His eyes slid closed. Groaning, he thrust upward.
She gasped with pleasure as she felt the muscles of her passage yielding to him, pushing back to encompass him completely, until she could feel him nudging against her womb. He caught her hips, urging her to rise up. She lifted, watching his face as he studied the joining of their bodies intently.
They teased each other unhurriedly, holding their rising passions at bay mercilessly, watching the ecstasy flicker across each other’s expression. The time came, however, when Dalia knew she couldn’t contain it any more. She reached between them, massaging the nub of her clit. Reuel went still, watching her, holding his breath.
Abruptly, he sat up, catching one distended nipple in his mouth and suckling it so hard Dalia’s climax struck her shatteringly. She cried out, moving faster now, feeling it rip through her in a scalding flash of heat. He nuzzled her breasts, caught her hips, and forced her to move faster until his own body convulsed in exquisite pleasure, holding her so tightly to him she could scarcely breathe.
Almost reluctantly, he loosened his hold after a few moments. Dragging her down to lie beside him, he stroked the damp hair from her cheeks. “I want....” He paused, as if he was uncertain of how to continue. “I want a family unit.”
Dalia swam upwards from near oblivion in surprise. “What?”
His gaze flickered over her face speculatively, doubt surfacing in his eyes. “Will you contract with me?”
Fear surged through her. Dalia sat up abruptly. “I can’t. I don’t think I can do that.”
Reuel sat up, as well, his face a mixture of confusion and anger. “Why?”
“I’ve no skills ... for that.”
He frowned. “You could learn.”
“You’re angry with me. You would always be angry with me, because I’d make mistakes and ... you don’t know how to forgive.”
He caught her face between his palms, forcing her to meet his gaze. There was desperation in his eyes, pain. “Teach me,” he said earnestly.
Dalia studied his face and finally sighed. “I thought you meant to send me away, to take the baby. I’ve spent months trying to accept it. I’ve spent months tryingnotto love you anymore, because I didn’t think you loved me. Before, I thought it was what I wanted, anything that you wanted. I can’t think now.”
He swallowed convulsively and finally pulled her close, tucking her head against his shoulder. “We must start again, from the beginning.”
Dalia sighed. “That’s just it. I’m not sure I want to again. I tried to tell you.”
His arms tightened. “If you hadn’t wanted to, if you had stopped caring for me, what just happened between us wouldn’t have happened at all, and certainly not as it did.”
She said nothing for several moments. Finally, she chuckled. “Do you ever tire of being right?”
He pulled away from her, studied her searchingly and finally smiled faintly as he stroked her cheek. “Not nearly as much as I tire of being wrong. Get dressed. I want to show you your new home.”
Dalia felt a surge of both relief and excitement.
Both deflated as she pulled her shift on.
Pierce would almost certainly be waiting and watching for her. “I forgot about Pierce,” she muttered.
Reuel’s head snapped up. Frowning, he returned his attention to dressing. “You care for him?”
She studied him, realizing he was containing his anger with an effort. It irritated her. “Yes, I do. Too much to want to hurt him.”
He studied her speculatively for several moments. “I will show you both your new home,” he managed finally.
Dalia turned her face away, biting her lip to keep from smiling. “Is it beautiful?”
He relaxed fractionally. “It is.”
She’d more than half hoped she’d been wrong about Pierce when she saw that the crowd that had been below some twenty minutes earlier had vanished, but she saw as they walked down the gangplank that she hadn’t been. The moment they started down, Pierce stood away from the column he’d been leaning against. His gaze scanned her briefly, and then zeroed in on Reuel.
Dalia’s heart sank. She forced a smile, glancing at the structure at the edge of the landing platform, and then up at the sky and the landscape as far as she could see.
The building had been erected of stone, and built for beauty as well as function. The column Pierce had been leaning on was one of twelve. Each looked to be nearly fifteen feet in height and perhaps three in diameter. At the tops, which supported the roof of the structure, long, broad leaves of acanthus had been carved into the stone.
