Slow Burn (A Madaris Family Novel) (22 page)

Diana nodded in agreement. “Yes, it will be.” If this was a dream, then she wasn’t ready to wake up yet. It seemed that Marilyn had been right. She had detected more than friendship in Ned’s eyes.

“You know what I want to do more than anything, Diana?” he asked, his voice going husky and deep.

She saw his face inching closer to hers and automatically she moved her face toward his mouth. When his lips latched onto hers, she released a sigh of pleasure from deep within her throat. This was the kiss she’d dreamed of sharing with Ned so many times, the kiss she thought would never take place between them. And now it was happening.

Her muscles began to quake, her entire body began to ache, and the air surrounding them seem to crackle. She couldn’t recall the last time she had shared a kiss with a man, but it hadn’t been anything like this. She had forgotten how it felt to be French-kissed by a man, to have your mouth devoured like you were the best thing he’d tasted since gingerbread.

Moments later he slowly pulled back, releasing her lips, but that didn’t stop him from trailing a few kisses down her throat. “Are you sure you want to spend five days with me, Diana, knowing I’m in love with you and that I want you?”

“I could ask you the same thing about me, you know,” was her soft response.

He pulled back, looked at her, and smiled. “This should be an interesting trip.”

“And I think it will be.”

He then leaned in and kissed her again, just as thorough and deep. Then he pulled back and stood. “I’d better go before I get us both in trouble. But be forewarned, Diana Madaris, in Savannah I’ll only stop when and if you tell me to.”

Her voice was filled with both anticipation and desire when she said, “I’ll remember that. And I’ll also hold you to it.”

And before she could say anything else, he turned and quickly walked out the door.

Wayne came awake when the phone rang. He glanced at the illuminated digital clock on his nightstand. For crying out loud, it was three in the morning. Who would be calling him at this hour? He reached out and grabbed it and barked into it. “Hello!”

“Get your ass in gear and do something! You told me you could control her and I paid you a lot of money to do just that; now start earning it!”

Wayne recognized the voice and sat up in bed, rubbing a hand down his face. “I told you I had matters under control. When she returns from Texas, I—”

“She plans to hire some private investigator to find her father, and you know how I feel about that.”

Yes, Wayne did know.

The person continued talking. “I will not lose all I’ve gained if she decides to go snooping. I’m willing to double what I was offering you before if you marry her. But not only marry her, you have to keep her under control and rid such foolishness out of her head about ever finding her biological father.”

There was a pause and then the caller said, “And there’s something else you might need to know.”

Wayne sighed as he moved to sit on the side of the bed, feeling annoyed. Skye was beginning to be more trouble than she was worth. “What?”

“Getting her to marry you might not be as easy as you think, because there’s a possibility that she’s falling for someone she met in Houston. A man by the name of Slade Madaris. He’s a cousin to her brother. So it will be to your advantage to do something now.”

The caller then hung up.

“Had enough yet, sweetheart?”

Before Skye could respond to Slade’s question, he lowered his head and captured a swollen tip of her breast in his mouth, sucking on it, licking it, torturing it as she released groans of pleasure.

He then glided his tongue to the other one, perked and firm as it could be, as if waiting for his mouth to give it the same treatment it had given its twin. Then there were his hands that refused to stay still. They were busy, stirring and brewing the wet heat pooling between her thighs, sharpening her awareness of him, increasing her need. Making the desire building once again inside of her almost unbearable.

She closed her eyes and moaned, inhaled the scent of sex that filled the room. They had made love almost non-stop once they’d made it to his condo. First in the living room several times before finally making it to the bedroom. Each time she and Slade made love, he not only touched her body, he touched her heart as well. He had the ability to awaken every sensation she possessed, and with the way his tongue was gliding across her breasts, making her gasp, squirm, and moan, she knew he had her just where he wanted her and just where she wanted to be.

“You like that, don’t you?” he asked huskily.

She didn’t know why he was asking when he knew she did. She liked everything he did to her, and with an intensity that overwhelmed her. “Yes, I like—”

Before she could get out the final word, he had lifted his mouth from her breasts and captured her lips, swallowing up whatever word she was going to say. His tongue tangled with hers in a way that had her heart pounding while mirroring her innermost emotions, fantasies, and dreams. But then this was also a taste of reality, and the realism was that she was just where she wanted to be, in Slade’s arms. In his bed.

Now if she could only wiggle into a part of his heart.

She loved him, but other than knowing he enjoyed what they were sharing, she didn’t know how he actually felt about her. She refused to entertain the unwanted notion that this summer was all he wanted for them. She had to believe that deep down he wanted more like she did.

He released her mouth. “Open your eyes and look at me, Skye.”

She did what he asked, and the intensity of the dark eyes looking down at her almost took her breath away.

“Now tell me what you see,” he requested softly as he shifted his body in position over hers.

She gazed into his eyes for a long moment and then said, “I see a deeply aroused man. A man who wants me as much as I want him. A man who’s shown me the meaning of being desired to the utmost and not holding anything back, and a man who has introduced me to so many incredible experiences.”

He reached down and gently brushed a twisted curl from her cheek and she shivered, an automatic reaction from his touch. “What about love, Skye? Do you see a man who loves you?”

She stared at him and she did see it now. It was there, shining in the dark depths of his eyes, and it was so profound it made tears form in her eyes. “I didn’t know,” she said in a broken whisper. “All I knew was that I had fallen in love with you, Slade. I had no idea you loved me, too.”

“Well, I do. I love you very much. I didn’t realize how much until we were separated these past three days. My wanting desperately to get back here to you was more than just wanting to sleep with you. It was about loving you. I think I’ve loved you since the moment I first opened Justin’s door to find you standing there.”

“And I believe that’s when I fell in love with you, too. There were so many things about you that were so unlike Wayne. I didn’t know a caliber of man like you existed. You have completely and irrevocably captured my heart, Slade Madaris.”

He leaned down and captured her lips with his as the wet heat of their mouths fused together, igniting every kind of nerve in their bodies. Their tongues tangled; they mated in the most intense form possible, sending erotic sensations all through the both of them.

Slade pulled his mouth back slightly and whispered against her moist lips, “I love you and will always love you until the last breath leaves my body,” in a deep voice filled with love and passion.

The look in his eyes and the words he’d spoken made Skye’s insides quiver. During a time in her life when her parents had practically written her off, and the only person she thought she had was a newfound brother, Slade had provided her a beacon of hope for a better and brighter future, one filled with his love. She couldn’t stop the tears that came into her eyes, and he leaned down, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed the tears away.

And then he was kissing her again, letting her feel the power and depth of his love. Then he pulled back and stared down at her as he lowered the bottom part of his body, gently pressing forward, entering her, going deeper, and filling her completely as he joined their bodies as one. And when he had gone to the hilt, a storm of emotions ripped into him. This was the woman his heart had chosen, the woman he would love for all eternity.

And then he began making love to her, his thrusts powerful, driving her deeper and deeper into the firm mattress. She screamed out his name as she began climaxing. Her body shuddered and quivered beneath his, triggering his own powerful, explosive release.

“Skye!”

And then moments later he was kissing her again. This time his kiss was gentle, tender, and filled with love, and Skye felt it all the way to her toes, but especially the tingling sensation that settled in her stomach. He was still embedded inside of her, and she tightened her arms around him, savoring the feel of their bodies still joined.

She closed her eyes as sensations continued to rack her body and she wondered if Slade’s prediction would be correct and she wouldn’t be able to walk in the morning.

Skye glanced over at Slade across the breakfast table. “Will your mom be upset that you skipped church and won’t be coming to dinner today?”

Slade smiled at her. Although it was past lunchtime, they were just eating breakfast. After they took a bath together in his oversized Jacuzzi tub, he had shared one of his bathrobes with her, and they’d been satisfied with cereal and milk.

“Mom and Dad spent the night at Whispering Pines,” he said. “Uncle Jake has several guest cottages, and instead of making the long drive back to Houston, most of the family spent the night there.”

Skye nodded, then smiled brightly. “So what would you like to do today?”

At the look he gave her, she shook her head and quickly said, “Besides that. I can barely walk this morning.”

He chuckled. “You asked for it. Over and over again.”

She blushed because she had. In fact, she had been the one to awaken first this morning with a burning desire to mate with him. All she had to do was wake him up, let him know her interest, and then the heat was on. “You shouldn’t make it so good,” she said teasingly.

“Baby, for you that’s the only way I intend to make it.” He glanced at his watch. “What time do you expect Vincent back?”

“This afternoon. He’ll be spending the night over at Dex’s place, since I understand his grandparents are hitting the road again.”

Slade grinned. “I want to be like Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Marilyn when I grow up. They use their time as retirees to full advantage and enjoy putting their motor home on the road.”

Skye thought of her own parents. She had called them several more times over the past few weeks, and each time Helen had delivered the same message to her. They would not talk to her until she agreed to their terms. They were treating her like a naughty child being punished instead of the twenty-six-year-old woman that she was.

And when she had checked her cell phone after her bath with Slade, she saw that Wayne had called. She had no idea what he wanted but had no intentions of calling him back to find out. She had called her parents to make sure they were okay and that he hadn’t been calling about them. Again Helen had answered the phone and said Skye’s parents would not talk to her.

“What are you thinking about?”

She glanced over at Slade. “My parents. They still won’t accept my calls.”

The sadness in her voice caused a pain to rip through his heart. He couldn’t imagine any parents deliberately treating their child the way Skye’s parents were treating her. He thought of his own parents. He and his brothers had done a lot of things in their lifetime that their parents hadn’t approved of, and of course they had let their sons know it. But at no time had his parents ever turned their backs on them. It was the strangest thing he ever heard of. Parents, at least the ones he knew, weren’t usually that hard on their kids, especially when they were Skye’s age. Her parents were treating her like a child instead of the adult she was.

He stood and slowly walked over to her and pinned her with his gaze. “Tell me, sweetheart. What can I do to make you happy?”

Skye blinked back tears. In all her twenty-six years, no one had ever asked her that before, and only a man like Slade would be asking her that now. “You made me happy last night when you told me that you loved me, Slade,” she said softly, looking up into his eyes. “Because now I know that if my parents never come around and talk to me again, at least I have you and your love. And that means so much to me. I love you so much.”

“And I love you, too. For always.” And then he bent his head down to kiss her, pulling her out of the chair and sweeping her off her feet and into his arms in the process.

When he broke out of the kiss she said, “Slade, I can walk.”

He grinned down at her. “Yes, but barely. That’s why I made sure you took a hot-tub bath instead of the shower. I’m taking care of you from now on.”

“Oh, Slade.” She laid her head on his chest when he cuddled her in his arms to carry her into the bedroom. Sunlight was streaming in through the window when he placed her on the bed. Fighting the intense desire raging through him, he gently took off his robe that she was wearing, leaving her completely bare. He then pulled back the covers. “Come on, get under this. I’m going to hold you for a while.”

She slipped her naked body beneath the covers; then he removed his own robe and got underneath the covers with her. He gathered her into his arms and held her. Entwining their limbs, his arms bracketed her, holding her close. They were skin to skin, heart to heart, his naked chest to her bare shoulder blades. He fought to ignore his aroused shaft that was resting against her backside, and every time he breathed, he picked up her scent and it had his nostrils flaring. He loved her. He wanted her. But now more than anything he just needed to hold her.

Within minutes he heard her even breathing and knew she had drifted off to sleep, and he continued to hold her even while she slept.