Traveller (23 page)

“I…I…thought it for the best. You could go back to school.”

My voice sounded breathless and strange, and it may have had something to do with a nearly naked Michael only inches away from me. I felt the heat of his body, smelled the warm scent of his skin, and saw drops of water still drying on his shoulders, making me want to lean forward and lick one. I wanted to taste him on my tongue. He was mad at me, but I was more completely aroused than I’d ever been in my life. All I could think about were his hands on my body, and his mouth on mine. Nothing in my life had prepared me for this, and he hadn’t even touched me. I was way out of my league.

He grabbed the lapels of my jacket and pulled me slowly into his dark bedroom. I didn’t protest. I wanted to be there. His eyes never left mine as he took off my coat, letting it fall to the floor behind me with a soft thud. Quickly my blouse, jeans, undies, and bra joined it. I must have slipped out of my shoes and socks at some point, but had no memory of it. I was in the thrall of Michael Nightingale.

He still wore his towel, but I now stood in front of him, completely naked and panting like I’d run a race. He reached out a hand and cupped my cheek, gently stroking my face with his thumb. Closing my eyes and leaning into his palm, I knew I was lost.

“Emerson.”

His voice, husky and low, sent shivers over my bare skin. He began kissing my forehead, my eyebrows, and the corners of my eyes. He rained soft gentle kisses across my cheeks and down my jawline. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, his lips touched mine.

It felt like a lightning bolt had gone directly through my body. He must have felt it, too, because he groaned and pulled me closer. Suddenly, what had been heart stopping and slow became wild and hot. My arms went around his waist and I clung to him, wanting to touch all of him at once. My hands ran frantically over his body, caressing his back and arms and the strong muscles of his shoulders. I made funny little sounds in the back of my throat because I was on fire, and wanted Michael with an almost frightening intensity.

He seemed to feel the same way. His hands, rough and warm, stroked me and caressed me, making me even more insane with need. He held me so tightly against him it was no longer clear where I ended and he began. The feeling of his bare skin against mine was the most perfect and beautiful thing I’d ever experienced, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to be closer still.

My hands slid down his back until they found the towel still wrapped snugly around his waist. I yanked and pulled until it fell to the floor in a heap. Michael leaned back and stared at me, his eyes glowing in the faint light of early morning.

“Are you sure?”

I couldn’t speak, but knew exactly what I wanted. I nodded, raising myself on to my tiptoes and kissing him with all that was inside me. In seconds, Michael used his exceptionally good Traveller reflexes to have me on the bed, pinned beneath his delicious body. He rested on his forearms, so as not to crush me, but I welcomed his weight. I wanted everything, every part of him.

I wiggled and squirmed until he rested in the cradle of my thighs, his erection hot and throbbing against my core. When he hesitated, I took control. Little virginal Emerson Jane from Bowling Green. I shifted my body and lifted my pelvis until the tip of him was finally inside me. Michael moaned. It wasn’t just me. We were both lost.

He eased into me slowly, his breath warm on my ear. “Emerson, I don’t want to hurt you…”

I answered with a sigh. “Don’t stop, Michael. Please don’t stop.”

A brief spasm of pain made me gasp and grab his shoulders, but I forgot about it completely when I looked at his face.

“I love you, Emerson,” he said, kissing me so gently and sweetly tears welled in my eyes. He froze when he saw them. “Did I hurt you?”

I shook my head. “I love you, too.”

His eyes scanned my face to make sure it was the truth, and then he began to move slowly inside me. It felt strange at first, like I’d always imagined it would, but somehow different. I began to move with him, instinctively answering him thrust for thrust, like we danced to secret music that only the two of us heard.

Something strange and wonderful began to build inside me. It started at the tips of my toes and then grew and grew until I exploded with a series of gasping little noises. As soon as Michael heard me, he made a strange, strangled sound and he exploded, too.

Afterwards, he rolled to his side, took off the condom, and tossed it into the garbage can, pulling me into his arms. I said a little prayer of thanks to the saint who protected stupid virgins everywhere that he’d had the sense to use one. I hadn’t even noticed he’d put it on, and had been too far gone to stop him if he hadn’t.

“I guess I’m not a virgin anymore.”

Michael kissed the top of my head. “No, you aren’t.”

“I do believe I just had my first orgasm as well.”

He chuckled, a sound of pure masculine pride. “I’m fairly certain you did.”

“Thank you, Michael.”

He lifted his head and looked down at me in surprise. “Are you thanking me for deflowering you?”

“No. I’m thanking you for doing it so
well.
You really are a genius.”

He gave me a grin. “We aim to please, ma’am.”

I sighed. “I have so much to learn.” Turning on my side, I ran a finger down his arm. He watched me, fascinated by the sight of my hands on his skin. Suddenly, I wanted to play, and Michael was my brand new toy. I pushed him onto his back. “This is lesson number two, I guess.”

He swallowed hard. “Already?”

I grinned. “I want to learn about your body because I didn’t really have a chance before. You were being so shy. I almost had to pry that towel off of you.”

Michael lay back and folded his arms behind his head. “I am very shy,” he said with a grin, his entire beautiful body naked and on display for my viewing pleasure.

I touched my chin with one finger. “Now let me see. Where shall I begin?” My gaze started at his head and trailed down his body until it reached the juncture of his thighs. As soon as my eyes rested there, he started to become erect again.

“Holy guacamole. That didn’t take much.” Michael reached for me, but I shook my head. “Can I touch it?”

He nodded, and I studied it carefully. It was huge.

“How on earth did that fit inside me?”

Michael almost beamed with pride. Reaching out a tentative hand, and not sure what to expect, I touched him. The reality was far different from my imagination.

“It feels like velvet.” I smiled at him in wonder. “Velvet with steel inside.”

I gave it a gentle little squeeze and he gasped. I ran my fingers up and down the sides and he moaned. When I touched the tip, a little bead of moisture pearled against my finger, and I grinned at him in delight. I’d never felt so sensual or powerful in my life.

Michael reached up, grabbed me by the waist, and tossed me onto my back. “My turn,” he growled, and then the sweet torture began. He kissed and licked and touched and explored every single inch of my body until I begged and pleaded for him to be inside me once again. He complied, and, if possible, the second time was even better than the first.

Afterwards, we were both exhausted and curled up in each other’s arms. Michael pulled me close, half asleep already, and whispered words into my ear that nearly broke my heart.

“Stay with me, Emerson. Please don’t leave.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

That made him crazier than a sprayed roach.

~Grandma Sugar

I fell asleep in heaven, and woke up in hell. I still lay in Michael’s caravan, naked and curled up on his bed. The only problem was my grandparents, and his father, stood right outside, banging on the front door.

“Michael. You must wake. Emerson has run away.”

Sampson sounded ready to barge in. I sat up with a start, but Michael, still fast asleep, didn’t react at all. I nudged his shoulder frantically.

“Wake up,” I hissed.

He turned and gave me a very knowing, very cat ate the cream sort of smile. That disappeared as soon as he heard his father’s voice. He jumped up and pulled on his jeans, hopping to the front door as he buttoned them.

“Da, it’s fine. She’s here.”

Michael went outside and shut the door behind him. I heard some angry murmurs from Anselina and Matthew, and I cringed and covered my face with my hands. My grandparents knew I’d been doing the horizontal mambo with Michael. Absolutely horrifying.

Michael didn’t seem at all upset. In fact, he seemed rather pleased with himself. He walked back into the bedroom, and gave me a slow, sexy smile that turned my insides to mush. I threw a pillow at him.

“Don’t you be doing that, Mr. Nightingale. That is exactly what got us into this predicament in the first place.”

Michael put his hand on his chest. “
I
got us into this predicament?”

I frowned. “I guess it wasn’t all your fault.”

Michael flopped down on the bottom of the bed. I was still naked, holding the blankets tightly against my chest as I hugged my knees close to my body. Michael just stared at me.

“I love you, Emerson.”

I glared at him. “I love you, too.”

He grinned. “You really aren’t a morning person.”

He was right, but it made me scowl. “Well, not when I’m woken up like that, with my grandparents outside and me naked as a jay bird in some man’s bed.”

He crawled toward me like a lion. “
Some
man’s bed? Do you often wake up in
some
man’s bed?”

I fell back onto the pillows. He climbed up my body, straddling me on his hands and knees. I bit my lip. I wanted him again. I’d turned into a nymphomaniac.

“Not usually.” I slid my hands up his body, and then gently pulled on his nipple rings. He groaned, pressing his pelvis against mine. I answered with a thrust of my own. “Not ever, actually.”

“That’s good.” He leaned down to kiss me. This time I nibbled on the little silver hoop in his lip like I’d always wanted to and ran my fingers up and down his back. Eventually, my hands found his jeans, and I began to push them off.

Michael nuzzled my neck. “We shouldn’t.” He dipped his head lower and began kissing my breasts. “We really shouldn’t.”

I disagreed. I pushed and pulled until his jeans were on the floor in a heap, and he lay completely naked against me. This time I grabbed the condom. He put it on in record time, and he was inside of me once again, moving with a rhythm as ancient as the waves in the ocean.

“Is it always
this
good?” I panted as he slid in and out of me, a fine sheen of sweat forming on his body. Even his sweat was erotic to me. I was a hopeless case.

“Never,” he rasped. “It’s never, ever this good.”

This time I came so hard and so fast, I almost screamed. He caught my cries with his mouth, and soon he came, too. Afterwards, he kissed my face reverently, like I was some priceless, delicate treasure.

“I could stay like this all day.” I loved having the weight of his body on me and wanted to hold him there, inside me, as long as possible.

Michael kissed my neck. “The gypsy council would have a thing or two to say about that.”

My eyes flew open. “Oh, crap. The gypsy council. Are we in trouble?”

Michael thought about it. “It depends on what you mean by trouble. I told your grandparents and my father you came to say goodbye last night. I talked you out of leaving and then fell asleep on the couch.”

“Did they buy it?” Michael winced, and I covered my face with my hands. “Oh, no. My grandparents know I had sex. Three times.”

Michael tilted his head to one side with little smile. “They don’t know it was three times, although I sort of wish they did.” I smacked his arm, and he grinned. “It’s impressive. I’m a beast.”

I groaned, pushed him off me, and stomped to the shower. I looked at myself in the mirror, trying to see some sign written on my face that everything was different now. I still looked like myself, but would never be the same. I’d been changed forever.

When I finished with my shower, Michael showered, too. I called my father as soon as Michael got in to tell him I decided to stay and complete the semester. It wasn’t just about the mind-blowing sex or because of the photos Michael had kept in that box with my ribbon. And it wasn’t because he’d begged me not to leave when he was half asleep and had clung to me like I was a life preserver and he was adrift in a wild sea. I wanted to stay simply because leaving had been the wrong decision. I needed to finish what I started, at school, with the gypsies, with my newfound grandparents, and with Michael, but part of the reason I’d wanted to leave so badly had been just to prove to Michael and the others I could. It seemed a bit frivolous at the moment, since leaving could very likely get me killed. Even Sun Tzu would have agreed with the sound logic behind my decision this time.

“That’s a relief, sweetie. It’s better this way. You’ll be home in a few weeks and all will be well.”

He told me Pappy George would be released from the hospital the next morning. He and Grandma Sugar were both fine, so I had one item checked off my long list of worries. I texted Poppy and Lucinda to let them know I’d changed my plans, and called the consulate as well. I hung up the phone just as Michael finished, feeling much better about everything.

It didn’t last long. Michael gave me a scowl, looking very serious and a little grim. “We need to talk.”

He sat at the kitchen table, in front of a breakfast of coffee and chocolate croissants, which he must have picked up while I showered. I pulled out the chair next to him, and tried not to wince as I sat down. I was still a little sore from the night’s activities. I’d dressed in a pair of jeans that made my bottom look exceptionally good and a tight white t-shirt. Michael wore his normal uniform of black with black.

“Okay, shoot.” I took a long sip of coffee. I thought I might need it. I suspected I’d earned a lecture, and I was right.

“What you were about to do was very dangerous. That Moktar would have been on you instantly. You don’t understand. You don’t know him like I do. You have to promise you will never run away again.”