Spellbound Falls (28 page)

She sat up and let go of her bra, immediately slipped her arms into the sleeves of his shirt, then quickly shed her knee-highs. She lay back on her side facing him, only to go slightly dizzy at the sight of his broad, wonderfully naked chest—the one that she’d just been given the go-ahead to
touch
.

“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered, running her fingers through the soft hair covering some really impressive muscles as she worked her way toward his belt.

He stopped her. “There really is no rush. We have all night,” he said, the deep timbre in his voice sending a shiver of anticipation through her.

She suddenly dropped her head onto his chest with a groan. “My purse is in the truck,” she muttered, even as she brushed the soft down on his chest with her lips when she
turned to look at him. “I—I don’t suppose you have a condom on you?”

The torso she was leaning on rose and fell with a heavy sigh, making her suck in her breath when it brushed against her sensitive nipples. “I’ve seen to that particular problem,” he said, gesturing toward the hearth—where Olivia saw a bowl carved from a burl of wood, full of… good Lord, there had to be two dozen condoms in there! She pressed her face to his chest in utter and complete awe at the service money could buy.

Oh God, she hoped Sylvia Pinkham hadn’t seen her in the front seat of the truck when the resort owner had given him the gate key. Because if she had, it would be all over Turtleback Station and eventually Spellbound Falls that Livy Baldwin was having a flaming affair with a man who had ordered a romantic seduction complete with a feather bed in front of the hearth and a bowl full of condoms.

Mac smoothed down her hair. “Touch me, Olivia.”

Seriously, she had to get over herself. If she wanted to have an affair, it was nobody’s business but hers. Well, hers and the half-naked guy she was sprawled over.

Dammit, she needed to stay focused before another six years went by!

Only just as she decided to have another go at his belt buckle, she heard him mutter something about wanting five minutes alone with… somebody, just as he reared up, rolled her onto her back and settled rather intimately between her naked thighs.

And this time she didn’t have any problem reading the look in his eyes.

For the love of Zeus, he’d known simpering virgins less shy than Olivia. Mac couldn’t tell what was going on inside that beautiful head of hers, but he’d let her stall long enough. He’d almost gotten her engaged by asking for her touch, but even that hadn’t seemed to get her out of her head and into the room with him.

“W-wait,” she stammered, pushing against his chest to hold him at bay.

By the gods, if he waited any longer Henry would be a grown man by the time they left this room. He gently pressed his groin into hers. “No, don’t close your eyes. I want you to see how you affect me, Olivia. Watch how my skin tightens and shudders at your touch.”

That seemed to get her attention as she snapped her gaze to his chest. She hesitantly combed her fingers through his pelt of hair with a feathery touch, her eyes widening when his muscles reacted with an involuntary tremor. Her other hand moved to trail one single finger down to his nipple, drawing a circle around it before moving even lower to his ribs, causing every muscle in his body to tense in response.

And still Mac held himself perfectly still against her
sweet torture, drinking in the sight of her flushed cheeks, her deep round eyes sparkling like mulled wine, her lips parting as her plump, feminine breasts rose and fell with her quickening breaths. He finally bent at the elbows just enough to lower his mouth to hers, pressing against her inviting lips even as she rose to meet him.

Sweet heaven, he’d promised he wouldn’t rush, but he could see now that he’d made the vow in haste as her sometimes hesitant, sometimes bold explorations drove Mac a little frantic himself. He moved his mouth along her cheek, down to her jaw and then to her throat, pressing on her racing pulse to suckle a moan from her.

“Are you keeping your eyes open?” he asked as he trailed a moist path down over her collarbone, shifting so that he was even with her breasts. “Watch your own response, cinnamon eyes.”

He pulled one of her nipples into his mouth, causing her to arch up with a gasp. Her fingers dug into his back, her legs wrapping around his as if she were afraid he’d suddenly disappear.

By the gods, she was definitely in the room with him now.

He suckled gently, then lifted his head and blew on her delicious nipple, watching it respond before returning to it again as she gave a deep moan and quivered in response. Her hands became bolder, slipping inside his trousers then sliding all the way up his back to his shoulders.

Her breath quickened when he trailed his lips across the valley of her chest to lavish attention on her other nipple, pulling it inside and then worrying its responsive peak with his tongue. She grew restless beneath him, her legs sliding along his as she at first pulled and then pushed at him with building frustration.

He captured her directionless hands and held them to her sides as he shifted again to bring his head lower still, dipping his tongue into her delicate navel as he repositioned his grip on her arms when she reared up with a gasp.

“Ohmigod, you can’t,” she rasped, straining against his
hold. “I’m not… you shouldn’t… Ohhhh,” she keened when his mouth closed over her delicate bud in an intimate kiss.

He immediately felt the storm begin to gather inside her, her body tensing with pulsing heat even as he realized her raggedly panted protests were no longer aimed at him but at herself. His own body shaking with need, Mac continued his loving assault as he fought his urge to be inside her when she crested, afraid if he took even a moment to put on a condom she’d slip back into the shadows. So he pressed on, sliding his forearms under her bottom to lift her to him.

He felt her straining toward release, her body growing damp with her efforts. And then she suddenly stilled but for the shuddering tremors coming from deep inside her, her shout of pleasure sending Mac precariously close to the edge of his control.

With his mind all but screaming that what he was about to do could very well be the end of him, Mac nevertheless rose to his knees, undid the buckle of his belt, and pushed his pants down. He quickly sheathed himself in a condom, then lifted Olivia’s hips—only to stop just as he was poised to enter her sweet, welcoming heat. He spanned his thumbs across her belly, his fingers flexing into the soft flesh when she raised her hands to his shoulders—not to hold him at bay but to urge him inside her.

“Yes, Mac, come into me,” she rasped, her body writhing with lingering pulses of pleasure. “Now. I need to feel you moving inside me
now
.”

Yet still he hesitated, his mind asking for reason even as his heart pounded with the need to claim her. “Open your eyes, Olivia,” he commanded. “And say you want to be mine.”

“Oh, for the love of— No more games.” Her fingers dug into his arms and she lifted her hips toward him. “I’m pretty sure I’ve been yours since the day we met.”

Fully aware that she didn’t have a clue what was really happening between them, and knowing he was already
damned either way, Mac carefully eased inside her to finally and irrevocably claim Olivia as his.

Only it seemed she had no intention of letting him be gentle. The moment he slid past her entrance, the woman wrapped her legs around his thighs with a long, keening moan and arched up to seat him fully inside her. “Ohmigod,
move
,” she cried.

He wasn’t sure, but Mac thought she muttered something about a baseball bat just as her fingers dug into his biceps and her heels pressed him forward. He retreated ever so slightly and thrust forward, and she clenched around him with another moan—this one ending with a whispered plea that he do it again.

And so Mac moved, his eyes locked on Olivia’s as she met each of his slow rocking thrusts with eager anticipation. He watched in fascination and no small amount of satisfaction as her gaze followed her hands roaming over his arms and chest and torso, until she finally threw back her head with a deep, guttural groan.

Feeling her tightening around him, Mac reared up and grasped her hips to lift her more deeply against him when she demanded he quit being so damned unrushed.

She was unbelievably abandoned in her response, her eyes locked on his as she arched her glistening body up to meet his increasing rhythm, her sweetly panted mews growing urgent as Mac let go of one hip to press his fingers intimately between them.

She crested again, her breathless cries finally pushing him over the edge.

He gave a shout of pure pleasure and went perfectly still, and allowed Olivia’s contractions to pull him into the maelstrom with her, only remotely aware of the cabin filling with searing white light as the power of his own release shook him to the very core of his being. And with blinding clarity Mac knew he had just handed Olivia his fate—whether or not she wanted it or could even understand what it meant to hold that kind of power in her delicate hands.

Not that he intended to explain to her what had just occurred between them, at least not until
he
came to terms with what he’d just done.

Olivia slowly stirred beneath him, her ragged panting becoming stifled and her cheeks flushing crimson as she lifted her hands to cover her beautiful breasts. Mac watched her lids drop to hood her eyes, and she tried to turn away despite his still being embedded deeply inside her.

Realizing she was embarrassed by her wild abandon and afraid he was losing her into the shadows again, Mac carefully eased down beside her. He then rolled her into his embrace when she tried to get up, and settled a thigh over hers as he smoothed her damp hair off her face.

“Who made Olivia the child feel she had no value?” he asked quietly, desperate to keep her in the room with him. He threaded his fingers through her hair when she stiffened and tried to squirm out from beneath him. “Tell me where you first learned that becoming invisible was your only means of protection. Your husband may have made you all the more determined to perfect the illusion, but you learned the trick of disappearing long before you met him. Who first sent you into hiding?”

“Life did,” she snapped, even as she gave up the fight to get free. Her eyes grew distant and Mac watched Olivia pull her defenses around herself like a cloak of thick ocean fog. “Quiet, invisible kids got to stay,” she said with complete lack of emotion. “And troublemakers didn’t last six months.”

“They got to stay where?”

“With their foster families.”

Mac shielded his unease by focusing his gaze on the racing pulse in her throat. “How old were you when your parents died?”

“Four when my mother died. And… and I don’t know when my father died because the last time I saw him I was five.”

“And you had no relatives to take you in, and were raised by a foster family?”

“Families, plural. I lived in four different homes over
the fourteen years I was a ward of the state.” She tested his hold on her, only to take a shuddering breath when he refused to let her go. “What’s your point, Dr. Oceanus? What does analyzing my childhood have to do with our having an affair?”

He stroked a thumb over her pale cheek. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to make love to a shadow,
marita
?” he whispered. “One minute you’re here with me and the next you disappear into yourself.”

“What does
ma-REE-tah
mean?”

He smiled down at her. “I promise I’ll tell you one day soon. So, you discovered that if you were an invisible little girl, you… what? You weren’t packed off to another foster home?” But then he frowned. “You said your mother died when you were four but that you last saw your father at age five. Did you live with him for that year?” He gave her a gentle squeeze when she said nothing. “You may recall my mentioning that I’m known for my patience?” he asked, stifling a smile when her eyes widened at his tone. “Well, if you wish to leave this bed sometime before Inglenook’s new season begins you might want to start talking again.”