Dreaming of his arms around her was one thing. Waking up to Davis cradling to his bare chest was quite another. His heartbeat like thunder as his slow even breaths created a primitive lullaby. He stirred in his sleep and pulled her closer. Davis smoothed a gentle, but possessive hand over her ribs.
From the way his arm was draped over the small of her back, Willow imagined that he must have been holding her for a while. Turning her head into the silken thicket of his dreadlocks confirmed it. He sighed stirring the air around her Not only was he holding her, but she was also draped across his body like an organic bandage. Willow went to stretch, and Davis flinched and sat up.
“You’re awake. How do you feel?” He looked down at his bare chest and moved to stand. “I wasn’t trying anything. You were damn near freezing when I got you back here. If your blood traveled back to your heart too quickly it would have stopped and...”
Willow slipped her arms around his neck and silenced him with a kiss that was hard and deep. Davis pulled away and tried to stand. She gripped his bicep and he sat with his back to her.
“Willow you’ve been through a lot.”
“I’m not begging for you.”
Davis turned on her so quickly that she sat back.
“I had no right to say that.”
“I was asking and maybe I don’t have the right to.” A pained smile blossomed on her face. “It’s okay. Maybe I had it wrong. I’ll get my things.” Willow released his arm and moved to the opposite of the bed.
“Make no mistake, Willow. I do want you. More than I care to admit, but what I won’t do is take advantage of you. I’ll go make you some tea.”
She couldn’t know what the sound of her voice was doing to him. The inflection was there just as it had been all those years ago. She wanted him, she was asking for him, and—God help him—all he wanted to do was respond.
Davis thought about picking a fight or reminding her that her father was gone, but the thought alone horrified him. He wanted to be her comforter, he wanted to be her solace, but one touch of her, one breath of her hair or the feel of her breast mashed against his chest and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop. He slammed the mug down on the counter and the mug exploded. The slice of pain in his palm did nothing to quell the raging anguish that dwelled within him.
“You’re bleeding,” she said quietly. She came into the kitchen and grabbed a dishtowel. “Sit down. Your first aid kit?””
“Under the sink.” He hazarded a glance at her an immediately regretted it. She was swimming in his sweatshirt as one bare shoulder slipped in to view.
She found the kit and slipped to her knees before him.
“No, grab a chair. You shouldn’t be on the floor.” He reached around her and pulled out the chair behind her.
“Langton, I pulled a gun on you.”
“Willow I would ever hurt you. I’d give my life to keep you safe I can’t imagine why you would think I would hurt you or your father. Unless…”
She hazarded a glance up at him before returning to her work. He pulled his hand out of her reach.
“You can have me arrested.” She took in a shallow breath and bowed her head.
“Excuse me? Don’t look at the floor, look at me. That phone call was all about drawing you out into the open and you went for it. Why?” Davis gave her a sidelong glance of disbelief. “Oh my God… you were using yourself as bait.” Davis muttered a curse before he pushed her chair away and went to the sink.
“What does it matter? You would have been finished with me.”
Willow winced scarcely believing the words falling from her mouth. Hurting him picking a fight was all she had now. With the right combination of words, maybe Davis would be mad enough to put her out. He had a life before her. He’d see in a few days that it was for the best. He could go on with his life and she would bury herself in work. She wasn’t his responsibility. No matter how much he seemed to be asking for the job. Davis had a life before her, and Willow wanted him to return to it. It was the least she could do.
From the moment they met, she had the vaguest notion that he wanted to tell her something. At first, she figured it was the fact that he was a federal agent, but it was more… so much more than that.
Davis walked back across the room, snatched her out of the chair, and crushed her mouth with his own. She inhaled sharply at the contact. His mouth throbbed with a passionate intensity as he hauled her up against him. She tried to ignore the strange ache in her limbs and the musky scent of him as he slipped his hand behind her neck and he nipped at her bottom lip. When she gasped, he took advantage and delved inside and just as she started returning his kiss he snatched away and searched her face.
“I could never be finished with you. You’re in my very soul.”
“What?”
“You heard me. You know my name. I answered you that night when you first walked into this place. Your body knew that first morning.”
She tried to back out of his embrace, and he turned and pinned her up against the wall by blocking her in with his hands pressed flat against the wall near her head.
“No... that’s not...”
“What, possible? You have a birthmark under your left breast that looks like a thumbprint. My thumbprint.”
“You could have seen it when you wrapped my ribs.” She pushed at his arm then at his chest.
“You’re gonna have to push a hell of a lot harder than that if you want me to move.” He moved closer mashing his chest down against hers. She tried to wedge her hands between them, but he grabbed them and wrapped her arms around his neck. He rested his head against his arms and pressed his face down against her ear.
“You have this sweet smell when you’re wet. It was even sweeter after your first time. I was there.”
She twisted in his arms, arching her body as she sought to get free. He put even more of his weight into her.
“I was your first.” He turned her face back up to his. “And you were mine.” The last of his words were lost in her mouth as he reclaimed her lips. He let his tongue trace the soft fullness of her as he nipped at her bottom lip and kissed it to make it better.
He leaned far enough back to lift her sweatshirt over her breasts.
“I gave you a ring. This ring.” He stopped when he saw the fine gold chain nestled between her breasts. “You were wearing this first time I came inside you.”
“That is not possible.” She tried to pull away and he snatched her back to him.
“You knew my name last night.” His last words were smothered on her mouth. “Your blood knows who I am. Your body knew.”
Suddenly, her hands were searching his face and hair. She shook her head not as she jerked away from him. He pulled her back to him and he placed her hands on his face.
“No. Look at me. See me because I don’t want you kissing a memory. I don’t want you making love to who I was.”
“Harlem?”
“See me, Willow. With this face. See me.”
She stood on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. He jumped as he tried to suppress a sob.
“Harlem.”
He brushed a kiss across her forehead as he hauled her up to his chest and walked her back to his bedroom.
“See me, baby, please... please.” He eased the shirt over her head, and he ran his thumb over her nipple. He lowered his mouth to her and traced her nipple before giving it a long slow drugging kiss. “I know every line.” He punctuated ever word with a sucking wet kiss to her nipple. “Every curve, every nuance of you. I made you mine.”
She cradled his head to her briefly as he came back up to her mouth and he devoured her. He snatched her to him almost violently as he pulled her sweatpants from her body. Her hand fell on his neck against the scratches and he moaned.
“I’ve always belonged to you, Willow.”
Davis gently eased her down on the bed and joined her. She immediately curled into the curve of his body, her hands blindly searching and finding his pleasure points. He explored her thighs with his hand, and he moved between them and she stiffened. She turned her face into the pillow, and he made her look at him.
“Don’t make love to my memory. I’m right here in front of you, Willow.” He settled between her thighs and her hands slipped up his back and then down to his buttocks. “I’m right here. Look at me. Make love to me.”
He lowered her to the bed and as her hands found his buttocks once more, he eased the tip of his cock inside her. He bathed his knob in the sweet syrup that ran down her thighs. Over and over he tested her folds until she finally grabbed his backside, and she angled her hips. She put her foot up on his kneecap and she shoved hard and he lost his balance and drove into her to the hilt. She stiffened as her body contracted, then opened as he penetrated her deeper.
Davis froze as he looked down at her, searching her face for any pain. He tried to take it slow, but the feather light contracting of her core moving around him made slowing down impossible. He draped one of her legs over his shoulder and he continued to drive himself deeper and deeper inside. Davis rolled over and gripped her thigh to make her straddle him. With every rock of her hips, his sex flicked against her cervix writing his name within her for all time
Willow took his face in her hands and she studied him. The choked sobs locked in her chest as the rage threatened to take over. Had it really been all those years that he lied to her? Had they passed each other at Quantico and he never so much as acknowledged her?