Samantha (Barrett 2)

"That's the second time you've pointed a pistol at me, my lord." Sammy shut the door firmly behind her. "I assure you, there are better ways to ensure my cooperation."

"Samantha?" Rem lowered his arm, staring at her incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"If you need to ask me that, it's been far longer than I realized." With a firm click, Sammy turned the key in the lock. Brushing wisps of hair from her shoulders, she began walking slowly toward Rem. "I wanted to ask your opinion of my new nightrail. Do you like it?" She stopped a mere foot in front of him, tilting her head back to watch his face. Rem could scarcely speak, much less think. The pale silk of her gown was nearly transparent, its layers clinging to Samantha's lush curves, its bodice so low that the entire upper slope of her breasts was exposed.

His breathing harsh, shallow, Rem clenched his fists, strove for a semblance of reason. "Sweetheart, we're at Allonshire. I don't think ..." He had no idea what he was going to say. Whatever it was, the words were never uttered. Samantha pressed her palms to his bare chest, gliding them through the tufts of hair, up over the taut muscles and warm flesh to his massive shoulders. "I've missed you so much," she breathed, pressing her lips to where his heart pounded furiously. "And I want to celebrate ... truly celebrate ... our betrothal." She stepped back, met his burning gaze, and, in one brisk motion, tugged her nightrail over her head and dropped it to the floor. "Can we, Rem?"

"Christ." The word was both capitulation and prayer, as Rem dragged her into his arms, crushed her body to his. "I don't think I can make it to the bed," he growled, his hands possessing her everywhere at once.

Whimpering with pleasure, Sammy reached down to unfasten Rem's breeches, tugging at them with impatient hands.

Rem tore them off himself, kicked them away, lifting Samantha from the floor until her breasts brushed his chest. Their eyes met.

"Here?" Sammy whispered, offering him her soul.

"No," Rem replied, passion suddenly dwarfed by tenderness. "Not here." Wrapping his arms securely around her, he walked to the bed and lowered her to it, following her down. "Here," he murmured reverently, framing her face between his hands. "In bed, where I can touch every inch of you, feel your heart beating against mine, hold you after you've shuddered in my arms. Here, where I can truly show you how much I love you."

"Oh, Rem." She tugged his mouth down to hers, kissing him with all the skill he'd taught her and all the love that filled her heart. "Am I really going to be your wife?"

"Really. Irrevocably. Eternally." He punctuated each promise with a bone-melting kiss.

"I want a houseful of children with silver-gray eyes and devastating dimples." She stroked her hands down his back.

"And pure, trusting hearts and romantic dreams," he agreed, trailing his lips down the hollow between her breasts.

Sammy's breath caught in her throat when Rem turned his head, nuzzled the warm curve of her breast, and simultaneously caressed her thighs with slow, tingling strokes of his hand. He shifted again, drew her achingly taut nipple into his mouth, and Sammy had to bite her lip to stifle her cry of pleasure.

"So sweet," he breathed. "So extraordinarily beautiful." He moved to her other breast, his own breathing ragged, tugging lightly at the crest until he felt Sammy shift restlessly beneath him. "Yes, darling," he replied as if she'd spoken. Ardently, he enveloped her nipple, bathed it with his tongue, while his hands urged her thighs to part, opened her to his touch.

He shuddered when he found her, so satiny wet he had to grit his teeth against the climax threatening to erupt in his loins. He entered her with his fingers, feeling her inner muscles clench around him, then expand in wondrous welcome.

A soft cry escaped Sammy's mouth, and Rem lifted his head, covered her lips with his, and drank the muted cry into himself. "Move against my fingers," he breathed. "I want to feel you."

Sammy arched, her nails digging into Rem's back at the burst of pleasure his deeper penetration brought. He withdrew, then glided forward again, beginning a motion Sammy's body understood. Of its own accord, her hips began to move in conjunction with his fingers, her thighs parting to his possession. With each motion of his hand, she became more abandoned, undulating, tightening, desperate to hold him longer, deeper inside her.

"God," Rem rasped, withdrawing his fingers and rising to his knees. "I want you every way there is ... all at once." He cupped her bottom, lifting her to his seeking mouth. "I need to know your taste again."

Writhing in his arms, Sammy pressed her fist to her mouth, frantically trying to silence a scream. Her entire body was on fire, and Rem's tongue was stoking the flames so high she wondered if she'd survive. He took her to the tantalizing brink of sensation, her muscles taut, poised, frantic for release. Then he stopped.

"No!" Wildly, she reached for him. "Rem ... don't."

"I won't. Never." He came down over her, wrapped her legs around his waist with shaking hands. "Open your eyes, love. I want to watch you." With one erotic motion of his hips, he penetrated her softness. "Now." Even as he spoke, she began convulsing in his arms. "Go ahead and scream," he whispered, coverin

g her mouth with his. "Samantha . . ." The last was a harsh groan into her open mouth, his powerful body shuddering with unbearable pleasure. "God, Samantha."

He matched each spasm of her body with his own, pouring into her with more emotion than he ever knew he possessed, drinking in her cries of pleasure and giving her his.

So this was peace.

"I love you so much, Rem." Sammy's breathing, her words, were uneven, her body still quivering with magical aftershocks.

"You make me whole," he murmured, his face buried in her hair, his body buried inside hers. "And I love you more than all your dreams combined."

"Do you think anyone heard us?"

Rem grinned, happiness suddenly inundating every dark corner of his newly awakened soul. Rolling to one side, he clasped Sammy tightly to him. "I'm sure no one heard us, imp. I myself drank in all your exquisite little cries of passion."

Sammy smiled against his chest. "Does that mean I pleased you, my lord rake?"