stretch my arms above my head as he straddles me. Slowly, he kisses his way down my body, then gently parts my thighs.
I feel the whisper of breath on my clit and arch up, my hands over my breasts. My palms brush my sensitive nipples in time with his tongue laving my clit, sending waves of pleasure crashing through me with such wild brutality that my entire body is trembling.
His fingers are inside me, his mouth playing me. I'm lost in pleasure, and I want to explode even as much as I want this sensation to last, but I have no control at all. I've surrendered entirely to Dallas. His touch, his demands, his teases and caresses, and it's all too much. Building and building until finally it is as though reality is yanked out from under me, and I burst apart, with Dallas right there to hold me and put me back together.
I gasp and shudder, my body lost in pleasure as he slides up my body and holds me close, telling me he loves me. Telling me that I'm his. Telling me that everything is going to work out.
"Promise?" I whisper when I can form words again.
"Always."
I smile, then slide my hand down to stroke him. I'm pretty much bare, but he is still very clothed. And very hard.
I meet his eyes as my hand cups his steel-hard cock. "You really should do something about that. Or perhaps I could volunteer my services? Take over until you want to finish?"
But he only shakes his head as he presses his hand on top of mine. "I like this," he says. "I like feel
ing what you do to me."
Oh.
"When you put it like that, I like it, too." I kiss him lightly and curl against him, and for the first time since the party began, it feels like we're us again. I sigh, thinking of what happened. Of my fears and doubts. Then I tilt my head back to look at him.
"I'm sorry I didn't trust you earlier. Thinking that you wanted a three-way with Fiona. I'm just--I saw that you were hard and I got jealous."
He brushes a kiss over my forehead. "We said no secrets," he says softly, "and I already told you that I didn't want her. That I don't want her. And that's the truth. But I did hold something back."
"You did?" I shift a bit, not because I want to put distance between us, but because I want to see him better.
"She is attractive," he says. "And I know she's a good time in bed."
I scowl. "Gee. Now I feel better."
He chuckles. "I'm not finished. The thing is, the kidnapping has been on my mind lately what with--well, us. And this thing with Darcy and Deliverance. But it was unfair of me to compare getting hard because Fiona touched me with what the Woman did." He twists a lock of my hair around his finger. "Unfair to her and unfair to you."
I swallow, trying to dissipate the lump that has settled in my throat. "So, are you saying that you do want her?"
"Now? Oh, baby, no. But I won't deny that she's hot. Or that I've had good times with her in bed before. I meant what I said, sweetheart. Only you. But I play this role and I have to be ... receptive. It's hard not to--"
I lift a brow. "Method act?"
"You could say that."