Wolf Island (20 page)

Devlin
touched his finger to the side of her neck and felt the pulse throb beneath her
skin. “Are you sure, Abby?”

Slowly,
she removed her panties. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”

She
was so beautiful, he nearly swallowed his tongue.

Then
she began unbuttoning his shirt. As she slipped each button from its hole, her
fingers caressed the skin of his chest. She sat up with her legs wrapped around
his waist and kissed his neck and chest, licking the water droplets from his
skin.

He
sucked in a ragged breath at the feel of her incredibly soft mouth and her warm
breath blowing over his skin. Desire shot into his gut, then lower into his
groin. Devlin reveled in the sultry heat emanating from her body. He’d never
wanted a woman more in his life than he wanted Abby at that moment. But if he
took her, could he live with himself?

If
Abby decided she couldn’t live with the knowledge concerning his past and
walked out of his life, a piece of his soul would go with her.

Devlin
tried to grab her hands to stop her. She gently brushed them aside and gazed
into his eyes. With the fog gone, starlight sprinkled down, making her look
like a very sexy angel.

Her
hands unsnapped his jeans.

“Are
you absolutely sure you want to do this?”

“Yes.”

In
a moment, his jeans were gone, and he knelt before her, hard and ready. Water
droplets glistened on her skin. One sparkling pearl of water clung to the
nipple of her left breast, enticing him. He lowered his head and licked it away
with his tongue. She gasped and arched her back, offering him more.

“I
want you.” He trailed soft kisses over her face and neck. “I want you so much.”
His heart thrummed in his chest, and a tiny voice in his brain rose above the
sound of desire rushing through his veins. How could he? And how could she want
him, knowing what he was and where he came from?

She
was like a perfect gift, but without wrapping or ribbons. Instead, she made him
believe he could have a real life, that he could be important to someone and
end the loneliness of his days. Devlin wanted to forget that Victor was out
there, waiting to strike, like a deadly spider. Making love with Abby would
wash away every trace of ugliness from his life, if only for a little while.
Should he? Dare he?

She
raised a hand and stroked his face. “What are you thinking about? You look so
sad all of a sudden.”

Her
skin felt soft and innocent beneath his fingertips. Innocent. How could a man
like him, with his past, allow himself to take her -- but how could he walk
away? He looked into her blue eyes filled with trust. “Abby, you’re the best
thing that has ever happened in my life, but --”

She
laid her hands on his shoulders. “But what, Dev?”

Her
eyes gazed deeply into his with a profound truth. He felt hot and cold at the
same time. “I almost forgot. You know everything.”

Abby
nodded. “If you mean about your mother and the rape, then yes.”

He
closed his eyes and felt shame burn all the way down to his soul.

“Look
at me.” Her quiet entreaty urged him to open his eyes, but he couldn’t ...
not yet.

Hearing
her tender voice made him feel sad for all the years that he’d lost. But how
could he have lost them when he hadn’t even known she existed? It was as though
she’d always been there just beyond his consciousness, tempting him, wanting
him, making him need something he couldn’t see or touch or control.

She
lifted her head and planted a soft kiss on his lips. His arousal twitched and
ached at the contact with her mouth. “Just because Victor Morgan is your father
doesn’t mean that you’re like him. I know you would never hurt me.”

Devlin
opened his eyes and looked at her. His heart filled with overwhelming need to
touch her, hold her, let himself sink into her. “Abby, I --”

She
pressed two fingers over his lips, and he kissed them softly. Abby stared
deeply into his eyes. “I want to be with you. And it has nothing to do with
your past.”

When
he tried to look away, she nudged his face back around. “Dev, look at me. You
need to be with the woman who loves you.”

He
knew what she was saying, but no one could ever want him like that --
certainly not Abby. Why should she, when she could have any man that she
wanted?

A
man who came from a good, upstanding family.

Not
a man who was spawned from violence.

They
were both naked as they day they were born, but Dev felt as though his soul was
exposed, too, raw and bleeding.

“You
need to find the path to the love that you’ve denied yourself.”

He
wanted to say something, but the words caught on a bubble of happiness lodged
in his throat.

Abby
dropped her chin and gave him a wicked smile, a smile he’d never seen on her
prim face before.

“What
are you up to? Are you trying to distract me?”

She
slid her hand down between his legs and wrapped her cool fingers around his
erection. “Yes. Am I succeeding?”

The
blood drained from his head and shot to his groin. “Yes.” He barely managed to
utter the word. His prissy, straitlaced Abby was turning into a vixen. She
rubbed her thumb over the head of his penis, and he nearly came in her hand.
“Kiss me, Devlin. Kiss me.”

He
took her mouth and her lips gave. They were soft, wet, and supple, as he knew
her body would be when he slipped inside her. He tasted her with his tongue,
like a man lapping up the last drops of water to quench his thirst. Oh, how he
thirsted for her.

If
she hadn’t come to Wolf Island, he never would have met her. She wouldn’t be
here now, in his arms. But here she was.

He’d
done something good. He’d helped save his brother and Miranda. Now Abby was
saving him. The thought soothed him like a warm caress. Maybe, just maybe,
there was goodness in him. Perhaps he had a chance for a happy life, after all.

Devlin
forgot all the reasons why he shouldn’t touch her, make love to her, or make
their bodies one. Her hands roamed over his skin, inciting desire, lust, and
licks of fire. He’d never been touched so sweetly and with such tenderness.

Her
mouth became rapacious, her lips nipping at his. She played with his tongue,
telling him without words what she wanted him to do with his body.

Arousal
rose like a flood tide in his blood with each kiss, each eager sweep of her
hands over his body, until he felt her in the marrow of his bones.

She
pulled her legs up and locked them around his waist. “I want you inside me.”
Her velvet command felt like a balm on his wounded soul, brightening the
shadows that his father’s cruelties had caused to haunt his soul for so long.

He
wanted nothing more in the world at that moment than to make her his. “I have
no protection for you.”

“I’m
on the pill, if that’s what you’re worried about. My periods aren’t very
timely, so I’m using them to regulate my cycle. I don’t have any diseases, and
I don’t sleep around. That is to say -- well, this is quite unusual for
me, actually.”

A
joy he’d never known he could feel poured through him. “I’m glad to hear it.”

Her
liquid gaze melted into his. “Touch me.” Her softly murmured words soothed him.

Him.
She wanted him even knowing about his past. His heart felt big and sore inside
his chest. Devlin probed his fingers through the damp nest of curls at the apex
of her thighs. She was open to him, waiting for him to fill her. He pushed a
finger inside her tender body and felt the muscles clench.

The
essence of her need for him poured over his hand. He removed his finger from
her body, grasped her fanny, and moved his hips forward. The tip of his penis
entered her warm, willing body. The muscles in his belly shook with restraint.
He wanted to shove deep, but he still feared hurting her. “Are you okay?”

He
felt her buttocks flex as she tried to bring him further into her. “Dev,
please. I want you. I need you.”

“But
what if --”

She
opened her eyes, glazed with passion, and laid her palm on the side of his
face. “You won’t hurt me, Dev. I know that.”

She
trusted him.

He
felt reborn. It was time he found out if he could truly cherish a woman without
fearing his father’s violent curse. Devlin shut his eyes, thrust his hips
forward, and drove himself home.

Abby
opened her eyes wide and arched her neck. A sigh shuddered from her lips. She
started to move, the rhythm of her hips a sensuous pleasure beneath him. Sweat
broke out on his brow, and finally, for the first time in his life, Devlin
surrendered totally to his need to mate. He thrust in and out, letting the feel
of her supple, wet body squeeze him, hold him, love him.

He
drove himself into her until a ball of heat plunged to his groin, gripped him
tight, and slowly wiped his brain clean.

The
world narrowed down to Abby, only Abby. Always Abby. The orgasm pounded through
him. He felt Abby’s internal muscles clench, release, clench, and release yet
again. A guttural cry issued from her lips.

Devlin
slumped on top of her, his face nestled between her neck and shoulder, and just
breathed her in. “I promised myself the first time we made love would be in a
bed, and here I’ve taken you on the beach.”

She
turned her head and kissed him on the cheek. “And I loved every minute of it.
We do have a problem, though.”

He
damn well couldn’t think of one. “What’s that?”

Abby
patted him on the fanny. “No way am I putting those wet clothes back on, so how
are we going to get back to the castle?”

He
rose up on his elbows and tunneled his fingers through her damp hair. “Good
point.” He glanced over at a tree growing close to the edge of the beach, then
back at Abby. “I have an idea.”

Devlin
found two branches for each of them -- one to hold in front and one for
the back. Once they started walking, Abby couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t
believe we’re doing this.”

“It’s
a first for me, too.”

In
a few minutes, they came up over a rise and saw the castle looming upward. The
highest turrets seemed to pierce the sky. Devlin stopped, dropped the branches
he was holding, and looked at Abby. “Come here.”

A
half hour later, thoroughly sated from making love, Devlin folded Abby in his
arms and drew her close. How could he have been so lucky to find such a woman?

A
siren blared into the peaceful evening and stabbed Devlin’s soul.

The
sheriff.

The
patrol car’s lights flickered along the road as it raced up the mountain toward
the castle. “Something’s wrong. We’ve got to go.”

Devlin
snuck them into the castle through the solarium door. They scooted up the back
stairs, dressed quickly, then ran downstairs together. The voices of Otis and
the sheriff echoed from the front of the castle, but Devlin couldn’t hear the
exact words.

“Mr.
Dev! Mr. Dev.” Otis ran down the hallway toward them. He looked them over. “You
all right? When you didn’t come back, I got worried. You never stay out past
midnight.”

Was
it that late already? Making love with Abby had made all time stand still.

Devlin
grabbed Otis’s arm. “I saw the sheriff’s car. What’s happened? Did Victor leave
something else?

“Yes.
Only this time it’s worse.”

Devlin
thought of the little orange kitten. Small, loving, and totally helpless
against a monster. “Was it Sam?”

“No.”
Otis opened the door to the kitchen. Abby followed him through into the
kitchen. “He’s right over there.” Devlin turned his head and saw the kitten
nestled on a cushion in front of the fireplace, his eyes closed, his leg secure
in the little blue cast. Relief made Dev dizzy.

The
sheriff sat at the table, drinking coffee. He nodded in greeting, and Otis laid
a hand on Devlin’s arm. “There, on the table.” Otis motioned with his hand. “I
found it hanging outside by the kitchen door.”

A
set of twisted chimes lay on top of the table. The way the wires twisted around
the neck of a crude effigy simulated a hanging. The doll, obviously
representing Devlin, sported a knife through the doll’s heart, and a spattering
of a substance resembling blood covered the chest area.

Abby
walked up beside Devlin and put her arm around his waist. “Oh, my God, why
would someone do this?” She turned to Devlin and looked at him with worry
clouding her eyes. He didn’t want her to worry. Not now. Not ever. “Tell me,
Dev. What’s going on?”

“My
father wants me dead.”

Chapter Eleven

Abby
flung open the refrigerator door and rooted out a leftover slice of fudge cake.
If she had to stay there and wait, chocolate was an absolute necessity.

She
found a fork and dug in. She’d eaten little at the dinner on the beach. Now she
was ravenous.