Timeless Passion: 10 Historical Romances To Savor (125 page)

“If you’ll excuse me, Kara.” She started, opening her eyes and seeing Austin standing over her. “I have to go and beg an introduction to the singer.” Shaking his head, “I don’t know why, I just know I have to meet her.” He slipped out and headed for the area behind the stage.

The murmur of voices intruded on Kara’s thoughts. She could hear everyone around her talking about how amazing the singer was.

“Are you all right, Kara?” Alicia was at her elbow. “You’re eyes are like saucers and you’re breathing like you just ran a race. Both you and Lord Stoneham look like you’ve been struck by lightning. Wasn’t the singer was amazing?”

• • •

Hawke was still sitting in his seat. What the hell had just happened? He had been watching Kara during the performance, she looked at him, and suddenly they were the only two people in the room. Only they were no longer in the opera house. It felt so real; it had been so clear. Kara in his arms, silky and warm, he could taste her skin on his tongue. It was the strangest thing he had ever experienced in his life.

Fighting to regain composure, Hawke stood, straightened his shoulders, walked over to the two women and offered to escort them back to the hotel. Alec came up behind him, offering his arm to Alicia. Case and the Roberts had already left the box.

Kara’s hand rested lightly on his arm. Desire burned within him. He felt her shiver.

“Are you cold?” He inquired politely, wanting to ask more. He knew she had been affected, too. He could smell her arousal. Fighting his own arousal, he asked. “Are you still angry with me?”

“I … I,” Kara stammered. A delicate rose shaded her cheeks. “Honestly, Hawke,” she said. “I wasn’t angry with you. I was mad at myself. I’ve been so upset and confused since my father told me he had taken on a partner that I haven’t been thinking straight. I really do owe you an apology for my actions.” She looked down, her lashes concealing her eyes.

“You should never feel you have to apologize for your feelings, especially to me.” He placed his hand on her cheek, making her look at him. He smiled gently down at her. He admired her honesty. There had been few women of his acquaintance so forthright and open. It was one of the many things he valued about her.

He sensed she had something to say, but before he could ask, they were back at the hotel.

“Hawke … I … we need to talk,” she blurted out as they reached the staircase.

“I agree. Would you like to take a stroll?”

“No, I think we need to be somewhere where we won’t be interrupted.”

“Would you like to wait until we have returned to the ranch? Or do you know of somewhere here in town?” Hawke wasn’t sure what she was suggesting. Part of him wanted to drag her to his room, the other part warned they shouldn’t be alone. “When we get home, I guess then would be best.” Nodding to Hawke, she ascended the stairs to her room.

Chapter 19

Hawke lay on his back, his hands behind his head, the sheet folded down to his waist, a breeze from the window cooling his heated skin. He hadn’t wanted to frighten Kara with the strength of his desire, so had fought every instinct screaming through his body.

He thought back to the realization that he wanted her. It hadn’t diminished with time. It only seemed to grow. From the beginning, his reaction to her was different from any other woman. He wanted to bed her, that was a given, but more. He had wanted to bed many women, and had, but none had ever held him in this kind of thrall. He knew making love to her would only strengthen his feelings, not lessen his passion or diminish it with time.

The thought of her was making him painfully aroused, and he saw no relief for it.

He reached over to the nightstand and retrieved a pile of correspondence, hoping to distract his thoughts with business figures. Hearing soft tapping on his door, he stood and quickly drew on his trousers and opened the door. Kara was standing there in a robe, her hair hung over her shoulder in a long braid. Her eyes were huge and dark in her pale face.

“Kara, what is it? Has something happened?” Concern washed over him. “You shouldn’t be here. You’re father would skin me alive if he found you here. What is it? Answer me.” He didn’t understand why she just stood there not speaking. “Just what the hell are you doing here?”

His panic at seeing her in his doorway and thinking she was in some kind of trouble turned to aggravation and worse, arousal. She wasn’t in trouble, yet, but he hadn’t missed the way her eyes had roamed over his body and its immediate response. And, while normally he would have welcomed her interest, the intimacy of the surroundings and his tenuous control were making him more than a little anxious.

“I … I needed to talk to you,” she stammered “I’m sorry, I couldn’t sleep. I’ll go back to my room. I realize now I shouldn’t have come.” She turned to leave.

“Wait,” he reached out and touched her arm.

“I … I think I should go.”

Her body quivered under his hand. Seeing someone on the staircase, Hawke drew her into his room and closed the door.

Slowly he reached up, brushing wayward locks of silken hair behind her ear and cupping her face with his hand. His fingers raked through her hair. She lifted her hand. He knew if she returned his touch there would be no going back. Tentatively she reached up and touched his cheek.

“Why do you make me burn, make me need?” she whispered.

Her skin seemed to glow. Her touch was electric. It jolted up his arm and straight to his loins, causing his brain to freeze and his raging desire to break free. He needed to possess her, to feel himself buried in her warmth. The silent “o” of her soft lips and the quivering of her skin under his hand told him she had felt it also.

Hawke released her hair from the long loose braid and felt it slide, heavy and sleek, through his fingers as he spread it around her shoulders in a vibrant veil. It was more luxurious than he had imagined. He held a strand and rubbed it between his fingers, enjoying the silken texture.

Looking into her large jewel eyes, he saw hesitancy. And fear. Not fear of him, but fear of the desire overwhelming them both. It wouldn’t take much more before he would be unable to let her leave, but he knew he had to give her the chance — even though it might kill him if she left.

• • •

“Do you still want to leave?” His voice slid over her skin and along her nerves, soothing and smoky, wrapping tendrils of sensual desire around her very soul.

Looking into those clear gray eyes, Kara couldn’t imagine ever wanting to leave this man. Raw desire melted her very core, releasing the passion within. She shook her head and once again cradled her cheek in the palm of his hand and stepped closer.

She’d seen a man’s bare chest before, but when he opened the door she was unprepared. He was so male. His chest was broad, hard, with slabs of smooth muscle. Even his ribs were covered with muscle and his belly was taut with no sign of spare flesh. Heat shimmered through her as she followed the trail of light hair past his belly button down into his pants … .

He turned his lips into her palm, pressing a heated kiss there.

She started. She had thought his hand warm. His lips burned as they claimed her palm. Hawke smiled gently and slid a hand to the nape of her neck and pulled her into his embrace. His other hand glided along her shoulder, his thumb rubbing lightly on her collarbone, sending delicious shivers dancing along her heated skin. He bent to claim her lips.

Their lips met, gently, pressing lightly, then more insistent. Kara moaned moving into the magic of those hands and mouth, wanting more. The feel of her breasts pressing into the hot solid mass of his body inflamed her, drove her closer to the mesmerizing heat. She reveled in feel of his large body enveloping her, taking her in. A longing to be one with him sent desire soaring.

Her soft moan was answered with a low growl of raw need. Sliding his mouth over hers he teased her lips, nibbling on her full lower lip till they parted and he slid his tongue between her teeth, deepening the kiss.

• • •

The feel of her ripe full breasts against his chest and the sweet moist softness of her mouth made him painfully hard. Slipping his hands down her back, he cupped her bottom and pressed her closer to his arousal. The drive to bury himself deeply in her was overwhelming his promise to go slowly with her.

He pulled back from the heady kiss. Looking at her face, flush with passion, her eyes heavy-lidded and sweet lips swollen and reddened from his kisses, he knew if he continued there would be no stopping. He would bury himself in her heat, claim her as his. Her passion was already inflamed and spiraling out of control and he was barely containing his own.

He drew a deep ragged breath to calm himself, and put his hand under her chin tilting her head, making her open her eyes to look at him.

“Kara, lass.” His tongue was thick, his throat tight with passion. “If we continue, lass, there’ll be no stopping. We are alone, with no one to interrupt us. I’ll make love to you. Do you understand?”

Her eyes were soft, luminous, filled with innocent passion. An involuntary groan escaped from him. “I burn for you, lass. All I want is to taste you, feel you tremble in my arms while I show you all the ways a man can love a woman.” His head lowered, his lips captured hers, telling her with his mouth what he was unable to convey with words.

“I am already yours,” she sighed breathlessly against his lips, “completely. Love me Hawke. Only you can ease this ache.”

He was lost.

Savage hunger and need flared hotter than before. Caressing her waist, Hawke slid his hands up, pushed her robe from her shoulders, and rubbed his palms slowly along the smooth contours of her collarbones to the straps of her nightgown. She gasped against his mouth as the gown slid down her arms and over her breasts to puddle at her feet. He stepped back to drink in the loveliness of her naked body.

“You are so beautiful,” he said. “So golden all over.”

His eyes took in the dusky rose tips of her large, firm breasts, the slender waist flaring to softly rounded hips and long smoothly muscled legs. He reached out caressing her skin with just his fingertips, watching her quiver and her skin flush at his lightest touch, marveling anew at how responsive she was.

Moving forward he lifted her in his arms, his lips to hers, carried her to the bed and followed her down on to the white sheets. Her hair spread out across the pillow just as he had seen so many nights in his dreams. Lying beside her he slid his hand slowly over her heated skin to gently cup her breast. He watched the dusky bud of her nipple tighten as his thumb circled and softly flicked over her sensitive skin. Leaning over, he kissed her deeply.

He felt her gasp against his mouth and her body arch into his hand. Clutching at his shoulders, she deepened the kiss, pleading with her lips and tongue for him to ease the ache.

“Slowly sweet,” he whispered, his lips trailed along her neck, as his tongue licked the hollow at the base of her throat. “Ah, God, but you’re so soft, your skin so sweet. I want to make your body sing for me, love.”

He flicked his tongue on her nipple, teasing the already sensitive tip, making it taut and hard. His mouth slid slowly across to the other aching peak. Kara grabbed his head, pulling him back to her lips. Kissing her deeply, he felt her grind her hips against his thigh in a silent plea. Groaning, trying to go slowly, to see to her pleasure, Hawke slid his hand up her leg until his palm rested warmly against the curls between her thighs. He felt his body tighten as he grew thicker and harder.

“Tell me, Kara,” he whispered against her ear. “Tell me now, lass.” His tongue flicked in and out drawing a moan from her.

Running her hands across his smoothly muscled back, she slid her hands down to waist of his pants, pushed her hands underneath the fabric to grasp at his buttocks.

Hawke tensed in surprise at her uninhibited response. Running his hand over her firm stomach, he could only think of how this woman was made for loving, made for him. Looking at her face, he saw sapphire eyes half-closed in passion and cherry lips parted, waiting for his kiss. Leaning over her, he ran his hand along her silky inner thigh, lightly tickling her there.

“Tell me, love,” he whispered again. “Tell me. What do you want?”

“You,” she breathed against his lips. “I want you.” Her eyes opened, capturing his in a heated gaze of desire and knowledge as old as time. “All of you.”

He slid his hand into the dark moist curls between her thighs. Slowly he stroked her. She was slick and ready for him. He almost spent himself then, so enticing was her body. His thumb circled the sensitive tip of her womanhood. Kara bucked against his hand, a small cry escaping from her lips. He gentled her with kisses. “It’s all right, love,” he murmured against her lips, “Let me take you to the heights … trust me. I won’t let you fall.”

• • •

Hot.
He was so hot!
His heat drew Kara like a moth to a flame. She caressed his chest, marveling in the differences between their bodies. A thrill ran through her body. The heat in her body, the ache in her soul, drove all thought from her; never had she felt such a connection to another person. His breath hers, his heartbeat hers, his desire hers. The exquisite torture was driving her to the edge. She ached … for him.

Kara instinctively pushed against his palm, caught in the whirlwind of passion threatening to overwhelm her. She closed her eyes as Hawke’s mouth left her lips and burned a path across her body. She felt him take one nipple in his mouth, suckling, sending lightning bolts of sensation coursing to her womb. Her breath caught in her chest as he nuzzled the underside of her breast. Kissing the sensitive flesh, his mouth began moving down towards her belly. It was exquisite torture. She didn’t think she could handle any more. She felt she would shatter into a million pieces at any second.

The light from the bedside lamp cast soft shadows across their bodies. She squirmed beneath his lips and hands as he moved down. He positioned himself between her thighs, raining light kisses on her belly. He laid his cheek at the juncture of her thighs.