Page 99 of The Danger of Desire

With a hoarse cry, he rolled her under him and lay atop her, shaking violently. “Let me out of here! Damn it, someone please let me out... please... I’ll be good... I swear!”

His weight kept her from moving, and she had a moment’s panic when she couldn’t budge him. But knowing that the pitcher was right there and that he didn’tmeanto hurt her helped her remain calm.

She gripped his head in her hands. “Wake up, my darling,” she said firmly. “It’s a dream. Wake up. It’s just a dream.”

As she kept chanting it and brushing kisses over his cheeks, he seemed to grow a bit calmer, though his eyes remained closed and he still shuddered some. “Delia?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’m right here with you.”

“Delia... let me out, dearling. Please...”

“You’re not in the cellar anymore,” she whispered. “You’re with me. Withme,Warren.”

With his eyes still closed, he smothered her mouth in a kiss, not shaking anymore. Then, to her surprise, she felt him hardening against her.

“Delia...” he said hoarsely, and parted her legs with his knee. Since they were both still naked it was easy for him to enter her, and she gladly accepted him inside her, praying that somehow it would help. He began to thrust into her, hard and quick, and she gave herself up to it with a moan.

She wasn’t sure exactly when he awoke from his mindless state, but at some point he froze above her. He stared down at her, his cock buried deep and his eyes glittering in the semidarkness. “Do you want me... inside you?”

“Yes,” she said, and brushed a kiss to his lips. “Yes, my love, yes.”

The wordlovemade him moan, but she had no time to dwell on it before he was ravishing her mouth and driving into her in slower strokes that roused her thoroughly.

He lingered over her a long time, as if to make up for how he’d awakened her. He kissed her shoulder, kneaded her breast, caressed her where they were joined, until she thought she might go mad with wanting him.

“Please...” she begged. “Please... I love you...”

“You... shouldn’t...”

“Can’t help it... please... my love... please... I want you... now.”

“Whatever my lady wishes,” he rasped.

He increased his strokes until she felt her release rising... just...thereand she went over into oblivion with a scream of pleasure. He gave a hoarse cry of his own as he spilled his seed inside her.

She clutched him close, her body convulsing around him and her heart in her throat. “I love you, Warren,” she whispered.

He nuzzled her cheek. “Shh, dearling, sleep now. I promise not to... wake you again.”

With that, he rolled off her and lay panting in the bed.

She probably shouldn’t have said those words, for she was clearly alone in how she felt. And when he left the bed and she saw him go drag on his drawers and shirt, she realized in despair that he wasn’t going to stay with her anymore tonight.

Perhaps no more nights at all.

No, she refused to accept that. Surely she could eventually convince him to take a chance on her. Because the alternative, living with a man who didn’t love her, who couldn’t even bear to sleep in the same bed as her because of his fear, seemed too awful to contemplate.

Warren went to his room and pulled his dressing gown on over his drawers and shirt, his heart pounding.

I love you.

He reallywasa coward, because those words had sent him fleeing.

His wife loved him. And that alarmed him even more than his nightmares. Loving him meant she would expect things of him. Expect him to try to be a good husband to her. To stay with her at night and attempt to change his way of life.

How could he? He’d never been so terrified as when he’d awakened to find himselfinsidehis wife and entirely unaware of how he’d ended up there. What if he’d forced her?

It hadn’t occurred to him that he might react to her presence in his dreams by attempting to take her against her will. He’dneverdone that, had been appalled when he’d learned of the arse who’d forced Clarissa. So the thought of his doing so, even in his sleep...