* * *
“Ahhh…” Eden’s back arched forward a little. Her breast seeking out his caress. She’d been worried at first that he’d be disappointed in her barely-there endowments. She trembled anew, but not from cold.
“Beautiful…cara.” She heard him murmur, a moment later she felt the flutter of his other hand wander up her torso to cover her other breast with warm engulfing fingers. Eden, unable to hold herself still under the collective onslaught, dropped back landing with her elbows braced against the bed. The jacket spread even wider until it fell off her shoulders altogether and pooled on the bed around her.
Pausing, he slid an arm under her slight frame, lifted her, and shifted them further onto the bed. He eased his weigh onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow to one side of her.
“Lie flat, cara…for me, please.” Eden smiled at the pleading in his voice. She turned her face to see him again reach a tentatively hand across to her breast. A deep furrow marred his forehead and Eden couldn’t stop herself turning toward him to place a soft kiss there. The gesture brought her breast into contact with his seeking palm. She let him ease her back flat with a gentle nudge…and then his hand was caressing her breast again. Eden let her eyes drift closed. Unbidden, her hand wondered over to lose itself in his thick black locks. She felt him tense; his hand froze mid-caress.
“Shhh, Dom, let me touch you.” She whispered soothing promises, and words of encouragement to him and was rewarded when he relaxed into her light ruffling of his hair. “I won’t hurt you, I promise. Please. You can trust me.”
His fingers switched back into a light caress over her chest, traveling from stroking her breast to touching the tender skin of her throat and then palming her cheek. It was like he was getting used to the feel of her, allowing himself to relax and enjoy another’s touch, presence, and proximity.
“Eden.” He said her name in a husky yearning voice that made her sigh. A fresh surge of protectiveness and righteous anger whelmed up inside Eden at the thought of what some sadistic person could have done to create such a fragile vulnerability in a man his size and strength. At that moment, she felt quite certain that she could murder them.
“Dominic.” She opened her hazel gaze on him, still toying with his hair. “Close your eyes.”
He did not respond. She waited a beat before letting her fingers drift out of his hair on to his cheek and come to rest at the edge of his specs. She paused there, cautious.
His hand on her cheek stilled, his breath now a quiet pant.
“May I?” She whispered.
His lips parted. Eden watched him. He hesitated, seemed caught in a web of anxiety and indecision.
“I…can’t.” The words tore from him, tortured. Then, like before, he simply wasn’t there anymore…except, he was.
“Dom?”
“Yes.”
She could still feel his hand against her cheek. The heat of his body poised a scant foot from her naked form. She could see the indentation on the counterpane and hear tiny puffs of air going in and out of his lungs as he breathed. He’s invisible! The oddness and delight left her disconcerted, excited, and aroused all at once. He did not protest when she slid the spectacles off his nose and set them aside.
“Does it…bother you? My being…here, but not here.” His deep voice asked near her ear.
“No, Dom.” And to show him just how very little she minded, Eden, slid her hands back in his hair and exerted pressure to propel him forward. She’d seen him do something to her in one of her ever-intruding visions that had intrigued her enough to want to test it out in the real world. “Kiss me where your hand was before.”
Her arm curled around his head as he followed her urging and leaned in to close his hot moist mouth over her jutted nipple. Her back jackknifed off the bed. Her arm, free of the cumbersome sleeves, tightened, clasping him to her breast. She lapsed easily into a sensuous daze, created by his disembodied lips and hot, moist tongue waxing erotic over her skin. Foreign yet addictive sensations spread throughout her body, a tidal wave of heat and undulating pulsations gripped her. A deep burning settled at the pit of her stomach. She hungered for something she could not name.
“Ummm…” Her fingers snaked in his hair.
Warm hands grasped her hips and lifted her to sit astride him, as he rose so that he too sat up. This he did without breaking the delicious hold he had on her breast. She was wickedly naked, while he still wore pants, shirt and an open waistcoat. Eden scooped forward, the textured material of his trousers wreaking havoc on the sensitive folds of her most intimate place. She shuddered.
Dominic left off, pulling slightly away.
“I’m not cold.” Eden cut off his concern…but got no further, as his hands found her hair and pulled her to him in a deep, bottomless kiss. Her heart exploded, pounding hard against her rib cage…growing louder and more intense by the second.
Knock! Knock! Knock! A firm succession of raps snapped Eden back into her right mind.
“Dominic?” The sound of Kathleen’s voice so close was like a bucket of cold water. “Is tha wee one in there with you? I’ll no’ have any slap-n-tickle on my watch. Open dis door, I tell ya!”
Chapter 17
Blushing from head to toe, Eden just did yank a thick cotton towel over her pink-skinned nudity before Kathleen came bounding through the door. Eden turned what she prayed could pass for an innocent expression on the irate Scottish woman. Kathleen’s keen, knowing eyes scanned her face, then trailed down her hastily-covered, still-twitching frame. Unsatisfied, the determined redhead turned to scan the room. Her blunt mien lingered in particular on the abandoned spectacles and the second dent in the counterpane. No, Eden thought, she wasn’t fooled.
“Where is dat shady-eyed scoundrel?”
“Dominic isn’t here.”
“Aye, now.” She corrected, her manner as blunt as the business end of a battering ram. “Tell me, lass, tis’ ya virtue still intact?”
Eden blushed from tip to toes, dropping her head in a faint, humble nod. “Yes, Kathleen.”
“Come, we must ‘ave a chat, you and I. ‘Tis a conversation reserved for mothers and daughters. Most lassies are no’ privy ta it until a weddin’ is pendin’, but there is naught ta be done for it. Aye, ya need a good talkin’ ta, and weddin’ or no’, you’re goin’ get it!”
* * *
Instinct had propelled Dom out of her arms and onto the astral. A sharp pang throbbed in his chest. He cherished her tender lulling warmth, missing it at once. Even his essence suffered, wanting very much to exit the astral realm and be reunited with Eden’s seductive corporeal body. Dominic suppressed the enticing compulsion and instead sought out Ethan’s essence.
He disembarked just outside the dramatic moon-kissed stage at the center of his music room. “Your wife is on the rampage.”
From the shadows, Dom watched his brother pivot to face his general direction. “Yes, I know. When Ms. Prescott failed to turn up at the dinner table, Kathleen grew concerned. I gather she found her charge in your company.”
“You know me better than that, Ethan. I left before being discovered.” He prowled at the edge of the light streaming down from the glass Cyclops aloft, and wondered at the mixed expression flitting across the other man’s features, features so like his own until he wondered if he were staring at another version of himself. Ethan was the man he could have been, no, would have been, had fate not chosen to kick him in the teeth.
He could feel his brother’s eyes groping for him. “Dom, have you, eh—”
“Debauched her?”
“Not quite the sentiment I was aiming at, but a relevant question nevertheless.” His let out a heavy sigh, shoulders slumped. “Aren’t we beyond this?”
Dom stepped out at once, breaking the perfect circle of light. “You could just as easily step into the shadows with me.” His gaze shifted constantly, as to avoid colliding with his brother’s.
“I have spent a lifetime escaping from my s
hadows. Walking into yours would be suicide. I’m surprised you’ve survived this long.”
He sensed Ethan had a specific agenda even as he relaxed against the black lacquered grand. “Now, you sound like Cael.”
“Cael makes a lot of sense. Maybe you should take a closer listen sometimes.”
“If I took Cael’s advice…” Dominic trailed off, casting his gaze downward to tickle the ivories at the high end.
Exasperated, Ethan shook his head. “Enough, Dom. I’ll not chase you around the room. Please put on the bloody spectacles so we can have a normal conversation.”
“I don’t have them.”
“Well, where are they then?”
“Where do you think?” He lifted his lashes over fraternal twins and inclined his head thereabouts. “With her.”
“Kathleen?”
“Eden.”
His brother’s gaze stilled, seeming to almost dissect him. “Dominic, have you debauched her?”
“Nearly, Kathleen interrupted.” He could admit it. He wasn’t proud but he was honest. “I want her. And I’ve never wanted…that…before. She did not even pretend to stop me.” He sensed in the other man a subtle…dissatisfaction, frustration almost, at his answer.
“Perhaps it would not be so bad if—”
“If what? If I court her as Cael suggested? Or if I married her, an idea you so obviously esteem.” He dismissed both notions with a wave of his hand, unbreakable steel back in his voice. “She is unstable, and I am done pretending otherwise. Would you have me tied to a woman destined to descend into madness? I’ll not damn myself or innocent children to suffer my tragedy.”
“Eden is not Lillian, Dom. You do her a disservice to even make such an unflattering comparison. She is fragile at the moment, yes, but she’s not dangerous or off-balanced. I have glimpsed a strength in her, I am certain.”
“Oh really?” Brows ascended to mock his brother’s conviction. “When I astraled home, I found her writhing naked and hysterical on the bedchamber floor, dripping wet next to a capsized tub. She was screaming her lungs out. After I calmed her down enough to explain, she swore there was a presence of some sort there. She claimed that it attacked, bent on strangling her to death.”
“What is Cael’s opinion?”
He exhaled deep and long. “I don’t know. He’s to come assess her in two days time. But after tonight, there is little doubt that something is amiss with her. There was no one else, evil or otherwise; she was alone. I would know. How long do you think, before she starts to…hurt herself?”
“Do me a favor, and don’t leap to any conclusions…leastwise not until after Cael makes his analysis.”
“Wishful thinking will never do.”
“As a favor to me then.”
A familiar tune trilled from his fingers as Dominic considered the request. If there were a hidden truth, no one better to uncover it than Cael. His younger brother’s keen sense of people and discerning eye for details served him well.
“We’ll wait.” He decided.
“Ahem… in the meantime, I suggest no more, eh, boundary-crossing social behaviors, unless of course you don’t mind a stinging slap on the wrist.” A haphazard smile spread across the doctor’s features. “Kathleen’s become a bit overzealous with the pregnancy.”
“I will consider myself warned.”
* * *
Two days. Therein lay the full measure of his self-control…before he cast common sense aside and pursued his baser instincts. The memory of her passion-daze eyes, soft feminine sighs, and inviting arms open for him and inviting his touch dogged him. The promise of pleasures unspeakable plagued him, a virus in his mind, a carnal itch, eroding his resolve. What did it say about his character, his future sanity to which he clung so desperately, that he remained stimulated, against even his own judgment, to seek solace in the arms of a would-be madwoman? That he knew without a doubt, despite the wrongness of it, that reassurance and calm could be found in such an unlikely place.
* * *
Eden sat in front of the vanity, Kathleen’s none-too-gentle set down still ringing in her ears from days before. She wondered if Dominic had endured a cutting lecture from Dr. Raine? Or mayhap from Kathleen herself? Eden wouldn’t put it pass the brass Scottish woman to rake him across the coals just as she had done to her.
She ran a soft-bristled brush over her hair, more concern with concealing the deep blue and purple contusions blinking back at her from the mirror. The milky pearl of her skin at her shoulders and throat were marred with evidence of the entity’s attack. She tried to obscure them with a bit of excess lace strategically looped behind her neck and tucked into the cleavage of her dress. But the bruising outshone the flimsy fabric, calling for a conspicuous shawl. Eyeing herself, Eden knew the odd ensemble would not go unnoticed at the breakfast table. Even now that they’d ascended to a poignant, if erratic closeness, Dominic only sporadically appeared at meals so she was less concerned in that corner. Of course with his unique talents, he might have already seen the bruises.
Exasperated, Eden shrugged her shoulders and shifted her attention to her hair. The dark strands she’d noticed several days before were still there. They seemed more numerous, although no more noticeable than before…to anyone but her, that is. She shifted a handful of blonde and finger-combing it. Yes, there were definitely new strands of brunette. It troubled her. People grayed with age, not the other way around.
Just then, an infinitesimal disturbance in the room captured her attention. She grew still. A moment of silent apprehension later, something like the flutter of a moth wing touched her hand. She jumped. The brush clattered to the floor.
“Shhhh. Do not be alarmed.” The deep, familiar voice soothed her fears. “I’ll not hurt you.”
He must have bent to pick up the brush because the next she knew, a hand slid into her hair, while another pulled the soft bristles through the thick masses. He brushed in long, lingering strokes, massaging her scalp lightly with his other hand. Eden rested her eyes and relaxed into the tingling rightness of his ministrations.
“Better?”
“Yessss.” The word came out a hiss of feminine satisfaction. She purred like a cat being petted. For he had slowly lowered his free hand to her breast, where he began massaging it through the fabric of her dress. Eden’s lips parted, luminous hazel eyes stared upward at nothing, but she felt his gaze on her. She strained her neck, seeking, silently inviting his kiss. The soft tentative touch of his mouth branded her a moment later. The warm, moist tongue slipped between her parted lips like a thief in the night.
“Hmmm…” Eden moaned deep in her throat, as she heard the brush once again clash unceremoniously against the floor. His now-free hand entwined itself in her hair, and guided her head back so he could explore her at his leisure. His other hand was still a caressing menace at her gowned breast. Pleasure spiked. And soon, she longed to feel his hand against her bared breast, though now, thanks to Kathleen, she knew it wanton to give in to the desire.
Her hands which had been erratically gripping the knobs of the armrests under the onslaught of dizzying sensations, stirred into action. She reached around the hand that was caressed her throbbing breast to awkwardly shove the top of her bodice loose and guide his willing fingers to close over her tender naked flesh. So responsive was the wee nub until she could feel the tiny corrugations of his fingertips, raking an enticing friction back and forth, creating a wonderful answering throb, which sent shockwaves tingling through her body.
“Ohhh.” Her other hand cupped the back of his head, as she continued to take his tongue eagerly into her mouth.
Restless, and fast succumbing to a more far-reaching appetite, Eden shifted in the seat. Her legs, she did not quite know what to do with them. More and more, the junction between them burned with some gnawing emptiness, that yearned to be filled. It felt as if her core were salivating, starved for a specific fulfillment, only she did not quite know what. She twisted and turned, the dress with
its endless undergarments were as so many cloying blankets smothering off her oxygen, the shawl suddenly over-warm around her neck. Though she’d asked, Kathleen had left many details out of her explanation of what went on between married men and women. She’d only say that the illusive it was forbidden and led to sinful indulgence…an apt description, indeed Eden thought.
* * *
Dominic felt her twitch and jerk beneath his hand, and his lips. He was perversely aroused by the fact that he could reduce her to a quivering heap of raw needs just as completely as she could him. He recognized the peculiar new, yet somehow familiar stirring in his groin. He also knew he’d have to do something definitive about it eventually, but for now, he relished the heightened sensations. Loved the throb of awareness touching her set off in him.
He finally broke off the never-ending kiss. Her panting breaths matched his own. Her hand was still lost in his hair. She curled it around to cup his cheek. He knew the instant she noticed he hadn’t donned his usual eyewear. Her hand stilled then grappled around in search.
“You aren’t wearing your spectacles?” She asked, voice thick and throaty, yet bewildered.
“I find immense pleasure in gazing upon your body unhindered by obstruction.”
“You’ve seen all of me and yet you refused me a glimpse of your eyes.”
“Eden…” He frowned beneath her fingertips.
“Another time, Dom. For now, this is enough.” And with that she urged his head forward to arch over her. He took the cue, with flawless execution, retracting his hand from her bodice only to fling aside the shawl and bits of lace, and shove the dress low enough so that her small pert breasts popped completely free, the one already rigid and winking at him. He dipped to capture a pink-tipped crest between nibbling lips…stopping short. Her lush, tempting hilltops no longer garnered his attention, instead he was riveted by the ugly, bluish purple ruin on her otherwise smooth alabaster skin. All else paled in importance.
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