I held out my hands and put them together at the wrists. He swallowed and looked up at me. ‘It’s not that I don’t want you to touch me, Luce... But right now if you touch me I might just...’
Come apart completely. He didn’t have to say it. I felt it. ‘I know. It’s OK.’
He tied the ribbon around my wrists in a loopy knot. I lay down on my back and raised my arms above my head.
Jamie looked at me, ‘Jesus Christ.’
‘No, it’s just me, Lucy,’ I said with a wink.
He huffed out a laugh and my chest expanded.Crap. I was in so much trouble.
He rolled protection onto his dick and came over me with his long powerful body. I opened my legs to him and he fed himself into me, slowly, until we were both holding our breath at the sensation.
And then he started to move, in and out, a timeless dance. He reached up and held my hands with one of his, our fingers intertwining. He kissed me, his tongue mimicking his body moving in and out mine and it was so hot that I almost couldn’t bear it.
Our skin was sheened with sweat, as we danced and chased the peak and I put my legs around his hips, heels digging into his buttocks and then we soared and flew over the edge together.
CHAPTER 14
Lucy
When I woke again, I was alone in the bed. I cracked open my eyes to see weak sunlight filtering into the grand-sized bedroom. No idea what time it was, only a sense of having slept deeply in a way that I never normally slept, because I was usually too full of adrenalin and anxiety about upcoming jobs or current ones. And Jamie had been at the edge of my consciousness. Always.
I diverted my mind from thinking about what would happen when I went back to Dublin.
Jamie and I had eventually gone back down to the kitchen in the dead of night. To check on George – Jamie had let him out to do his business – and to finish eating and drinking some wine.
With only the moonlight outside and the world turned white, it had felt like we were in a cocoon. We’d talked until dawn had broken. About everything and anything.
And then we’d come back to bed and made love again. I made a face at those words,made love, but I couldn’t keep denying it. Seeing Jamie again was just confirming my worst fears. I’d fallen for him three years ago as improbable as that might have sounded.
And now... seeing him here, learning about his brother and his sister and what had happened and with the chemistry between us even more insane than before... I was fathoms deep.
And worse, was the other fact I couldn’t stop hiding from. He’d exposed my romanticism before, and it was happening again. The walls I’d built up – reinforced after Vegas, were crumbling to dust all over again.
I wanted to love and be loved. I wanted to feel like I was someone’s number one priority.
But I feared I was going to be badly hurt. Because Jamie hadn’t said anything about feelings, and maybe this was just a stop-gap in his vision for his future. Closure on a past mistake. What would have happened if we’d met in Dublin. After this he could get on with forging a whole new future here at the castle. I could see him here with a family. Healing the past and making new, better memories and it almost gave me a physical pain that it wouldn’t be with me.
For someone who’d hitherto studiously avoided the idea of family and children, I was surprised at how visceral it felt to want to share that with Jamie.
Something caught my eye and I saw a piece of paper on the other pillow. I came up on one arm and picked it up. It said one word:Downstairs.
My heart thumped. I got up and saw fresh clothes. Soft and comfortable. His thoughtfulness just made me feel even more raw.
I looked out the window. Snow as far as the eye could see. Several feet of snow. More clouds rolling in over the mountain.
I couldn’t help but feel it was an ominous sign. No matter what happened now, we didn’t have the luxury of sharing a cab to the airport and going our separate ways.
CHAPTER 15
Jamie
As Jamie adjusted the candle on the mantelpiece, he realised he was humming. He stopped.Humming. He hadn’t hummed in years. Had he ever hummed?
Lucy had been out for the count earlier and he’d resisted the temptation to wake her just so he could see her eyes open. He made a face at himself.Creep.
He felt light. Lighter than he had in years. And... there was a burgeoning sense of something else threatening to rise. He kept pushing it down because it terrified him but also exhilarated him at the same time.
