She feasted on the sight of him, because while he had made love to her earlier, he had been behind her, and she had been denied this opportunity. She allowed her hungry gaze to rake over every bare swath of skin, every sculpted muscle.My God, he was beautiful. Glorious in a way she could not deny. Every inch of him was warrior—wide shoulders, defined chest, the muscles of his abdomen like cut ropes etched in stone, the strong arms.
“Ara.” Her name uttered in his low, dark drawl was her undoing.
Time fell away. Years ceased to exist. The aching void in her life that had been left by him was whole once more. She flew to him as she had so many times before. As she had when they had been young and innocent. When they had been forbidden but it hadn’t mattered because their hearts had been wild and their hands and mouths had been greedy and they had not wanted anything at all but each other.
When they had been a man and a woman who had found love, against all odds, in the delicious shade of a forest, and they had fallen hopelessly under each other’s spells.
She threw herself into him, leaping through the air. As she made impact, she hooked her legs around his waist. He caught her, his arms going around her like bands. Her arms twined about his neck.
“Fuck, Ara.”
She slammed her lips into his. It was the only answer. The only thing she could do. All she wanted. Precisely what she needed. His tongue was inside her mouth, his hands kneading the flesh of her bottom. Even though it had been mere hours since their furtive coupling, they were ravenous. He bit her lip. She sucked his tongue. Teeth crashed together.
She moaned. He groaned. Her fingers sank into his hair. Still holding her in his arms, he walked them across the chamber effortlessly, as though she weighed nothing. And then she was on his bed, on her back. He had tossed her there. With a rush of desire, she watched as he shucked his trousers and smalls until he stood by the bed, naked.
His cock was huge and hard and thick, jutting against his lean abdomen. He took her breath. Every bit of him was strong. So strong. So vital and powerful and gorgeous. She grasped handfuls of her nightrail and pulled it up over her head, throwing it to the floor where it landed in a wispy heap.
And then she was naked.
On Clay’s bed.
It was wrong, and she knew it. Wanting him this much, letting him back in, was a grave error. But she couldn’t stop. He was here, and he needed their lovemaking as badly as she did—before her stood stark, glorious evidence of just how much.
He lowered himself to the bed at her feet, his large, warm hands on her ankles. His gaze burned across her body like twin, live coals, feasting up over her legs, lingering at the apex of her thighs, trailing over her breasts to her lips and at last meeting hers. “This is madness.”
It was, and yet it wasn’t. She had fought for so long—against him, against the feelings he inspired in her, against her desperate need for him. But they had always been fire, and she was ready and willing to catch flame once more for him. With him.
It would always be him, she realized. Clayton Ludlow was her fate. He was stolen kisses and furtive assignations. He was the first man who had ever made her body come to life. Her only lover. Her every sin. He was the man she had never forgotten. The one she had despaired she would ever find again.
“No one has ever felt right but you.” She made the confession almost involuntarily. Her lips moved, her tongue formed the consonants and vowels. Her voice produced the sound. But she had not meant to blurt them aloud.
“Damn it, Ara.” His touch glided up her calves, and he lowered his mouth to her skin. He rained kisses on her anklebone, her shin, the sensitive swells of her calves, the dips behind her knees. “You should never have come here tonight.”
No, she should not have. Opening the door between their chambers had been a mistake. Allowing him to take her earlier had been a mistake. Hungering for him the way she did—also a mistake.
The biggest mistake of all? Her words. She should never offer up such revelations. Not to him, not to Clay, the man who had left her once before. The man who had fled, taking her heart with him. Why had he gone? And where? Ara wanted to ask, but the sight and sensation of him slowly pleasuring his way up her body stole her breath.
He kissed a trail over one hip, then the other, nipping her with his teeth. The hum of satisfaction deep in his throat rumbled through his body, and she felt it in his lips as they opened on her skin. Felt it in his tongue as it licked a path of fire over the protrusion of her hipbone. His breath was hot and moist, so near to her throbbing center and where she wanted him most.
Not close enough.
“You left the door unlocked,” she reminded him breathlessly. He could not pin this on her. The naked want on his face when she had stood on the threshold had been her undoing.
“For if you required me.”
Oh, she hadrequiredhim, but perhaps not in the manner he had originally intended. Ara bit her lip, saying nothing as he kissed higher, over the faint white lines that had scored her skin from carrying Edward. She stiffened when he lingered there, stopping to skim his palm over her belly. The marks had been purple and angry once, but they’d had seven years to calm and fade.
No one had ever seen them before, and she knew a flutter of embarrassment, chasing away the need.
“What happened here?” he asked softly, tracing the lines with his long fingers, looking up at her. “These are new.”
“Not new.” A rush of heat flooded her cheeks. “They are from bearing Edward. He was a large babe, as one might expect.”
His eyes darkened, and he lowered his head, kissing each mark as if in worship. He said nothing, his hands bracketing her hips, his mouth finding its way to the dip in her belly. His tongue slid inside, making a wild current of pleasure rocket through her.
A rush of air burst forth from her, half sigh, half moan. “Clay, please.”
His mouth moved lower. “Please what, Ara?” he murmured against her. “Tell me what you want, what you need. Tell me why you came to my chamber and leapt into my arms. Tell me why you cannot stay away.”
