Autumn Lover (28 page)

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You.”

“What about me?”

“The first time I had the pain and you had the pleasure,” Elyssa said. “The second time I had the pleasure and you had the pain. Is it always that way, one hurting and the other helpless with pleasure?”

“I’m not hurting the way you did.”

“You don’t look it,” Elyssa said unhappily. “You look…drawn.”

“I’ll get over it.”

Elyssa shifted her position to get a better look at Hunter. The motion made her hip move against his abdomen. His breath hissed in between his clenched teeth.

“You
are
hurting,” she said quickly. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Don’t tempt me,” Hunter said under his breath.

But Elyssa heard him.

“Tempt you?” she asked quickly. “How?”

Hunter closed his eyes and tried not to think of all the ways a girl with Elyssa’s passion could tempt him.

And then satisfy him all the way to the soles of his feet.

A threadlike groan was dragged from Hunter’s throat. He fought not to give in to the hunger pulsing through his body. He had done what he had promised himself he would do. He had pleasured Elyssa thoroughly, making up in the only way he could for his haste and misjudgment the first time.

“Hunter?” Elyssa whispered.

He couldn’t answer. All he could do was remember how she had looked lying open to him, abandoned, shivering with the ecstasy he had brought her.

Elyssa gave Hunter’s face quick, tiny kisses, whispering his name between each caress. Her arms wound around his chest as she pulled herself even closer, trying to comfort him.

The blanket fell unnoticed to her hips.

Hunter’s body jerked. His arms shifted to push Elyssa away. Then he felt her breasts against him. Without meaning to, he caressed her nipples with his fingers. Tight crowns rose to his touch.

The shudder of response that went through Elyssa surprised Hunter. He hadn’t expected her to enjoy being touched so soon after she had found her satisfaction.

Belinda certainly hadn’t like being petted. After they were married, she lost interest in sex, other than to tease him mercilessly whenever she wanted a new dress or better curtains for the drawing room.

Hunter looked down at Elyssa’s soft breasts resting against his hands. Even in the cave’s twilight, he could see the deep, pouting rose color of the nipples and the creamy contrast of her skin. She looked fragile against the strength of his hands, but the shivers that went through Elyssa didn’t come from fear.

“You feel so good,” Hunter whispered against her hair. “I could get drunk just touching you.”

“May I…touch you?”

Hunter’s hands hesitated. The thought of Elyssa’s fingers stroking him made his body clench with need.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea,” Hunter said roughly.

“Don’t you like being touched?”

“I would love to have your hands all over me. Too damned much.”

Elyssa understood only that Hunter wanted her caresses. In a hush whose tension grew with each breath, she began unbuttoning his shirt.

“I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I saw you half-naked in the garden,” Elyssa confessed.

“It’s not a good idea.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to take you this time,” Hunter said bluntly. “I just wanted to teach you the pleasures of your own body. To make up for hurting you.”

“By hurting yourself?”

“Like I said. I’ll get over it.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Elyssa—”

Hunter’s breath caught hard in his throat and stayed that way. His shirt was open. Her naked breasts swayed and pressed against his chest as she pulled shirttails free of his pants.

With a murmur of discovery and approval, Elyssa ran her hands over the masculine territory she had just uncovered.

Hunter watched Elyssa through half-opened eyes. He knew he should stop her.

And he knew he would not.

He had just made a discovery himself. It was a wild, hot pleasure to have a woman pet him with admiration rather than calculation in her eyes.

The longer Hunter was with Elyssa, the more he realized what a cold, manipulating female Belinda had been. Elyssa might be reckless and maddening at times, but no one could accuse her of lacking passion.

Hunter’s hands tightened on Elyssa’s breasts, his thumbs circled her nipples, and he smiled to hear the throaty sound of her response.

“Hunter?” Elyssa asked huskily.

He made a rumbling sound deep in his chest.

“May I kiss you too?” she asked.

Hunter bent to take Elyssa’s mouth, only to find that she had another kind of kiss in mind. Her lips and tongue and teeth made hot forays across his chest while her fingers kneaded muscles with open delight.

The resilience of the hair on Hunter’s chest seemed to particularly intrigue Elyssa. She tugged sensually on the cushion of hair, buried her fingers in it, and probed with her tongue to taste the flesh beneath.

Soon she discovered the small, smooth disk of a male nipple. She repeatedly teased the tight little nailhead in the center with her tongue.

The caresses dragged a groan from Hunter.

Instantly the curious, oddly hungry strokes of her tongue stopped. Elyssa’s head lifted.

“Did that hurt?” she asked huskily.

“Does this?”

Hunter’s fingertips closed on her hard nipples and tugged.

Elyssa’s breath caught on a ragged moan. Then she understood that her question had been answered.

She smiled slowly.

The reckless curiosity and sensual anticipation in Elyssa’s smile made fire pulse through Hunter.

“How about this?” she asked.

Her hands slid down Hunter’s body. He sucked in his breath hard when he felt her fingers working over the buttons on his trousers, then his underwear.

Very quickly Elyssa uncovered a thin strip of Hunter’s skin between folds of cloth. Delicate fingertips traced the skin, found the thatch of hair growing below, and brushed lightly.

Hunter bit back a curse and a prayer.

“Does that hurt?” Elyssa asked, only half teasing.

“No more than this.”

Hunter’s long index finger skimmed the opening in
her drawers, parted thick curls, and probed sensuously.

The reflexive jerk of Elyssa’s body made Hunter smile. He watched her face while he felt her hand slide inside his clothes, searching, finding, caressing.

Hunter closed his eyes and shuddered with raw need.

“Hunter?”

“Dangerous,” he said through clenched teeth. “Damned dangerous.”

“Why?”

Hunter’s fingers slid into Elyssa, found her even hotter than his memories.

“Because I want this,” he said bluntly.

“Then it’s yours,” she whispered.

The slow, deliberate movement of Elyssa’s softness against his hand, and the liquid silk of her response, snapped Hunter’s control. He stretched out suddenly, taking her down to the pallet with him. As he did, he freed his aroused flesh from the confinement of his clothes.

Before Elyssa could draw a breath, Hunter was between her legs, opening them. The pressure of his caresses tore a cry of passionate surprise from her.

Abruptly Hunter realized what he had done, pushing Elyssa onto her back, forcing her legs apart, giving her no chance to protest or to push him away.

Again.

Hunter forced himself to stop just short of taking Elyssa. She was so close to his erect flesh that he could feel the heat of her reaching out to him, licking over him, promising him fiery oblivion.

His body vibrated with the sexual tension that was tearing him apart.

“
Damn
,” Hunter groaned thickly. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to—again.”

He kissed Elyssa’s eyelids, her cheeks, her lips, her
throat, and with every kiss he whispered words of raw need that made her shiver.

The heat of Hunter’s body against Elyssa’s hands was like a wild fever. The tension vibrating through his flesh made her desperate to ease him.

“Show me what you need,” Elyssa said. “Show me!”

“You’re so small, and I—”

“But I’m not fragile,” she interrupted quickly.

Hunter shuddered. He had never been harder, more ready. Yet he knew very well the slick resilience of Elyssa’s body. If he was careful, she would take him like a sleek satin glove.

He groaned.

“Hunter,” Elyssa pleaded. “Do whatever you must. It’s all right.”

For a moment she thought he hadn’t heard. Then she felt the probing, intimate caress of his fingers between her legs. The delicious stretching sensation came again.

A wave of pleasure curled down from Elyssa’s breastbone to her thighs. The wave broke and spilled hotly between them. The sensuous, caressing pressure increased, sliding deeper.

“Hunter,” she protested raggedly, “I’m supposed to be pleasuring you, not the other way around.”

He tried to answer, but couldn’t. The hot, snug ease of Elyssa’s acceptance took his breath. His hips bunched as he pressed more deeply into her.

Another wave gathered and swept through Elyssa. Her abandoned, silken response made the world begin to slide away from Hunter, spinning him into a place where only fire existed.

Elyssa called Hunter’s name as her body arched, drawn taut by forerunners of ecstasy. Her head turned from side to side as she felt the wildfire biting into her body, a fire conjured by his caresses, a heedless blaze
that increased with every motion of his body between her legs. He was burning her alive.

And she loved every sweet sting of the flames.

“This isn’t fair,” Elyssa said raggedly. “You’re giving me—everything—and taking nothing—for yourself.”

Hunter had no words to answer Elyssa. Her body was taking him so hotly, so perfectly. He pushed deeper into her and then deeper still, drawing her legs up beside his, opening her even more.

Liquid fire answered him, urging him to press harder, deeper, quicker.

“Hunter,” Elyssa whispered. “I—”

Her breath was unraveled by sharp, golden claws of ecstasy. Small cries were torn from the back of her throat.

Hunter caught Elyssa’s mouth beneath his. Then he sank into her, kissing her until their mouths were as intimately joined as their bodies.

When Hunter could go no deeper into Elyssa, he began to move. With each motion of his hips, she cried out. She clung to him, moving with him, sharing the sharp, shocking pulses of sensation that lanced through her. With each shared motion, fire burned more intensely, biting deep into her flesh.

Abruptly Hunter’s hips locked hard against her. His head lifted and his whole body shuddered wildly, repeatedly. Her name was ripped from him in a ragged cry of ecstasy.

The sound of her name breaking on Hunter’s lips consumed Elyssa. Crying, holding him with fierce strength, she gave herself to the fire of their joined bodies.

And to him.

It was a long time before Hunter was able to gather himself enough to look down at Elyssa, to see if his wild ardor had hurt her.

Eyes closed, she lay quietly beneath him, utterly relaxed but for the random echoes of ecstasy that shivered through her without warning.

He hadn’t hurt her at all.

Gently Hunter eased from Elyssa’s warmth, gathered her in his arms, and rolled to the side. He held her, stroking her slowly, enjoying the weight of her body against his. He had never felt like this with a woman, both at peace and as powerful as a god.

I could get used to this
, Hunter thought.
Except for the belt buckle digging into my thigh
…

He laughed silently, both amused and amazed by the passion he and Elyssa ignited so effortlessly in one another.

“My sweet, sassy girl,” Hunter said, kissing Elyssa’s hair gently. “Next time I really will have to slow down long enough to get properly undressed.”

Elyssa smiled and nuzzled against Hunter’s chest.

“Maybe after we’re married,” he added lazily.

A chill went through Elyssa as she remembered the first time Hunter had discussed marriage.

With God as my witness, Elyssa Sutton, if you don’t grow up and be a good mother to my children, you will rue the day you teased me into marrying you
.

“It’s not necessary,” Elyssa said with a calm she didn’t feel.

“What?” Hunter asked, shocked.

“I’m not a virgin. Just because we’re…”

Elyssa’s voice died. She didn’t know how to describe what they were to each other.

“We’re just lovers,” she said after a moment. “No promises are necessary. We don’t have to marry.”

Hunter didn’t believe what he was hearing.

And not hearing.

Abruptly Hunter realized that for all the sweet cries he had dragged from Elyssa, her love for him had not
been spoken aloud. In the heat of passion he hadn’t noticed.

He was noticing now.

“Don’t be a fool,” Hunter said roughly.

“Exactly,” she retorted. “I’m glad we agree.”

“I’ll send for a preacher as soon as—”

“What for?” Elyssa asked in a tight voice. “If you’re missing a formal sermon on Sundays, go to Camp Halleck.”

“Damn it, Sassy, what we just had is too good to walk away from!”

“Yes, but it’s not enough for a life sentence.”

“Of all the damn fool—”

“You want a woman for a wife, not a sassy girl,” Elyssa interrupted tonelessly. “You want a woman you respect, someone you can trust to raise your children. That’s not me, is it?”

For an instant Hunter hesitated as memories rose in a black wave. The last time he had let desire choose his wife, his children had paid with their lives.

Hunter’s hesitation was all the answer Elyssa needed. Quietly she closed her eyes and fought not to cry.

He made love to me so carefully this time, I had hoped
…she thought. Then, painfully,
Hunter’s right
.

I’m a fool
.

Hunter felt the change in Elyssa’s body, tension replacing relaxation, distance replacing trust. When she tried to sit up, he held her against his body.

“I was thinking of the past just now, not of you,” Hunter said.

Elyssa shook her head.

“Damn it, honey. It’s not how you took it.”