She rose up and kissed him, breaking the dam of his resistance.
His hips pistoned against hers, his movements almost frenzied.Miraculously she came undone again.She threw her head back.A keening cry ripped from her and she met each of his thrusts with her own, burying him deeper into her than he ever thought he could go.
Suddenly her muscles clamped down and his seed shot out of him.He yelled and arched his back.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, riding her waves of pleasure and he was hopeless, trapped.His seed surged out of him, shooting deep inside her and he could do nothing but hold her, riding it out.
Chapter Thirteen
Breathing hard, Christien rolled off Madelaine and gathered her to his side.His pride noted she was just as breathless as he was.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
She huffed out a laugh.“Hardly.”
When he didn’t respond, she turned her head to look at him.“I’m fine, Christien.No aches and pains.Well—” she grinned, “—maybe the usual aches and pains, but those I’ll gladly suffer.”
He pulled her in closer to kiss the top of her head.It felt good to laugh, to forget for a few hours the crushing responsibility and the fear of the future.
Dark thoughts hovered around him.He tried to push them away but they were insistent.Even if he could keep her safe, she still wasn’t his forever.He was immortal.She was not.Sooner or later she would be taken from him again.
His muscles tensed, his mind rebelling at the thought, but he couldn’t deny it.Some day she would die and he would once again grieve for her.He would survive his grief because he had no choice.His vow to the treasure rose above all else.Even Madelaine.But he would take what he was able, treasure it for always and tuck the memories away for a time when she wasn’t with him.
“Christien?”
“Yes, my love.”
“You’re squeezing me.”
He relaxed his hold.“I have something for you.”
“You do?”She sounded like a little girl on Christmas morning and it made him smile.He would give her presents all the time to hear the excitement in her voice.
He rolled to the side and snatched her necklace off the nightstand.
“My necklace.”
He’d had it since the nurse gave it to him and was surprised she hadn’t asked for it.He’d taken the opportunity to research its background and have it appraised.He shifted uncomfortably, not willing to think right now about what he’d learned.
She lifted her head and he fastened it around her neck.The key fell to the hollow of her throat, the dim lighting catching the diamonds’ heat.
“It’s beautiful,” he said.“Where did you get it?”
She touched it almost reflexively.“My mother gave it to me.”A note of sadness crept into her voice.Through his research of her family he’d learned her mother died from ovarian cancer when Madelaine was fifteen.Too young to have lost a mother.
“She said it’s been in the family for generations and I was to pass it on to my daughter.”
“It makes a wonderful heirloom.”And expensive.Very expensive.Her parents came from hardworking people who farmed the land and kept to themselves.Madelaine was an only child of an older couple.A miracle birth at the age when women usually stopped giving birth.Madelaine had been greatly loved, but not spoiled.
“Interesting reading you’ve got here.”
He pulled himself from his thoughts to find her leafing through the book he’d left on the nightstand.
She looked up at him, her brow arched.“Pretty heavy reading.”
He shrugged, not wanting to go there quite yet.He planned to spend the rest of her life with her and that meant revealing all his secrets, but not yet.Tonight he wanted to forget about everything else.
“Why all the interest in the last book of the Bible?”
