Chapter 15 #2
"It occurred to me that I need to take matters into my own hands. I was reminded that I am usually the take charge person." Fingers flickered over his stomach sending the flesh quivering. The sound of the belt loosening was loud in the room, heard even about the fire crackling inside the hearth.
"I..." He bit off a groan when she pulled the zipper of his pants down and found the weight of his erection. He was full to bursting.
"Baby, you're not well." He did not recognize his own voice.
"I'm perfectly fine. For the first time in several months, I'm doing great. Look what I found." She took him out, fingers sliding over the flesh, which was hot to the touch.
"Wait..."
"Get on the bed." She followed the words by shoving him backwards until he was sitting on the edge. "Lift." When he lifted his butt, she took off the pants and then his underwear. He had taken off his boots downstairs and left them in the mudroom. His socks came next.
He watched narrowed eyed as the incredibly sexy woman he had fallen in love with, ran the tips of her fingers over the bunched muscles of his thighs. Lust exploded inside him and threatened to overflow.
Moving on her knees, she slid between his thighs.
"I love you." Her voice was husky and vibrating with emotions.
"You mean everything to me." Taking his hand, she slid it down until he was touching her slight bulge.
"You've changed my life and I'm not talking about what you've done for me and David.
I love you as a person. You're wonderful and kind and I'm the most blessed woman in the world.
You have eyes only for me and it has taken me a while to get used to it. "
"You should. I see only you." His voice was thick. "Now, are you going to put me out of my misery?"
"Are you miserable, darling?" She asked gently, running her fingers through the crispness of his chest hairs. "Because that's the state I've been in for a couple of months."
"I've been dying." He admitted. He slid one finger under the thin strap of the lingerie. "Very nice."
"You picked it out, in Paris."
"I have very good taste in underwear and women."
"The best. Now..."
"Nuh Uh." He shook his head and continued to undress her.
"You've been running the show, doing all the talking.
" The scrap of material pooled around her.
"It's my turn. I ache for you. Every day, every night.
I'm like a boy with his first crush, a hundred times over.
I love you with every breath I take. What I feel for you scares me because of the strength of it.
" He drew his fingers down her cheeks and pushed back her hair.
"I was afraid to touch you for fear of hurting you. "
"I need you to touch me."
"When I start," his eyes darkened, "I won't be able to stop."
"Good. I'm counting on it. I want quality time with you. All night. I slept earlier."
His chuckle was strained.
"You're giving me too much credit."
"Am I?" She arched her neck to give him access. He took it, lips trailing kisses along the skin until he was ravaging her throat.
She murmured deep in her throat, body already vibrating and tingling. "You smell heavenly."
"Hmm." She sighed when he started to nibble.
"I went all out."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Clamping his hands around her waist he drew her up until she was sitting on his lap.
"Kiss me darling." She urged.
He needed no second bidding. His mouth took hers in a kiss that seemed to deepen by degrees.
Her heart melted and then her bones, until she could imagine herself floating on air.
Her heart fluttered and all she could think of was, at last, thank God.
Wounding her arms around his neck she gave and then gave some more.
Dragging his mouth from hers, he had to take several breaths, deep ones to steady himself. If he was not careful, it was going to be all over before it began and he didn't want that.
It had been too long.
"I need a minute," he told her hoarsely, when she started moving beneath him.
"If not..." He kissed the tip of her nose and forced himself to slow down.
"You enchant me." He whispered, trailing kisses down her cheek.
"From that very first night, I was enraptured by you.
" He touched the seams of her lips with his tongue, just the tip of it.
"It wouldn't have mattered if you were interested because of my money, my resources.
" His voice had thickened. "I was hooked.
" He rubbed her lips open and kissed her, slow drugging kisses that were twisting her inside and out.
"I could not stay away." His hands framed her face, not steady.
"If I had come that evening to find that you had six children, a dozen, it would not have made a difference.
I couldn't have left. I've never felt this way before, ever.
" He entered her slowly, gliding into her warmth smoothly. "We fit perfectly. We always will."
His words had a stunning effect on her. Combined with the feel of him inside her, the touch of his lips on her flesh, she felt as if she was about to explode.
He moved slowly, eyes holding hers, body joined to hers, at last. At last, he told himself dazedly. This was home, right here with her, this was where he belonged.
When she wrapped around him, the climax was sudden and stunning, sending her arching towards him. The storm ripped through her already shattered body, making her weak. Tears came spilling down her cheeks, only to be kissed away by him.
"Take more." He whispered as he drove her up again.
Her eyes widened as the storm whipped through her already battered body.
Emotions clamored for release. His name tumbled from her lips as she clung to him and surrendered.
Letting go, he poured himself into her, his body shuddering, heart racing, flesh coated with moisture.
At last, he thought raggedly and gave her everything.
*****
It was a clear and cold wintry day the second Saturday in December when she became Mrs. Rodney Anthony Lancashire.
At the same small chapel where her parents had said their vows and where she and her son had been christened. She stood before a small group of family and friends and pledged her life to the man the Lord had sent in her life.
Walking down the aisle between her son and her grandmother, she went to meet him.
Her dress, a simple wool that highlighted her pregnancy. She had insisted on it, when she met with the experts at Romano's.
"I want the world to know that I'm carrying his child," she had told them. The ice blue wool clung to her body like a glove and flared out at the ankles. She was four months pregnant. The sickness that had plagued her during the last month had somehow magically disappeared.
The ceremony lasted twenty minutes. The most significant and poignant moment of her life. She stood with him at the altar and promised to love, honor and obey him for the rest of their lives.
Nothing else mattered. Not even the meeting with his lawyers where she had signed the prenuptial agreement. Rodney had balked at first.
"It's as if we're going into this and expecting it to end." He had inherited the lawyers and in the past admired their cold calculating ways when it comes to business, but this was the woman he loved, and it made a difference.
"I need to do this." She insisted. "People are speculating that I'm marrying you for your money. I want it put to bed. It started out that way." She reminded him. "I have to prove to you and the public that I'm into you for love. Just love. Please let me do this."
Not even that moment could spoil this for her. She was marrying the man she loved.
And furthermore, he had surprised and humbled her and her son by legally adopting him.
"Why?" She asked him raggedly. "Please don't be angry, but I need to know if you feel obligated to."
"I feel honor bound to." He told her. "I happen to love David. This is because of him, not because of you."
So now they were a family, bearing the same name.
No longer would she ever be left in doubt where she belonged. She was now Mrs. Rodney Lancashire, loved, wanted and cherished.
*****
"We're going back to where it all began." He told her as they made their way to the airfield where the jet was fueled and waiting.
"If that were true, we would be going back to that masked ball at your club." She snuggled against him, feeling secure with his arms wrapped around her.
He kissed the top of her head. His wife, he thought in amazement. He never dreamed he could love to this degree.
"Back to where I realized I had fallen in utter and complete love with you."
She turned her head to stare at him, love shining from her eyes. She had walked into that chapel, one where she had known since she was a baby and felt the warmth of his love enveloping her.
"I fell in love with you then too." Her fingers stroked his cheek gently. "And it scared me to death, knowing I was going to have to end things."
"I proposed." He shook his head in remembrance. "And you broke my heart."
"I broke mine as well. Shattered it into pieces."
"This time, we're going on our honeymoon. This time it will be different."
"No shopping." She warned.
He chuckled. "I'm not making any promises."
"Rodney..."
"Shh." He shut her up, the usual way, by closing his mouth over hers.