It was a tender moment and what followed seemed only natural. She lifted on her toes and pressed her lips against his. He gave a slight groan deep in his throat that sent a thrill shooting all the way to her midsection. “Love me tonight, Cordell. I do not want to be alone. I want to feel your warmth next to me.”
He closed his eyes and placed his forehead against hers. “You ask the impossible.”
“Not impossible. It is just your fears trying to intercede. Let me wipe those away and save you from yourself, if just for tonight.”
He pulled back and looked at her with those tortured dark eyes. “We risk too much by giving in to these urges,” he whispered.
Aislynn gave a one shouldered shrug as she slowly peeled off her gloves. “I am willing if you are.”
The unspoken question hung in the air, but as her second glove fluttered to the floor to join the first, she saw the change come over Cordell’s expression. Gone was the uncertainty. Lust filled his dark gaze and she discovered an answering hunger within herself.
She reached for him and as they wrapped their arms around each other, their mouths fused together in a hot, passionate affair that said more than words ever could.
When he started to undo her gown, he stopped himself. “We need to go somewhere else. This room?—”
“It is fine,” she soothed. “Perhaps the joy that fills this space will chase away the darkness that keeps trying to invade it. Besides—” She lifted a brow. “Some of those restraints seem rather… intriguing.”
He blinked and she wondered if she’d crossed some invisible boundary. “You would let me use them on you?” he asked huskily.
For answer, she walked over and secured her left wrist in one of the leather cuffs, and then she looked at him as she held out her other wrist. “This means you will have to have your wicked way with me.”
As he moved forward, she laid back on the bed as he secured her right wrist. Feeling like an offering on some sort of sensual altar, Aislynn realized that there was something equally powerful by being so helpless, simply because she still retained all the control even though she was practically motionless.
“Whatever will you do with me now, Mr. Steele?”
Cordell’s mind was whirling with so many lust-filled images that he could hardly make sense of anything at all. All he knew was that he wanted Aislynn with a desire that was unmatched. All this time he’d been afraid to let her inside this room and see the dark past that stalked his future happiness, but she had turned something dismal into something sensual and enticing. It was the first time he had not dreaded stepping foot into this space.
He shrugged out of his jacket and vest. He ripped off his cravat and pulled his shirt over his head. Kicking off his shoes and trousers, he was left in nothing but his small clothes. While he enjoyed the way her eyes followed his every movement with interest shining in her green eyes, he was eager to reveal her perfect, smooth skin. He wanted to touch and kiss every inch of her. Even then, he knew there was no amount of pleasure he could give her to show how much her acceptance of his past meant to him. Mary had been the only other woman on this Godforsaken soil that he had trusted enough with his secrets, and that was nothing compared to how much he trusted in Aislynn.
He undid her gown and stripped it from her body in one swift movement. Her breathing had deepened and her legs were moving restlessly as his gaze roamed over the curves that were barely concealed by her undergarments. He made quick work of them, and as each item was tossed aside, he could sense their combined need growing to a fevered crescendo. He wasn’t certain how long he would be able to hold himself back from her. The memory of sinking into her wet heat was almost too much to withstand. However, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to control his baser urges. He wanted this moment to be one they would remember for years to come. He wanted to believe that his physician was wrong and there was no threat of any setbacks in his future, that he could live a normal life with Aislynn by his side. But without that assurance, he could not put her through the torment of watching him spiral down into a pit of oblivion from which he would never recover.
As he finally laid her bare, her luscious naked body on full display in the center of his bed, Cordell allowed his cock this uninhibited moment before he crawled up her body, kissing the length of her calves, her thighs, until he reached the heart of her desire. He paused to inhale the sweet musky scent of her feminine perfume before he set his tongue against her core.
Her hips lifted off the bed, the desirous gasp flowing through her chest and causing her delicious breasts to quiver. He didn’t think he would ever grow accustomed to the sight of her beauty while her skin flushed and she climbed toward her peak. He enjoyed watching her fists grip the restraints, her entire body tensing as her breathing became erratic.
His movements increased and it didn’t take long before she was shuddering beneath him, her glorious moans filling the air. He absorbed every moment of this precious gift and when she relaxed, replete upon the bed, he could wait no longer. He almost tore his small clothes off in his haste to join with her and when he slid his eager cock into her willing body, they both sighed in mutual satisfaction.
Cordell began a rhythm of thrust and retreat until he was almost delirious from the bliss that was moving through his body. He had never felt complete in his life, except for when he’d first joined with her. He knew it was so much more than losing their combined virginity that bound them together. It was as if their very souls were connected, a unity of hearts.
He was in love with her.
The reality hit him in the chest at the exact moment he spilled himself deep inside of her. He should have taken better precautions, should not have allowed himself to be pulled under her spell so completely, yet, he could not find the guilt that should have surfaced. The only thing he’d wanted until this point was to keep others safe from the harm he could inflict on them, but Aislynn had shown him that more was possible. She made him want to believe that he could be normal, that the destruction he had feared for so long was the fabrication, and not the reality. He was terrified that he was starting to agree with Aislynn, that some risks were worth taking.
She certainly was.
In the aftermath of their lovemaking, Cordell removed her restraints and then brought her back up against his chest, enjoying the feeling of just holding her close.
She seemed content in the moment too, but after a time when he thought she might have fallen asleep, she said softly, “I am getting cold.”
He chuckled, just because it felt damned good to do so. “An oversight on my part,” he whispered.
He got up and donned his trousers before setting about getting a fire started in the grate.
“Where do we go from here?”
Cordell knew she was speaking of something more permanent, but he wasn’t quite ready to discuss their future happiness just yet, not when he was struggling to clear the offenses of the present. “I suppose I will head back to my study and take a look at my list of suspects and see if anything appears to jump out at me.”
She slipped on her chemise which did not conceal so much as tempt him to return them both to the comfort of the bed. “Let me join you.”
