He's A Magic Man (The Children of Merlin) (22 page)

When at last she relaxed, her eyes were swimming. She might not be fully back yet. His own desire, while intense, was manageable now. He lay quietly between her thighs, watching her contract with aftershocks. Her eyelids fluttered.

“Wow.”

He couldn’t help but smile. “Wow?’

She nodded. “Wow.” She put one manicured nail to her lips. “But somehow not enough.”

His brows drew together. “I....” What could he say? He’d been found wanting.

She got a wicked gleam in her eye. “No. Not nearly enough.” She pushed herself up to her knees, and pressed him onto his back. She straddled his hips, balancing herself with her hands on his lower ribs. “I think I need more of you.”

Oh, God help
me
. She slid her slick folds up and down his cock. Over and over, just as he had done for her.

“Definitely,” she said, her breath coming a little faster. “More.” She pushed herself up, and reached for his shaft, positioning him at her opening.

Then she lowered herself onto him. Michael had trouble breathing as she started a slow up and down, coupled with a rocking motion. Where the hell had she learned that? He’d kill that professor if he were the one who’d taught her.

And then he couldn’t think about anything. He tried to reach for her waist to help her, but she took his hands and pulled them up above his head.
That made her breasts brush
his chest. And still she was rocking on him. “Uh-uh. This is my show now. And this is what I’ve wanted to do to you since the first time I had you tied up here, sick puppy that I am.”

Michael obligingly held on to the two-by-four that ran along the mattress. “Hell, if I’d known what I was missing, I would have given up drink a long time ago.”

She sat up straight and ran her hands over his chest muscles, tweaking his nipples. Her gray eyes were dark smoke in the dim light. She put her hands behind her head as she twisted on top of him. It made her breasts lift and her ribs stand out.

And then she began to ride him, hard. Michael was seeing little gleams of light, like sparkles at the edge of his vision. The tin roof still clattered with the rain. The air was heavy. The sensation of Drew’s hot sheath moving up and down his hard rod was almost overwhelming. He thrust up in counterpoint. He had to hold out, though. If he could last long enough, she could get another orgasm. The way she was rocking forward and back as well as up and down must be rubbing her most sensitive parts against his pubic bones.

Hold out.
He ordered himself.
Hold out. Hold out.
And he kept telling himself that until it became a kind of singsong mantra. He watched Drew as she started to twist as she thrust, getting more and more excited. She had to be close. That was good. That was good.

She fell forward a little and braced her hands on his chest to move faster on him. God in heaven, she better come soon. He’d no sooner thought that then he felt her contract around him, as she made little, grunting noises.

At that signal, he stopped his mantra. In four strokes he was pumping his semen inside her as every nerve and brain cell screamed in ecstasy. The lights at the corners of his vision swelled until his sight was gone entirely, replaced by glowing globes of light and the echoes of his cries and Drew’s.

After what seemed like a long time, she fell forward on his chest, and he put his arms around her. He was still inside her but he wasn’t soft.
Still hard.
Had that ever happened to him before? He knew in a few minutes, he’d be ready to pleasure her again, if she wanted that.

He opened his eyes. She seemed to feel him coming around, because she turned her face up toward him. She was soft and warm, and she looked sated.

“Wow.” He smiled down at her. The rain had stopped. The shack was quiet.

“Yeah. That.” She snuggled against him.

Nothing had ever seemed so right.

*****

Michael reached down and pulled up a sheet to cover her. Thoughtful. Even though it was warm, the perspiration evaporating off her body gave her a chill. She lay in the crook of his arm, her head on his chest. She wanted to just lie here with him forever. She might have dozed, lulled by the beat of his heart in her ear and the rise and fall of his chest under her head.

That was some kind of sex. She hadn’t known sex came in the extra-large, new and improved version. There’d been the French boy. And that cute docent at the Huntington Library where she’d served her internship.
And Roger of course.
But never any seeing-stars, bark-like-a-dog, can’t-get-enough sex like this.

Funny, the whole thing with Roger seemed so distant. How had he been worth so much angst? But it had never been about Roger. It was about how stupid she’d been. Being a fool didn’t fit her self-image. And the fear of being so wrong when she’d been so sure.

She was probably being stupid again now. Alcoholic.
Totally in love with a dead wife.
No chance for happiness. The sex was just magic calling to magic. Was that even real attraction? This whole situation was going to kick her butt, figuratively speaking of course.

Either she stayed with a man who didn’t love her and watched her life be poisoned with pain and regret, or she left the man who was her destiny. Ditto poisoned with pain and regret. She’d be the spinster aunt to Tris and Maggie’s children.
Probably to all the Tremaine grandchildren.
Not what she had in
mind.
And it meant she should never have allowed herself to get involved with Michael to the point of actually having sex with him.

But she was glad she’d done it. She’d given Michael pleasure. She’d done her best to show him that alive and sober was a good thing. And from the look on his face, he might have gotten the message. Didn’t matter that forever wasn’t in the cards. Didn’t matter that she’d be devastated. That was inescapable. It was how she’d helped Michael that mattered.

She felt whole and right on a level so deep she hadn’t known it existed. Her eyes filled. A lifetime of this feeling right here was what she would be denied. So all she could do was relish it as hard as she could. The memory of this moment was all she’d have.

Michael’s hand was moving over her back in slow circles. It felt good.

“Stay with me,” he murmured, out of nowhere.

She suddenly felt like Cinderella at the ball. Tomorrow was Friday. She had two more days before she had to get back to LA. Well, then she’d stay two days. She wouldn’t tell him that. She raised her head to kiss his chest. The sweet saltiness of his skin against her lips gave her a surprising tingle. She brushed her lips across his nipple.

“Is that a yes?”

“Mm-hmm,” she murmured, knowing her lips were sending a hum through his nipple. She sent out a hand in an exploratory move toward his loins. She didn’t have to go far. He was fully erect. He lifted his hips, nudging her hand with his penis. “Okay then.”

“Not enough,” he said. “Need more.”

She slid her knee over his and let him feel her wetness. She probably wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week.

She didn’t care. She’d take whatever time with Michael she could get.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

It was late when Michael realized he was awake. The insides of his eyelids were pink with sunlight coming in through the side window that faced east. His body was curled around Drew’s, her sweet bottom tucked into his groin. She was warm and sleepy in his arms.

Nothing had ever felt that good.

His eyelids jerked open of their own accord. Not
nothing.
How could he even think that? Alice had felt that good every day he woke up next to her.
Oh, Alice, I’m sorry.
His eyes filled.

He half-expected an answer. But though he strained to hear her voice inside his head, there was nothing but his own guilt and remorse.

No, not remorse.

He was sorry if what he’d done with Drew was a betrayal of Alice. But he wasn’t sorry he’d made love to Drew. She had needed him last night. And making love to her had felt so right and true. Something had happened in that bathroom to upset her. He couldn’t believe graceful Drew had just tripped in that tiny bathroom. How could she? She’d been standing at the sink washing her face. She’d still had soap on it when he examined her for bruises. When he had seen she was crying, something inside him knew he had to comfort her, regardless of the cost. And then there was his desire. He hadn’t been this randy since before Alice got sick.

When Drew coaxed him into revealing his name, he didn’t think she knew how intimate that felt. Or how vulnerable he felt in telling her. She was now the only person in the world, besides Walter, the CEO of Redmond, who knew his name. It was a bond between them. He could feel it even now, that connection.

He opened his eyes and looked down at her. Tenderness filled his heart. She looked so defenseless, so beautiful, her dark hair and long dark lashes sweeping the fine porcelain of cheeks that were faintly flushed. It felt so good to have her in his arms. She had a strong spirit. She’d proven that. And yet there were mysteries about Drew Tremaine he still hadn’t plumbed, and twenty questions from another game of poker weren’t going to help him.

He felt strong too. That was funny. He, of anybody, wasn’t strong. But this morning he felt like a new man, a better man, because he was connected to Drew. It felt good.

She took a deep breath as she wakened and turned in his arms. Her bottom brushed against his genitals and her breasts rolled against his chest. Good Lord, he was getting hard again. Was that even possible? “Good morning,” he whispered, getting up on one elbow.

She smiled gently as she opened her eyes. Her whole face lit up when she looked up at him. He felt so damned grateful someone looked at him like that. “Back at you.”

Her eyes were the shade of old pewter this morning. He caught the scent of what they’d done together on her, and.... Was that fresh desire? He’d never been so sensitive to scent before. She put her arms around his neck and stretched. That pressed the whole length of her body against him. She must feel how hard he was getting.

“Well, aren’t we up bright and early?”

“Up, definitely. Not sure about bright. But I wouldn’t call it early.” He pulled the small of her back in toward him, and slid a knee over her hip.

She tangled her hands in his hair and bent his head down for a long, lazy kiss.

*****

How could she feel so much energy when she’d exhausted herself making love to Michael for the umpteenth time in the last twelve hours? But she did. She felt as though a bond, almost physical, had grown up between them.
At least on her side.
She sat up in the bed next to him. He let his body flop over on his back limply.

“
Uhhh
,” he groaned.

“Did I wear you out?” she asked. It came out rather brightly.

“How can you be so chipper?” He cast a baleful eye her way.

“Because I took all your precious bodily fluids, and left you a husk of your former self.”

He managed to get up on one elbow. “I thought that was it.” Then he gave her the most boyish grin. Those even white teeth were devastating. “Wanna go again? I just need a minute.”

She shook her head in mock astonishment. “You’ll blow away in the wind.” She looked around. “Actually, no wind this morning. No rain. I bet it’s beautiful out. Walk?”

“Breakfast,” he growled. “I’m cooking.” And he got out of bed with surprising alacrity in view of his recent complaints. Apparently the call of food was overpowering. Oh, she did like looking at his butt. The man had the best butt she’d ever seen. And the muscles in those thighs.... She’d better stop thinking like this or she’d be hauling him back to bed.

A skitter of shadow tried to make its way into her mind. He was not for her. She knew that. She could see the heartbreak coming like a freight train, straight a

*****

Michael waited until after breakfast, even after they’d done the dishes, to broach the subject. They’d made small talk and laughed some. It felt natural. “Let’s take that walk down to the beach,” he said as he squeezed out the dishrag and tossed it into the sink.

“Okay.”

He led her through the trees on the path built up with rocks across the mangrove squish down to the little beach.

“What are those trees?” she asked, pointing. “They look like they’re on stilts.”

“White mangroves. The stilts are their roots. ”

“Oh. Like the little ones at the water’s edge.”

“Those are red mangroves. The mangrove swamps are the reason there aren’t any waves. It’s low tide right now, but when the tide comes up they’re half-covered in salt water. Those roots are the way they get oxygen.
Great place to find oysters.
Fish breed in there too.”