He muttered something under his breath and went back to his post, making more noise than necessary with the key in the door.
After Alexis picked up the broken glass, she sat in a chair facing the door and waited. She waited to see the one person who could match every emotion coursing through her blood and understand the reason for it. She waited with the same sense of anticipation that had driven Cloud all morning, knowing only that he would come and that the pleasure of seeing him again would be as intense an experience as being joined with him in her bed.
Suddenly she heard Cloud’s voice in the hallway. The tension she felt at the sound of his voice, rich and deep, pushed her out of her chair as if she had been a tightly coiled spring and his voice had released her. Then he was there before her, silently closing the door behind him.
There was something in his face she could not identify.
“Cloud—” She stopped. He was shaking his head slowly.
He stepped toward her, not touching her yet, but knowing it was what they both wanted and putting it off a moment longer. “I know,” he said. “I knew it the instant I walked into this room. I knew it last night when you were so sure everything was lost, when you couldn’t face me, when you could barely walk out of the room. I knew I would come to you this morning and find you ready to fight.”
His arms went around her and hers went to his neck. Their lips met violently, fiercely, no longer denying the fullness of their passion. His hand found the belt of her robe. He released it and slid his hands inside, his fingers brushing against the softness of her naked flesh, then gripping it harshly, pulling her closer, making her gasp. She felt his tongue in her mouth, exploring, tasting, then retreating only to return more hungrily than before. When his mouth left hers to kiss her eyes, cheeks, hair, she breathed deeply for air, drawing in fully as she would if she had just surfaced from a powerful wave swell. She heard his light laugh, clearly taunting, against her throat as his teeth caught the silver necklace and the skin around it, biting it gently, then bruising her with the force of his kiss. Her fingers went to the buttons of his shirt and fumbled at undoing them. He stopped her by grasping her wrists. She dropped her hands to her sides when he released her. His hands went to the collar of her robe, brushing aside the material from her shoulders.
He stepped back to watch the pale green wrapper float without further assistance down the length of her arms, separating at her breasts, sliding past her slender hips, and caressing her thighs and calves. It fell to the floor with a sigh and he thought it was the same sigh he had wanted to hold—had held for a time. Her body was trembling but she made no move to hide it from him, knowing he wanted to see her tremble at the power he held over her. He walked around her slowly, touching every part of her with his eyes, memorizing the texture of her flesh, caressing every curve, every hollow.
“All day,” he said, standing behind her. She glanced at him over her shoulder, but he turned her head, making her face the bed. “No, don’t move. I don’t want you to move except for the movements you can’t stop.” He saw her shudder as a rippling in her golden hair which hung in a solid glistening fall against her back. His chuckle was low, throaty. “All day this is what I was seeing, feeling, wanting. You. Everything I did today, will do later, was for this time when I could look at you again and see you tremble. Tremble as you never would in front of them last night. As you never would in front of any man but me. It is the only mastery I ever wanted over you because it means having all of you. All of you, to do anything I want to, knowing that you’ll let me because you can’t stop me, can’t escape me. Do you know that it’s true?”
“Yes.” Her voice was small, choked. “Yes, I know it’s true.”
His hand pressed into the small of her back and he twisted her around. “And while you were waiting, it was the same for you. You knew I would come, that I could not stay away. You were waiting to tell me you hadn’t been defeated by them, but wanting to be defeated by me. Wanting to be taken by the one person who can stop you from getting away. Wanting him almost as much as you want to get away.”
“Yes. I want you. I want you.”
His lips found hers again, crushing them in capture. His hands stroked her breasts, her flesh quivered beneath his touch. He carried her to the bed and took off his clothes slowly, enjoying the way she watched him undress.
He lay beside her, his head propped on one elbow while his other hand casually touched the skin of her throat, her breasts, her flat stomach, and finally her thighs. Her amber eyes, slightly hooded beneath thick lashes, pleaded with him to go on, and he kissed them gently as her legs parted against the pressure of his fingers. His mouth moved to her breasts and he felt her hands go to his head, curl in his hair, holding him there as she pushed herself against him.
“Please, Cloud!” This time she heard his laugh, muffled against her thighs, and responded to him, conquered by his will, her thighs opening further to the touch of his lips.
Her hands reached for his head again but stopped in midair and fell against the bed, gripping the sheets, clutching them as if they offered her support as his tongue brought her closer and closer to release. Looking up, he saw her fingers clenching the fabric. He lifted himself above her and her legs wrapped around him as he entered her with hard thrusts. She matched his passion, holding him tightly within her, liking the warmth and strength of his mastery.
Her body convulsed and sobbed as he gave one final thrust and shuddered against her. He held her close as waves of intense pleasure flooded her limbs, making them tremble even in relaxation. She rested her flushed face in the crook of his shoulder until he turned it up to kiss her still parted lips.
“Alex,” he said when she rested her head on his chest beneath his chin. “You do want your liberty more than you want me, don’t you?”
“Why do you ask it that way, Cloud? You make it sound as if I can’t have both.” She lifted her head to look in his eyes, and the thing she’d seen before, when he had first entered her room, was still there. She frowned because she still could not identify its meaning.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s you. Something different. Has something happened since last night?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me?”
“I can, but I won’t. Not yet. You’ll understand soon enough.” He placed her head on his chest again and said, “You did not answer my question.”
“About my freedom?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand you. Don’t you realize that only by being free to do the things I have to do can I be yours? I want to be yours. I want you until you want me no longer and even then I’ll go to no one else. How could I, after knowing you? But Cloud, my liberty is dearer than even you. I cannot exchange one for the other. I want both. You wouldn’t want me, would you, if I couldn’t finish the promise I made to myself? It would always come between us. Being free means I can do it and that means I can come to you with nothing held back. I thought you knew that. I thought you knew it when you let me go the first time, on theHamilton.”She heard his sharp intake of breath and she laughed. “You didn’t think I knew, did you? I did. It was then I knew you truly loved me. Loved me enough to let me go, even though you thought I might never seek you out again.” Her hand stroked his side and she pressed her lips to his chest. “I would have come back to you freely and begged you to make me your prisoner. I would have begged you to have me for always in the manner you just did. I would have shown you the scars on my back and Travers’s blood on my sword as proof of my devotion to things I believe in and things I must have.” She moved her leg against his, flesh against flesh, his strength against her own. “Do you understand?”
“Yes. I understand,” he said quietly. “I do love you. Remember that. Remember it when you come back with Travers’s blood on your sword and I’m not here.”
Startled by his last words she pulled away from him and looked at his face. He was smiling but the sadness she saw in him crushed her chest as if invisible hands were pressing against her, forcing air from her lungs.
“Why wouldn’t you be here?” It was an anguished whisper. “Where would you be? Don’t talk like that, Cloud!”
