Mirror of My Soul (Nature of Desire 4)

He smiled. “For me, too. Maybe that’s the simplest definition of love there is, angel. ”

Cupping her face in his large palm, he kissed her deep, slow until she was leaning into him, holding on to his wet polo shirt. Laying her palms on either pectoral, she thought about how much bigger, broader he was than herself. Though she’d dominated subs, the experience of touching a man and feeling the gift of his strength and protectiveness, his masculine self, was something Tyler had specifically given her. She traced the outline of him, the way the cloth fit over his body and felt her breath catch in her throat at the wonder of it.

He could feel her knees weakening, just as she felt his heart increase its pounding beneath her hand. Tightening his hands around her waist, he lifted her, carried her to the space of floor between the altar area and front pews where a deep blue rug had been laid, a tapestry of birds and angels.

“Tyler. ” She looked up at him. “This is blasphemous. ” He couldn’t resist the heat of his desire, not with her mouth wet with rain and his kiss. Her neck and breasts were beaded with drops while the soft pinkness of her flesh showed through the cotton dress. Lovely, natural.

“This isn’t sin. ” He managed the words in a voice thick with want. “It’s sacred.

Everything I do with you, every touch, every kiss, every word murmured in reverence against your flesh, is sacred. And you’re cold. I want to warm you. ” Standing above her, he toed off his loafers and removed his clothes. He came down to her naked, kneeling between her legs. Sliding the wet fabric of the dress up her body, over her stomach, he bent to kiss her navel, took a sloping track to one hipbone, then the other. He pulled the dress off her, laying it aside to look at her, pale, wet and naked under his gaze.

Marguerite was helpless not to do the same. His tanned shoulders gleamed with the light of the stained glass window and the dampness of the storm outside. His chest expanded as he breathed deep and long, breathing her in, his eyes locking with hers. At length, she lifted her arms and he lowered his body to her, guiding himself. She tilted up, aching to find him, letting out a soft moan as he eased into her, bringing her his heat and life. When she wound her arms around his neck, her legs twined around his hard, muscular body. She realized then there were ways to cleanse her soul she’d never known existed. Like immersing it in the loving embrace of another. The candles flickered on the altar and she counted. One…David. Two…her mother. Three…

Perhaps even the long-dead spirit of what had been her father. There was a fourth, making her wonder if Nina’s spirit danced here still, touching Tyler, being a part of him forever.

The clouds shifted and the shadows of the dove’s

wings covered her face, broken by pieces of sunlight now coming through the clear planes of glass. The jeweled blue of the design joined the mix, coloring his skin, making his eyes glow in the church’s dim light.

He stroked her inside with his cock, the length of him deep in her channel and against her quivering clit. Because she wanted to do it, she released his shoulders, let her hands fall above her and offered her throat.

“Ah, angel. ” He covered her jugular with his mouth. Bit. Her body tightened, surrendering with a soft sigh of relief, wanting to give him anything he asked, wanting him to ask for it all.

Her cries came easily, echoing off the vaulted ceiling, cries of fulfillment, of desire and peace at once. Of triumph, when he let go and poured himself into her, reinforcing the promise that had begun less than a handful of weeks before. He’d said she was his.

Now she couldn’t imagine having ever wanted anything different for herself in her whole life.

“Tyler…” She reached up and touched his face, closed her eyes as he turned into her palm and kissed it, bit gently.

“Yes, sweet Mistress?”

It made her chest hurt, how much she felt in this moment. She knew she should not say anything impetuously. But under the light of the stained glass window, the flickering candlelight of their shared memories, it felt like simple, unexamined honesty.

No matter what the darkness brought back to her tomorrow.

“I’m in love with you. ”

Framing her face with his hands, he brought his lips down on hers in answer. His body moved upon her again, renewing their passion. As he took her up, she was flying again, higher and higher. Wanting nothing more than to keep this soaring peace with him inside her forever.

Chapter Ten

“So, you’re going to go home and forget all about me. ”

“Pretty much. ” She watched him put her bag in her BMW and rested her arm on the top of the car door as he closed the trunk. When he came around the car, approaching her with an intent look in his eye, anticipation flooded her. As if they hadn’t made love less than two hours ago when he woke her for a Sunday morning breakfast. And several times during the night.

Pressing her up against the car’s frame, he delved into her mouth with his own, his hands wandering down to fondle her ass, squeeze, press her hard against his cock in a way that made her knees tremble, loosen.

“No…” Marguerite murmured, a smile on her lips. She wiggled, squirmed, managed to drop and fold herself into the driver’s seat, quickly slamming the door before Tyler could push his suit further. Bracing his palms on the frame of the open window, he grinned at her, though his eyes were hot, demanding she get out of the car, stay.

She couldn’t get this much off track. The past thirty-six hours had been fantastic, in the literal sense of the word. She needed some time to think about the changes he’d brought forth in her in such a short time.

“Don’t do that. ” He cupped her face, brought her startled eyes up to him. “Don’t retreat from me again. ”

She swallowed, reached up and closed her hand over his wrist, the strength of it.

“I’m not. Not that way, I promise. I know the type of man you are. You’re impatient, sure of your feelings. I’ve been alone a long time. I just need a few days of normalcy. To get my balance. ”

“Every time you get your balance, I get shut out. ” He squatted, going eye to eye with her. “Just remember, angel, there’s not a drawbridge you can raise that I won’t scale. But it would be a hell of a lot nicer for both of us to conserve my energy for better things. ”