Ancient Ties (35 page)

Janney seemed to tense up. Ben knew she was struggling with all this. He was throwing in enough to spark her memory, but she was obviously confused.

“Oh, sure,” Janney said on a whoosh of breath.

How could she not know me?

Ben strived to recall what he’d done that first night in the villa in Aquae Sulis. He turned her face toward him and placed his thumb against the side of her lips. They parted and her gaze floated to his mouth. In the non-romantic glow of the parking lot lights, he could see her tongue swipe along her upper lip.

By the Gods, enough is enough.

Ben flipped up the armrest and pulled Janney over into his arms. Soft, unresisting, surprising and pleasing him, Janney melted into his arms, eyes already closed as if expecting this kiss.

Just like the first time in Augusta’s garden.

Ben growled deep in his throat, making his frustration and desire known. The hand already at her nape slid up to cup her head. His other hand drifted down over her coat and he palmed her breast. Part of his mind warned him to go slowly. She didn’t know who he was. Well, she’d have to after this.

Gods, she feels wonderful. His Janney. Soft lips. Too many clothes
.

Not like that first time when it took so little to get to her skin.

The first time he’d kissed her, Janney had ended up crawling into his lap. She would again if he had anything to say about it. Ben dipped his tongue between her lips and swept into her mouth. He closed his eyes tightly at the hot, sweet pain roiling through his belly. Groaning, swallowing her gasps of pleasure, he dimly felt her hands gripping his suit jacket. More interestingly, he felt her fingers pressing on his shirt. Seeking his nipples. Finding them. Squeezing them delicately. She rubbed his pectorals hard with the heels of her hands. Ben hadn’t even moved further to caress her breast; he was so taken by surprise that she manhandled him.

Janney gasped loudly and, her hands on his shoulders, she suddenly pushed away. Ben held himself rigid when every instinct told him to press on.

“Who are you?” Janney shook her head as if to deny what had just happened. Deny what was happening between them. It wouldn’t be long now. She would know him very soon. Her

beautiful blue eyes were swimming with emotion, both frightened and sensual.

Ben cupped her face in both hands. He whispered, “You know me. I am Marek.” His thumb brushed over her lips. Oh, how he wanted her. He’d been hard all night just being in the same room.
Hades!
He’d been half hard for weeks.

“Ben Marrick?” Then Janney blinked and stared into his eyes. “Yes, of course you are.” Her breathing was sharp and shallow. “I have to go home,” she declared. Her eyes drifted shut as if what she really wanted to do was kiss him again.

Now that she had backed up, she seemed to have gathered her wits. “I feel like a teenager again. Making out in the car,” she said with a little hysterical giggle.

Ben settled back in his seat but didn’t remove his arm from the back of hers. “Mmm,” he responded noncommittally. He didn’t know what she meant.

“Your technique is certainly better than any teenage boy I remember.” She seemed to be a little more relaxed.

“That’s good.”

“I really have to go.”

Ben shut his eyes momentarily in frustration. He knew he shouldn’t push her even though that’s exactly what he wanted to do.

Janney had no idea how she got herself home. All she knew for sure was that she felt hot and cold in turn, that her chest felt as if someone sat on it, and her stomach rolled and jumped like it did when she ate pizza with onions.

Who was he? She’d asked herself that question a dozen times since she’d first seen him in the doorway to the bar. How could she have been dreaming about a man she’d never met? Had his face been in her dreams? She thought not, but how did that account for the sense of immediate recognition? Of being completely comfortable in his arms. The kiss in the car hadn’t been their first kiss.

Of course it had been. They just met. Then why did she go into his arms so easily? Why did she want to be there?

She heard a car pull up to the curb, heard the door slam, but still jumped when her doorbell rang. Judy and Walt, coming to check on her. She knew it wasn’t them. Her breath caught.

The blood pounded, roaring through her ears. Her face flushed, perspiration popped out on her forehead and upper lip. Her heart knocked in tandem with the tapping on the glass pane of her front door.

Janney had two choices. Answer or not. There was only one choice.

Ben Marrick.
The name resonated in her brain. In her heart.

Marek.
In a haze of remembrance, a daze of unreality, she moved toward the front door.

“Janney. Let me in.” His voice was low but clear.

Her whole body flushed hot with desire. She swung the door wide. “Marek,” she sighed on a choked breath.

He was inside in a flash, the door shut, and the lock clicked.

Janney was backed up and his hard body pressed her against the wall.

Yes.
For the first time in months she was awake. Alive and awake. The hard pain in her chest dissolved.

Oh, God.
His fingers slid through her hair, gripped her nape, and his lips covered hers.

“By the Gods, you finally know me,” he whispered in the one moment that he raised his mouth from hers, before he took her lips again.

He’s here. He’s kissing me.
Janney broke the kiss.

“You’re…here,” she breathed the words into his mouth.

“I told you I’d find you,” his lips swept over her cheek, then down her neck.

“God.” Janney groaned, aware that she was in danger of flaming out of control. That was okay. Marek was here. With her. She had no idea how it happened, but she wasn’t crazy. He really did exist. Everything that she’d dreamed about had been

true. Somehow. True. She wanted him so much she shook. She didn’t realize that she was crying until he kissed her tears away.

“Don’t cry,” he murmured.

She heard the sound of his curtailed laugh when she slid her arms around his waist and dragged his hips against hers. She released another long groan. His erection proved to her that he was as aroused as she was. Her fingers circled around his hard butt.

“Is anyone else here?” his breathy voice warm in her ear.

“No. Upstairs,” she ordered.

Marek swung her up in his arms, surprising a squeak out of her. Even though she was no dainty flower, he seemed to have no problem charging up the stairs. Janney pointed toward her room.

“Lock…front door.”

“I did,” he responded as he closed the bedroom door.

She knew that wasn’t necessary since no one else was in the house, but she was still thankful for the added intimacy. Her house was nicely warm and cozy. It was a dark, cold winter night, and somehow, Marek had come through centuries to find her. Her heart pattered with anticipation. She surged closer to him, twining her arms around his neck.

“Make love to me, now.” Her voice sounded scratchy to her ears. “Oh, God, Marek, I need you.” Janney frantically kissed his neck and cheeks. Finally reaching his lips, she licked at them before sliding her tongue inside his mouth.

Marek dropped her abruptly, settling her on her feet in front of him. His eyes were soft and hot, his lashes at half-mast, his lips slightly pursed. He looked so sexy and wanting.

“God, I love you. I’ve missed you.” It was so true. “Marek.”

She loved saying his name. Janney unbuttoned his shirt; pulled his tie loose, and slid it off his arms. She just couldn’t keep her hands off him. Nor her lips. She kissed his chest, nuzzling her nose into the hair down the center of his body, her tongue swirling around his nipples. She drew her hands down his sides

to his waist and unbuckled his belt. Her breath came in fast, hoarse gasps, her eyes slits.

“You’re too far ahead of me,” he growled as his pants hit the floor. He kicked his shoes and trousers out of his way.

Janney felt Marek’s hands roaming up her thighs under her full skirt. She heard his sharp intake of breath when they found the elastic of her thigh-high stockings. She certainly hadn’t expected this outcome of the evening when she put them on. His fingers circled and examined, brushing the soft skin of her inner thighs, and Janney reveled in the sensuousness.

With another low growl, hot, wet breath puffing on her cheek, he slid his hands up over her bottom, stopping to caress.

She cried out and pressed toward him wanting more. More of his fingers. His hands were buried under the skirt meeting around her waist, thumbs caressing her belly.

Quickly, he lifted her dress over her head and tossed it off, inside out, to the other side of the room. Janney almost laughed out loud at the look on his face. Marek had been fascinated by her underwear the first time he’d seen it. The bra and panties.

That one poor pair had become threadbare, clean but the material thin and colorless with all the washing. She couldn’t stop a choked-sounding chuckle. His mouth opened and closed, he looked like he swallowed a balloon.

Janney didn’t need to look down at herself. The expression in Marek’s eyes proved that he appreciated the sight of the black satin and lace bra, matching panties, and shear black thigh-high stockings. Classic seduction undies. Judy had urged her to wear this stuff. Had she know something like this could happen?

Not in a million years! Or two thousand, anyway.

“You’re laughing?” Marek gritted out through clenched teeth.

She did laugh out loud then. From sheer joy. Nerves and joy. The man’s erection pointed toward her. There was no doubt about her effect on him.

He reached out a shaking hand, grasped the middle of her bra and flicked it open.
Thank you, Judy, again, for suggesting a

front closure bra.
He had opened her bra in the back that first night. That ability must be a man thing in any century. Cupping and caressing her breasts in his large, warm hands, he almost roughly attacked each one, licking and suckling each nipple until her knees threatened to give way. Shivering and shimmying under the onslaught of his lips, teeth and tongue, she cried out,

“Yes,” when he pushed her back onto the bed.

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, her breasts ached, nipples tingled. Lower, she felt swollen and wet. Her vagina ached with want. She watched his eyes devour her, watched his slow blinking, his chest rise and fall in uneven breathing.

“Hurry,” she begged, her lips pursed, hands grasping for his waist.

His knees on the bed on each side of her thighs, he perched over her. “Marek, I need you,” she groaned. She surged up, her hips rising. She heard his grunt as he roughly pulled her panties down, the air cooler over her hot skin.

He’d spread her legs to kneel between them. He was too quiet, all she could hear was her panting gasps and moans and his breathing. She cried out long and low, his fingers trailing along her inner thighs. If he didn’t do it immediately, she’d die, her body wept for him. This slow torture was exquisite, pain and desire mixed. She didn’t need this anticipation, this teasing. She never thought she’d see him again. He was here. Now. With her again. Now! She needed him.

His finger probed. She groaned, her head rolling back and forth on the pillow. He slid one finger slowly inside her. “Yes, yes.” Her voice petered out on the last s. Her skin flamed. He stopped. Janney gazed up at him. His mouth was open, eyes wide, his expression a look of almost pure religiosity. He slid his finger out, slowly, and added a second for another slow, smooth slide in. Reverently, he watched his own actions, his chest heaving roughly. “God, Marek,” Janney groaned loudly.

Suddenly, Marek growled, “By the Gods, I can’t wait any longer.” He pulled his fingers from her body, brushed her pulsing clit with his thumb, gently flexing it. Braced over her on

locked arms, and with one long, thick glide right to her heart, he thrust into her.

Unbelievably, Janney came even before he was fully embedded. She sobbed his name desperately as he filled her, stretching her, plunging hard and fast, and finally flooding deeply within her. The second she felt his release, felt the throbbing so far within her, Janney imploded again. Crying wildly, bucking violently, she pressed her hands over the small of his back, down over his butt, holding him tightly against her. Her legs wrapped around his thighs. She had no intention of letting him go. Ever again.

Janney could hardly breathe for the weight of Marek’s body on hers. He’d dropped down, inert, exhausted, depleted. It was glorious to feel his weight again. She didn’t need to breathe. She needed him. Her eyes closed, everything right in her world.

Finally, gloriously right.

Marek slit one eye open. The moonlight shining in the window outlined the sleeping body next to him. Mercifully for her, he’d rolled to her side instead of mashing her flat when he’d collapsed, destroyed and triumphantly replete, on top of her. He hadn’t wanted to move himself one inch from her body, but the woman did need to breathe. He smiled, felt her hair on his lips, then felt something even better. His palm drifted up from her waist to caress her breasts. Her breath lifted his hand up and down, gently rising and falling. Her skin, soft and warm, melted under his fingers like liquid silk. He shaped a breast, squeezed gently and drew it up until he pinched her nipple gently with his forefinger and thumb. That was when he heard her soft moan and felt her heartbeat flutter under her skin.

Still smiling, he continued playing with her drowsing body.

Whenever she came completely awake, he’d be there, touching her. Loving her. He rolled her nipple, licking his lips in anticipation of tasting the hard, little nub. In all his years of soldiering, he’d never wanted to remain with a woman after

exchanging their pleasures. With Janney, he never wanted to leave.

She must be sleeping deeply and dreaming hard. Her body trembled, her lips pursed as if kissing. Both nipples, not just the one he toyed with, peaked, pointing up. He pressed his mouth to her throat wanting to catch her little moans from deep down, feel the vibrations on his lips. Licking and softly nipping his way down, he nibbled at her mounded breast and finally relinquished her nipple to his lips.