On a Wicked Dawn

Chapter 9

The morning sun slanting through the uncurtained windows woke her. She had plenty of time to join Emily and Lord Kirkpatrick on their excursion to the Downs.

They were returning to the house, the sun high in the sky, hot and somewhat exhausted from what had proved an adventurous ramble, when she saw Luc — on the back terrace, hands on his hips, clearly waiting for them.

More precisely, waiting for her; when Emily and his lordship went up the steps, Luc merely nodded distantly. With a wide-eyed glance back at her, now trailing in the rear, the younger couple escaped. Leaving her to cope with a hardened rake who was giving a very good imitation of an aggravated Zeus.

With a jaunty, positively saucy smile, she climbed the steps, swinging her hat by its ribbons. His lips thinned, his expression grew grimmer as he took in her disheveled appearance, the flush in her cheeks, the curls clinging to her brow and throat. She had a fairly good idea of the picture she presented, but was in no mood to pander to his thoughts, whatever they might be.

"Where the devil have you been?"

The inquiry was growled through gritted teeth. She waved with her hat. "Up on the Downs. The views are quite breathtaking. You should go and take a look."

"Thank you, but no — I'll take your word for it. It might have been wise to mention your little expedition — why the hell didn't you tell me you were swanning off?"

She met his gaze. "Why should I?" The "you're not my keeper" she left unsaid.

He heard it, however; his jaw clenched. She wasn't close enough to be certain, but she thought his eyes had gone black. They did when he was angry; also when he was…

"I wanted to speak with you." The words were even, their tone one of considerable temper severely restrained.

She raised her brows. "About what?" Nose elevating, she turned along the terrace.

He swung across her path. "I would have thought—"

The lunch gong clanged. With a not very well suppressed oath, he glared at the house, then at her. "There are one or two matters I want to get straight with you. After lunch, don't disappear."

She wasn't of a mind to be dictated to, but she kept her eyes innocently wide and carefully stepped around him so he was no longer between her and the house. Then she shrugged. "As you wish."

With a swish of her skirts, she turned haughtily away.

His fingers shackled her wrist. He didn't move, didn't speak, just held her immobile and waited for her to turn back to him.

After a long moment, she did; her own temper had flown — she could feel it — and more — simmering just beneath her skin.

Her eyes flashed, clashed with his; their gazes locked, held.

"Don't."

It was a primitive, fundamental, all-encompassing warning; he made not the slightest effort to veil its nature.

She felt her breasts swell, felt their wills collide — and knew, had absolutely no doubt, that his was the stronger.

She'd never crossed his temper before, but she knew it existed — the other side of that wildness she coveted; she couldn't have one without the other.

But if she had to take him as he was, he would need to reciprocate.

Lifting her chin, she twisted her wrist — he released her, but slowly, enough to underscore that he did so only because he wished it.

"If you'll excuse me, I must change." With a nod, she turned to the house. "I'll see you after lunch."

An hour after the company had quit the luncheon tables, Luc halted at the bottom of the central stairs and silently and comprehensively cursed. Where in all Hades was she? He'd quartered the house, checking every last reception room, inadvertently surprising a number of other couples; he'd then spent a heated half hour combing every likely spot in the gardens. All to no avail.

Dragging in a breath — shackling his temper, suppressing it so he could think — he backtracked. She'd been at luncheon, arriving late after changing her limp walking dress for a fresh and cool apple green muslin gown. Seeing it, he'd wished he'd gone with her — followed her from the terrace and peeled the walking dress from her damp flesh… instead of feasting on cold meats and strawberries, he could have been feasting on fruits more to his taste…

Suppressing the resulting mental images, he forced his mind back to the luncheon party under the trees. He'd watched Amelia from afar, not daring in his present mood, and hers, to get within sniping distance — God only knew what she might provoke him to say. Or worse, do. Then, just as the party started to break up, old Lady Mackintosh had collared him. She'd insisted on introducing him to her niece — a flashy, overconfident young lady very aware of her charms. Charms she'd clearly intended to use to capture him.

He'd been tempted to tell her she had no chance; he'd never been attracted by unsubtle women. To his cost.

The thought had made him glance around — only to realize Amelia had gone. He'd forced himself to disengage with an appearance of civility, then had set out to hunt her down.

So here he was, an hour later, and no further forward.

She'd known he wanted to speak with her — she'd promised not to disappear. He considered the possibility that she might have set out to flout him deliberately — and reluctantly dismissed it. She wasn't stupid.

So… if she was patiently waiting for him somewhere…

He closed his eyes and quietly groaned. Surely not? It was the last place he'd think of — demonstrably so — yet given the direction in which her mind had so consistently been working…

Visiting her bedchamber last night had, to his mind, figured as too dangerous. Not only had he been laboring under the weight of unwelcome surprise over how easily she'd seduced him, how easily his need of her had overridden his will, as well as the fact she'd planned and committed the deed without a blink, against his expressly stated wishes, he'd also been grappling with the unexpected and unsettling emotions she'd stirred to life. He'd had no wish to speak with her before he'd had time to think. And only a cad would have gone to her so soon with anything more than conversation on his mind.

The notion of having a cozy chat in her room without laying a hand on her, without her laying a hand on him, had been laughable. Yet a whole night of thinking had got him precisely nowhere.

Five minutes this morning had changed that, crystallized his thoughts wonderfully — the five minutes after breakfast during which he'd realized, then confirmed, that she wasn't in the house.

Not even the discovery, much later, that she'd gone off to play gooseberry for his sister had improved his mood.

A basic, primitive, fundamental mood he had absolutely no wish to discuss. Especially not with her.

God only knew what was going to happen next.

Opening his eyes, he heaved a resigned sigh, and headed straight out of the house.

Descending the front steps, he turned onto the path that led around the west wing. There were too many ladies, young and old, wandering the corridors to attempt an approach from inside. Luck was with him; when he entered through the garden door, there was no one in the small hall at the bottom of the secondary stairs. He took them two at a time. At the top, he paused, and carefully looked around the corner, down the upper corridor. It, too, was temporarily empty. He was at her door, easing it open, in a heartbeat; whisking around it, he had time for only the briefest glance before turning to silently close the door.

She was there, on the bed — the green of her dress, the gold of her curls had confirmed it.

The door safely shut, he turned, grimly holding back his irritation…

She was asleep.

He realized before he'd taken even one step — one arm lay draped across the counterpane, a different one from yesterday, her fingers, lightly curled, in a patch of sunshine. Hand and arm were totally relaxed, the deep relaxation achieved only in sleep.

His feet took him to the side of the bed, to where, beyond the diaphanous swatches, he could stand and look down on her.

She was lying on her side, her cheek pillowed on one hand. Her curls, pure gold, framed her features, delicate, fine, rendered in alabaster silk. Her long lashes, light brown, lay still in slumber; her cheeks held a faint blush, courtesy of her morning's excursion. Soft and vulnerable, fractionally parted, her lips tempted and tantalized…

How would she react if he kissed her? Roused her from her nap but didn't let her open her eyes. Pulled her from one dream, to another, and from there into ecstasy.

He shifted his gaze, let it roam. Drew a slow breath. The rise and fall of her breasts, soft mounds revealed above her round neckline, confirmed just how deeply she slept. His gaze traveled on, over the indentation of her waist, over the swell of her hips, down the sleek curve of her thighs.

She'd kicked off her shoes. Her bare toes, bare feet, peeked from under the hem of her gown. He studied them, the graceful arch, the pearly nails — he was reaching to touch when he stopped, and drew back.

If he woke her — here, like this — what then?

They wouldn't talk, even though verbal communication had supposedly been his goal; he knew himself better than that. Yet wouldn't she — she who knew him too well — wonder at his change of tack?

Glancing around, he saw the stool before the dressing table; stepping back, he sat, leaned back, settled his shoulders against the table behind him — and let his gaze rest on her while he considered the questions that had plagued him since he'd last been in this room.

Since he'd had her, and discovered there was more to his need than mere lust. More than desire, more than passion.

Just what the emotion, so elusive yet so powerful, that had threaded through his need and, like a clinging vine, shackled it, and him, was, he didn't know. He suspected his cousin Martin could give it a name; that was more than he could, for he'd never believed that emotion — the one the poets glorified — existed, at least not for him. He'd never felt it before.

Yet it or something like it had hold of him now, a disconcerting, discomfiting experience. If he'd been given a choice, he'd have avoided it — turned down the opportunity to experience it. Why any sane man would willingly accept what he could foresee developing without at least putting up a fight was a continuing mystery.

When she realized… if she guessed that he hadn't, in fact, been looking for her to speak with her, but had fabricated the excuse to explain his reaction to not knowing where she was, to learning that her attention had not been firmly fixed on him when his was so obsessively fixed on her, what then? Would she see through him?

His gaze shifted to her face, to the delicate features relaxed and at peace. Had she already guessed?

He recalled their words on the terrace. She'd reacted to his anger — illogical unless one invoked that telltale emotion, a fact that did not improve his view of its qualities and only deepened his distrust — yet she'd responded with straightforward anger of her own, irritated by what she'd seen as his domineering stance. If she'd realized the truth of why he'd been so exercised, she'd have been smug.

He stared at her face and the minutes ticked by; gradually, he relaxed, his tension draining away.

An odd contentment stole over him as he watched her sleep. The idea of waking her still teased, but… it was barely twenty-four hours since he'd been buried deep inside her, and he knew just how deep. On top of that, she'd gone hiking God knew how far all through the morning. Small wonder sleep had claimed her.

He studied her, then smiled. Rising, he stretched, then headed for the door. Let her sleep, let her refresh herself — then he could claim her night hours with an unfettered conscience.

A sudden thought stopped him just before the door — if she woke and thought he hadn't found her, she'd come searching for him, expecting him to be angry. She'd be braced for a clash — not helpful, given his revised plan.

Swinging back into the room, he confirmed there was no escritoire. Digging out his note tablet and a pencil, he scanned the room, then saw what he needed. He considered, then wrote four words: Tonight at midnight. Here. Tearing off the sheet, he replaced tablet and pencil in his pocket as he crossed to the center table.

Selecting one of the white lilies whose exotic perfume hung heavy in the room, he broke off most of its stem, curled the note around the stub as he returned to the bed.

Amelia was still deeply asleep. She didn't stir when he gently threaded the lily's stem, carrying his note, into her curls so the flower lay just behind her ear.

He stood looking down at her for some minutes more, then silently left the room.

Midnight was a long time coming. Amelia waited with feigned patience through afternoon tea, followed by a few hours of charades, then dutifully dressed and allowed herself to be distracted by Mr. Pomfret all through dinner.

When Luc joined her in the drawing room, she suppressed a sigh of relief and waited for him to single her out; instead, he merely stood by her side and conversed easily with Lady Hilborough, Miss Quigley, and her fiancé, Sir Reginald Bone.

She kept waiting, lips curved, teeth mentally gritted. He'd wanted to talk to her; he'd been insistent and irritated, ready to make some point. Now he was behaving as smoothly as usual, as if not an ounce of temper — or wildness — lurked behind his sophisticated mask. She swallowed a humph, then nearly groaned aloud when, clapping her hands, Lady Hightham urged them to gather around for some music.

Music? At this time? Oh, please…

But no helpful deity heard her plea; she had to endure a full two hours of harp, pianoforte, and harpsichord — she even had to make a contribution herself, one she kept severely abbreviated. She was no longer a young young lady, one needing to impress potential suitors with her talents. On top of that, her husband-to-be was not, she knew, particularly partial to music, and thus unlikely to be swayed by her skill with the keys.

When she returned to her chair in the back row, Luc, at ease in the one beside it, his long legs stretched out, ankles crossed, met her gaze, then raised a cynical brow. "Supposedly it soothes the savage breast."

With calm deliberation, she sat, and quietly informed him, "I would infinitely rather it incited, instead."

He had to smother his surprised laugh, but the sound made her feel insensibly better.

A few moments later, under cover of a particularly noisy crescendo, he murmured, "Did you get my note?"

She glanced sideways at him; he was facing forward, his gaze on the pianist. "Yes."

"Good. In that case…" Uncrossing his legs, he sat up.

"I'm off — I've had enough of this." His fingers closed about her wrist; his eyes met hers as he raised it and pressed his lips fleetingly to the inner face. "Until later."

With that promise — its nature underscored by the expression in his eyes — he released her, rose, and unobtrusively left the room.

She followed him with her eyes, and wished she could follow him in person. Instead, with a resigned sigh, she settled back to listen to the rest of the performances.

It was as well that she did; when the ladies finally decreed they would retire, she noted Lady Hilborough, Lady Mackintosh, and others of their ilk sharply observing that although Luc was absent, she was still among them. A fortunate circumstance; those ladies were most deserving of the tag "gossipmongers" and would undoubtedly recount any suspicious happenings, heavily embroidered, to the ton at large on their return to town.

While everyone knew of, and indeed expected, scandalous doings at house parties, that did not mean that those who indulged could hope to escape social censure were they unwise enough to have their behavior remarked. Thus far, she and Luc had given no one any grounds for comment.

Climbing the stairs beside her mother and his, Amelia realized he would definitely expect to keep it that way. And she agreed. Consequently, when the house grew silent a full hour before midnight, she gathered the last shreds of her patience. And waited.

A rattle at her window woke her. She'd nodded off in the chair before the hearth. She glanced at the clock, squinting in the weak light of the single candle she'd left burning; it was ten minutes past midnight.

The rattle came again; she glanced at the door, but the sound definitely came from her curtained windows.

Rising, reassuring herself that she'd latched the windows earlier, she tiptoed to one side of the pair and peeped out past the heavy curtain.

A familiar dark head greeted her. With a muttered, "Good heavens!" she rushed to pull the curtains wide and unlatch the tall windows. Luc hauled himself up to sit on the window ledge, then swung his legs into the room. Signaling her to silence — she'd been so surprised she'd simply stared to that point — he rose and crossed silently to the door; she watched, dumbfounded, as he very, very carefully eased the key on her door around. Then he straightened and turned; she presumed he'd locked the door, but she hadn't heard the tumblers fall.

She looked back at the window, went to the ledge and peered out, and down. A thick creeper covered the outside wall; no mystery how he'd reached the window. Why was another matter.

"Latch it again and draw the curtains."

His voice came to her, soft and dark, from the shadows behind her. Ignoring the shivery thrill that raced down her spine, she hurriedly obeyed. Then she turned — and found herself in his arms. She pushed back to look at his face. "Why—"

"Sshh." He bent his head and whispered, "Lady Mackintosh is haunting the bottom of the stairs."

She drew back to stare at him. "She isn't?"

The look he threw her spoke volumes. "You don't think I risked climbing that damned creeper just to look romantic?"

His disgusted tone made her giggle.

He hauled her close, smothered the sound with a kiss — a kiss that quickly shifted from practical maneuver to seductive exchange, from light caress to long, slow, explicit invasion.

When he finally released her lips, he murmured, "We'll have to keep quiet."

"Quiet?" she breathed.

He kissed her briefly, demandingly. "Totally and absolutely silent," he confirmed. "No matter what."

The tenor of that last phrase, the words a hot whisper feathering her hungry lips, made it clear he hadn't forgotten his declaration that, this time, she'd scream.

The essential contradiction tightened her nerves, made her wish she could question him, but he was kissing her again, drawing her deeper into the exchange, his arms closing around her.

When he finally paused to let her breathe, she did, and quickly said, "I thought you wanted to talk."

In answer, he took her mouth, her lips, again. His hands wandered over her back, her hips — he drew her tight against him, molded her to him, making it patently clear rational discussion did not feature on his immediate agenda.

Her head was spinning when he drew back from the kiss — purely to deal with the knotted tie of the robe she'd worn over her nightgown. "Tomorrow." He touched the tip of his tongue to the corner of her lips, lightly probing — an erotic little touch that had her breath catching. "We can talk then." He briefly transferred his attention to the other corner of her lips, then captured them fully, making them cling to his.

'Tonight" — his voice was so low, so deep, she wasn't sure she heard so much as felt the words resonating inside her—"we have more important matters to explore."

He kissed her again, his hands moving over her shoulders, sliding her robe away. Arms freed, she reached for him — for his coat. She felt the smile on his lips when he finally consented to notice her tugging and release her long enough to shrug the garment free. She let it fall to the floor, aware that his fingers had fastened on the tiny buttons down the front of her nightgown.

Without letting her free of the kiss, he steered her, the long hard columns of his thighs herding her around and back, step by step, until the backs of her thighs hit the bed. He trapped her there, his legs outside hers, his chest a wall before her. Catching her hands, he drew them down, then releasing them, swiftly drew the halves of her nightgown, now gaping to her waist, over her shoulders and partway down her arms, effectively anchoring them to her sides.

She would have pulled away from the kiss and slipped her arms free, but he didn't let her. Didn't let her retreat from the demanding kiss; instead, he captured her awareness completely by closing both hands about her breasts.

He knew precisely what he was doing, knew how to focus and hold her attention, how to blend the now-familiar sensations evoked by his lips and tongue, by his wicked fingers and hands, into a symphony that built at first along well-remembered lines, then swelled into something hotter.

Something different.

Something wicked and just a touch wild.

That promise of wildness held her absolutely, drew her in, drew her to commit unreservedly to their play. She kissed him back avidly, eagerly, as blatantly voracious as he — his response was instantaneous, a towering tide of heat and urgency that poured through him, and her, and swept them both away.

She could reach as far as his waist; grasping, grabbing, she tugged his shirt from his waistband. He took his hands from her long enough to shrug out of his waistcoat, unbutton the shirt, strip it off, and toss it aside. She didn't wait for him to gather her to him but boldly pressed close, eager to feel his chest against her breasts, all but purring through their kiss as she sinuously rubbed against him, glorying in the raspy friction and the tight tingling that spread beneath her sensitized skin.

His hands closed on her shoulders; the kiss turned incendiary. Her breasts were swollen and hot — as hot as the hard muscles of his chest to which she wantonly pressed them. She sensed a growl in his throat, then his hands dived down her back, his arms pressing her nightgown wide, pushing the garment lower as he ran his hands down her back, blatantly possessive, down over her waist, the small of her back, over the curves of her hips to close, hard and urgent, over the globes of her bottom.

He kneaded provocatively; their lips fused, tongues dueling, not for supremacy but for mutual delight. Then he lifted her; her nightgown slid down her legs as he raised her. He held her tight against him, her naked stomach cushioning his erection; they both clung and gloried in the moment, in the flagrant promise of what was to come, then he tipped her back and they fell on the bed.

Luc kept his lips on hers, trapping her laughing gasp. He grasped handfuls of her hair and held her down so he could ravage her mouth — and take one long moment to savor the feel of her naked and squirming beneath him. He used his weight to subdue her, kissed her long and hard, then swiftly drew back. "Wait."

The hissed whisper echoed through the room. She lay there, wide-eyed, golden curls in bountiful disarray, the soft candelight playing over the even richer bounty of her body, naked and waiting — all his. She watched as he sat and dispensed with his shoes — carefully setting them aside. No thumps. Then he stood and stripped off his breeches, flinging them to join his coat.

He turned back to the bed, and surprised her delicately licking her lips. Her gaze was fixed a long way south of his face. He would have laughed, but didn't dare; instead, he crawled back on the bed, back to her, running his hands slowly up the sides of her bare legs, his mind quickly scripting all that was to come — he would have to keep his lips on hers the entire time.

She started to reach for him, to pull him down to her; he grasped her waist and lifted her. Startled, she would have gasped, but he sealed her lips with his, drank her surprise, then arranged her as he wished. She acquiesced; through their kiss he could sense her curiosity. Her hands touched his shoulders, drifted down his chest as he set her on her knees before him.

He held her there and shuffled forward to sit on his ankles, his spread thighs on either side of her knees. One hand splayed in the small of her back, he pressed her hips to his stomach so his rigid erection throbbed in the valley between her thighs — safe for the moment from her wandering hands.

She seemed fascinated by his chest — he let her explore while he took his own time exploring the wonders of her mouth, the sleekly feminine planes of her back, the decidedly evocative curves of her bottom. He touched her as he wished, knowing when her breath hitched, when her attention refocused on his hands, and on what he was doing. On the soft dew that dampened her heating skin, on the tightness of the pebbled peaks of her breasts that he knowingly brushed to aching hardness with his chest, on the tautness of her stomach when he pressed a hand between them and evocatively kneaded, on the wetness his questing fingers encountered when he speared through her curls and touched her. Opened her, probed her.

All the while holding her lips with his.

When her hips tilted against his hand, when her nails sank into his shoulders, he drew his fingers from her, slid both hands to the backs of her thighs, gripped, and lifted her to him, laying her spread thighs over his, bringing her hips to his abdomen. Instinctively, she grasped his hips with her knees — slowly, he let her down until her knees rested on the coverlet.

She took control of the kiss, surprising him, pressing a burning caress on him, one nothing short of a flagrant invitation. It sank through him, distracting him; she reached down and closed one small hand around him.

His heart stopped, then she eased her hold and caressed, then closed her hand again. Caught, trapped, he let her play, unable to summon the strength to stop her. There was a sense of dedication, of wonder and joy in her touch that snared his jaded mind, that prevented him from cutting short a moment that, given who she was, what she was, was frankly somewhat shocking. How long she held his senses in thrall he didn't know; only when he was aching, throbbing with the need to sink into the haven of womanly warmth that hovered but a few inches above, did he shift his hands, closing them about her hips, taking control of their kiss again.

Or attempting to — she didn't, this time, willingly yield, as she usually did. Instead, she met him, matched him — rather than draw her hand from him, she braced her other hand on his upper chest, and guided his erection to her entrance.

They both held their breaths, forgot to breathe.

The instant her swollen folds enveloped his head, she let go and he surged in — then stopped, and, chest laboring, let her, as she wished, slide her knees farther past his hips and sink, slowly, inch by inch down, taking him in willingly, eyes closed, lips on his, impaling herself on him.

He let her do it; held back the raging impulse to seize her hips and fill her deeply — instead, muscles flickering with the strain of desisting, he savored the gift of her body as she gave it, as she opened and eased about him, sank lower yet, her breath catching in her throat as she realized how high inside her he was.

When she could go no farther, she shuddered beneath his hands, then wrapped her arms about his neck and kissed him — openly, deeply — in absolute surrender. She was clinging to her wits, to her senses, by a thread.

He let his hands firm on her hips; holding her immobile, he thrust the last inch to embed himself fully — drawing a shattered gasp from her. He drank it in, aware to his bones of the precious moment, of the emotion that welled through him, through her, in that instant of complete giving, of unconditional acceptance.

It held them, a shimmering net more evident this time than before, stronger, more definite. As he moved within her, as she brazenly adjusted and moved on him, the net tightened and locked about them.

And it was no longer a question of who was driving whom, but what was driving them — and even then, there was no real question. He accepted it; he had no choice. Lungs laboring, heart thundering as their dance escalated, the sheer intensity of sensation all but blinding, he didn't need to think to know that this was what he wanted, what he desired above all else.

She closed hotly about him, pressing low, taking him all; he sank his fingers into her hips, held her down, and thrust deeper still. Their mouths had merged, frantic with the need to smother her moans, his groans, their gasps. He shifted one hand to her breast, closed hard about the firm mound, found her nipple and squeezed — and felt her shudder.

Felt her arch, felt her body tighten, the spiraling tension ratcheting up another notch…

Amelia thought she'd go mad, demented, if she couldn't reach the glory beckoning so strongly, if her body didn't achieve the satisfaction she knew existed just out of her reach — soon. Yet Luc held off the moment — how, she didn't know — until she was all but weeping with need. His hand, as hard and demanding on her breast as his lips were on hers, his body slowly, tirelessly plundering hers to the same relentless rhythm with which his tongue plundered her willing mouth, he held her there, on the cusp of completion, while, emperor-like, he savored her.

On a moan, she surrendered, gladly, wantonly. Let her mind slide, let her senses free. Abandoned to the moment, to the clawing, rapacious need, she simply wanted him there, inside her, linked with her, as deeply as he wished. Her thighs spread wide over his, his hand wrapped about her hip, fingers gripping as he held her so he could plunder even more deeply, the fingers of his other hand on her breast, torturing one nipple so lightning speared through her to the same steady rhythm, all underscored her vulnerability.

A vulnerability that touched her, trailed cool fingers over her naked, undulating flesh, and made her shudder, yet beneath it, behind it, through her very surrender to it, came a joy, a wonderment, a triumph more satisfying than anything she'd dreamed.

And it was real. She sensed it through their kiss, through the merging of their mouths, their joint devotion to this moment in all its glory.

The sensation of him filling her, of him being there, strong and alive, buried within her, had become an addiction, a potent, demanding one. The slow slide of his erection, hot, rigid, and powerful, again and again pressing in, filled her mind with desire, filled her body with heat, filled her soul with a nameless craving.

She clung to him and gave herself up to the wonder, to him. Concentrated on using her body intimately to caress him as he was so devotedly, equally intimately, caressing her.

Her body tightened again, one more notch — suddenly she couldn't breathe, couldn't make her lungs work.

She tried to pull back; Luc caught her, ruthlessly held her to the kiss, releasing her breast, sinking his hand into her hair, holding her tight. He gave her his breath, gripped her hip, pressed her fully down.

And thrust deep.

She screamed.

He drank her keening cry as she came apart in his arms, cresting the wave, riding high. With a calculated rhythm of thrust and grind, he ruthlessly drove her on. And on, until she shattered again, this time completely; linked deep in their kiss, for one fleeting instant, he could have sworn he glimpsed her soul.

And then he was there, too, soaring from the pinnacle, plunging into the whirlpool, the fire, and the glory. The mind-wiping ecstasy of primitive passions slaked, of the deepest sensual sexual gratification.

Never had it felt so profound, so draining, so complete.

Never had he known such deep contentment.

Such abiding joy.

It still held him when he awoke, hours later. It was still dark outside, and inside, too; the candle had long guttered. Instinct warned him dawn was close; he would have to leave her soon.

But not yet.

They lay slumped in her bed, cocooned in the coverlet. She lay curled beside him, her cheek on his chest, one arm reaching across, her hand spread as if to hold him. A warm, feminine weight alongside him, his wife in fact if not yet legally.

He shifted, turned to her. Took great pleasure, a purely male delight, in gently stirring her body to life. She shifted, still asleep, restless but not knowing why; he smiled and moved over her, nudged her thighs apart so he could settle between.

She woke as he entered her; her breath caught, her lashes fluttered, opened wide, then, as he pressed deeper, fell. Her fingers clutched his shoulder; her spine arched. He found her lips and kissed her — and she sighed. Her body relaxed and let him in — let him slowly penetrate her warmth until he was fully sheathed, then she closed lovingly about him.

He held still, savoring again that inexpressible joy that, once again, had infused the moment.

Her hand stole down his back to his hip, then lower. She tilted her hips fractionally; her hand gripped, urging him on.

Stifling a smile, he complied, moving slowly on her and within her; their lips remained fused yet this gentle morning coupling was a time for soft sighs, not screams.

She crested slowly, easily, with a soft female urgency; he followed close, joining her in the warm sea of satiation.

Later, he drew away, soothing her protests with a kiss. He quickly dressed, then leaned over her to whisper, "There's a bench on the north shore overlooking the lake. Meet me there at eleven."

Through the gray light of dawn, she blinked at him, then nodded, and drew him down for one last kiss.

It was too early for heroics — he left by the door.