Grace rose above him, bracing her hands, burning her need into his chest. Dark auburn hair curtained him. His mouth watered at the sight of her cherished face. He stroked and plucked the turgid points he longed to taste. She moaned. Her hips ground against him. That moist heat stirred him to aching madness. Luc lifted her, as Grace raised her hips. Together they plunged to the abyss, sped beyond themselves, rising above the stars, one soul, one heart, only to burst into a hundred thousand pieces. How long they floated in eternity could not be said. Yet eternity did end. Not with a sudden rush of cold awareness, but with the soft, glorious caress of one hand on a lover’s face. The touch of lips blessed the union and sealed the bargain.
“Luc, we have to talk,” Grace whispered in his ear.
He opened his eyes and snapped his head to the side. “Grace? How did you get here?”
Her smile vanished, and she examined his expression. “I used a canoe, and came via the bayou. Did you think I was someone else?”
How do I answer that?
Women, amours specifically, could be prickly about their identity, especially when they shared ecstasy with a lover.
“I wasn’t thinking. In fact, if I were not certain I could not sleep, I’d say I was dreaming.”
“Wrong on two counts. You were asleep, and that was no dream.” The smile, that impossible smile, grew on her delectable mouth. For a moment he stared at two women, one imposed on the other. Although Grace, it seemed, was uppermost.
“Incredible,” Luc whispered. The images, the fact that he’d slept, that he hadn’t dreamed… Which of those was incredible?
“What exactly is unbelievable?” she asked.
“That you are here. That I knew you even in my dreams without even thinking.”
“Good.” The word dissolved the confusing image, leaving only Grace. She sat up, her body gloriously bare and rosy from love making.
“Why?” He tried to focus his mind on something other than the longing to touch her skin, her breasts, revel in her heat.
“Because I wasn’t thinking, either. However, I am thinking now, and we need to talk.”
“As you wish.” Luc levered himself upward, moving to sit against one of the bedposts.
Grainne’s smile broadened on Grace’s face “No man I know, other than you, would use that phrase.”
He caught her staring at his chest and licking her lips. No, he reminded himself. She wants to talk. “My vocabulary choices are the reasons you accosted me in my sleep? The important topics we need to discuss?”
“Silly man.” Grace moved to snuggle against him.
A portion of him rose in demand, and he reached for the sheet. “If conversation is what you want, you’d best sit farther away.”
“So soon?” She mused as she went to the far corner of the bed. “Your recuperative powers are… ah…staggering to behold.”
Luc smiled. “Thank you. It’s a gift.”
She sobered, found a robe at the end of the bed and drew it on. “It isn’t the only gift.”
“Would you care to elaborate?” he asked.
The movement of her lips distracted him as he recalled them moving over his body.
“I will, but I need answers to a few questions first,” she said. Despite the robe the swell of her breasts had his mouth watering.
“I am happy to oblige, as long as I know the answer, and I am able. Do you mind if I find us something to eat while we talk?” He moved to a cabinet on the far side of the room and rummaged within.
“I’m famished, so yes, please. I need to know the details of your curse. Not just the words but, what your life is like. What is better, what is worse, what is just different from when you were not cursed. Also, how the moon and its phases affect you?” Grace’s voice held an edge of urgency that made his gut quiver.
“That’s a great deal of information.” He placed food and drink on the chest beside the bed. He handed a plate and glass to Grace. Canine barks sounded as he was about to serve his own meal.
“You brought the dogs?”
She batted her eyelashes at him. “They refused to leave me no matter what I said.”
