Leslie Lafoy (39 page)

His hands went to her shoulders and he gently adjusted her until she was facing the waterfall straight on. “All right, angel,” he said quietly. “Open your eyes and tell me what you think.”

Sera gasped in amazement and brought her hand up to cover Carden’s as she tried to take it all in. It was a room, thickly walled in greens, splashed by all the colors of the rainbow. The waterfall was there—on the far side—just as she’d expected. But it was so much more. At least three meters high and half again as broad, the water rippled silently down the face of black stone until it broke over a ledge and cascaded into a wide basin. And slightly to the left and before the fall was a high four-poster bed, draped in netting and appointed with bright white linens.

“Are you pleased?”

“Oh, Carden,” she whispered. “It’s my fantasy.”

“Do I play any part in this fantasy of yours?” he asked, sliding his arms around her midriff and pressing a lingering kiss behind her ear.

“A most prominent one,” she happily admitted.

He kissed the curve of her neck. “You’ll tell me if I do anything wrong?”

“Of course,” she murmured, knowing that any way he touched her was perfection.

Kissing his way back to the hollow behind her ear, he untied the sash of her wrapper. “How am I doing so far?” he asked, his hands gliding up her torso to cup her breasts through her night rail. Suckling her earlobe, he slowly scraped his thumbs over her hardened nipples.

Her body thrumming, her core going molten, she desperately asked, “Where are the girls?”

“Walking in the park with Honoria,” he answered, kissing his way back to her nape, his thumbs sending shivers of delight coursing through her. “After which they’ll be going to luncheon together. It will be late afternoon before they return.”

“And Sawyer?”

“Off on errands. With a very extensive list.”

Oh, Lord, her bones were dissolving. “Aiden and Barrett?”

Nuzzling beneath the edges of her wrapper and night rail, he kissed the curve of her shoulder. “Aiden is busy with his ship business. Barrett is on an investigation of some sort. I did invite them to dinner this evening, though.”

Her senses were flooding, the heady spiral bearing her upward. “You’ve seen to everything.”

“I pride myself on being thorough.”

She could feel his smile against her skin. She had to do something about slowing his thoroughness or—in less than a minute—she was going to be a sated puddle at his feet.

“I’ve noticed,” she said raggedly, turning in his arms and placing her hands flat on his chest, “that you pride yourself on a great many things, Carden Reeves.”

She was riding close to the edge, trying to keep from tumbling over; he could see it in the light of her eyes. “I happen to be very good at a great many things,” he said, resting his hands on her waist, giving her a temporary reprieve. “And false modesty is so annoying, don’t you think?”

“There’s a difference between modesty and humility.”

He grinned. “I’m not inclined to be humble.”

“So I’ve noticed,” she countered, laughing softly.

“What else about me have you noticed, Sera?”

“You’re a talented architect,” she answered, her gaze dropping to his chest as her hands moved to the center of it. She opened the button of his shirt.

He mentally counted. Only three were fastened before his shirt met the waist of his trousers. “And?”

The next button opened beneath her fingers. “Despite your declarations otherwise, you’re also very good with children.”

“And?”

The next one parted with the buttonhole. She looked up at him. “You’re very, very good at kissing.”

“Yes, I am,” he agreed, lowering his head to prove it. He moved his mouth over hers, possessing her gently as his hands slipped down her hips and back to cup her. She arched her back, pressing her breasts against him, and parted her lips to catch his lower one and slowly stroke it with the tip of her tongue. Delight rippled through him and he drew back to smile down at her. “And you’re very good at it, too.”

“You inspire me.”

The look in her eyes … “Oh?” he taunted, his heart racing.

“To do the most wicked and wanton things.” She opened the button on his trousers.

“That’s
my
fantasy.”

She smiled and arched a brow, opened the next button. “Shall we combine yours and mine and see what happens?”

He knew what was going to happen. This time. The next. Today. Tomorrow. Every day for as long as he lived. He was going to love her. With his heart and soul. His body was never again going to be his alone to command. She was going to shred his intentions every time they came together. She would drive him mad and past restraint and he would let her because she was the only one who could, because he was powerless to stop her. And because he would never feel as whole, as complete, as he felt when joined with her.

“Love me, Sera,” he whispered. “Please love me as much as I do you.”

Her every dream, her every hope. “I do,” she answered, her heart overflowing, her soul on wing. “I love you, Carden Reeves.”

He smiled and bent to whisper a kiss across her lips as his hands went to her shoulders. He pushed her wrapper aside and she released him to let it slip down her arms, past her fingertips, to pool on the ground at their feet.

His fingers trailed up the curve of her shoulder, the length of her neck, and he tenderly cradled her face in his hands. “Tell me what you want, Sera.”

“You.”

The light in his eyes was wicked, thrilling. “Any particular way?”

“Naked would be nice,” she answered, slipping her hands between them.

He cocked a brow and grinned, took a half-step back and held his arms out to the sides.

His surrender sent a fiery jolt of heat into her core. Breathless, she opened his trouser buttons with trembling, impatient fingers. His shirt buttons, too. She skimmed the palms of her hands up over the rippled contours of his abdomen, the hardened planes of his chest, and to his massive shoulders. She found his gaze and held it as she pushed his shirt aside, as he lowered his arms and let it slide away.

She drew her hands down along the same chiseled path, watching him, reveling in the dark spark of anticipation she saw come into his eyes.
Watch me dare, Carden Reeves.

With deliberate patience, she slowed her touch at his hips, deepened the friction between the palms of her hands and his skin. His breath caught and his chin came up. He grasped her shoulders, holding her there, holding himself steady.

His smile disappeared and he closed his eyes as she stroked down his thighs. He stopped breathing as she started back up and came to the center. And when she took him into her hands, he moaned hard and deep and tightened his hold on her.

It was the most magnificent of tortures and Carden surrendered himself to the pleasure of it, to the mastery of her touch, knowing that he couldn’t long control the urgency coiling low in his loins.

“Sera,” he warned, “you’re pushing my limits.”

“I know.”

The laughter rolled up from deep in his chest and he opened his eyes to find her smiling up at him in unholy joy. He took the front edges of her night rail in his hands and tore the thing straight down the center. Her eyes lit up and her mouth formed the most inviting little O.

“That’s it,” he declared, chuckling and drawing the gown over her arms and letting it fall away. “You don’t get slow and gentle this time.”

She slipped her hands to his hips and the trousers slid down as she arched her brow and laughingly countered, “Perhaps I don’t want slow and gentle.”

The line was fine and she was daring him to hold it. His blood heated another impossible degree. “Oh, angel,” he taunted, moving slowly behind her. She watched him over her shoulder just as she had in Lady Hatcher’s greenhouse.

“You’re going to get slow after all,” he whispered, cupping her breasts. Slipping her hardened nipples between his fingers, he gently squeezed them. “Do you like that, Sera? Does it feel good?”

“Yes.”

Suckling her earlobe, teasing it with the tip of his tongue, he rolled the peaks between his thumbs and forefingers. “And that, Sera? Do you like that?”

Her knees melted and she closed her eyes, leaning into him and trusting him to keep her from falling. The hard length of him pressed into her flesh and through a shudder of pleasure she gasped, “Yes.”

He trailed the tip of his tongue along the curve of her ear and then released her nipples to place his hands on her waist. Turning her, he swept her up into his arms, carried her to the bed and set her on the edge. Her eyes were bright, shimmering with desire, and he looked into the depths of them as he took her breasts back into his hands.

Scraping the pads of his thumbs over the crests, he leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. She closed her eyes and sighed and he came back for another kiss, this one deeper and more possessive. Her arms twined around his neck and her lips parted in invitation. He accepted, gently invading, touching, stroking. She moaned and, beneath his thumbs, her nipples hardened another degree.

Drawing back, he feathered kisses at the corners of her mouth and then moved deliberately downward, kissing and gently suckling the slender column of her throat on his way to the feast of her breasts. She drew a long, hard breath as he neared a rosy summit and he paused for just a moment before he slowly drew his tongue over it.

“Oh, Carden,” she whispered raggedly.

He blew gently on the wetness, smiling as she started, moaned, and arched toward him. “Do you like that, Sera?” he asked, his lips a mere breath away from the treasure. “Do you want me to do it again?”

Her answer was wordless, but undeniably clear and direct. She drew her arms from his shoulders and placed them behind her on the bed, arched her back and brushed her nipple across his lips. Reveling in her forwardness and happy to reward her, he obediently, languidly licked her. Once, twice, three times. And then she shifted, turning slightly to offer her other breast.

He obliged her. And himself. Lapping her ever so slowly once, twice. “Tell me if you like this,” he whispered, taking her gently between his teeth and rapidly flicking her with the tip of his tongue.

“Oh, Carden.”

Releasing her, he kissed his way to the other breast and paused. “Was that a yes?”

“Yes,” she declared, pressing her nipple to his lips. “Don’t stop.”

Taking her offering between his teeth, he answered, “At your command,” and then teased her, pleasuring her with his tongue. Then, true to his word, he didn’t stop. He took her peak wholly into his mouth and suckled her, pulling at her deep and hard and not at all gently.

He released his prize only to claim the other just as deliberately. She moaned and arched closer and his patience with slow seduction frayed. Aching with want, he clung to what little control he still possessed. Easing back and straightening, he lifted his gaze to her face. Her eyes remained closed, her breathing ragged and fast as she leaned forward to lightly brush her breasts against his chest. Watching her, he slipped his hands up the length of her thighs. As he neared her hips, she murmured a wordless plea and arched her head back.

He leaned forward to kiss her throat. “Do you like this, Sera?” he asked, his lips grazing her skin as his fingers found and stroked the heated wetness of her. “Or shall I stop?”

“No. God, no.”

She was close, so close to the edge. “Ah, Seraphina,” he said, easing away from her. “I think maybe I should.”

“Carden!” Sera cried, tumbling back from the crest, frantically catching his arms. “Don’t you dare leave me like this!”

His smile was wicked and wide, his eyes bright with knowing triumph. “Afraid that I’d deny you, angel? Never.”

Her heart was thundering, so full that she knew it was going to burst. She loved him. Loved the way he made her feel, the way he knew her and teased her and pleasured every fiber of her body and soul. “You’re shameless, Carden Reeves,” she breathlessly accused.

“And you love me for it,” he countered, adoring her, craving her, as he drew her to the very edge of the bed and fitted himself between her legs. “You like being a wanton.”

“Only with you.”

“Yes, Sera,” he murmured, taking her hips in his hands. “Only with me.”

He filled her leisurely, hard and deep. She moaned and slowly shuddered, seizing him, welcoming him, holding him fast in the slick, wet heat of her body. He drew back only a bit and then pushed forward, filling her again, driving himself as deep into her as he could. She dug her fingers into the bedcoverings and arched up, soaring on the spiral, panting. “Carden!”

They were both too close. It was too soon. “Only me, Sera,” he repeated, gasping, struggling for control as he drew back and bent down to gently capture her lower lip with his teeth. “Only me. Promise it.”

She touched her tongue to his lips, arched up. “Only you, Carden.”

“Always,” he gasped, desperately releasing his claim to her mouth and stilling her hips. “Always, Sera,” he pleaded. “Look me in the eyes and promise me always.”

“Always, Carden. Only you.”

Lifting her up, he filled her with every measure of his desire, every measure of his being.

She tumbled over the edge with a strangled cry, the heat and the power of her fulfillment gripping him and pulling him hard to the hilt. His own release building and beyond stopping, he surrendered to the tide that sated his need and flooded his heart and soul with the love of Sera.

*   *   *

She drifted in dreamy contentment, wrapped in the strength of Carden’s arms, warmed and cradled against the length of his body. Water splashed at the edge of her awareness, an accompaniment to the sweet lullaby of Carden’s heartbeat, the even measure of his breathing.

Always. He’d asked her for always. Sera smiled and nestled her cheek closer into the curve of his shoulder. Someday there would be— Her heart tripped with sudden realization.

“What’s wrong?” he murmured, pulling her closer, pressing a kiss to her temple.

She shifted, pushing herself up on her elbow and swallowing back her trepidation. “We forgot the sheath.”