Her
body was stiff and unresponsive as he lay near her. She was certain she was
damned always to feel this way, and wet tears slid from the corners of her eyes,
Jason's mouth, as he gently kissed them away, was feather light, and every
caress he made was filled with tenderness and restraint. His hands moved
lightly over her body, demanding nothing, and his lips were soft as they
kissed her face and nibbled at her ears and. throat. Gradually, she felt the tightness
in her limbs disappear, and with a will of their own, her arms fastened around
his neck. Jason chuckled at their unexpected warmth around him and teased,
"Are you making advances, my lady?"
Dimpling
and feeling increasingly more confident, Catherine kissed him at the side of
his mouth. "Yes, I am," she admitted, surprising herself.
Jason
smiled at her crookedly, and deliberately he kissed her full on the mouth. At
first she lay passive, enjoying the feel of those firm warm lips, but as his
ardor increased, the blind panic erupted, her overwhelming fear quickly
communicating itself to him. Instantly, he ceased. Breathing heavily he lifted
his head and nuzzled instead against her throat.
His
voice muffled, he said, "Relax. Remember I'm not going to do anything you
don't want. And most of all hold on to the thought that I'm your husband and I
adore you!"
The
panic subsided somewhat, but Catherine cried bleakly, "It'll never be the
same. I can't help it."
For
several seconds, Jason lay looking down into her tormented face. Then, as if he
had made a decision, he moved deliberately, trapping her thighs beneath one
bronzed leg. Grimly ignoring her start of uneasiness he kissed her deeply,
hungrily. Sudden revulsion rising in her throat, she tried to escape but Jason,
his face tightly drawn, would not release her but instead continued to explore
her body, his hands lovingly moving over her satin skin and his lips forcing
hers to open beneath his. That Catherine was filled with fear was apparent in
her thrashing struggles, but he captured her flying hands and doggedly
pretending that the woman in his arms wasn't stiff with fright, let his fierce
desire for her thunder through his body. And then forgetful of the need for
caution, his hands demanded she respond even as his mouth curved with passion,
crushing her lips beneath his.
Exactly
when it became obvious that all revulsion and loathing had vanished, leaving
her body trembling not in fear but in hunger for him, she never remembered.
There was only blind need, frightening in its intensity, to feel him deep
within her. Her mouth blossomed under his, all her love and longing crying out
as her body moved sensuously against his hard-muscled strength, and her hands
sought to tell him without words of the fire that burned in her belly. A long
shudder shook Jason's body at her touch, and with a groan of terrified relief
mingling with his throbbing need of her, he slid gently between her thighs, his
hands lifting her hips to crush her even closer to him as he drove deep into
her welcoming flesh. Eagerly, all restraint and terror gone, she responded
with every fiber of her being, and as they made love, filled with only the desire
to please her beloved one, any lingering memories of Davalos were seared
forever from her mind; and as before, there was only Jason—Jason arousing all
those exquisite sensations as Only he knew how; Jason, his big body molding
her to him, making them as one, and Jason
loving
her!
Satiated
and replete, she lay in his arms, her head upon his chest, and suddenly she
hugged him tight, muttering fiercely, "Jason, I love you so much! Never
stop loving me! I couldn't endure to go through everything again, all the
torment and unhappiness."
Shifting
his position slightly, he pushed her down into the silken pillows, and looming
above her, he looked down at her tenderly, his fingers unconsciously twining
themselves in the outspread black hair that tumbled carelessly over the
pillows. "You are my life," he stated simply. "Without you, I
have nothing. Catherine, my whole world is contained in your slender body and
never
fear
I shall ever stop loving you." His
emerald eyes swept over her with such a warm, melting flame of love in their
depths that her very heart shook with love of this one man.
"I
love you," he whispered against her mouth. "You're a willful,
stubborn little minx that I can't live without!"
Bliss
gleaming in her eyes, she teased, "Even if we fight!"
A
thread of laughter in his voice, he retorted,
"If
we fight? My dearest love,
it's a foregone conclusion we will fight! I'm still as overbearing and arrogant
as I ever was, and
you,
my
little hellcat, are still going to plague me unmercifully."
Suddenly,
his face serious, he captured her head between his hands and staring intently
into her eyes said quietly, "Whatever happens in the future, hold on to
the thought that we are one—that we love each other. We're rather like two
gladiators who have survived the arena. We both have scars hidden inside, but
if we hold onto the knowledge that we
have
won,
that by the grace of God we've found our love, then those scars will heal, and
there will be only happiness ahead for us."
He?
heart
brimming with love, joy singing in her veins,
Catherine's
own
arms tightened around him, knowing every word he spoke was true. They
had
won, and the love they had hidden and denied would
now, like the bud of the magnolia tree, open and bloom under the hot Louisiana
sun.