Angel Falls (Angel Falls Series, #1)

by Babette de Jongh

  I allowed my limbs to open, to loosen, to accept his weight. “Come inside me.” I draped my arms around his shoulders and relaxed into the exquisite pressure of his body opening mine wide.

  His arms shook as he kept his weight above me, but not on me. Sweat slicked his skin as he stopped short of impaling me with his full length. “Sweet Jaysus,” he breathed, “you’re tight. Am I hurting you?”

  “God, no.” I dug my fingers into his firm backside and pulled his hips to mine, taking joy in the fierce ache of having every inch of him inside me. “You feel like Heaven.”

  He shifted, brought one knee higher until our bodies fused, seared by the heat of our passion. Then slowly, slowly, he withdrew until only the tip of his sex touched the opening of mine.

  “Please, Ian.” I clutched his buttocks, trying to drive him fully home again. “What are you waiting for?”

  He resisted. “Let’s take our time.”

  “Please.” I dug my nails into his back. Every nerve ending sparked and sizzled and cried out for release. He pressed into me slowly, so slowly. I whimpered and pleaded for him to hurry, hurry, hurry. Please, God, I’m about to fly apart.

  He teased, torturing me with his maddening restraint. He pulled out until all I could feel in the whole world was the broad tip of his penis opening the swollen flesh between my shaking legs. He kissed me, his lips teasing my mouth the way his body teased mine down below. “Tell me what you want.”

  “I want you inside me.” I bit his lip. “I want it hard and fast.”

  And he gave it to me. Oh, God, did he give it to me.

  I lifted my hips to meet his hard thrusts, pumping and pushing against him until sweat poured off us both and my animal-like whimpers joined his rasping breaths. I felt consumed, burned by passion, scraped raw by the unbearable friction that cracked me open, exposing me body and soul. An aching void inside me tightened like a hard fist clenching the distended nub he brushed against with every stroke.

  Something desperate and frightened and unbearably vulnerable spiraled up inside me, warring with a physical ecstasy more intense than any I had ever known. I felt something within me reaching, reaching, almost but not quite touching the unattainable prize.

  He slipped his fingers down between us and touched me... there... sparking an electric response that made me buck beneath him. I shoved his hand away, pumping my hips to recover the frenzied rhythm. I didn’t want time to think about what would—or wouldn’t—happen in this bed tonight, or outside of it tomorrow. I didn’t want time for either of us to think.

  “Slow down, love.” He brushed my damp hair away from my face, his amber eyes turned deep chocolate in the dim light that filtered through the closed blinds. “Let me make you come first.”

  I held him tight, my arms like manacles around his back. I ground my hips against his and claimed his mouth with mine, sucking his tongue in an imitation of the heated rhythm we’d just abandoned. “I don’t want it slow.”

  With a sigh that turned his bunched muscles fluid for an instant, Ian drove hard into me, his hips slamming against mine. He held himself still for one trembling instant. “If you want me to stop, you have to say—”

  “Don’t stop.” I roamed my hands across the sweat-slick terrain of his back and shoulders. “Don’t stop. Don’t stop.”

  He planted both hands flat on the mattress beside me, and his flesh slapped against mine in a steady, driving beat. “God help me....” he groaned. His Scottish accent grew stronger by the word. “Ye’re turning me inside-out.”

  “Come.” I grabbed his butt and held on in case he got some crazy idea about pulling out. “Come now. Come as hard and fast as you can.”

  His muscles went rigid beneath my hands, his handsome features tightened into a grimace of fierce pleasure. We struggled and strained with some elemental force that had us in its grip, shaking and shaking until we collapsed together on the damp twisted sheets. Ian shuddered, and I smoothed my hands down his back, feeling goosebumps erupt under my palm.

  “Jaysus Christ.” He turned his back, tossed the used condom into the wastebasket and grabbed an edge of the quilt we’d shoved into a rumpled heap on the floor. “If I live, I swear I’ll ne’er again come before you do.”

  “It’s okay.” I put a soothing hand on his shoulder. “I wanted you to. It was good for me, even without—”

  Ian hooked an arm around my waist, dragged me against him, and tossed the quilt over us both. “Good’s not good enough.”

  “It was better than good.” I backed up close to absorb a little of his heat. “It was amazing. It was—”

  “Hush.” Ian took the sting from the word with a soft love-bite at the nape of my neck. Spooning me into the curve of his body, he hugged me close. “You’ll get yours in the morning, I promise. Now go to sleep.”

  I sighed, releasing every frustration, every care, every worry, along with any tension that dared to remain in my exhausted muscles. Surrounded by Ian’s protective strength, I let go of all but the moment’s bliss.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I knew the instant Ian woke. The hand that cupped my breast began a lazy caress, arousing the sleeping nipple then moving leisurely across my chest to give similar attention to the other side.

  A thought drifted through my mind. I think I love this man.

  Stupid, crazy thought.

  His arm tightened around me and pulled me closer. His penis strained against the cleft of my buttocks. I wiggled backward, pressed more firmly against him, and was rewarded by a low groan and another hot kiss on the back of my neck. The barrier I’d sensed between us last night had melted away, as if by mutual consent our bodies had worked out any resistance between us while we slept.

  Several times during the night I’d been aware of Ian’s body sheltering mine, of him adjusting his position to accommodate the times when I shifted my own. Sometimes he kissed me or stroked my skin lightly.

  Or maybe it was just a dream.

  “I must have died during the night,” he rumbled in a sleep-rough voice. “Because this has to be heaven.”

  “We might be in heaven,” I murmured. “But I have no intention of behaving like an angel.” I slid my hand along his firm buttocks to his hard thigh. The sense of being blanketed by him, enveloped in his strength, was the most delicious feeling in the world.

  Or so I thought, until he made good on last night’s promise. He rolled me onto my back and knelt above me, kissing one breast and caressing the other while his fingers slid inside me. Then he moved down, kissing all the way down, all the way down to....

  Oh, my... Oh... His mouth, heated from sleep, felt like a furnace when his lips closed onto my....

  Oh, my.

  Moments ago I’d been resting in his arms, now I twisted and writhed, completely at his mercy. I cried out at the bombardment of sensations. My back arched, my knees came up as the incredible climax I knew was coming began to build.

  My hands were free to caress him in return, but I was powerless to lift them. I clutched the sheet in one hand and the solid strength of his arm in the other. I gave myself up to his touch, his hands, his mouth, and let the powerful feeling come. He was giving, but I had to give as well, in order to receive his gift. Trust, I thought, maybe. Trust was what I had to give... then the feeling took over completely.

  I whimpered, cried out.... Dimly, I heard the noises I made, but I didn’t care. I surrendered all, and the climax shattered around me like a burst of stars until I fell back to earth, and the stars went out one by one.

  “God, Ian... God.” I tried to scoop together my scattered thoughts.

  “No...” He smoothed the sweat-damp hair away from my face. “It’s just me.”

  “My heart,” I panted. “I think it’s going to explode.” I took his hand in mine and placed it on my chest. He spread his fingers against my skin and left them there.

  Neither of us moved or spoke for a moment.

  “I should go.” He drew out the O in that Scottish way I
loved even though I hated what he had to say. “It’s almost dawn, and my car shouldn’t be in front of your house when people drive by on their way to work.”

  “I know. But, Ian... couldn’t we...” I fumbled the words and had to swallow and start over. “Could we go somewhere, together?” I took his hand and wrapped it around mine, bringing it to my lips and pressing a kiss onto the rough skin between his thumb and first finger. His hand smelled like sex. It smelled like me. “I have the day off, and I’m not ready for this to end.”

  “Well, I don’t have the day off, but I’m willin’ to take it anyway.” He glanced ruefully down at his still unsatisfied erection. “Because it would appear that I’m not ready for this to end either.” He bent gingerly to retrieve his jeans from the floor. “Would you allow me to kidnap you for the whole weekend?”

  “You wouldn’t mind?” I asked, beginning to feel a little self-conscious.

  “I’d be honored.” He scooped up my discarded sweats and dropped them onto the bed. “Get your beautiful naked body covered, so I can have a hope of getting my jeans buttoned.”

  I started getting dressed. “What should I pack?”

  “Nothing. Anything. Whatever you like.” He pulled up his jeans but didn’t button them. “I’m taking you to my house, so you can go naked all weekend if it suits you.”

  I threw some things into a duffel bag. “I’ve got to fill the food dispensers for Lizzie and Chester, then I’ll be ready to go.”

  “Doesn’t Lizzie want to come too?”

  At the sound of her name, Lizzie tipped into the bedroom and looked up at Ian, then at me. She had very sweetly elected to spend last night in her living room dog bed, and I wanted to reward her by letting her come along. At the same time, I didn’t want to impose on Ian quite so soon in our relationship.

  “She’ll be okay here.” I knew she’d be lonely, but she wouldn’t lack for food or water and the dog door gave her freedom to spend her time indoors or outdoors as she pleased.

  “She’ll be okay at my house, too. We’ll take her for a walk in the woods behind my house.”

  If I hadn’t loved him before, I did now. The three of us loaded into his car just as an orange glow lit the eastern sky.

  *

  I slept late on Sunday, cradled in Ian’s arms in the center of his massive four-poster bed. Lizzie slept on top of the silky soft comforter that was crumpled at our feet. A wash of cold air signaled Ian’s departure, but I rolled over and snuggled back down until he tossed an armful of Sunday papers onto the comforter and climbed in beside me. He was sexily rumpled, his cheeks darkened by the night’s growth of beard.

  I turned toward him. “You read all those?” There had to be at least a dozen different newspapers there.

  “Not in detail, no.” He stacked a couple of pillows and leaned against the headboard, then unfolded the Angel Falls Informer and scanned the front page. “I like to compare our paper to others. See what we might do better. We could go with more of a magazine format, or—”

  “I thought you said y’all were going digital. Online, I mean.”

  “Yes, but we won’t stop the print version. We’ll have both.”

  I scooted close, draped one leg over his midsection and laid my head on his chest. While he read, he sifted through my hair in an idle manner. I snuggled, adjusting my position until I felt the promise of subtle movement under my thigh, but after a moment he dropped a casual kiss on top of my head. “I know someone sent you to kill me. There’s no use denying it.”

  I moved my thigh away from his vital organs. “Don’t worry. I’m so sore I wouldn’t dare instigate anything.”

  ‘Hmmph.” As Ian rifled through the paper, I played with his chest hair. He placed a quelling hand over mine. “Sweetheart, you’re driving me crazy. Why don’t you read one of these? There are plenty to choose from.”

  I moved away and leaned over the edge of the bed to reach my duffel bag. Good thing I’d thought to bring a book. I was reading Outlander for the third time—Ian’s Scottish accent had prompted me to take the book off my keeper shelf and get to know Jamie Fraser again. “I’ll just read my book, thanks.” I stacked my pillows as he’d done and leaned against the headboard on my side of the bed.

  “You’re welcome to read a newspaper,” he said in a slightly puzzled tone. As if the news could compete with Claire Beauchamp and Jamie Fraser.

  “That’s okay.” I opened my book to the page I’d turned down. “I don’t read the newspaper.”

  “You don’t?” He said this as if I’d just declared I didn’t believe in brushing my teeth. “Why not?”

  “I just don’t.” I wasn’t about to apologize. Lack of interest in current events is not a crime.

  “You have to have a reason.”

  “I have a multitude of reasons, but I doubt you’d be interested in any of them.” I wasn’t reading my book, but I turned a page as if I was.

  He folded the paper and crossed his arms over his chest. “Try me.”

  “Okay.” I put my book aside, picked up his hand and turned it to the light. “Look at this. Your fingers are covered in newsprint. Doesn’t that drive you insane?”

  Frowning, he studied his hand. “I’ve never noticed it.”

  “Well, I do. I can’t even touch newsprint without getting the shivers. That coarse paper all covered in ink.”

  “We use soy ink these days, completely safe and doesn’t transfer like—”

  “I don’t care.” I shuddered. “Touching that rough newsprint is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.”

  “You’re kidding.” His tone was incredulous, exactly as I figured it would be.

  I picked up a newspaper and slid my hand down a page, then held my arm up for his inspection. “See?” Every hair on my arm stood on end. “And besides that, newspapers never finish an article on the page it started. You always have to hunt for the rest of it.”

  “That’s because—”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know all that. But I still don’t like it.”

  “Okay,” he conceded. “I guess you watch the news on TV.”

  “I hardly ever watch television. I’ll read a news article online every now and then, but I find them extremely frustrating. All headline and no meat. I end up with more questions than answers.”

  “How do you know what’s going on in the world?” He looked at me as if I were a strange breed of animal he hadn’t encountered before.

  “Unless it happens to you or somebody you know, the news is just another soap opera. Same shit, different names.” I knew this was sacrilege to a newspaper editor, someone whose very life was based on relaying day-to-day happenings to the rest of the world.

  So we were different. Maybe even opposite polarities coming together like magnets. I wasn’t interested in resisting our differences. So I pushed the mound of newspapers aside and covered his mouth with mine.

  *

  Much later, I drank my coffee and wandered around Ian’s house while he showered. Lizzie had been outside for her morning potty, but being in a new place, wasn’t eager to leave my side. Her toenails made tipping sounds on the hardwood floors as she followed me from room to room.

  The house was big, substantial, blocky, built of stucco-over-brick and oak timbers. In the enormous den, a grouping of leather furniture crouched before a stone fireplace. Crowded bookshelves hugged the room like welcoming arms. I could see myself living here. But he’d have to ditch a few of his moldy old leather-bound books—Moby Dick, War and Peace, Crime and Punishment—to make room for Spy of the Knight and Border Lord and Outlander.

  With a guilty glance around to see if Ian was watching, as if my face would give away my thoughts word for word, I chastised myself for my mental leap from almost-casual sex to walking down the aisle. I had given myself to Ian, and the part of me that believed in fairytales wanted it to mean forever.

  And this was a lot of house for one man—not at all suitable for a bachelor. Had Ian bought it with future plans for a fa
mily in mind? After everything we’d just done together, it shouldn’t be hard to ask him, but I knew I wouldn’t. Ruthlessly, I beat back my little-girl dreams of happily-ever-after. Maybe we would talk about the future sometime.

  But not today.

  I heaved a sigh, releasing my Cinderella fantasies like so much carbon dioxide. Back in the kitchen, I poured the dregs of my coffee into the chipped enamel sink and made a fresh cup. Bored with following me around, Lizzie turned circles before collapsing in a cubby space under a small built-in desk. Outside the window, a pair of cardinals flitted past, and two deer stepped into the yard. A young buck with a small set of antlers stood guard over a smaller doe as she nibbled gardenia leaves. The scene was so peaceful, so perfect, I sighed with contentment.

  Ian, bigger than life and damp from his shower, put his arms around me from behind. “Planning on venison for dinner?”

  I ignored his stupid comment and leaned my head back against his chest. He felt hard as a brick wall, safe and substantial. “I haven’t thought about dinner. I’m wondering if the injuries you’ve inflicted on me are permanent. I’ll definitely be walking funny for a while.”

  Ian laughed. “Lass, you’re not the only one.” He rocked me against him, his arms around my middle. “I hesitate to ask, but... aside from any physical trauma, are you okay about what happened between us this weekend?”

  That depends on what happens next, my heart shouted. I wanted to know if there was any chance of this becoming a forever kind of thing. But I didn’t want to scare him. I had tried to think of this as almost-casual sex, but I knew in my heart that sex could never be casual for me. The fact that I’d allowed him inside my body wasn’t as damning as the fact that I’d let him into my heart.

  “Casey?” Ian held his breath for a moment. I could feel his chest go still against my back.

  I watched the birds take cover in the trees when the young buck picked his way to the concrete birdbath at the center of the large unfenced yard. “I guess you knew when you saw the dusty pink box in my bathroom closet, I don’t tend toward weekend flings. So this is... new for me.”