A Christmas Night to Remember(57)
She closed her eyes, curving into his hard male frame and sighing with sheer ecstasy as she drifted off into a place of bliss.
CHAPTER TWELVE
MELODY stretched slightly, drowsily aware she was enclosed in a cosy cocoon. She cuddled deeper into the animal warmth that was the source of her satisfaction, her limbs heavy and relaxed. Quite when she became aware of the fact that a hard muscular forearm was curved over the dip in her waist she wasn’t sure. It could have been minutes or hours. But suddenly she was wide awake, her eyes opening.
‘Hi.’ Zeke’s voice was lazy and his kiss was deep and slow.
Her green eyes stared into ebony. ‘I fell asleep.’
He grinned, apparently not in the least put out. ‘That you did,’ he agreed smokily. ‘Which was a first for me.’
Melody didn’t know where to put herself. The culmination of months of anguish, worry and heartache and she had fallen asleep under Zeke’s lovemaking. She hadn’t meant to. She had been there with him every inch of the way—or so she had thought. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured helplessly. She remembered him kissing her after he’d undressed her, reassuring her, and then… ‘I must have been more tired than I thought.’
His grin widened. ‘But you’ve had a nap,’ he pointed out softly, enfolding her in a tender yet hungry embrace, his hands stroking down her spine from her shoulders into the concavity of her tiny waist and to the seductive flare of her hips as his tongue drew an arc round the curve of one ear before his teeth gently closed on the lobe. ‘And it hasn’t been that long. I bet the coffee is still warm in the pot out there.’
They didn’t put it to the test. They explored each other with sensual and hungry abandon, loving each other with a need which did away with any thought of shyness or restraint. Zeke’s fingers slipped down the length of her, defining her neatly rounded bottom with a languid caress as he pulled her into the hard strength of him. Even when his hands moved over the base of her spine and the tops of her legs she didn’t flinch, putting her hands to either side of his face as she pulled him down to meet her in a kiss that was as fierce as it was gentle.
The blood in her veins rushed to nourish the surface of her skin, a rosy glow turning her flesh translucent and releasing her intimate perfume. By the time he levered his body over hers she was aching for him, the feel of his arousal an aphrodisiac in itself. She couldn’t contain the desperate little whimper of desire that broke from her lips, needing him deep inside her, wanting the feeling of oneness, of closeness.
With one sure thrust Zeke entered the silken sheath that welcomed him, Melody’s muscles tightening to lock him into her. The rhythm of their shared passion mounted, and with each movement Melody felt they were reaffirming those vows they had taken two years ago, but with a special meaning now. Then they had been madly in love, giddy and intoxicated with the thrill of the newness of it all. Now they had come through the fire and their joining was all the more intense and passionate because of it. It was as though their very souls were merging and they were equal in their drawing strength from each other, their entwined bodied fitting together in a manner as old as time and as sweet.
Zeke filled her completely, the sensation extremely satisfying as he built their rapture until she thought she would float right out of her body into somewhere beyond time. When the culmination came its violence sent them both over the edge of reality. In all the times they had come together—times of deep passion and erotic exploration and need—it had never been so cataclysmic, and she knew he felt it too. He held her hard against him, his body trembling with the aftermath of their lovemaking as he kept her intimately joined to him.
‘I love you.’ His voice was deep and warm and very sensual. ‘More than life itself.’
‘I love you too,’ she whispered shakily.
He searched for something in the depths of her eyes and then kissed the tip of her nose. ‘You’re addictive, do you know that? Before I collected you from the hospital I promised myself I’d take it nice and easy. I’d just be there for you, no pressure, no strain, taking it as slow as you wanted. And now in the space of a few hours I’ve made love to you three times. My only excuse is that for the last three months I’ve lain awake each night in our bed wishing you were there with me, remembering how it was, driving myself crazy.’
He withdrew from her body but his arms came around her, binding her to him in a constrictive circle as he whispered, ‘I can’t believe you’re here now. When I woke up earlier and found you gone…’