Samson's Lovely Mortal (19 page)

“Did you love her?” Delilah’s voice was low, almost as if she hadn’t wanted to ask that question. No woman wanted to hear a man confess that he loved somebody else. Even he knew that much.

“I believed so at the time. Everybody told me what a great couple we were, so I figured if everybody saw it, it had to be true. The night I was planning to propose to her, I surprised her. She hadn’t expected me. I overheard her on the phone, talking to one of her friends. The things she said …”

Samson felt her soft hand on his forearm, stroking him gently. It felt so good to have Delilah’s warm hand caress him. He didn’t dare touch her for fear she’d stop. Her fingers were comforting and soothing.

“She said, she hated being touched by me, that she couldn’t stand making love to me, and that once she’d be bl … married to me, she didn’t care who saw to my sexual needs, but it wasn’t going to be her. That she’d throw up if she had to kiss me again.” Even now he couldn’t repeat her exact words.

Delilah looked at him, her eyes wide in shock.

“All she wanted was my money.” And once she had it, she would have had somebody get rid of him. He couldn’t prove it, but he suspected it.

“But weren’t you going to have a prenup? Everybody in California has one.”

He shook his head. “That’s not how it works with me. No prenup. The woman I marry one day will have equal rights to everything I own. She will be my partner, in life and in business. Once I commit myself to somebody, it’ll be without reservations.” A blood-bond was more than a marriage. A blood-bond was marriage without prenup, without divorce. It truly was till death do us part. He would have to explain it to her, one day, one day soon.

“Oh.”

“But that’s not all. After I broke it off with her, I couldn’t trust another woman. I didn’t want to see anybody, nobody interested me.”

“That’s normal after a breakup like that,” she said softly, compassion clearly written in her lovely face.

Samson shook his head. “It’s not normal for a man to suddenly have no sexual appetite anymore. And it’s
definitely
not normal to have no erection for nine months.”

Her mouth fell open at his frank admission.

“It’s true.” He nodded, watching her.

“Your friends know all this?”

“Only the basics, I never told them what actually happened and what she said. You’re the only person who knows.”

He’d confided in her and her alone. He felt her move closer to him.

“So your friends tried to help you and got you a stripper …” Delilah let the sentence hang in the air.

“And instead, you showed up, and suddenly everything sprung back to life. I couldn’t believe what was happening at first, but when I kissed you for the first time, and you were struggling to fight me off, I got so turned on … Suddenly everything that had been dormant for so long woke up.”

Her cheeks colored a gorgeous shade of pink.

“Can you imagine how scared I was when Carl found those files in your luggage, and I thought our meeting wasn’t a coincidence? That you’d been playing me? That you didn’t want me, but my money? I’d just started feeling something again, and just then, I thought you’d been …” It was painful to talk about it even now. “Please forgive me. I should have talked to you immediately and asked you about the files. I could have spared us this.”

Delilah put her finger onto his lips. “Shh.” How could she continue to be mad at him when he’d opened up to her like that? What man would admit that he’d had erection problems, especially to a woman he wanted to get into bed? This couldn’t be some cheap trick. She looked into his eyes, searching for a sign that she was mistaken, that he couldn’t be trusted, but there was none. Nobody would stoop this low to get what he wanted, would he? No. His voice, his face, everything felt and sounded honest, open. He’d told her everything.

But there was still another question. She didn’t want to ask it, but she had to. She owed it to herself. At least then she’d know where she stood.

“I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Does this mean that you just want sex? I mean, it’s ok,” she added hastily. She didn’t want to sound like a prude or too needy. “If that’s all you want. I can understand, given the circumstances. I mean, what man wouldn’t want to catch up, right? Nine months is a long time for a man. And we’re both consenting adults. I mean, this is just a fling. Anyway, I don’t even live here, I have to go back to New York …” She was babbling. She knew there was no future in this. At least she knew now that the reason he wanted her was because he was starved for sex. Fair enough. They were adults. She could deal with it, couldn’t she? Couldn’t she?

Samson’s hand went to her face, his thumb stroking her jaw. His gaze moved from her trembling lips to her eyes. She shivered, but she wasn’t cold.

“I want more.”

“More sex?” Her voice shaky, she avoided his gaze.

“More of everything. More of you, not just sex. This isn’t about sex anymore. And I’ll prove it to you. Tonight—”

“It’s already day.”

“Today, all I want is having you sleep in my arms. No sex: I just want to be close to you. You don’t even have to be naked. In fact, it’s probably better if you’re not. I don’t expect you to forgive me immediately; I know you’re still mad at me, but I need to have you close. I need to feel you breathe beside me, I need your warmth. Please.”

As much as Samson hungered for her body and to be inside of her, he owed her this much. He needed to prove to her that he didn’t just want her for sexual gratification, that he respected her decisions. If he could hold off his sexual urges for the day to prove to her that he needed her for something other than sex, he had a chance at making her his for good. It was worth the sacrifice.
She
was worth the sacrifice.

“You want me just here with you? You won’t kiss me?”

He looked at her lips, slightly parted and moist. Of course he wanted to kiss her, but how could he stop after that? He pulled Delilah into his arms and pressed her head against his chest, smoothing his palm over her hair. “I promised you when you came in here tonight that I wouldn’t touch you. I’m gonna stick to it.”

“You’re touching me now.”

“You know what I meant, so don’t split hairs with me.” He chuckled softly, knowing that if she teased him, she couldn’t be quite as mad anymore.

Samson let her change in the bathroom while he stripped down to his boxers in the bedroom. He used the spare bathroom down the hall to get ready for bed, figuring as a woman she’d be in his on-suite bathroom for longer than he cared to stay up. The sun had come up already, and he needed to get some sleep. He felt his body tiring fast and his energy draining quickly.

He lay down in bed, pulling the covers over him. It only took a couple of minutes until he heard the bathroom door open and saw her. If he had been tired before, suddenly all of that was wiped away. Was she planning to seduce him?

Delilah wore the sexiest baby-doll nightdress he’d ever seen—the only one he’d ever seen—the fabric of which was far too thin to leave anything to the imagination. Not that he had to imagine anything in the first place. He had a mental photograph of every inch of her body safely locked away in his memory bank.

She slipped underneath the covers and right into his arms, molding her pliable body to his. Samson was sure she noticed the hungry look with which he devoured her. He hoped that sleep would claim him soon so he could keep his promise, but knew instinctively that it wouldn’t come fast enough.

“You said you wanted me to sleep in your arms, right?”

“Yes, but I also said, you should not be naked.” His hands went around her, pressing her closer to him. He could feel every muscle in her body.

“I’m not naked.”

“That’s debatable.” She felt naked to him. His response was automatic. Blood surged to his loins as if somebody had opened the gates to a dam.  Hoover Dam, for all he knew.

She moved her head close to his, tempting him with her sweet scent. “Don’t I get a goodnight kiss?”

“Better not.” He could barely speak now, trying to hold back the urge to take her. Images of her glistening skin against his flooded his mind. Their bodies moving in synch, his hard cock impaling her, pumping hard, slamming into her. He felt pearls of sweat building on his brow, heat surging through his body as he tried to fight against his nature.

“Don’t you find me attractive anymore?”

She knew exactly what she was doing, even more so when he felt her hand run down his chest, to his stomach, to his boxers. He was unable to stop her, not because he didn’t have the physical strength, but because all rational thought flew right out of his head. When her hand wrapped around his erection, he knew he’d lost the battle, but he made one more attempt at keeping his promise.

“You should stop. I made a promise.” It was difficult for him to speak. All his brain could think about was her soft palm moving up and down his cock.

“I didn’t, which means I can touch you all I want.” He couldn’t believe his ears. The reason he had promised her not to touch her was so he could gain her trust back and earn her forgiveness, and what did she do? She shamelessly seduced him.

“You can’t be serious. You’re mad at me, remember?”

Delilah looked up at him and shook her head. “Not anymore. If I was still mad at you, I wouldn’t be in your bed right now. And I wouldn’t be touching you the way I am.” Her hand squeezed tighter around his hard shaft as she moved along his steely length. “So, would you please stop playing hard to get and kiss me?”

“Hard to get? I don’t think I’ve ever been called that.” He suddenly felt her shift, and within seconds she was on top of him, straddling him. With one swift move, she lifted her nightgown over her head and threw it off the bed. His eyes took her in, all of her gorgeous nakedness, her silken skin, her curves. He stared at her round twin globes that would fit perfectly into his palms.

Slowly Samson took her face into both hands and pulled her down to him. “I would have kept to my word, but you leave me no choice.” He captured her mouth, devouring her. He was starved, starved for her taste. For a second he pulled back. “And I want you to know, no more sex: from now on, we make love.” It was important to him to make that distinction. He was done with mindless sex. He wanted a different kind of intimacy with her. All he wanted now was to show her what he felt for her, to win her heart and her trust so that soon he could tell her the last of his secrets and reveal his true identity.

Samson’s lips went back to kiss her, and if Delilah had ever had any doubts about him, he just kissed them away. This man had opened up to her like no other man ever had, and even though she had circumvented his efforts to keep to his promise of not touching her, she had seen the sincerity in him in trying to keep his promise. It was all she needed to know. There was no need to waste the night—or rather the day—without touching. There was only one place she wanted him right now, and it was inside of her, captured between her thighs. For how ever long she could keep him there.

His kiss was more tender than it had ever been before. She could feel his hunger and need beneath it, just barely kept in check, ready to break to the surface. But still, he overwhelmed her with his tenderness, with the intimate caress his tongue unleashed on her mouth. His fingers framed her face, softly stroking her skin and teasing her sensitive neck as if he couldn’t bear to let go of her face.

There was longing and promise in his kiss, as if he’d opened his heart and invited her in. And there was something else she hadn’t felt before: the feeling that he needed her, not to satisfy his carnal need, but to fulfill his emotional need. She responded to him with her own brand of passion and need. Her head filled with images of bliss, of the two of them dancing in the sun, in a sea of flowers.

Samson pulled back and suddenly gave her a short break to breathe. “I can’t get enough of you. Don’t leave on Wednesday.”

“But, I have to go back when the audit is done.” Her protest was weak. She didn’t want to leave, but she couldn’t just stay either. She had a life in New York, well, she had an apartment. “I have no reason to …” A rented apartment. Really just a place where she kept her belongings. A tiny place, something her German ancestors would call a
Wohnklo
, a tiny studio with an equally tiny bathroom.

“I can give you a hundred reasons to stay.” He took her upper lip between his and sucked gently. “That’s one.” His tongue swept over her lips. “Here’s another. We’ll talk about it tonight. But right now …”

He flipped her masterfully and brought her underneath him, gazing into her eyes for a long moment.

Samson took what was his, and Delilah surrendered to his mouth, his tongue, his hands, and his body. His lovemaking was more tender than he thought he’d ever be capable of. There was no rush to join his body with hers. They would have plenty of time to explore each other.

This time all he wanted was to feel her, experience her body’s heat, feel her heart beat against his lips with an excited rhythm. Under his hands and his mouth, he felt her come alive and open up.

Delilah arched toward him every time his hands stroked from her neck down to her navel. Like Magellan, he circled her breasts and sailed South, only to detour before reaching the South Pole. He navigated the small channel between her breasts like the Bosphorus, not being able to decide whether to lavish his attention first on Europe or on Asia. Both looked equally enticing.

What perfect mountains with rock-hard peaks. His tongue lapped at her engorged tips teasing a strangled moan from her throat.

“Sweetness, I haven’t even started yet.”

Her breath caught. “Oh, mercy.”

Mercy wasn’t what he had in mind. No, he was headed for the lush canopy further South which sheltered a treasure beneath—one he was determined to reacquaint himself with.

His searching fingers found the hooded nub and brushed over it. Delilah’s pelvis bucked toward him instantly, pushing his hand onto her moist petals. Unable to resist, he slipped his finger into her welcoming sheath.