A Stranger at Castonbury(55)

Yet even as she let herself fall deep into that swirling pool of desire for him, she knew how dangerous it could all be. She couldn’t afford to forget how much lay between them now, a gulf of years and memories. But for this one moment, surrounded by the rain and the firelight, she could forget—with Jamie.

She closed her eyes and arched closer to him. Every breath she took, full of the scent of him, seemed to draw him to her even more. She pressed her parted lips to his bare chest, and tasted the warm, damp salt of his skin. She could feel his heartbeat against her, fast and frantic, echoing her own. She let the tip of her tongue swirl around his flat nipple.

Jamie let her explore, let her feel her freedom. She curled her arms around him and traced her touch down his spine to pull him closer to her. Her hands moved down, down, slowly, teasingly, until her fingers curled over his hard buttocks.

And then his control shattered. ‘Catalina,’ he groaned, and his hands closed around her waist. Catalina laughed and wrapped her legs around his hips. He kissed her, so hard and hot, so full of raw, burning need. She arched her hips up tight into his and the blurry haze of sexual need closed around them, and she held on to him as she fell down into it.

What was it about this man that made her feel that way? She didn’t know, and at the moment she didn’t care.

‘Catalina.’ His mouth slid from hers to kiss her jaw, her shoulder, to linger on that sensitive spot on her neck. When she sighed and let her head fall back to the blankets, he reached up to touch her soft, aching nipple.

‘Catalina, you are so beautiful,’ he whispered. He traced the tip of his tongue along the soft underside of her breast, teasing her.

Catalina reached up to tangle her fingers in the rough silk of his hair and held him against her. Finally, as she murmured wordless entreaties, he gave her what she longed for and took her nipple deep into his mouth. As his tongue swirled around it, his fingers caressed her other breast, gently, expertly. He rolled and stroked the nipple until she cried out his name.

His mouth traced a ribbon of kisses on the soft skin between her breasts, and Catalina reached out blindly between their bodies to unfasten the front of his trousers. He sprang into her hand, hard, hot, the veins throbbing under her touch, and she felt a surge of triumph that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. In this, as always, they were together.

She ran a slow, caressing touch up the full length of him, then pressed closer as he moaned. His finger lightly traced her womanhood before sliding deep inside of her. The rough friction of his touch against the soft wetness made her cry out. Her back arched up from the blankets and her eyes closed as the feelings washed over her.

His thumb rubbed hard against that tiny, hidden spot up high inside her, and it felt as if white-hot sparks raced through her.

‘Catalina,’ he whispered against her neck as he kissed her there again and again. ‘Tell me you want me. Tell me you missed me as I missed you.’

For an instant she thought there was a strange, yearning note in his deep voice, but when she opened her eyes to look up at him his face was drawn taut into inscrutable, unreadable lines.

‘I want you,’ she said simply.

Jamie nodded, and his hand slid down to press her legs open to him. And with a twist of his hips, he thrust deeply into her.

Catalina gasped at the sensation of being joined with him again. Her legs closed tighter around him and she fell down and down into the pleasure. She held on to him as he drew back and lunged forward again and again, deeper, harder. The scent and burning heat of him surrounded her and she moved with him, seeking her own pleasure. Their bodies and their breath were like one in that single perfect moment.

The sparkling, tingling pressure built and built deep inside of her, growing and expanding like the night sky until it exploded.

‘Jamie, mi corazón!’ she cried, holding on to him as if he was the only thing left in a drowning world.

He threw his head back, his whole body taut above her as he came. ‘Catalina,’ he shouted, and then slowly collapsed beside her on the blankets, his shoulders shaking. His breath seemed harsh in the sudden silence, and Catalina feared she couldn’t catch her own. She closed her eyes to try to hold on to that moment as long as she could.

‘Catalina,’ he whispered, and she felt him move to rest his head on her midriff, just below her bare breasts. His hair brushed softly against her skin, and she reached down to thread her fingers through it.

A strange kind of peace flowed through Catalina as she lay there wrapped in Jamie’s arms, and at first she didn’t know what that feeling was. She hadn’t known such an instant of warmth and perfect contentment in a long time, as if that was exactly where she was meant to be. She felt Jamie press a soft kiss against her skin and she smiled.