“H-how can y-you help me? Nobody c-can help me!”
Kit rubbed his hand over her back to try to quiet her.
“Liv hates me!”
“That’s not true. After you ran out, she kept eyeing the door. She looked about as worried as a guilty nine-year-old could. And Dagny didn’t feel much better. Lee and I took the twins for a ride to give you some time alone.”
“You d-did?” Hallie sniffed.
“Sure we did. Hallie, you can’t be everything to everyone. Not when you’re hurting too.” His hand smoothed the loose tendrils of hair off her neck. With each stroke, he could feel her shudders weaken. “You know, Dagny went along, but Liv wouldn’t leave.”
“She wouldn’t?”
“No.” He marveled at the delicate texture of her skin.
Hallie sighed, defeated. “She was too embarrassed to go.”
“I think she was afraid to leave you all alone. She didn’t act ashamed; she looked concerned, about you. Although from what I’ve seen of her, I doubt she’d be one to admit it.” Kit spoke spontaneously, truthfully, and he was only half aware of what he said. His mind couldn’t think clearly when his immediate existence rested solely on his sense of touch.
“You really think so?”
“Um-hm.” His hand slid down her long spine, slowly, and then moved across her waist to travel up again, along the back of each rib. She twitched slightly when his fingertips brushed the sensitive juncture of her arm, and he moved his hand back to safer territory. With small circular motions he rubbed his palm against her shoulder blade, imagining that his hand was filled with the soft fullness of her breast.
Kit and Hallie were silent, wrapped in a cocoon of sounds: the rustle of her dress fabric as his hand played across it, and her soft, slow, wistful breath.
“I’m scared,” Hallie whispered.
Those two words, so helpless and pleading, ruined him.
“I’ll take care of you, sweet. Don’t be scared, let me help you.” He tipped her melancholy face up toward his. “Let me worry for you, let me...” Her breath, warm and sweet, grazed his chin, stroking his lip and chilling his spine. “Let me... kiss you.”
Hallie felt his lips, warm and dry, as they gently swept hers. His hand surrounded the back of her bare neck, and his thumbnail etched a sensual pattern on the tactile skin beneath her ear. She opened her lips, freely, remembering the kiss from before and dying to feel the luscious friction of his tongue searching her mouth. He licked the edge of her teeth, teasing at the entrance to her mouth, but his arm pulled her hard against his chest, as if he was compelled even closer.
Still his tongue teased. So she stretched on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around his neck, instinctively pressing her lips harder against his, hinting of her need.
He took the hint. The shock of his hand closing over her breast caused her to suck in air, and at the same instant she received the full force of his tongue, thrusting into the yearning hollows of her mouth.
She was trapped by her need, and once again she swirled under the spell of his intimate kiss—and a new compulsion, the intense desire to be held in the palm of his hand. That magic hand; it kneaded, while the touch of his tongue melting her clear to the root of her womanhood.
Low, she tingled, itching with a natural need she had yet to know. Unconsciously, her hips rotated forward. As if in answer, Kit’s hands cupped her bottom and lifted her higher. Her arms tightened around his neck, holding tight while her feet dangled free.
His knee pushed a forbidden path between her upper thighs, shoving yards of fabric through her legs while his hands held her hips. His tight thigh nudged upward as she straddled it, saddlelike. She rode his parrying body movements, guided by his tutoring hands. The hard, bulging muscle of his thigh slid upward and against her.
Her body soared, as if the very spirit of her was dancing, round and round in a fast circle. At the same time her nether region drummed toward some lofty peak that hung right above her, almost within reach. Awe of what lay beyond kept her hovering near some unknown, frightening edge. And her body drove her movements—movements she couldn’t seem to control.
Surely she was going to die! She needed air! Inhaling deeply through her nose, she tried to fill that need.
It was her last conscious thought.
Hallie went limp. She sagged against Kit’s chest. The first thought in his passion-muddled mind was that she peaked, but he was wrong. Her breathing was slow and in no way resembled the urgent pant of repletion.
Kit grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back to see what was wrong. Her head lolled forward, rocking lightly like a cork at sea.
Alarm throbbed in his head. His sense moved from within his taut body back to his mind. He grasped her under the arms and lifted her off his leg. Bending, he picked her up and sat down on the stairs with her draped across his lap. Her head rested on his supporting arm, he stared at her pale face.
“Hallie?”
Nothing happened.
