Carved in Stone (14 page)

“I wanted you then,” he whispered close to her ear, his voice barely audible above the rush of falling water. His hands continued to work their magic along her scalp. “I thought you were beautiful, I convinced myself it was just chemistry, that all I wanted was your body. You were a wonderful fantasy.”

She tried to summon anger at his admission, but all that came out was a low moan, a sound so foreign she wondered at first where it came from.

“But it’s more than chemistry, isn’t it, Alex?” His voice, slow and deep and so hypnotic, moved in rhythm with his massaging fingers, fingers that, without moving from her neck and scalp, had managed to inflame her entire body with their heat.

She was liquid, a part of the water around her, flowing with the gentle current behind the waterfall, floating free from the sandy bottom of the pool, held in place by the firm but gentle touch of Nathan’s fingers. She tried to keep her feet in place, to hold that subtle contact with the reality of rough sand and solid rock, but her muscles were fluid, without form or substance.

“You’re still fighting me,” he whispered in that same low voice. “You’re always trying to hang on to control, just like I do. I’ll never hurt you. Please trust me.”

How could he know her so completely? She shivered under his passionate touch. After only a moment’s hesitation, she said, “I trust you.”

And realized that yes, she really did trust him. She wasn’t merely giving him what he’d asked for. Slowly, letting the current dictate her position, Alex turned in his arms. His body was a hot brand against hers from chest to thighs, his erection even hotter, high and hard against her belly.

Like a carefully choreographed water ballet, they moved together, wrapping their arms tightly around each other, their lips a breath apart, foreheads touching. Alex raised her feet off the sandy bottom, floating against him for a moment before she wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her heels firmly together against the small of his back.

It brought her sex up tight against the flat surface of his belly, trapping the hard length of him between her thighs, hard against her clitoris. She rested there, loving the feel of his erection growing larger, harder against her. Loving the trembling in his arms and the tautness of his body, the harsh cadence of his breathing, all evidence of the supreme effort behind his control.

She wanted to kiss him, to lose herself in his embrace, but he carried her into deeper water. The tiny ripples lapped along her collarbone and covered the smooth swell of her breasts. Her nipples were tight beads, the darker areolas swollen with desire.

His hands caressed her back, the rounded curve of her buttocks, along the smooth muscles of her hips and thighs. And still, he controlled her fever, the same fever she knew burned in him.

Slowly, he stroked, and stoked her inner fires with caresses that touched only arms and legs, back and sides. Saving the very best for last. She smiled against his lips, wondering if maybe it wasn’t time to exert some of her own control.

She bridged the infinitesimal gap between their mouths and found his ready. At the moment of contact, his lips parted and their tongues met in a tender joust of heated flesh. Tip to tip, then more, an exploration of the senses that centered her directly at the point where two mouths met in the darkness.

His slow caresses built to a feverish pitch, but still his hands touched only her back and sides. Her breasts ached for attention.

She loosened one arm from around his neck and trapped his roaming fingers, placing his hand upon the curve of her breast. She felt his smile against her mouth and recognized his ploy for what it was, and of course she wondered if she should feel like a fool for letting him play her like this.

But she couldn’t. Not when the pressure of his large hand encompassing her breast drove any questions from her mind. Locked against Nate’s belly, her tongue still entwined with his, Alex felt him push off from the ground, swimming with her under the streaming water to the shallower pool beyond.

They rose as one from the water and Nate strode from the pool, carrying her to the polished slab of rock where their clothing lay in neatly folded piles. Alex loosened her legs from around his waist and slowly lowered her feet to the ground.

Standing there, wrapped tightly in each other’s arms, their lips met again in a long and heated kiss. Hotter now, and even heavier against her belly, the length and strength of his cock so close and yet not close enough, inflamed her.

She stood on her toes and rose against him, trapping his erection between her thighs, loving the weight and heat of him so close against her.

But it wasn’t enough. Still not enough. She wanted him inside, wanted the intimacy and the friction, the heat and the connection they’d merely danced around. She spread her fingers wide, running her hands over his chest and ribs, lightly rubbing his beaded nipples and trailing along the tight muscles of his stomach to rest lightly, tentatively, on the solid bones at his hips.

She felt him draw a shuddering breath, then he stepped back and pulled away. His arms still encircled her body, but lightly now, his passion controlled. Once again he took a deep breath, then exhaled in a long, ragged sigh.

Confused, Alex looked at him, relieved to see the gentle smile that curved his swollen lips. He cupped her face lightly in his hands, forcing her eyes to meet his while both of them struggled to slow their heated breathing and the erratic pounding of their hearts.

Finally, he kissed her, a feathery caress on sensitive lips, “I love you, Alex. You have to know that this is much more to me than just wanting or needing. I think I’ve loved you from the beginning, even when you’ve made me crazy.”

“And that’s most of the time, isn’t it?” She answered him quietly, shocked by his declaration of love. Her mind was spinning. She struggled to keep her expression composed.
How do I feel? What do I really feel for you, Nathan Murdock?

Her body thrummed with desire. Her heart raced and her skin burned. But did she love Nathan? She wanted to make love with him, but was she in love? She had no doubt he desired her, just as she desired him. His body trembled with his struggle for control, his arousal was hot and solid against her, but he was telling her something so important that she needed to step away if she wanted to answer him honestly.

She pulled back, just far enough to break the contact from breast to thigh, and shivered at the sense of loss. His engorged cock pressed hot and damp against her, his arms embraced her, but she fought to control her raging desire and to look at him, as a woman might look at her lover, for the first time.

Ruggedly handsome, his features were weathered and strong, his thick auburn hair falling in damp waves, long enough to touch his broad shoulders. He was tall and broad—not bulky, but big with wide shoulders and a muscular chest, strong thighs, the muscles of his arms smoothly defined. The dark sprinkling of hair that covered his lower belly and blended into the heavy muscles of his thighs drew her gaze lower.

His erection hadn’t subsided at all. If anything, it looked even larger than it had a moment earlier, the tip showing a white smear, evidence of just how aroused he was. All of him, the entire package of professor, man, and yes, friend, fired her racing heart and made her mouth go dry.

Bruises and contusions still marked him across his ribs and over his back, and one huge bruise had left the right side of his face swollen and his eye ringed in black and blue, but even the disfiguring marks couldn’t disguise his powerful male beauty.

Except it wasn’t the way he looked that drew Alex. It was the way he looked at her, the way he treated her. Tenderly, respectfully. He didn’t try to change her, didn’t lie to her.

Even now, when another man might have taken what she so obviously offered, he held back. She realized that his words of love had been spoken honestly, verbalized to show her the depth of his commitment, should they become lovers.

The final decision for intimacy belonged to Alex.

It wasn’t a decision to make lightly.

Nathan watched the play of emotions cross Alex’s expressive face. He wanted to grab her up in his arms, to love her and make her love him. He knew she was ready for the physical act, could feel the sensual hum of her body and hear the ragged breathing that signaled her arousal.

But he needed her on the emotional level, wanted her to think through what they were about to do. He wanted to raise this act of love beyond the purely physical, to give it the meaning it deserved.

He’d never felt this way before, not this desire to involve his emotions so deeply with another person. There was something about this place, this woman, these frightening circumstances that commanded the involvement of all his senses.

Over the past hours he’d tried to read Alex. From the few admissions she’d made he thought he had a better grasp of what made her the woman she was.

If he took her now, made love without letting her know his true feelings, he would be lying to her. He wanted her so desperately that the ache in his body would never be eased without her, but he wanted that same response from Alex.

They might never escape the cavern, might die here without ever having the opportunity to experience a future. If their time together could be measured only in hours, Nate wanted to spend those hours with an honest expression of love between the two of them.

He wondered what she was thinking, and wondering that, he felt his heart constrict. What if she only wanted a physical release, not an emotional anchor? What if she was like Linda, concerned only with her own pleasure, uninterested in what he was offering?

Nate struggled to hold his hands immobile against Alex’s shoulders, struggled to control his breathing during the brief moments she considered his words.

And then she looked at him, really looked, and he felt her gaze searing his face, linking with his eyes. He wondered if she found him wanting.

She raised her hand to lightly caress the side of his cheek. He felt the feather touch of her palm against the roughness of his beard. She smiled at him, a smile that belied the tears sparkling in her brilliant blue eyes. He read passion in her look, and tenderness, and what he hoped was love.

She reached up to him, sliding her arms along his shoulders and encircling his neck, pressing her hips against his, trapping his erection between them as she kissed him. Her breasts flattened against his chest, and he felt her heart pounding an errant rhythm, a simultaneous counterpoint to his own unsteady beat. Her lips brushed his, gently at first, then with growing passion before her tongue slipped into his mouth, wetting his lips and trailing along the sharp edges of his teeth.

Then suddenly, as quickly as she had embraced him, she pulled away and laughed. The sound was free, full-throated and echoing in the natural amphitheater.

“Oh, God, Nathan,” she said, the sound of laughter still rich within her voice, “I do love you, I think I’ve loved you forever. I know I must have looked for you all my life.”

“You don’t have to look anymore.” His lips moved over her damp hair as he whispered and he inhaled the scent of cheap hotel soap and clear water. He shuddered as he drew her body close to his, relieved at her answer, admitting only to himself how frightened he had been that she might have turned away.

Chapter 11

Such a difference, making love with a man who wants your heart. A small corner of Alex’s mind had become the observer, noting the primal undercurrents in the twilight of the cavern, the ancient vision of man and woman, naked and unadorned, embracing in such an enchanted place.

All the passions of the past few days, the fear and excitement, the desperation and anger and love came together, each emotion a part of the whole. Alex had never been so aware of the minutia of existing, of the blood coursing through her veins, the rigid tension in Nate’s muscles as he lowered her gently to the ground.

But it was the cold shock of damp granite against her legs and buttocks that sent the observer in Alex’s mind scurrying for safety.

Laughing, she shoved away from the chill of the stone, catching Nate off balance and rolling him to his back. She straddled him, locking his hips between her knees, holding his shoulders and back against the icy rock. As added punishment she dragged her damp hair across his chest.

“Aarrrrgh!”

He bellowed like a wounded bull, grabbed her arms and pretended to toss her away from him, but in reality pulled her closer. She struggled, but it was a mock battle, laughing and touching, inflaming and provoking one another with their teasing.

At some point, Alex was vaguely aware her laughter had turned to sighs, her giggles to moans, and Nate’s touches altered from tickle to caress. She felt the hard stone beneath Nate, but it was warmer, heated now with the friction of their bodies.

For all she cared, it might have been a featherbed. What mattered were the shared sensations, the touch and taste, the scents and sense of sex, aphrodisiacs all their own.

Nate’s hands became the center of Alex’s existence. Rough and calloused, they covered her with feather touches as he played her body like a tightly strung harp. Long, mobile fingers molded her breasts, raised shivers across her belly, and then trailed along her inner thighs. She felt the vibrations of his touch pulling her not so gently into the very center of her own being.

Her hands played a feverish tune of their own, tracing the line of his collarbone from shoulder to throat, then following the muscled ridge across his chest to lightly encircle one flat male nipple and stroke it into a tight, solid bead.

Her touch drew his hands away from their intimate exploration of the soft folds and dips at the apex of her thighs. As he reached to cup her breasts she sighed against his lips at the abandonment that was merely a change in sensation.

As if in answer to Alex’s silent request, Nate kissed her throat, then circled the nipple of one breast with his tongue and lips. She gasped aloud when he trailed his fingers back along her belly and below to touch her intimately once again. Stroking, gently exploring the soft lips swollen in expectation, he played her once again as she arched into his hand, desperate for more, frantic and silently begging for release.

His thumb circled her clit, gently teasing and stroking until her back arched, taut with tension and need. When he slipped one finger deep inside, she cried out, the soft “oh!” of surprise followed by a long, low moan. He added another finger, curving them against her sensitive inner walls, taking her to the edge but not over.

She hovered there, awash in sensation, every nerve, every cell controlled by his fiery touch. She wanted him inside her, wanted the fullness only complete penetration could bring. Her hands moved independently of thought, stroking his sides, feathering along his ribs, then reaching for him, encircling the full length of his erection, stroking the distended veins, the silky skin covering the solid weight of his shaft. Begging him with her touch to take her over the edge.

He slipped his fingers free of her sheath. Alex lifted herself on her knees, Nate wrapped his fist around his shaft and held it for her. Alex stared at him, her body quivering with passion, taut with arousal. Panting, she clutched his shoulders. “Now, Nate. I need you right now.”

He lifted his shoulders and kissed her mouth, and then he grabbed her hips, pulling her close as he entered her, not gently as he might have done, but hard and fast with all the pent-up passion and intensity that had brought them this far. Plundering with lips and tongue and teeth, filling her mouth even as his thick cock stretched her sheath, he filled her in one long, strong thrust that bordered on pain and spiked her desire even more.

She felt as if their bodies melded, as if the two of them had become one fiery monument to ecstasy, a brief rapture before completion left her panting, her body sweat-soaked and boneless, sprawled across Nate. The two of them lay there, gasping for breath on the cold, hard stone of the cavern floor.

Hours. Days. Minutes later, Alex lay wrapped in Nate’s arms, the shirts and jeans once so carefully folded now bunched beneath their heads.

She stared, mesmerized, at the faintly glowing ceiling, imagining stars and open sky instead of thick rock walls. She felt replete, totally satiated for the first time in her life.

Her body still vibrated with the fervor of their lovemaking and the power of her release.
Cataclysmic
came to mind, the only word she could find that would adequately describe her body’s response to Nate’s touch. Their loving had surpassed anything Alex could imagine.

She pressed closer to his long legs, feeling a bittersweet sadness, wondering why she should finally discover someone, something, so monumentally important at a time when her life could be ending.

For the first time since the cave-in, Alex wondered what it would feel like to die.

Be strong. Death takes the weak.

The soft melodic voice seemed a part of the air, more sense than substance. Only imagination, Alex thought, at the same time accepting the truth of the words. She recalled the feeling of a presence with her in the cave earlier, but there was no sense of anyone now. No one but Nate.

Alex turned in his arms and kissed him lightly on the temple. His skin was cool and moist against her lips. His thick hair fell in damp waves away from his face. He smiled at her touch and the tenderness in his look made her heart break.

“It isn’t real, is it?” she whispered, not thinking of the warning, or the presence, or anything except the loving she had shared with Nate. Sharp, stinging tears filled her eyes. “None of this matters, because we’re not going to get out of here, are we?”

Her throat tightened; she knew her control was slipping. She’d never had so much to lose before.

“Oh, it’s real, all right,” he said, embracing her. “It’s real, and it’s important, and I’ve got one helluva reason not to give up now.” Nate sat up and pulled Alex with him. She snuggled into the protective warmth of his arms.

“We’re both exhausted and hungry,” he said, smoothing the tangled hair back from her brow. Pressing her face against the solid wall of his chest, Alex felt the steady beat of his heart, and, oddly, the first rumblings of laughter as he added, “And I don’t know about you, but my butt’s gettin’ cold.” He kissed her forehead then stood in one fluid movement and hauled her to her feet.

But instead of reaching for their clothing as Alex expected him to do, Nate drew her into his arms. She went willingly, meeting his body at breast and hip and thigh, feeling him hot and heavy against her once again.

“This isn’t going to get us out of here, Nathan.” She sighed, wondering where her fear had gone. “Don’t you think we should get going?”

“I’m thinking about it.” He nuzzled her neck, wrapping her long hair around his wrist and tilting her head back. The tip of his tongue whispered across the sensitive skin behind her ear.

“Yeah,” she answered dryly, her voice husky with renewed need. “But what are ya gonna do about it?”

“This,” he whispered, following the line of her jaw with his mouth. “And this,” he growled against her lips. “And maybe a little of this,” he said, trailing feather-light kisses across her breasts and down her belly, nipping the soft flesh below her navel between lips and teeth.

She burned along the fiery path his lips caressed and gasped at the intimacy of his kiss. Her breath escaped on a tortured moan when he knelt before her, his strong hands along her flanks pulling her close against his unshaved face. She twisted her hands in the thick hair at the back of his head, afraid her knees would collapse while he raised a fever in her blood with his mouth.

His swept his tongue between her labia and then swirled the tip around the hard bud of her clit. She groaned as he drew it between his lips, gently sucking the sensitive bundle of nerves. Taking her close, so damned close, before he pulled away and sat back on his heels and grinned at her. “I never realized what that would be like, to taste myself on a woman. On you.” He glanced down at his erect cock, pulsing against his belly as if it had a life of its own. “It’s damned sexy.”

“Please,” she whimpered, her breath coming in uneven gasps. She grabbed his shoulders, pulling him to his feet, holding him against her, wanting him inside her.

He lifted her in his arms, covering her face and throat and breasts with kisses as he carried her into the shimmering pool. Still holding her, he waded close to the churning depths beneath the waterfall.

The cool water did nothing to diminish Alex’s need for him. She clung to his strong shoulders, burying her face in the soft skin of his neck.

Floating beneath the cavern’s glowing ceiling, enveloped in the silvery mist from the waterfall, Alex lay still, locked in Nate’s arms. He turned her and positioned her against him so that she felt the rigid length of his erection hard against her belly. Wrapping her legs tightly around his waist, she raised her hips and then lowered herself against him, drawing him deep inside.

Once again he was thick and long, and he filled her, finding his place deep inside. She responded with a rippling of muscles all along the length of his cock. Arching against him, her body moved of its own accord, ruled by ancient rhythms older than recorded time, more ancient even than this enchanted place.

She gasped his name. Her hands tightened in his hair and her body writhed against his, consumed in the strength of his thrusts, the heat and the life of the two of them, together, joined as one. There was nothing but Alex. Nothing but Nate. No fear, no endless cavern with convoluted tunnels that went everywhere and nowhere.

Except they led here. Those endless, twisted tunnels had brought the two of them here.

It was so easy to forget.

Only the water’s buoyancy kept Nate from collapsing. Alex still shuddered in his arms, the aftermath of their climax etched in the flush of her dark cheeks and the glazed expression in her eyes.

He hadn’t meant to love her again, had really not expected his body would be ready, but the unbelievable arousal, the overwhelming desire she inspired was too amazing to ignore.

Her long legs, wrapped tightly behind his back, held the two of them in an intimate embrace. Nate drifted carefully with the light current until they reached the shallow depths where they could catch their breath.

He felt Alex’s legs tighten around his waist even more and was surprised at the faint stirring of passion once again. Chuckling to himself, he tipped her chin back. He wanted to see desire written on her face, but he was surprised at the faint tracks of tears covering her cheeks.

She smiled at him, a sad smile, and when she let her legs float away from his body, the separation he felt was more emotional than physical. His chest constricted, and his heart felt as if the space had grown too small for it to beat.

“What’s wrong, hon?” He loved her. She said she loved him. He had no doubt they would find their way out of this place. So what was the problem? There was nothing to worry about, no reason why they couldn’t be together. It all seemed perfectly logical.

“Don’t call me hon,” she said, evading his question with a bittersweet smile.

“Alex?” Nate said, waiting for her answer.

“Whatever happens, I want you to know that I do love you.”

She sounded wistful, her voice uneven. Nate hugged her, holding her tightly against his chest.

“Whatever happens, you’re stuck with me,” he said, forcing a tone of gaiety into his voice. “C’mon.” He stood up in the shallow water and tugged Alex to her feet. “Let’s grab another energy bar and some dried fruit, fill our water bottles, and get out of this place.”

“Don’t you think we ought to put our clothes on first?” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

“I was getting to that,” he said, lifting one eyebrow. “Eventually. I don’t want to rush anything.” He swept his gaze over her. “I really don’t want to cover up any of you at all.”

The twinkle was back in her eyes. Nate’s gaze never left her body as she dressed, and it was intoxicating, watching her cover what he had so recently tasted.

After a moment, she said, “If you keep that up, we’ll never get out of here.” Her voice had gone deep, the tone husky and laced with passion when she spoke.

“We’ll get out of here.” He leaned over to pick his pants and shirt up off the ground. “But there’s absolutely no reason not to enjoy the trip.”

Alex snorted at his quip, then poured some granola into her hand and gave the rest of the bag to Nate. “Be sure and remind me once in a while how much fun we’re having,” she said as she took a bite of cereal. “And don’t forget to mention the great meals.”

“Yeah, right . . . Alex?”

She turned at the sound of wonder in Nate’s voice. He stood immobile, his pants still unfastened, one arm thrust through the sleeve of his shirt. He gazed wide-eyed into the darkness above the waterfall.

“What is it? What do you see?” Alex flashed the narrow beam of the halogen light into the tunnel, illuminating the mist and turning it into a brilliant rainbow.

“I must be losing my mind,” Nate said, shaking his head and grinning sheepishly. “I could have sworn I saw a man and a woman, dressed in some kind of ceremonial garb. They were right there, just above the waterfall, watching us. They disappeared when you turned on the light.”