His fingers at her face splayed, spearing gently into her hair, stroking with sensitive tips. She felt warmth dissolve through her, felt the terrible fear that had knifed her at his words fade. Her eyes fluttered, her breath caught.
‘This precious gift,’ he said again, and now his mouth was dipping to hers.
His kiss was as slow, as careful as before, as tender and as sensuous. But now, as his lips moved over hers, he eased hers apart, deepening his kiss. His hand slid around her skull, shaping it, holding her head. His body stepped forward into her space. She felt a rushing of sensation, felt her eyes close, her free hand wind around his strong, muscled back.
His kiss deepened more.
Wonder filled her. To be held, embraced, kissed like this! By Rafael... Here, on this magic isle, beneath the moon and the stars...
As he released her to gaze down at her, his eyes lambent in the starlight, the moonlight, she felt her heart sing—felt it soar. Wildly, like a bird set free.
For one long moment more he gazed down at her. Seeing in her face all that he had longed to see.
He brushed her lips with tender brevity. ‘Come,’ he said to her.
And she went with him. Went with him along the winding paths, beside the little waterfalls and fountains, beneath the trees with their glowing white flowers heady with fragrance. Walked hand in hand with him, wordless, for no more needed to be spoken between them. Their bodies would speak now.
He led her inside his cabana-villa, turning on no lights, locking no doors, leading her into the room with the wide, waiting bed.
‘How beautiful you are! Celeste...my Celeste!’
It was all he said before his hands reached to her, drew her into his arms, holding her wand-slim body against his. He was kissing her again, tenderly, softly, deeply.
For one last moment she thought she could feel the pain of the past seek to catch at her, to leave its slimy trail across her skin. Then it was gone. Replaced by the healing touch that was in Rafael’s lips, in the tender, arousing caresses of his fingertips at the nape of her neck, in the strong, cherishing warmth of his body embracing hers.
A sense of wonder—of freedom—swept through her.
This—this was how it should be between a man and a woman! This was where desire and passion met—in tenderness and sweet, sensuous cherishing! Never again would the echo of a foul touch pollute her with its poisoned tendrils...
She was free—finally free of the past that had netted her in its prison of rank and fetid memories.
Rafael had freed her! Set her free with every touch, every caress, every sweet and nectared kiss.
Slowly, sensuously, his hand unfastened her dress, peeled its gauzy layers from her. She wore no bra—she needed none—only a wisp of lace around her hips, soon shed, just as his unnecessary clothing was swiftly shed.
His eyes feasted on her, and then, as he laid her gently, tenderly on the waiting bed, his mouth lowered to her. Her hands reached to him—she let her fingers graze wonderingly along the lean, muscled lines of his torso, fold around his back, outline each sculpted plane and curve. His lips were on her skin, arousing her with each soft and sensuous caress in whorls of sweetest pleasure, whorls that seemed to meld and join, until her whole body was a mesh of sensuous delight.
She could hear a moan in her throat, low and husky, feel a quickening of her pulse, a mounting restlessness in her limbs. Her hands pressed into his body, drawing him closer, wanting him closer, wanting to feel that lean, hard weight against her.
He felt her desire and answered it, covering her body with his, splaying over her as his mouth sought and found hers again. Her tender breasts peaked against his chest, her long legs winding with his. His pace quickened, became more urgent, and it drew from her a matching quickening, a matching urgency of desire that sought fulfilment.