Relief so satisfying that he wanted to throw his fists in the air and yell melted through him. A surge of sweet anticipation started in his chest and moved low in his loins. He was filled with gratitude and uplifted by the knowledge she wouldn’t have opened the door had she not forgiven him for the way he had treated her. And she wouldn’t have unlocked the door had she not been certain he knew she had nothing to do with the theft.
All he could think right now was that his grandmother’s necklace be damned. Susannah was a hell of a lot more priceless to him than a few strands of pearls.
Very quietly, he walked down the corridor to her room. He opened her door, slipped inside, closed the door behind him, and turned the key in the lock. Susannah was sitting up in bed with a book in her hand. An oil lamp burned on the night table beside her; a low fire glowed in the fireplace.
She looked so inviting dressed in a white sleeveless shift with her glorious brown hair flowing onto the pillows behind her. All the loving emotion he felt for her swelled in his chest. Desire and expectation rippled down his spine and settled into the hardness between his legs.
Their eyes met across the room and held. She looked cautiously at him. She was wary of him and he didn’t blame her. He hadn’t given her much reason to trust him up to now.
Race shrugged out of his coat as he walked toward her, letting it fall to the floor behind him. He kicked out of his shoes and propped one hip on the edge of the bed beside her. Without speaking, but keeping his gaze locked on hers, he took the book from her, closed it, and laid it on the table beside the lamp. He pulled the tail of his shirt from his trousers, lifted the shirt over his head, and flung it aside.
He then slipped his hand around to the back of her neck, pulled her gently to him as he lowered his head to hers, and brushed her soft, moist lips with his, easing over them with the lightest contact.
Contentment settled sweetly over him.
“I’m sorry I was such a beast,” he whispered into her mouth. He lifted his head and stared into her eyes once again. “I can only hope that—”
The pads of her fingers flew to his lips and silenced him. “All is forgiven, Race.”
Doubts rose up inside him. That was too easy. He knew how despicable he had been. “When I first got to your door tonight, it was locked. I didn’t blame you for not wanting me to come.”
Her eyes questioned him. “You waited?”
He nodded. “Not because I knew you would open it eventually, but because I hoped you would.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“What made you change your mind?”
A smile broke across her face, and as she looked at him, her eyes softened. The caution he’d seen moments before was gone, and he saw trust. She had never looked more beautiful to him than she did at that moment. Giving him her trust, her body, her all, made him jubilant like nothing ever had, and he knew in his heart he would never let her down again.
“You. This.” Susannah wound her arms around his neck, leaned forward, and kissed his neck, letting her lips skim along his shoulders, down his chest, and across each nipple.
A spiraling heat of desire swirled, searing and deep in his loins, and Race trembled with need at her gentle touch. He suddenly had a great desire for her to know that he loved her.
“Susannah, I—”
“Shh,” she said, silencing him with her lips on his. “No more need be said,” she whispered into his mouth. “Just make love to me, Race.”
“With pleasure,” he whispered as he accepted her kiss, her forgiveness, and her lips.
She was wrong, though. There was much more that needed to be said between them, but he would leave it for later. He didn’t want to talk right now, either. He just wanted to touch, to taste, and to see her.
He raised his head and smiled down at her as he fingered the lobe of her ear. “Your skin is so soft,” he whispered as his hand left her earlobe and traveled down to her jaw and followed the bone around to the other ear.
She arched her head back, giving him freedom to touch her as he pleased. He caressed the tender skin behind her ear with his forefinger while his thumb played in the hollow of her throat.
He bent his head and slanted his lips over hers in a slow, tender kiss. His fingers trickled down her neck to her chest to the firm swell of her breasts, nestled warmly beneath the cool cotton fabric of her night rail. Her breast was full, soft, and her nipple firm beneath the palm of his hand as he caressed her.
“Susannah,” he murmured softly as he moved his head low. With his mouth, he found her taut bud hidden beneath the thin material of her shift and gently tugged on it, nipping it with his teeth. Her nipple grew harder under his playful touch. The soft, feminine sounds of enjoyment she made elated him and added to his own satisfaction.
Desire for her grew strong, overpowering every other feeling. He kissed his way back up to her lips. They parted, and she leaned sensually into him, deepening the kiss. His tongue swept inside her mouth, slowly, delicately, so he could enjoy the sweet taste of her.
His arms slid around her back, and he leaned her into the pillows as his mouth ravished hers. His tongue played with hers, tasting, teasing, giving, and taking.
He heard her soft moan of desire and felt her tremble with yearning, and it gave him immense satisfaction.
Eagerness to possess her tore at him, but he kept it at bay as his lips left hers and his tongue swept down her neck, tasting her, and back up to her mouth again. A whisper of satisfaction eased past his lips and into her mouth as he cupped, lifted, and caressed her breast, feeding his insatiable desire to touch her with all the hunger he was feeling.
