He kissed his way down her body, tasting a trail along the center of her, pausing to dip his tongue into her navel and then moving on….
Down…
She took his head in her hands as he pleasured her, as he did the things he did so well he had her writhing and begging and calling out his name.
And then, just at the moment when she knew she was finished, that she was on her way to fulfillment and there was no way to hold back, he slid up her body and seated himself within her in one clean, deep thrust.
Elli cried out.
The pleasure was so intense, the sensation so perfect, so exactly what she longed for. And he was there, with her. His face above her, his big body covering her, inside her—all hers.
She rolled her head on the pillow, drowning in a river of liquid fire, in a hot pool of purest erotic sensation.
“Elli.” His voice was low, hoarse, dragged up from the depths of him. “Let me see your eyes.”
She obeyed his command with a moan.
His eyes were waiting. He said, in a whisper of passionate agony, “Elli. I love you. I love you. My wife…”
And then the rolling wonder began, up from the center of her, spreading out like a flame along every nerve ending, a fire in the heart of her, fire everywhere….
Her body closed around him, claiming him utterly. She called his name and he answered, “Elli.”
And that was the best thing, the most beautiful thing of all.
That he could say her name now. Simply. With love.
At last, there was stillness.
Two cats—one black, one white—brought from California by Elli’s sisters, cautiously emerged from beneath the bed where they’d scrambled to safety at all the shouting and laughing over the bedding of the bridal pair.
The cats jumped onto the bed, and sat together near the footboard. Diablo gave himself a bath. Doodles looked dreamy and purred with enthusiasm.
Hauk and Elli lay limp and satisfied, arms and legs entwined. Elli traced the thunderbolt and the tail of the dragon.
He whispered, “Forever.”
She tipped her head back to look in his eyes again. “Oh, yes. Forever.”
And then once more he kissed her, a kiss that started out so slow and sweet and then grew hotter, deeper, the banked fires licking higher, into flame.
Elli felt her heart rise up, into the endless twilight, into the red glow from the ship that burned below them on the wide green field.
Born a princess, raised a happy, healthy American girl. But always wondering, always wishing, imagining what it might be like. If her mother hadn’t left her father. If their family hadn’t been torn apart.
Somehow, all that didn’t matter quite as much anymore. She and Hauk were a family now. And their family would stay whole.
Love was what mattered. Love was what gave life order and dignity, beauty and meaning.
And for Elli Thorson Wyborn, love was right here.
In her warrior’s arms.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6219-9
THE RELUCTANT PRINCESS
Copyright © 2003 by Christine Rimmer
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The Reluctant Princess Page 19