Authors: Kay Hooper
Zach swallowed hard, but it didn’t ease the ache in his throat. He felt a dizzying, savage wave of desire surge through his body, a driving need to possess, to feel her body sheathing his.
“Zach?” Her voice was a whisper, her eyes not frightened but wide and feverish.
He bent his head and kissed her, exploring the dark sweetness of her mouth, and he felt the heat of her response increase instantly when his free hand surrounded the thrusting curve of her breast. He could feel the hard arousal of her nipple against his palm, and when his fingers tugged gently at the coral bud,
her body arched instinctively and a kittenlike sound tangled in her throat.
His lips trailed down her neck and across her breastbone, hot and shaking, until they closed over a nipple and drew it strongly into his mouth.
Teddy bit her lip, her eyes half closed, the storm descending on her for a second time. But now there was not even minimal control, and she had no idea of what the crescendo of this violence would do to her. It seemed she’d be torn apart, waves of pleasure battering her, and she found the breath somewhere to voice the single doubt in her mind.
“I feel—I can’t control it, what you make me feel. It frightens me—”
He raised his head for a moment, gray eyes shimmering hotly, then kissed her lips with a hunger only just tempered with gentleness. “Don’t be afraid,” he murmured huskily. “Don’t ever be afraid of this.”
As his head lifted again, Teddy felt his hand slide down over her quivering belly, and even as
the muscles of her thighs relaxed and responded to his insistent touch, she was aware of another tension, deeper inside her, tautly coiled and waiting for something. Something …
She cried out in surprise and pleasure, her body arching again, when his knowing fingers combed among the red curls and found the slick heat awaiting him there. Shock waves of delight swept over her, and she didn’t worry about control anymore, didn’t worry that there was something unnatural in the wildness of what she felt.
He held her trapped, her arms above her head, one of his legs between hers; she felt helpless and yet safe, safe if he’d only hold on to her, because she couldn’t hold on to herself anymore.
“Don’t let go of me,” she whispered wildly, feeling that she’d float away somewhere if he didn’t hold her down, anchor her somehow.
“I won’t,” he promised thickly. And he didn’t let go until he rose above, slipping between her legs and bracing himself over her.
She caught at his shoulders then, feeling the smooth hardness of his hips against her inner thighs and a gentle probing of the aching flesh between.
Her remaining breath caught in her throat and she stared up at his face, in that instant imprinting his features deep in her soul for all time. She felt her flesh stretching to admit him, and a tiny pain brought instinctive tension.
Zach made a rough sound and lowered his head to give her a kiss that was both gentle and fierce. “I’ll hurt you,” he warned in a hoarse, raw tone. “Just for a moment.”
Aware suddenly of the rigid tension of his muscles, Teddy knew then what it was costing him to hold back for her sake, and tension dissolved in a warm flood of trust. Her arms coiled around his neck, and she lifted her head to kiss him, murmuring wordlessly.
He groaned, a shudder rippling through his big body. His breathing seemed tortured, ripped from his chest with harsh sounds, and
she could see the pulse hammering in his throat. He moved with shattering care, hesitating when she gasped, catching her faint cry with his savagely tender kiss.
The pain had been sharp but brief, and Teddy forgot it instantly. Wonderingly, she absorbed the incredible sensations of joining, the stark power of him, the alien fullness her body welcomed with its own heat. His flesh sank deeply into hers in a merging so complete and utterly perfect that she felt a part of him and gloried in the feeling.
“Teddy … ?”
She opened her eyes, realizing only then that they had closed, and looked up at him. Her arms tightened around the strong column of his neck and she moved against him, drawing another groan from him.
The velvety clasp of her body sent a wild shiver of pleasure up his spine, and the soft, unconscious sounds she made drove him crazy with need. He moved slowly at first, but soon
her body was lifting to meet his thrusts and the heat of her scalded him, drove him still wilder. The innate fire of her passion increased his own, building it higher and higher until his hunger for her was a living thing consuming him alive.
Teddy was writhing beneath him, and he lost all control over his own body. Some distant part of his mind told him he was being too rough, but he heard nothing except for the howling of intolerable need. He couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t sate his starving senses or satisfy the terrible craving.
And even as the hot explosion of her ecstasy caught him in its violent shock waves, even as their mindless cries were strangled in a fierce kiss of devastating completion, there was another explosion deep inside Zach.
Buried somewhere near the core of his being, the iron bars of a cage burst outward with the wild force of the emotions swirling around it. And he knew dimly and with utter
certainty that he was vulnerable now to her, knew that all the strength he could command would never be able to stand against her.
He had fallen into another trap, and this one promised to tear the heart out of him.
T
HE TURBULENT STORM
had passed, leaving exhausted peace in its wake, and this time Teddy didn’t fear the return of it. It would return, she knew, in all its wild power every time Zach touched her.
Her body was utterly limp and she couldn’t find the strength to open her eyes, but she managed a faint protest when the warmth of his body left her.
“Shhh,” he murmured. “I’ll be right back.”
Teddy heard the click of the lamp and
sensed more than saw darkness fill the cabin. And she heard other faint sounds that puzzled her slightly, until Zach returned to her. He sat on the edge of the bed and bent to kiss her, gently parting her legs and pressing a cool, damp cloth between them, caring for her with shattering tenderness.
Then he was beside her, drawing the blankets up around them and pulling her close. Teddy nestled against his hard side in warm contentment.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he told her huskily, his lips moving in her hair.
“You hardly did,” she murmured truthfully. And then, because she had to, she said, “I love you, Zach.”
For a moment he went still, even his heart seeming to stop, then his arm tightened around her. “Mine,” he rasped almost inaudibly. “For now, at least.”
Teddy opened her eyes in the darkness, troubled. Not because he had made no declaration of love; she’d not expected one. But because
she thought that just so would he have spoken of something priceless and yearned for that he was allowed to hold for only a moment.
“Zach—”
“Go to sleep, honey.”
“I’m not sleepy,” she protested. And it was true. She was weary but wide-awake. And though she sensed that her warrior’s armor lay around him in shards, she was suddenly afraid that the morning would find him securely within it once more. She might have only this night to make a place for herself near his heart, and she had to
try
.
“You should be sleepy,” he told her.
“Are you?” she countered.
Zach sighed softly. “No.”
“Then talk to me. Tell me … tell me about your work and your friends.”
His hand moved over her back in a stroking motion, gentle and slow, and after a moment he began talking. At first, unused to exposing his emotions aloud, he spoke in short, stark sentences, revealing only facts. But gradually, as
if a dam somewhere inside him had been breached, he revealed more of himself in talking of his life. In the dark intimacy of their bed he tentatively and at first awkwardly gave her the gift of himself.
Teddy nearly held her breath as she listened, fearful that he would realize what he was doing and, realizing, stop. She listened as he spoke briefly of his army days, mentioning them only because it was there he began to learn electronics. Listened as he talked about meeting Joshua Long when both were young in years but old and tough in experience. Listened as simple words revealed a friendship that had weathered more than fifteen years and explosions both personal and professional.
She saw in her mind the circle of Zach’s trust and watched and listened as others entered it after Josh Long, their places won by time and events. She saw a cheerful and charming blond man, Lucas Kendrick; a deceptively lazy attorney, Rafferty Lewis; and she saw the two women who had won places within that
circle with their own brands of courage and strength and honesty.
She listened to her warrior make light of his own part in various battles, and she ached inside because his life had taught him so well to guard himself.
He was letting her in, but the cabin was dark and still, and she didn’t know what the morning would bring. What he was giving of himself he could never reclaim, she knew, but she also knew that the knowledge could well be all she was left with.
And she held on to him tightly, silently vowing that she would find the strength and courage to fight for him, for his love. And that she would somehow find the knowledge she needed to convince him that her love was real.
“No family?” she asked quietly.
“No. Raised in foster homes.”
Teddy rubbed her cheek against his chest, aching for him. “I love you,” she murmured.
He turned her face up and kissed her gently. “Go to sleep,” he whispered, and this time she
did, still holding him tightly in an effort to keep some part of him.
She awoke the instant he began drawing away, knowing that it was morning even though the cabin was still dark. “Zach?”
He paused a moment to kiss her but still drew away and slid from the bed. “Go back to sleep,” he told her. “It’s barely dawn.”
Instead, Teddy raised herself up on her elbows and rubbed her dry eyes automatically, waiting for the light. Her body felt different. Vaguely sore but not really painful, and curiously more alive than ever before. She blinked when the lamp came on, and when her eyes cleared, her first sight was of Zach’s magnificent naked body.
He was completely unselfconscious and unconcerned by his nudity as he padded silently over to his equipment shelf to check for activity gone unheard in the night, and Teddy’s mouth went dry at the riveting sight of him. She could
feel the faint rumble of her inner storm and relished the return of it. But she was also anxious, half afraid he had withdrawn from her more than just physically.
She threw back the covers and slid out of bed, unconscious of her own nakedness until he turned his head to look at her. She went very still, gazing at his immobile face, searching for some sign of what he was thinking or feeling.
Very quietly he said, “You are beautiful.”
Teddy was startled, unnerved. “No,” she said honestly, “I’m not.”
His eyes flared. “You are.” And she was. Her vibrant hair tumbled around her shoulders like flame, its color and silky mass emphasizing the delicate, vital face and huge satin eyes. Her naked body was slender and utterly feminine, her small breasts perfectly shaped, her waist tiny and hips curved. And, surprisingly, the tempestuous passion he had shared with her had left no marks on her creamy flesh.
Zach crossed the room to her, his tread the soundless padding of a jungle predator. When
he reached her, his hands found her waist, drawing her against him, and she came into his arms eagerly.
“I’m not beautiful,” she murmured when she could, delighting in the sensuous rasp of his morning beard against her skin. “But I’m so glad you think I am.”
He half closed his eyes, his hands slipping down over her hips, fitting her more tightly against his own awakening body. A bit hoarsely, he said, “You drive me crazy, and I can’t keep my hands off you.”
“Good,” she whispered.
He was kissing her, each kiss more fierce and possessive than the last. “Not good,” he said deeply. “You need time, honey, you’ll be sore—”
She looked up at him with the slightly wild eyes of rising passion, and her voice was fierce. “If you think
that’s
going to stop me—!”
He was almost laughing when he eased her back onto the bed, exhilarated by her uninhibited
desire. She was wild in loving him, and he forgot everything but her.
They had dressed and eaten breakfast, when a conversation from the house drew Zach’s attention to the recorders. He went to listen while Teddy cleared the table and cleaned up, and by the time she was finished, so was the conversation.
“Anything important?”
He was frowning a little. “They’re leaving again. I think I’ll check out the goods one more time.”
“You’re still bothered by something.”
“Something too vague to put my finger on,” he said. He crossed the space between them and framed most of her face in one big hand, lifting her chin and kissing her. He raised his head at last, looking down at her for a long, long moment, his thumb rubbing gently across the lips still swollen from earlier kisses. “You
belong to me,” he said in a strange, suspended voice.
“Yes,” she said instantly, knowing she did, knowing she was his, body and soul, no matter what the future held.
He enfolded her in his arms and held her tightly for a moment. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said firmly, and it was a promise, a vow chiseled from stone.
“I know.” She hugged as much of him as she could, but released him instantly when he stepped back.
Zach drew on his shoulder harness, automatically and methodically checking the big silver automatic. “I’ll probably be gone for quite a while,” he said. “This may be my last chance to look things over before they ship out.”
“All right.”
The door closed softly behind him.
Teddy stood perfectly still for a long time, staring at that door. A chill was playing up and down her spine, and a sudden fear clenched her heart.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”