Page 44

They stood apart, not touching. Yet as soon as Felicity closed her eyes, she could feel Gareth lifting her in his arms. In quick strides he crossed the brick paving and halted in a circular stand of trees that bordered the gardens.

Setting her on her feet, he tossed his cloak to the ground.

She opened her eyes. He seemed to be several paces away, yet that was impossible, for in that instant she was crushed roughly against him, her mouth savaged with kisses until she was breathless.

She sensed the change in him, an urgency and a barely controlled tension. Was this anger? she wondered. Or a darker side of passion she didn’t understand?

“Wait. I…” She took a step back.

As if regretting his earlier lapse, his touch gentled.

When she closed her eyes, he kissed her again, lingering over her lips.

His voice, when at last he spoke, was rough.

“There is still time to change your mind, Felicity. I’ll understand if you walk away.

I won’t hold you.” A lie, he knew. He would beg, even crawl, to have her.

But he would not hold her against her will.

He was determined to fight the needs that cried for release, if she but said a single word of refusal.

She took a deep breath. “I won’t go, Gareth.” Standing on tiptoe, she pressed a kiss to his lips. “I can’t. I’ve tried to deny what I feel. But I know now that we were fated to meet and to love. Oh, Gareth, hold me. Love me.”

The shimmering haze of heat seemed to envelop them until she was blinded by it. They came together in a blaze of passion, mouth meeting mouth, bodies pressed so closely together that each could feel the wildly beating pulse of the other.

He brushed soft, nibbling kisses across her forehead, her eyelids, her cheek, the tip of her nose. With each gentle touch, she gave herself up to his ministrations and relaxed in his arms. His mouth moved over hers, and her lips parted for him, allowing his tongue to tangle with hers.

“Soft,” he murmured. “You’re so soft. I’d nearly forgotten…”

His lips traced her jaw, across her cheek to her ear, where he tugged on her lobe before darting his tongue inside, causing her heart to beat faster still. All the while his hands moved over her, igniting little fires of their own.

His hands closed around her waist, and he lifted her effortlessly off her feet.

Suddenly reminded of another time he’d caught and held her like this, the touch of his lips stilled on hers.

He lifted his head, and his eyes narrowed in furious remembrance.

“When I think of what almost happened on the stairs…”

“Hush, Gareth. We won’t think about it now, love.” She touched a finger to his lips.

Love. At her unexpected endearment, he caught her hand and pressed a kiss to the palm. “Aye, we’ll not speak. I’ll show you without words how I love you.”

How I love you. His words brought a rush of feeling unlike anything she’d ever known. He loved her. The truth was, she loved him too. Desperately.

With exquisite tenderness he brought his lips to her throat and ran hot, moist kisses across her shoulder, then lower, to her collarbone, then lower still, until he encountered the swell of her breast. The bodice of her gown grew wet with his kisses until, consumed with heat, they dropped to their knees in the damp grass.

But nothing would cool the blazing heat between them.

“God in heaven, Felicity. What have you done to me?” He caught her hand and placed it over his heart. It was beating as wildly as her own.

The darkened sky was awash with millions of twinkling diamonds.

The high, clear notes of a muted violin were carried on the breeze.

The air was perfumed with the first blooms of early spring blossoms, though a day before there had been only a hint of buds.

It was as though the whole world had burst into bloom because of their feelings for each other.

With great care he undressed her, watching as the silk gown fell away, revealing a delicate chemise. His fingers were strong and sure as he reached for the ribbons, and then it, too, was discarded.

“Oh, my love, how beautiful you are.” His fingers skimmed her skin, and he watched as her eyes darkened with passion before he bent his head to taste her.

That first glimpse on the night she’d arrived at Falcon’s Lair hadn’t prepared him for this. She was the most perfect creature he’d ever seen. With mouth and fingertips he began to explore, lingering over her mouth, her jaw, the sensitive hollow between her neck and shoulder.

He was leading her to new places where she had never been. But though she felt shy and awkward and would have resisted any other, she knew she could trust Gareth. She gave herself up to the pleasure as she sighed and moved in his arms.

His lips and fingertips moved lower. He felt her body grow tense, her breathing shallow.

He wouldn’t allow himself to think about tomorrow and the price that would be exacted for this thing they shared.

Nor would he dwell on all the centuries of loneliness and pain that he had endured.

For now, there was no past or future. There was only now, this moment.

He would think only about the pleasure he could give this woman in his arms, for it was his only gift to her.

He prayed it would be enough to last for all the tomorrows they would be denied.

As her blood heated and her body pulsed, Felicity experienced needs she’d never even known existed. This, then, was why she’d been born. For this man. This moment. Nothing else mattered.

She needed to touch him as he was touching her.

With quick, hurried movements she slid his shirt from his shoulders and bent to him, brushing her lips across his chest. She heard his little gasp of surprise and thrilled to it.

It excited her to please him as he was pleasing her.

Drunk with power, she reached for the fasteners at his waist. When her fingers fumbled, he closed his hands over hers, helping her, until his clothes lay discarded alongside hers.

He was magnificent. Muscles rippled along his chest and arms. He had the contoured body of a warrior. She traced a finger over the flat planes of his stomach and was rewarded by his sudden intake of breath.

Desire smoldered in his eyes as he pulled her against him and devoured her mouth with his. All the while his fingers worked their magic, until her body was a mass of nerve endings.

How could he be otherworldly, when his heart beat the same as hers? When his body fit so perfectly to hers? When his hands, his lips, could weave such magic?

This was no ghost, she told herself. He was a man, and he was hers.

Ensnared by her newly awakened passion, she felt her hands clutching the cloak beneath her as she reached the first unexpected crest. It rippled through her, leaving her gasping.

He saw the way her eyes widened, then darkened with desire.

“Please, Gareth. Now. I want you now.”

Instead, his hands tangled in her hair, and he savaged her mouth with bruising kisses. All the tenderness, the gentleness, the patience he’d demonstrated earlier were gone. In their place was a primitive darkness, a relentlessness, that left her stunned.

So this was why he’d resisted. This was why he’d tried to warn her.

Instead of being afraid, she found this dark side of passion deeply arousing, secretly exciting. Following his lead, she began, with lips and tongue and fingertips, to explore him as he had explored her.

Gareth’s body hummed with need, but still he held back. There was so much more he wanted to give her, to show her, and he knew that after tonight it would be too late.

He feasted on her breasts, nibbling, suckling, until she moaned with pleasure. But though she arched toward him, he refused to offer her the release she sought. Instead, he brought his lips lower, drawing out every sensual pleasure.

A breeze rippled through the branches of the trees, but it couldn’t cool their overheated flesh. The heat rose between them, shimmering like a cloud, filming their bodies with a fine sheen.

Felicity was beyond thought now. There was only Gareth and the pleasure he could bring. A pleasure that was close to pain.

She writhed and trembled as he slid along her body. He took her higher, then higher still, keeping release just out of reach.

Her hands clutched at him as she felt herself reaching another peak. He gave her no time to catch her breath as he brought his lips back to hers. She cried out his name as he entered her.

Her body sensitized, completely aroused, she wrapped herself around him as he began a slow descent into madness.

He filled himself with the taste of her, the fresh, clean scent that would always be her.

And he knew that for an eternity to come, he would hold this memory of paradise in his heart and be warmed by it.

The need for release clawed at him until he felt himself exploding. The madness was complete. He no longer existed, and neither did she. Now they were one. Joined. Forever changed.

Then she soared with him, climbing to some distant place just out of reach. Their bodies trembled and shuddered. They reached the bright distant star together and shattered into a million blinding pieces.

“God in heaven, what have we done?” They lay, still joined. Gareth’s cheek rested against hers. He could feel the warmth of her tears. Could taste the salt on his lips. His heart forgot to beat. “I knew you were a maiden. A virgin. And I took you like some”

She put a hand over his mouth to still his words. “You said in life we all make choices. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a grown woman, able to make my own decisions. This was my choice.”

“But now those tears tell me you regret that choice.”

She shook her head. “They’re happy tears. I’ve never known anything quite so…stunning.”

His fears dissipated. His heart began to beat once more. “Truly, my little happy face? You have no regrets?”