Winter Solstice (4 page)

“Rosheen Gallagher? You’re sure?”

“Yes, of course I’m sure.”

“That was the very name of my Nan’s best friend growing up as a girl. She moved away to marry an American and her whole family followed.”

Goose bumps sprouted along Destiny’s spine. “Your Nan was Brighid O’Ryan?”

“The same!” His brows furrowed and he brushed a hand through his hair. “A small world, indeed. And you are the descendant of Rosheen…” he trailed off.

She waited for him to finish his sentence, but he just sat there looking confused.

“What? What is it?”

“Destiny, did your grandmother never tell you of the vow they made between them when she left the country? That some day their two families would be joined together again.”

“Of course she did, but I always wrote it off as nothing more than some silly sentimental—”

“Apparently not so silly after all.”

She set her teacup down and dropped her hands to her lap, her fingers twisting together. “It’s a coincidence. That’s all. A small world, like you said.” She tried to shrug it off, but the tiny hairs at the back of her neck stood straight up and the chill she was feeling was more than her wet clothes. And somewhere at the edge of her senses she could swear she smelled lilacs again.

“You’ve spent too many years analyzing things, perhaps,” he said quietly.

“And why do you find this stuff so easy to believe?”

“It’s an Irish thing, I suppose, to accept the strangeness in the world. We’re a superstitious lot. And when we make a vow, we keep it. Even if it’s others who must keep it for us.”

He was silent for a moment, as though he were waiting for her to argue. But she couldn’t. In her mind she saw again her Nana’s face, remembered the stories about her girlhood in Ireland, her best friend who was like a sister to her. She remembered the letters with the foreign postmarks that had fascinated her as a child, letters talking about Brighid’s daughter, about her grandson who had moved to the States.

She could not believe this was happening. And yet, it was.

Reece shrugged, smiling a little, and she felt a flutter of heat in her stomach. “Come on then, let’s get you into something warm and dry.”

She followed him down the hallway to the bedroom, thinking of her superstitious Nana talking to her about the inescapable power of fate.

What did all this connectedness mean? Dissecting her feelings was second nature, but for the first time in her life, she didn’t want to question it, to analyze. It was too complicated, too surreal. She knew she didn’t have an answer.

In his bedroom she couldn’t help but eye the rumpled sheets. The room still reeked of the musky scent of sex. She closed her eyes, inhaled, savored. Her body began to heat up. And when she opened them again, Reece stood before her with another of those big, fluffy towels in his hands. The pale lamplight made his smooth chest gleam, golden skin over hard muscle. She knew the feel of him beneath her hands. She wanted to touch him now. Needed to. And when he laid the towel over her hair and began to rub, that sexual urge was joined by the hungry beat of her heart.

She’d been lonely, she realized, even though she’d never thought of herself that way before. She had her friends, her work, her hobbies. But it all seemed a bit empty when she stopped to think about it.

Reece smoothed the towel over her hair. She held very still, a strange series of sensations and emotions washing over her. The rain came down hard outside, the storm not letting up for a moment. In the distance was the muffled rumble of thunder. But here, with Reece, she was warm and safe. When was the last time she’d felt cared for this way? Could it all be an act to get her back into bed?

No. A man who looked like Reece Kellan had no need of such machinations. She was ashamed for even thinking it. He was simply a good man.

Good for her, perhaps?

Reece withdrew the towel, dropped it on the floor. Very carefully, giving her time to back away, he curled his fingers around her face, cupping it in his big hands. Warmth suffused her entire being. Her body trembled with need, lust and emotion.

His voice was soft. “I’d really like to kiss you, Destiny. Just kiss you. But I won’t unless you tell me it’s okay.”

His hand heated her skin, reminding her of what the rest of his body felt like pressed against hers. But she felt something else in his touch, something more. Something she didn’t want to fight.

The hell with it. She would figure it all out later.

“Kiss me, Reece.”

Chapter Four

Reece’s lips met hers, a soft caress. He pulled back. “So sweet,” he whispered, before leaning in and kissing her again.

The kiss was tender, careful. She wrapped a hand behind his neck and pulled him closer. He deepened the kiss, using his tongue to make a soft exploration of her mouth, and the heat was on her again, but different this time. Yes, it was desire, a fierce, burning lust. But it was also the warmth of comfort and trust.

Reece pulled away. “Come on. Let’s get these wet clothes off you, darlin’.” He spoke quietly, as though he didn’t dare ruin the moment.

He ran his hands lightly down her arms before he helped her slip out of her wet sweater. Next were her jeans. They were plastered to her skin, but together they peeled them off and he tossed them on the floor. He stopped, leaving her in bra and panties, and picked up the towel again. He rubbed it over her skin, carefully. Caringly. She shivered.

“You’re cold.”

She didn’t bother to correct him. He stood close enough that she could breathe in the male scent of him, clean and masculine and sexy as hell. She moved closer.

That was all the signal he needed. He swept her up into his arms, then laid her on the bed, brushed his fingertips over her face, her neck, her shoulders, before he slid one bra strap down, then the other. She trembled at his touch, fire blossoming between her thighs. Her breasts ached for his touch, and once more, as though he knew instantly what she needed, he drew his fingertips over the edge of her bra, undid the clasp in the front, and cupped her breasts in his hands. She moaned, her nipples coming up hard beneath his palms.

God, his hands felt good on her, but she wanted more. He paused long enough to strip away his pajama bottoms and get into bed with her. But not before she’d caught sight of his erect cock. Big and full, the head of it swollen, and God, she needed to touch him. Needed him inside her.

She ran her hands down the length of his body, loving the solid muscle she felt everywhere. Like iron sheathed in smooth, golden skin. When she feathered her fingers over the darkening head of his cock, he groaned. And the feel of him, that lovely velvet softness, hearing his gasping breath, made her wet. Soaking.

He worked her panties over her hips, her legs. And then he kissed his way down the front of her body, his mouth hot on her skin, leaving a trail of fire, of desire scalding her skin. When he reached the damp vee between her thighs, she opened her legs and arched into him.

He gave her curls a few teasing sweeps of his lips, then laid a soft kiss on the tip of her clit. A long shiver of desire rippled through her. She thought she’d go wild if he didn’t start working her in earnest.

“Reece… I can’t take it. I can’t wait.”

“I have you, darlin’. I’m right here. You’re so wet for me. Do you know what that does to me? Seeing you like this… Lord.”

Using his fingers, he caressed the seam of her pussy lips, a maddeningly gentle touch. And the small kisses that followed, over her swollen lips, her hard and aching clit. One soft kiss after another, making her crazy with need, never quite slaking the keen edge of desire.

“Reece, please,” she breathed. “Now. I need you now.”

“Your wish is my command, my darlin’.”

He spread the lips of her sex wide with his hands, took her clit into his eager mouth and sucked hard. At the same time, his thumbs entered her, pushing deep inside her pussy. In moments she was coming, fierce spasms of pleasure wracking her body, making her writhe while he sucked and stroked her. She shook with the force of it, ran her fingers through his thatch of dark hair, held on.

“Reece, I need you inside me.”

He snaked his way up her body to face her. His blue gaze burned into her. “You know it might happen again. I think it will.”

“I know. But I need to feel you. I won’t be afraid this time.”

He nodded, leaned over and pulled a condom from the nightstand drawer, quickly rolled it on. Then he was on top of her, and she opened her thighs for him. He kissed her mouth, his salty with the ocean scent of her juices.

“We’ll take it slow,” he whispered.

He raised himself up on his arms and she looked into his face, stunned once more by the pure male beauty of his features. She locked onto his fevered blue gaze as he pushed into her.

The first moment was a shock of molten pleasure that reverberated through her body. He inched further in, and she had that odd surge again of doubled sensation, of both cock and pussy, sheathed and filled. She saw his blue eyes go wide, saw her own green ones answer in kind, as he must see her. But she concentrated on the sensation, focused.

“Incredible.” His voice was ragged with pleasure and wonder. He thrust a little deeper, watching her face. “Are you all right?”

“It’s okay, Reece. I want it all.”

He groaned as he rammed in to the hilt. His thick shaft filled her, stretched her, made her shiver and clamp around him. And when he pulled almost all the way out and thrust home again, it was even better. For her, for him, it was all the same. Pussy and cock, skin and skin. Pleasure and pleasure.

He fell on her, kissed her neck, licked the sensitive skin there, moved his hips again. He began to pump in a rhythmic motion, and the sensation was overwhelming, flooding her mind with incomprehensible images and her body with a nearly painful pleasure. His thick cock pulled at her insides, he was sheathed and squeezed by her hot, velvet pussy. His balls contracted, pulled tight. And she felt it all as though it were her own male body. As though she were male and female at the same time. Two bodies, two sets of sensations.

Impossible, but she no longer cared. It was too good.

“Harder, Reece.”

“I want to take you from behind.”

“Yes. Do it.”

He flipped her over, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her up onto her knees until her ass arched high in the air. She felt open, exposed. Lovely.

The tip of his cock brushed her opening, then pushed inside. One hand caressed her breast, teasing the nipple again, rolling it between his fingers, pinching. He reached down and teased her clit in the same way. When he began to move, sliding in and out of her, she was in his head again, feeling and seeing it all—her hard, tight nipple in his fingers, the swollen nub of her clit. And the sliding sensation. Moving in and out of her pussy. Even the sight of her own rounded ass was thrilling through his eyes.

She rocked back against him, wanting to come again, taking him deeper.

“Harder, Reece. Please…”

“Anything you want, Destiny. Anything for you.”

He rammed into her, his cock a solid shaft driving pleasure deep into her pussy, into her system.

Two bodies. Two sets of sensation. Cock and pussy and
him
. In her body. In her head.

“Reece!”

She came in a torrent, her sex grabbing hard around his cock. Pulsing. Electric. And all the time she could feel him holding back, on the brink himself, making her own orgasm more intense, stunning her.

Suddenly, he flipped her over, plunged into her again before she had a chance to think about it.

“I need to see your face when I come,” he rasped out. “I need to feel you. Be with you.”

“Yes. Please.”

And while her body still shuddered with climax, he thrust into her, bringing new waves of sensation. His gaze was hard on hers, those blue, blue eyes looking into hers,
seeing
her. And her heart swelled, reached out to him. Connected.

He pounded into her, each sharp motion of his hips bringing her exquisitely close to the edge once more. He was close himself. She could feel every lance of sensation as though it were her own. Still he held back, waited for her to reach again for her own peak.

And when she came once more, he was coming, too. Body to body, mind to mind. Her pleasure, his, it didn’t matter. It was all the same, rolling over them both in a hot and powerful tide. It went on and on, a relentless wave that reached deep into her body. Into her being. Into her soul.

The lazy aftermath of sex had never felt so good. Her limbs were liquid, tingling. And the sex itself…well, it was incomparable. That final moment when he’d locked gazes with her she’d been so much a part of him, and he’d been a part of her, in a way she’d never experienced before. She’d never had this odd intensity of connection, this exchange of body, heart. Soul. She knew she never would again, not with anyone else. And she wasn’t scared this time, because he was right there with her.

Reece.

He wasn’t a stranger to her now. Maybe he never really had been. The idea fought against every ounce of logic in her. But despite what logic was telling her, she’d been right there. She’d
felt
it. And she knew the truth.

He lay stretched out on his side next to her, one arm looped over her hip. She noticed for the first time how the muted glow of lamplight tipped the dark hair on his forearms in auburn. Turning, she took in his face, his features relaxed, his eyes closed. Reaching out, she traced the tender skin of his eyelid with her fingertip. Stirring, his eyes fluttered open, and her stomach quivered as that bright blue gaze caught hers. The quiver turned into a warm rolling wave that spread throughout her body when he smiled.

“Hi, darlin’.”

“Hi.”

He reached up and stroked the tip of her breast with one finger. Her nipples sprang to attention.

“Randy little thing, are you?” he teased.

“Only with you. A lot of things are different with you.”

“Yeah, aren’t they? Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head, her curls brushing her bare shoulders. She was hyper-aware of everything, as though being with Reece made her nerve endings more raw, more open to touch. “Not now. Not yet.”

“There’ll be plenty of time to figure it out later.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” She snuggled into his chest and breathed him in. He smelled of the earth, but also faintly of the rain still falling outside. And he smelled of sex. Of come, his and her own.

She smoothed a hand over his chest. His heart drummed a steady beat beneath her palm.

“This is real,” she said quietly.

“Yes.”

“That’s all I need to know right now.”

“Come here.”

He used his arm to gather her close, pulling her tight against him. His body was long, strong lines, hard-packed muscle. And his cock was hard again. She arched her hips against his heavy erection, felt it jerk and pulse in return.

“And you call me the randy one. And where on earth did you get the term ‘randy’, anyway?”

“From my Nan.”

“Ah, it’s back to the grandmothers again. It feels totally inappropriate to discuss anyone’s grandmother at the moment.”

“You asked.”

“Sometimes I need to shut up.”

“I know just the trick.”

Reece leaned in and crushed his lips to hers, those lush lips of his, so soft and warm they made her melt inside. The melting turned into a simmering liquid as he thrust his tongue into her mouth. And when he slipped a hand between her legs and found her damp cleft, she went soaking wet.

“I like that you’re always ready for me, darlin’.”

He slipped a few fingers inside her, and her inner walls clenched around them. Using his thumb, he massaged her clit in lazy circles. Pleasure was like lightning in her system, hot and sharp. She was ready to explode almost instantly. But she wanted him with her, inside her, when she came.

Again, he seemed to read her mind.

“Not yet, my darlin’ girl. But I am going to fuck you.”

“Yes!”

“And we’ll have to make it a little dirty because of that grandmother comment.”

She laughed at his wicked grin. And her sex gave an anticipatory squeeze.

Reece grabbed her around the waist and rolled until she was on top of him. He sheathed himself in a condom, then encircled her waist with his hands. Raising her up, he impaled her on his thick shaft.

She groaned with the heat and the size of his hard cock. With the dual sensations of her own pleasure and his. He used his hands to guide her, up, then down again, filling her almost to bursting. Shivers raced through her, up her spine, deep inside her.

“Oh…”

“Not yet,” he commanded, and pulled her up, his cock slipping out of her.

Using his hands again, he held her still while he slid down until his face was beneath her open and aching pussy. Her thighs quivered simply thinking about what he was going to do to her.

Reece used his fingers to spread her pussy lips apart. She’d never felt so open, so exposed. And his fingers on her were too good. If only he’d move them an inch or two higher…

“You’re eager, are you?” he teased, massaging her swollen lips, manipulating them, sliding inward, teasing at the edges of her opening.

She shivered, wanting to come simply from having him look at her this way, being open to him. She let her head fall back, closed her eyes. And almost jumped when his tongue shot out and flicked against her hole. But it was too good, and she surged down, wanting his whole mouth on her.

“Not yet,” he said once more.

He licked again, then shoved his tongue into her.

“God, Reece…”

Her thighs shook as he used his tongue to thrust in and out of her like a small, wet cock. And she swore she could taste the flavor of her own juices.

She angled her hips, wanting his mouth on her aching clit. She found if she concentrated, she could feel the pulsing beat of his cock as if it were her own, heavy between her thighs. Wanting, filling, growing thick with the same aching need that thrummed in her clitoris, throughout her body.

“More.” The demand slipped from her lips.

He laughed, then sat up, picked her up bodily and carried her through the house.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on. “Where are we going?”

“The bedroom isn’t nearly dirty enough. And I did promise you dirty.”

He carried her down the hallway and into the kitchen, where a light over the stove illuminated the room in a faint glow.

“What to do with you?” Reece muttered, making her sex throb at the thought.

“Anything. Everything.” She bit his neck.