A Christmas Night to Remember(37)
When he removed the robe she was barely aware of it, and then he pulled the pyjama top over her head, caressing the silky skin of her throat and shoulders and nuzzling at the hollow of her collarbone before kissing her breasts one by one. She moaned deep in her throat when his mouth seized one nipple, giving it exquisite attention before moving to the other, and now her hands moved feverishly over his flesh, pulling the shirt away from his body so she could run her fingers over the hair-roughened muscle rippling with each movement he made.
Her mouth moved where her fingers had explored, her tongue curling round a copper nipple that beaded at her touch. She could taste a faint saltiness on his skin, the smell of lemon from the soap he used mingling with a more earthy scent. She had told him once in the early days of their marriage that she thought he was beautiful and he’d laughed, saying only women were beautiful. But he was wrong. He was beautiful, his body as powerful and perfectly honed as the statues of the old Greek gods that graced Mount Olympus.
‘I’ve missed this,’ he murmured huskily. ‘Not necessarily the sex but being able to hold you, to know that you’re there, that I only have to stretch out my hand to touch you.’
She knew what he meant. There were some things more intimate than the act of intercourse—small actions between a couple that spoke of a relationship, of sharing, of being committed.
‘Mind you, sex is great,’ he added in a hoarse whisper as her hand felt for his arousal, finding the taut flesh between his legs and stroking it. ‘I’m not advocating celibacy.’
The dark shadows gave her the confidence to flow with what was happening, and when he removed her pyjama bottoms and the rest of his own clothes her arms reached for him, pulling him on top of her. She wasn’t allowing herself to think. If she thought her conscience would force her to stop this, unfair on him as it was, because this one night wouldn’t change anything. And so she didn’t think. She just felt and touched and tasted.
Now he was naked her hand circled and caressed his huge erection again, knowing she was inflicting a pleasure-pain as he groaned and caught her wrist. ‘We’re going to take this slow and easy,’ he breathed raggedly. ‘We’ve waited too long to rush things, but I’m only human, Dee.’
His eyes glittered like an animal’s in the near darkness, his face planes and hollows, and she reached up and placed her palms along either side of his face. Although he had shaved earlier the stubble already coming through gave his skin a rough, sandpapery texture that was at odds with the boyish quiff falling across his forehead. ‘Tonight it’s just me and you,’ she whispered breathlessly. ‘No past, no future, just the present. I want to make love to you, Zeke. I want to feel you inside me again.’
‘Not as much as I want to be there.’ He kissed her again, a kiss she more than matched, but when she tried to guide him into her again he removed her hand. ‘Later,’ he murmured. ‘We have all the time in the world.’
He began to touch and taste every inch of her body, teasing her with a slow sensuality that had her mindless and panting beneath his ministrations. Her skin became sensitised all over, the feminine core of her throbbing and swelling as she twisted and quivered under his mouth and hands.
Their lovemaking was as good as it had ever been, and the feelings were the same, but different. Before she had imagined they knew all there was to know about each other. Now she felt she didn’t know herself, let alone Zeke. But one thing she was sure about was that she wanted him, and she wanted him because she loved him. She would always love him. She knew that now. It was part of what had terrified her after the accident. Maybe deep inside it had always terrified her. Love gave the beloved such power, such control. It had broken her grandmother, probably her mother too, and it would break her if she stayed and let it happen.
And then all reasoning became blurred again as desire took over—a desire only Zeke could quench. He moved slightly and she felt the tip of his masculinity at the mound between her thighs. He moved again and entered her just the tiniest bit, causing her legs to wrap round him as her body urged him closer and she arched her hips.
His mouth found hers once more, his lips warm and firm, and as his tongue thrust a path into her inner sweetness he possessed her to the full, the sensation extremely satisfying. He waited one moment, while her body adjusted to the swollen hardness of him, and then began to thrust strongly, building their shared excitement as the pleasure became almost unbearable in its intensity.
When the moment of climax came Melody thought she would shatter into a million pieces, her muscles contracting so violently that Zeke reached his peak a second later, his body shuddering as he groaned her name. And when the pulsing of their flesh quietened he collapsed on top of her, burying his face in the curve of her throat as he murmured her name again, his voice tender and soft.