Chapter Twenty-Two

 

 

 

FLOATING. UNABLE TO MOVE her hands. Unable to see. A man with gray, sandpaper-like skin stood above her holding a harpoon-gun in his hand. He smirked, revealing a mouth filled with sharp, triangular teeth.

With a gasp, Isa woke, her heart pounding. She blinked, and the nightmarish images washed away. Bright afternoon rays of sun slanted through a window, highlighting the edges of a familiar jagged crack in the plaster ceiling overhead. Nestled deeply into a feather mattress and swaddled in soft blankets, she was safe in her bed. She hated that crack, one she’d first noticed on her wedding night, years ago, then watched spread, slowly, inexorably toward the wall. She’d vowed never to sleep again in this room, in this bed. Why, then, was she staring at that blasted crack?

Memories of the recent past flooded back.

A faint snore drew her attention, and she turned her head. Her breath caught and the rhythm of her heart took up a different beat. An arm’s length away, Alec slept, sprawled in an armchair that he’d dragged from the corner of the room to her bedside. Bare-chested and bare-legged, he wore nothing but a damp, linen towel wrapped about his waist.

She must have fallen asleep in the tub from exhaustion and missed his entrance. Disappointing. Yet touching, for he’d carried her to bed, leaving her to rest.

A shiver of delight skittered across her skin as she rolled onto her side, brazenly cataloguing the features of a man that she’d only seen awake and alert. And fully dressed. His dark hair was rumpled, his eyes and cheekbones shadowed. The beginnings of a beard roughened his jawline. All evidence of the effort he’d expended‌—‌much of it on her behalf‌—‌these past few days.

Sunlight highlighted the cut edges of muscles hewn by countless field exercises and missions‌—‌and a number of scars she imagined he had also collected in the line of work. She wondered at the story behind each. The slight pucker of an elliptical mark atop his shoulder. A thin white line stretched across the curve of his biceps. A still-raw gash upon his chest concealed by a sprinkle of coarse hair. A few faint lines scattered upon the sculpted ridges of his rectus abdominis. But it was the creases leading from each hip downward, diving beneath the towel that made the tips of her fingers tingle with a growing need to touch.

How long had they slept? Could they steal a bit more time for themselves, for each other? She bit her lip, but only for a second. Yes. But not in this bed. The chair, on the other hand, held no memories.

Pushing back her blankets and swinging both legs over the edge of the mattress, Isa touched bare feet to the cool floor. A froth of white ruffles collected about her ankles. Ruffles encircled her wrists and cascaded from her neck. She smiled. He’d dressed her in her finest‌—‌and thinnest‌—‌nightgown. One she’d purchased, but never worn. Why bother, if a man only wished a quick coupling beneath a blanket in the dark?

Yet Alec had chosen this one, tucked in the corner of a drawer and still wrapped in tissue paper, a gown that was nothing if not a flirtatious invitation.

She would wake him slowly. Appreciatively. With the sun at her back to make the cotton voile gown all but transparent. Warmth shot through her limbs, then collected low in her core. Who better to appreciate such a garment than the only man to ever set her skin aflame with a single look?

Lifting the hem of her nightgown, Isa slid one knee onto the seat beside his hip, then straddled him, lowering her bare bottom onto his towel-wrapped thighs. Nervous anticipation fluttered in her stomach. To be so bold…‌

She bent forward and placed a soft, teasing kiss against the edge of his chin, brushing her lips over the beginnings of a beard. Sitting back, she traced a tiny scar at the corner of his eye, letting her fingertip skate across the angle of his cheekbone.

His lips, the obvious next choice, twitched, and Isa knew he’d woken. Did he keep his eyes closed with hopes she’d continue? Smiling, she played along, stealing a moment to sketch the arch of his clavicle, to skim her palms over the scattering of coarse hair that curled upon a chest that rose and fell slowly, still feigning sleep.

Time to call his bluff. She dragged her finger down the center of his abdomen, following the groove the linea alba cut, hooking her finger beneath the folded edge of the towel. She gave it a slight tug. “I see you availed yourself of my tub.”

A smile stretched across his face, but his eyes stayed firmly shut. “I was filthy and almost as exhausted as you were. Not the best way to begin a torrid affair.”

Laughing softly, she circled his navel with her fingertip. “Yet here we are now, all alone.” She pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the edge of his neck. Beneath the fragrance of her soap, she could smell him. An intoxicating scent that ignited a deep craving inside her that she had every intention of filling. She nipped at his skin. “Rested. Clean. Nothing between us but a scrap of fabric, and you still can’t summon the energy to move?”

Strong hands gripped her hips, yanking her closer to pull her tight against his thick length. “Is this what you had in mind?” he growled, thrusting upward.

“To start.” She rocked her hips against the hard column and hummed her delight when Alec’s fingers dug into her flesh.

Threading hers through the waves of his hair, she dragged his lips to hers, opening her mouth to welcome the invasion of his tongue. Too long they’d been denied this moment, and the hunger of their kiss spoke of a desire not to be denied a single moment longer.

He groaned, uncurled his fingers and shifted his hands upward. Cotton pulled and stretched as his hands ran over her hips, her ribs, until they cupped the weight of her breasts. Her nipples hardened beneath his thumbs and when he pinched them, she cried out, breaking their kiss.

“Aether, you take my breath away,” he said. “Molten sunlight for hair and a gown that frames the glory of your breasts.” An impish grin formed. “As I’d hoped.”

She smiled. “And yet it feels far too thick.”

His hips flexed, pressing into the desire that pooled between her thighs. “We’ll get to thick in a moment.” A laugh rumbled deep in his chest and he closed his hot, wet mouth over the entirety of her nipple, cotton and all, teasing and toying as her fingers fisted in his hair. A low keening sound rose in her throat, and she clamped her lips tightly against its escape.

Alec drew back, a look of extreme self-satisfaction on his face. “A screamer?”

Heat flooded her face. Her? Screaming? Never. Well, never before.

“I see.” His grin stretched wider. “This is a first for you. But I promise it won’t be your last. What kind of affair would I be offering if I couldn’t drag forth screams of pleasure?”

His mouth came down on her other breast, but this time she didn’t bite back the sound of her pleasure. Nor did she stay her hands. Lifting up onto her knees, she yanked at the towel about his waist. The damp cloth parted and his hips jerked as she wrapped her fingers about his heavy length, brushing her thumb across the moisture already collected at its tip.

Impressive. As a Finn, she’d seen plenty of men, and he was far bigger than she’d expected. And there was no duty, no expectation. The stolen moments of their affair were to be all about pleasure. Only pleasure. Hers. His.

“And what of you?” she asked. “Will you yell? Shout?” She stroked him. Slowly. His hips bucked and he groaned, a guttural sound she wanted to hear as he sank deep inside her.

His hand, rough with callouses, slid beneath ruffles and skimmed upward over the skin of her inner thigh. She held her breath, completely open to him as he explored her damp folds. She gasped as the pad of his thumb passed over the tiny nub of nerves at her core.

“Mmm,” he hummed, as if considering the adequacy of her response. “Not nearly loud enough.”

The pad of his thumb began to circle, teasing, driving her insane with need. And when he leaned forward, catching her nipple once more between his teeth, she did cry out.

A few moments later, she pushed against his shoulders, and Alec fell backward into the chair. “Enough of this torture. I need you inside me. Now.”

“Impossible to deny such a wanton request.” All amusement had drained from his face, leaving behind nothing but white, hot lust. “Take what you want.” He spoke through gritted teeth, holding perfectly still.

Waiting. For her. To take him.

This was a new concept. To take, rather than be taken.

She rose onto her knees and moved closer to notch the wide head of his cock against her entrance. Capturing his gaze with her own, she grasped the back of the chair and lowered herself, embedding him within her inch by sweet inch until he was as deep as she could take him. Full. So deliciously full.

Alec’s fingers flexed against her buttocks, but otherwise he didn’t move. Didn’t make a sound.

She rocked her hips. A small movement that shifted him inside her. Yes. There. That. Again she rocked. Slowly at first. Then faster, until she was rising upon her knees over him, a wonderful pressure building inside her. She moaned, a sound that must have snapped his control, for his hands gripped her buttocks, pulling her to him as his hips shoved upward, embedding himself even deeper.

“Aether.” Isa stared into his eyes. “Do that again.”

His legs shifted beneath her as he braced his feet on the floor. “Harder?”

“Please.”

With each stroke, he drove upward, thrusting into her, plunging ever deeper as she cried out her encouragement and spread her thighs wider. Each thrust heightened and gathered close a dark pleasure that grew inside of her, until it reached an intensity she had never before experienced. A primitive sound that began at the back of her throat struggled to tear free.

“Yes,” Alec hissed between clenched teeth. “Like that. Let me hear it, Isa.”

Her body clenched about his, and she screamed his name. “Alec!”

He dove into her once, twice more. Then shuddered, his body taunt, as his own release slammed down upon him.

She collapsed against his heaving chest, sliding her palms over the taut muscle of his back as her lungs dragged in deep gulps of air. Never had she thought a joining could ignite such flames. Or create such a feeling of closeness.

He wrapped his arms about her and for a long moment, they held still, their bodies still joined. Isa listened to the sound of his heartbeat as it slowed, felt the rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek as his own breath steadied. All the while, his fingertips traced patterns on her lower back.

“Such passion,” he murmured. Sliding his fingers into her hair, he tipped her face upward. “Would that we had time for more. The nightgown was‌—‌is‌—‌delightful, but next time, no clothing. So that I might make a proper examination of your many charms.”

Her face grew hot. Embarrassment? Now? She forced the corners of her lips upward into what she hoped was a coquettish smile. “Expect to find yourself also beneath the microscope.”

Best to keep things light, lest she start caring too much, wanting more from him than an affair. Pulling away, she shifted on his lap, and the thin barrier of her nightgown fell between them.

He caught her by the arm, his expression growing serious. “No regrets?”

“None.” She smiled her reassurance.

It took only a fraction of a second for Alec’s mouth to quirk, to erase a hint of deep contemplation, but he needn’t worry. She didn’t want a husband, a man with the legal right to control her every action. Taking a lover was the perfect solution. But they had also formed a partnership to catch a pair of criminals. A task toward which they now needed to redirect their attention.