Her gaze flickered to his straining erection, but at this moment, it wasn’t sex he needed. He knelt in front of her, staring back at her, his arms lying along the sides of the chair.
“I saw you crying, Elizabeth. I heard you whisper my name and ask God on a prayer to bring you a miracle. And in just that instant I woke up. I made myself wake up, because I knew to my soul you were my mate. My woman. And I knew I had to find you.”
Her eyes were filled with tears, brilliant sapphire gems that pierced his heart with beauty and her pain.
“I was,” she whispered before swallowing tightly, her voice hoarse. “I was standing there, and it was raining. Cassie had gone to bed whispering that you would save us. How did she know, Dash? How could she have known?”
“It doesn’t matter how she knew,” he told her firmly. “All that matters was that she did and it was right. You’re right, Elizabeth. I don’t know a lot of very important things about you, but I know your strength, and I know your heart. And nothing or no one short of death will take that from me. So never, ever doubt that I do know and respect the abilities you’ve shown to protect yourself and that child. I respect them, and I thank God for them daily. For them and for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
She was crying when he leaned forward, his lips touching hers, rubbing against them gently. As the small rivulets of moisture reached his mouth, his lips moved to her cheek. With infinite tenderness he kissed them away, drawing the moisture into his mouth as his hands cupped her head.
Warmth rushed through her, piercing the shell she had fought so desperately to keep between her heart and this man’s total acceptance of her. From the first moment, in the diner, he had taken over, clearing her way, sheltering her and Cassie as she rested. He had paved the way for her daughter’s safety, given her a chance to once again regain control of her own life, and in the bargain, he had given her the very core of who and what he was.
Gentle words. Soft kisses. Like now, his lips moving over her face as he crooned gently to her.
“Don’t cry, baby. Your tears rip at my soul. Don’t you know that? I would move heaven and earth to wipe away any pain you would know, if I could.”
And he would. She saw it in the somber lines of his face, the golden glow of his eyes. The man couldn’t be real. It wasn’t possible. How had she ever deserved for God to answer her prayer in this manner, with this man? He was strong, too arrogant, and too sure of himself for her to be comfortable with, but a man whose voice rang with quiet honor, with acceptance of all he was.
He never made excuses. He didn’t pretend to have all the answers. But he was like a boulder of strength beside her, clearly willing to shelter her however she needed. And he had come to her without expectations, knowing the danger she and Cassie faced. Knowing the risk to his own life.
When he drew back, staring down at her with a flare of heat and a gaze filled with adoration, she didn’t know what to say. No one had ever accepted her so completely.
“You don’t know me,” she said, suddenly afraid that the faults she knew she possessed would weaken what she saw in his eyes. “You don’t know what I’m like.”
“And you don’t know what I’m like,” he agreed softly. “You don’t know how I have to fight my possessiveness and my need to hold back to keep you safe. How dominant I get and how kinky I can get sexually. I have the same fears you do, Elizabeth. We’ll work through them.”
“How can you be so certain?” She was frightened now, terrified one day he would see her as she knew she was. Grumpy in the mornings, irrational during PMS, and most of all, willing to kill a man in cold blood.
His fingers slid over her cheeks, his thumb smoothing against her lips.
“I don’t know how, Elizabeth,” he said. “All I know is that the bond with you was stronger than with any other woman, before I ever found you in that diner. That I knew you in my dreams, in the darkest depths of unconsciousness. That I know I would kill anyone, without first considering his right to live, who attempted to harm so much as a hair on your head. You complete something that has been missing inside me. That’s all I know. I don’t ask for more. The rest will come in time.”
She breathed in raggedly as she stared back at him, feeling the heat of his body enfolding her, the warmth wrapping around her like a cloud of comfort. It sent shivers chasing up her spine to realize she had never known anything like it. At the same time, she realized how swollen her breasts were, the nipples throbbing in lo
nging. Between her thighs, her cunt pulsed, spilled its precious moisture and further slickened the plump lips there.
“I can smell your heat,” he whispered as his lips lowered to hers, barely brushing against them as he stared back at her with drowsy sensuality. “Hot and sweet. Do you know what that does to me, Elizabeth?”
He urged her to unfold her legs, pulling them down until they lay along the outside of his. His fingers worked at the knot of her robe then, loosening it slowly.
“What?” Her breathing was rough now, heavy, as she fought to drag in air to combat the extreme excitement his touch always caused to rise within her.
“It makes me very hungry,” he revealed. “It makes me want to eat you slow and easy, drawing every drop of cream into my mouth and making more flow as I lick into your tight pussy. It makes me want to hear you scream, feel you shudder and pulse and spill your sweet juices against my tongue.”
“God! Dash!” He made her weak, made her shiver in anticipation as he drew the edges of the robe back from her body.
“Oh, look how pretty.” His gaze went to her straining breasts. “So full and sweet, with the prettiest little berries resting atop them. I want to taste your pretty breasts as well, Elizabeth.”
Her head fell back against the chair as she watched his head lower. His hands cupped the full mounds and lifted them to his mouth, his gaze never leaving hers as his tongue licked over a nipple slowly.
“Dash. Are you going to torture me?” She gripped the sides of the chair in desperation.
“No, baby. I’m going to love you.” He laved the hard tip with wicked flicks of his tongue, watching her closely as he did so. “Do you like it, Elizabeth?” he asked her softly seconds later as his lips rubbed over the twin mound and began to caress it as well.
“Too much,” she panted.