“Fascinating.” He did it again. She writhed.
Urging her thighs further apart, he slid his fingers deep into her.
Heat scorched her belly and lower, a distinct warmth flooded between her legs. She whimpered unable to get enough, raising her hips to the splendid mastery of his fingers, sinking and withdrawing.
“I must test and retest,” he said raggedly.
He kissed her with raw passion, parting her lips, and setting her nerves ablaze with a slow search for her tongue. Rachel’s hands crept around his neck, her breath labored, her body turning light and hot. When he dragged his mouth from hers, she kept her arms around him, her head spinning.
“I want to ask you a very pointed but hypothetical question.”
“What’s your question?” she said unsteadily.
“I don’t want you to go back to America.”
“That’s a statement, not a question.” Oh, why did he stop now? She swallowed and found the courage to look up at him. “Your wife should be of nobility and of equivalent pedigree.”
“We will discuss this later.”
“Anthony?”
“Hmm?” His lips played at the sensitive corners of her mouth.
She had one week remaining. “I’m leaving.”
“And I’m allergic to dogs.”
Like a bird in a cage that sings when it knows it is dying, she said, “I cannot fill those shoes especially if you are to be the next duke. I have to go.”
“We’ll see about your departure.”
“You cannot stop me.”
“Hush,” he cradled her face in his hands. Brushed his lips over hers. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen even if I have to chain you to this lab.” His fingertips slid up and down her slender neck, toying with the fine curls at her nape. He nudged her legs apart, continued his stroking until she cried out for that intangible, elusive sensation to give her release. He withdrew his hand, pushing her thighs apart. “Look at me,” he said fiercely, staring into her face.
Her dark lashes lifted, and she held his intense gaze. She grabbed him then, guided him to her. He thrust slowly into her with incredible control, and then stopped.
“From what I’ve heard, it will hurt for only, a moment.”
He looked so severe and concerned above her. With trembling fingers, she touched his jaw. “I trust you.”
He drove into her and muffled her cry with his smoldering kisses. He stopped. “I’m so sorry, Rachel.”
She moved, adjusting to his throbbing fullness. He began anew. Each time, he penetrated a little further, stretching her, moving with insistent rhythm. Rachel stroked the smooth surface of his back, and her pleasure mounted. Her fingers dug into the plane of his muscle. His breath faster now. Her fingers drifted from his shoulders, digging into his hips, her heart racing. She heard him whisper to her then, in broken phrases he couldn’t seem to hold back. “You’re beautiful…so intelligent…I love you.”
Confused, disbelieving, silken desire exploded within her, around her like the electrical fire that bounced off the walls, ceiling and floor. She was drowning in feelings she could not name or describe as his hands clenched her buttocks now, lifted her, felt him suck in his breath, stiffen and then plunge into her, waves of warmth poured from him.
They lay entwined as lovers, drifting off to sleep, and then making love again…and again. The musk and scent of his body filled her nostrils and she was floating in languid contentment. It was all a dream, a wonderful fairytale, and yet, she had to give it all up.
That it was done of her love for him yielded the greatest sacrifice of all.
She would take home memories that time would never erase, but the heartbreaking reality was knowing that an eternity would not make the soul-drenching loss forgettable. Only bearable.
In the gossamer haze of the late afternoon, sunlight stretched long shadows, glistening on the glassware, shimmering over the cabinets and gliding over the cot in a subdued riot of color. Still joined intimately to her, Anthony stirred, a frown marring his handsome face. “Perhaps we can come home early from that dratted ball you need to attend and discuss the universe.”
She bit her lip. Next week she’d sail to Lisbon, and then home. Whatever time she had remaining she would share with Anthony. “We could arrive late. Could draw some more conclusions.”
“Agreed. I’m on the precipice of something more and not accustomed to finalizing conclusions after only five observations.”
