This Love Will Go On (18 page)

He kissed that wonderful mouth of hers.  “Very okay, beautiful lady.”

“I’m not beautiful.”

“You are the most beautiful woman in the world.  And I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”

“Is that a marriage proposal?”

“Yes.  We’ve already spent too much of our lives apart.  I want to make you mine as soon as possible.  I want you at my side, in my bed, having our children, sharing my wealth with me for all the years we have left.  Will you be my wife, Raine?” As if to claim her for all time, he thrust into her.  There was a slight tug and then he was fully in her.

She lay looking at him, smiling.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because I’m wondering what I’ll say when people ask how you proposed to me.  Shall I tell them you popped the question while you seduced me?”

“Better to ask it now than afterward.”  He began to move and she said, “Oh, Jade, Jade, I never thought this would happen.  It feels so good to have you inside me at last.  I love you so much.”

She knew he wouldn’t say the words back to her, but it didn’t matter.  He was making love to her and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.  That was enough.

It was a revelation to lie under Jade and see his face tighten with his intense enjoyment of his climax.  It seemed to go on and on.  When at last he came to earth, he said, “It’s been a long time. 

“Not since my…”

He put his hand to her lips.  “Don’t.  She’s in the past.  We’re the future now, you and I.  And right now, my charming virgin, we’re going to take a bath.”

He pushed her up the stairs, his hands on her bare rear.  She had the feeling that he just wanted to keep his hands on any part of her anatomy he could. 

He drew the bath quickly and in the steamy heat of the bathroom, Raine could feel tendrils of hair curling around her face.  She looked down at the lean, male and very bare body bent over the tub.  The same heat made the blond tendrils at Jade’s nape loosen and curl inward, the antique gold curls a bright contrast to his bare shoulders with their look of sinewy copper.  Experimentally, she cupped his rear end with her hands and then leaned over and licked the small of his back.

He came up as if she had shot him.  “You learn damn quickly, miss.  That little bit of mischief deserves retribution.”

He turned her in his arms but instead of kissing her, he lifted her off her feet and swung her back and forth, as if he was going to drop her in the tub with a splash.

“Jade, stop it.  You’ll make a huge mess in your bathroom.  You’re crazy to…”

“If I am, it’s because you’ve been driving me crazy ever since that night on the dock when you pleaded with me to kiss you.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“I never say things I don’t mean.”  He lowered her into the tub.  “Unlike a certain young woman who kept telling me no, when she meant yes.”

Arrogant man.  There was only one method of retaliation.  She cupped water in her hands and aimed at the general direction of his face.  He dodged and she missed.  Then he slipped into the tub behind her, and she felt his maleness.  When she nestled back against him, he brought his hands to her breasts and clasped them, feeling their warmth and roundness.

She lay back against his chest, loving the gentle caressing, the sweet possession. It was so incredibly sensual to feel the warm water covering her legs and Jade’s hands covering her breasts.

“Tell me if you’re getting cold.”

“I may never be cold again.” 

He came to life behind her, ready.  She was ready, too, and wanted him where he belonged, inside her. 

He carried her to the bed and when she lay down and looked up at him, he said, “Raine.  You are too beautiful to be real. 

“You are the one who is beautiful.”

“Shall we make beautiful children then?”

“Yes, please.”

He lay beside her and placed a hand on her mound, rubbing but not entering, teasing her.  To his delight, her eyes sparkled with pleasure in the game and she played with him just as he played with her, brushing the hair at the root of his penis, running teasing fingers up to his tip and back.  In retaliation, he claimed her breast with his mouth, teasing her with his tongue, suckling her.  She leaned over him and took his tip in her mouth, running her tongue under his fold. 

“Witch,” he breathed.

“Wretch,” she murmured, gazing at his bare chest, his muscled arms.

“See anything you like?”

“Um.  All of it.  You see anything you like?”

“Let’s see.”  He lifted her over him, settling her on his thighs.  He ran a finger down between her breasts and found her belly button.  “Innie,” he said.

She returned the favor.  “Yours is an outie, of course.”

“Why do you say, of course?”

“No reason.”

“Tell me, Raine.”  He plunged his fingers into her.  He’d been cautious about exploring her, but now he threw caution to the winds and rubbed and probed until she writhed above him.  He heightened the torture by holding her shoulder with one hand while he probed her expertly with the other, giving her no quarter.  “Last chance, my charming little witch.”  He went deeper and found her sweet spot.  He knew she hadn’t climaxed before, but now she clenched around him in the beginning spasms of delight.  Before she knew what he was doing, he flipped her down on the bed underneath him.  Poised above her, he teased her core with his penis, coming into her a bit and then leaving her.  “Tell me, baby.”

She writhed in the throes of needing him inside her, aching for that explosion which she’d never felt before.  “You won’t like it.”

“Like you don’t like this?”  He came closer and closer to filling her. 

“You’ll be angry with me.”  She twisted and lifted her hips, trying to capture him and push him deeper inside her.

“I said you could say anything to me.”

“I just thought…you’d probably be born keeping your body closed to protect yourself.”

“You’re right, I don’t like it.  But it’s not exactly true, is it?  Because here I am, opening my body to you in every way there is.”

The game ended, and Jade was no longer afraid to show Raine the depth of his passion.  He plunged deep within her over and over until she cried out with the wonderful ecstasy of her first climax…while Jade felt as if he’d never made love before with such complete abandonment.  His entire body shuddering he gave in to the magic Raine had cast over him.

Jade lay beside Raine and trailed a lazy, questing finger around her breasts, down to her navel.  “Did it occur to you that examining a man’s navel may not be the best key to understanding him?”

She looked at him drowsily.  “It does now.”

He smiled. “Are you going to sleep?”

“Not if you keep doing that.”

“Do you feel like talking?”

She considered it.  “Not if you keep doing that.”

He laughed and moved over her to fit himself into her, loving the sound of her satisfaction and the way she rose up to take him in with such loving acceptance.

Afterwards, when she lay snuggled in the hollow of his shoulder, she said, “Jade, I'd better go.”

“You're not going anywhere.”

“But Julia…”

“Julia knows where you are.”

“You two plotted against me, didn’t you?”

“And a damn fine job we did of it, too.”  His fingers wandered lower, entered her.

“You’re quite insatiable, aren’t you?”

“I haven’t heard you complaining.”

“Jade, a marriage should be based on more than physical need.”  This was dangerous territory and she knew it.  He’d told her once he’d never tell any woman he loved her, but surely now…Silence echoed in the room. 

“You don’t love me?” he asked.

Stung, she cried, “Yes, of course, I do, but you…”

“…haven't said the words, have I?”

“No, you haven't.”

“Suppose I never say the words. Suppose I live with you, take care of you, stay with you day after day until the day I die, but never say the words.  Does that mean I don't love you?”

“No, of course not, but…I’d like to know what you’re thinking.”

“I've thought of nothing but you since the first night you kissed me.”  He gripped her tighter in his arms.  “Nothing.  Even while I hated my wife for wanting another man, I wanted you.  And I'll go on wanting you.  I'll never have enough of you.”

He buried his face in the long strands of hair that lay fanned out on the pillow beside him. “I've asked you to spend your life with me.  I can't do any more than that to show how deeply I feel about you.  If that isn’t enough…”

“It’s more than enough.”

They married a week later in the church in Verylon.  The look on Jade’s face when he saw her coming down the aisle to him in her bridal gown made her heart skip several beats.  When it was over, Julia hugged her close and whispered in her ear.  "He's not an easy man but he’s given you a marvelous gift.  He’s given you his trust.  He must love you very much, Raine.”

When the reception was over, and Julia had taken a sleepy Tate home after assuring Jade Tate would be fine with her for a week, they got into the car to drive to the Black Hills for their honeymoon.  Then she thought about Julia's words.
He must love you very much.
Could it be true?

Jade said, “You're very quiet.”  He reached out and pulled her across the seat, his warm hand hard on hers.  She went willingly. All he had to do now was touch her and she melted into a woman yearning for his possession.  “Did I tell you how very beautiful you looked this afternoon coming down the aisle to me?”

She shook her head, her throat suddenly full.  “I don't think you mentioned it.” How light and casual her voice sounded.

She wore a knee-length apricot silk dress with a full skirt and a sleeveless bodice with a matching waist-length jacket.  It was terribly old-fashioned to be so dressed up for going away, she supposed, but she’d found the dress on a flying shopping trip to Sioux Falls.  She had especially liked the tapered sash that went round her waist and tied to one side. The tail ends of the sash lay on Jade's trousered knee. He held the wheel with one hand and casually fingered the silken tie with the other.  “I like this dress very much, too,” he said softly. “The color looks good on you.”

That, of course, erased her misgivings about being overdressed.  “Thank you.”

Jade was handsome in a gray Western suit that enhanced his blond hair.  “I think I'd like it even better if, tonight, for me, you wore just the sash.”

It was the kind of bold, provocative statement Jade loved to make.  He'd said similar things often in the week before they were married, and his words never failed to bring the bloom of color to her cheeks.  They hadn't had time for this stage of intimacy before but Jade was making up for it with a vengeance.  He hadn't made love to her physically the week before their marriage, but he'd made love to her verbally in a way that made her heart pound and her head reel. The sweet, provocative words took their toll.  With each passing day, he was the man she needed to see, his was the voice she needed whispering in her ear.

And so after they arrived at the hotel in Sioux Falls and ate dinner, she went into the bathroom to change and came out wearing nothing but the silken sash tied in front with the ends dangling in just the right place.

Jade had already showered and was lying in bed waiting for her.

She came toward him, smiling.  “Is this what you had in mind?”

“No.  Even my imagination couldn’t capture your beauty, even though you are constantly on my mind.  I don’t think I take a breath without thinking of you.”

He stood and came to her, his hands going to her waist and untying the bow.  Using the sash like reins, he pulled her toward him.  At the bed, he fell, pulling her on top of him.  He trailed the ends of the silk up and down her back, making her shiver.  “Jade, what are you doing?”

“Thinking of all the thousand ways I want to make love to you.”  He feathered the silk across the top of her breasts, over her navel and down over her mound.  “Do you know how crazy it made me to see you and your salesman tied together during that damn race?”

“No,” she said.  “How crazy did it make you, Jade?”

“Crazy enough to want to strangle you both.”

“You were jealous.”

“I wanted to be the man who was tied to you.”  He looped the sash around her wrist and then his own.  He raised their fastened wrists above her head.  His muscled arm covered hers while her whole side was open and vulnerable to him.

He examined her face.  She stared fearlessly back at him.  “How does it feel to be tied to me, Jade?”

“It feels damn good.”  He lowered his head and feasted on her breast, his hair brushing against her sensitive skin.  “Promise me that you’ll never be with another man, Raine.”

“I just did.  I stood at the altar and made that promise, Jade.  For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer…”

“Promise me, now, Raine.  While I have you tied to me and we’re looking at each other face to face.  Because if anything happened and you left me, I’d take the bridge.”