“Oh God.”
The pleasure was rising, waves of it roaring inside her and Sean’s fierce hold on her meant that she couldn’t get away from it. Tears streaming down her face, she screamed, trying to raise herself away from the source but Sean wouldn’t let her, holding her down until his orgasm crashed into hers and she collapsed against him, one hand over his heart, quieting him as he came down from the climax that had ripped through his body like a tornado.
Kate almost toppled to one side, still half-lying on the man who had reduced her to this. His chest was still heaving and when Kate checked, there was a somewhat-glazed look in his eyes.
“It’s your own fault,” Kate admonished. “This wasn’t in the plan.”
His mouth acquired a sexy grin. “That sounds as if it’s capital T, capital P. I need to teach you how to go with the flow.”
He yelped when Kate hit him with a stray cushion. “Now I have to go and get cleaned up again and clean you up—it’s ruining the mood.”
“You mean you weren’t going to fuck my brains out, a chuisle?”
“Too damn right!”
After a quick trip to the bathroom to take care of her own needs, she cleaned Sean up, trying to ignore the fact that he was lying sprawled on the bed like some mythical potentate enjoying his harem, and combed the unruly hair back from his forehead with her fingers. She really couldn’t resist touching him at every opportunity.
“Rest now and I’ll go and get you something to eat and drink.”
He caught hold of her hand. “Stay with me awhile.”
Kate leaned over and kissed him. “I’ll only be a few minutes. Even if you aren’t hungry, you need to drink something.”
In the kitchen, Kate quickly put together the selection of finger food that she’d prepared earlier—savory nibbles and a selection of bite-sized pieces of fruit and squares of chocolate. She also poured two glasses of wine and two tumblers of water and with everything arranged on a tray, she returned to the bedroom.
Chapter Six
Sean was sitting up, resting against the heap of pillows, slightly turned toward her. He looked tired but happy and thoroughly cossetted, just the way she meant him to be. Kate set the tray down in the middle of the bed and after she’d relocated the glasses to the safety of the bedside table, she joined Sean, slapping his hand away when he would have picked up one of the tasty treats.
“Drink first,” she said, handing over one of the tumblers of water. “I don’t want you being dehydrated.”
The water was cool but not ice cold. The sensation of small sips refreshing her mouth and cooling her throat gave Kate something else to focus on other than her lover’s determined forays to persuade her loose robe to divorce itself from her shoulders.
“Sean Kelly, don’t you go starting something you can’t finish,” she warned him, one eyebrow raised as she gave him a stern look.
“Who says I can’t?” he challenged, carrying on with his efforts.
“I say. It’s not that long since you were as limp as a dishrag.”
“I recover quickly.” He grinned lasciviously before he finished the water. “My cock’s hard and ready to make you scream again.”
“Sean!” The bluntness of his statement was both shocking and exciting and she could see that her reaction was exactly what he’d been aiming for. Oh she’d hit him if she didn’t think he’d enjoy it.
“Are you going to let me eat something now? I’m starving.”
As Kate reached behind her to put the two glasses back on the table, Sean wasted no time in taking advantage. His hand scooped her breast from beneath the flimsy protection of her robe and he suckled hungrily on her nipple, sending a ripple of arousal straight to her womb. “Sean!”
“Yes, darlin’?”
Prepared, Kate crammed a prawn wrapped in filo pastry into his mouth and both of them dissolved into laughter. The laughter faded as Sean swallowed the morsel. Looking into his eyes, Kate struggled to breathe for a moment. She picked up another tidbit, this time offering it to him, the quirk of an eyebrow enough to stop him taking it from her. Instead he simply took a bite, his eyes never leaving hers as he chewed and swallowed again.
What followed was a picnic more erotic than anything Kate could have imagined. She held the glass while Sean sipped his wine, fed him a selection of the savory nibbles. One of the hors d’oeuvres had a creamy topping and when a smear found itself at the corner of Sean’s mouth, Kate leaned forward and very delicately licked it away with the tip of her tongue. His head turned slightly to engage her mouth in a lingering kiss.
“God Kate, I want to fuck you,” he murmured against her mouth, playing with the fullness of her lower lip.
“Insatiable, aren’t you?” She smiled wickedly. He was nibbling at her skin with just his lips, the soft tugging subtly arousing, leading her to a place where pure sensuality annihilated everything else. “Commander Kelly never used to speak to me like that.”
“Commander Kelly had the reputation of the Royal Navy to consider,” Sean countered. “This is Sean Patrick Kelly’s bed and he’s got three years of making love to you to catch up on. He wants to give you pleasure and feel your gorgeous body melt under him again.”
Melting. Kate picked up one of the squares of chocolate that were softening in the warmth. She presented it to Sean, lifting a forbidding eyebrow when he would have taken it between his lips. Instead, she used the corner to smear the sweet treat all around his mouth, so that she could clean it up with her lips and tongue. He licked his lips too, so they ended up tasting chocolate and each other.
“Fucking me isn’t what I originally had in mind for tonight, Sean Patrick Kelly. You’ve already blown that out of the water. Don’t tell me you’re really ready to go again?”
“I told you. And you wouldn’t say that if you looked under the sheet,” he told her, his voice low, husky with suggestion. “Every damn thing you’ve done tonight has just made me want you more, a rúnsearc. I want to keep you in this bed and fuck you ‘til you can’t move.”
His hand cradled the back of her head, drawing her closer to him, so that he could claim her mouth. “I know I bring out the animal in you, Kitty-Kat—do you know how much I want to feel your nails on my back again? When you do that, I know I belong to you and only you. Mark me, Kate. Tell the world I’m yours.”
Sean’s words stirred a deep longing in her. She’d had it in mind to nourish him, to give him something to drink and when they were both ready, to hold him as he slept, to cradle him close, to protect him while he was most vulnerable. Now, he was making her feel sexy and powerful. In control.
She let her fingertips trail lightly down his side, over the ridges of hard muscle that held her so spellbound whenever she had the privilege to see him naked. In her mind’s eye, she pictured the sexy line of muscle and sinew at the front of his body, in that magical place where hip became thigh, next to the V-shaped cut that drew an appreciative female eye straight to his cock and balls.
“You really know how to screw up a girl’s plans, don’t you, Kelly?”
He chuckled. “You don’t want to know what just went through my mind.”
“I can guess.” She took a deep breath. “And I guess I’d better move the tray.”
With the tray and remnants of food gone, she slid back under the single sheet that was covering them and barely had any time to get close to Sean before he half-covered her with his body, his mouth devouring hers while his hand cupped her breast.
Remembering what he’d said, Kate deliberately dragged her nails down his spine. Arching beneath her hand, Sean shuddered and groaned, pressing his face against the side of her neck. “Again, a rúnsearc. Please.”
When she’d marked him before, it had been done at the height of passion, completely without thought. This time, it was different, very different. He wanted it. Sean wanted to bear her mark and some primitive impulse deep inside her wanted to put that mark on him. She raked his back three more times, the third time goin
g all the way down to his buttocks, where she dug her nails in, pulling his hips into her body. “Mine, Sean. Your arse is mine and your cock is mine. Your mouth…your arms…your chest…mine. You belong to me, don’t you? Every last part of you.”
“Yes.” Breathing labored, his whole body trembled with tension. “I have to belong to you, Kate—I need to belong to you. Do whatever you want with me, but please don’t let me go.”
“Sean?” She stroked the back of his head. For the first time ever, she’d heard fear in his voice. “I won’t let you go. Not ever. You’re mine and I won’t ever let you go. Not unless you want to go.”
He shook his head. “Never.”
She’d had no idea—not then, not now—that Sean’s feelings were so deep and so strong, that he needed her so much. Nor had she known what he needed from her, until now and something buried inside her was telling Kate that he needed her to own him, in a way that went way beyond the surface, beyond games. He needed her to mean it when she said he was hers.
It took a strong man to say the things Sean had said, do the things he’d done. He was strong enough to lead his teams and strong enough to let himself be vulnerable in front of her. Kate wrapped her arms around him, promising once more in her heart that she would never let him go again.
* * * * *
Kate was still fast asleep. Sean was sitting on one of the sofas, leaning forward, elbows resting on his thighs, nursing a strong coffee. His body was still half a heartbeat away from shaking at the memory of everything that had happened the previous evening. If he hadn’t given up cigarettes a long time ago, he’d be chain-smoking like an expectant father by now.
Shit, don’t go there! That was more than he could handle right now.
It had been the single most sensual, erotic experience of his life. She’d woven a spell around him and he still felt it the morning after. All his preconceived notions about sex and love had been completely scrambled. It was as if a switch had been flicked in his brain, when it came to Kate. Or maybe the switch had been flicked awhile ago and he just hadn’t realized it.
Sean didn’t know how much longer he could go on without pouring out his feelings. He knew she loved him, she’d told her sister in that text, but she still hadn’t said anything to him.
If she wasn’t ready to say the words, chances were she wasn’t ready to hear them, either. The trouble was, the stress and effort of keeping silent was turning into a physical pain, wrapping itself around his heart. With a deep breath, he turned his attention to what he was planning.
Wanting to show his appreciation for the previous evening, Sean had decided to serve Kate breakfast in bed and was clearing one of the sofas so that they could settle down and listen to some music afterward—maybe even have that talk. He was moving a stack of books when some of them slipped and fell from his grasp. Among them was the sketch pad that Kate was always so careful not to let him see. He hesitated for a moment, then flipped it open.
The first thing he saw was a drawing of a wedding gown that bore a strong resemblance to the one Jilly had worn a few days ago, followed by another that clearly formed the basis for the stunning dress that Kate had worn for the same event. The wedding cake was there, too and looking at the dates on the sketches, the only thing that made sense was that Kate had designed these items. Not drawn them from the actual items themselves, but designed them from scratch.
He carried on leafing through the book and then stopped dead—at a picture of himself. She must have sketched him while he was on the conference call, but it was the next page—where he was looking at himself in bed and looking straight into his own eyes—that really stunned him. Was this how she saw him?
Love really was blind. Sean could only assume that there was a lot of artistic license being employed in the execution of the image.
He turned the page again and sat down hard as shock hit him like a sledgehammer. He was looking at himself for a third time, but this was beyond his comprehension. How could she know? Had she sensed it in him? If this was what she wanted from him…she’d seen into the depths of his very soul.
“Oh shit.”
Standing, the sketch book still in his hand, he looked around at Kate, frozen in the doorway and wrapped in a sheet from the bed. Her face was pale and she looked scared to death.
“You weren’t supposed to see that.”
“Kate, I didn’t think—“
“It’s not what you think!” She came to stand in front of him. “Sean, do you know what I see when I look at you? A strong, powerful man with a set of responsibilities I can’t even begin to imagine.
“This,” she tapped the drawing, “is a man no less strong, no less powerful, but with one less responsibility. He’s given responsibility for himself to me, he’s letting me help to carry the load for a while and care for him. He’s the strongest, sexiest man I know, have ever known and I—”
Her face drained of color, Kate stopped dead and on the verge of tears, she bolted for the bedroom.
Sean found her sobbing her heart out on the bed. When he tried to touch her, his intention to offer comfort, she refused to face him and batted his hands away.
He stepped back from the bed, his mind flashing back to the night before, when he’d knelt in front of her, praying for the happy ending for both of them. That wasn’t so different from what she’d drawn, was it? Hadn’t he been turned on when she’d revealed her inner goddess just two nights ago?
Not to mention the way he felt about belonging to her. She’d seen that in him without even knowing it.
After three years without her, he was a different man. To the outside world, he hadn’t changed but inside, he’d finally had to face up to the fact that he couldn’t do it on his own anymore, that his soul needed something only Kate could give him. With her, he was complete—he could give himself into her care, as she had seen when she’d drawn that picture of what he’d hidden from everyone, including himself. Perhaps she was only just beginning to realize herself how the dynamic of their relationship was shifting…
But above all, he knew with cast-iron certainty that she wouldn’t lie to him. He left the sketch book on the bedside table, knowing what he had to do.
“Kate.”
She was still crying—no longer in heartrending sobs, but in soft whimpers that spoke volumes about the level of her distress. He tried again. “Kate. Look at me.”
This time she did and almost slithered off the bed, straight into his arms.
Sean had brought her drawing to life, knelt in front of her as naked as she had portrayed him. He helped her wrap the sheet around both of them, taking the opportunity to wrap his arms around her. “I need you, Kate,” he whispered, his voice rough with emotion. “I need you. You can see a part of me that no one else can. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us together, a chuisle. Just tell me what you want. Anything.”
Wrapped in each other’s arms, for Sean, time seemed to stand still. Over and over in his mind, he swore that he was never letting Kate go again, that this time it would work out between them. He’d give her whatever she wanted to make her happy.
“Not that, Sean. Not what you’re thinking. You’re mine, I own you, but not like that.” She clung to him fiercely. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I shouldn’t have—“
“Why not?” He nuzzled her neck. “There’s a part of me that wants to spend the rest of my life like that with you. I’m all yours, Kate—you know that. You just said it yourself—you know how much I need you. That’s what you drew, the part of me that I can’t let anyone else see, the part that belongs to you, that needs to belong to you. If I can’t let my guard down with the woman I love—”
Teeth clenched, Sean closed his eyes. “Shit!” he muttered under his breath. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want to hear that—”
Her finger on his lips silenced him. “Don’t beat yourself up, Sean. Not ever. You can say anything to me and I’ll never hold it against you or use it against you. You mean too much to me.”
In silence, they simply clung to each other. Sean held his woman as if he’d never let her go. He didn’t know where he ended and she began. This was one of those moments he wanted to keep forever but a part of him realized that he was in danger of going too fast again and he needed to break the spell. He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.
“Right back into bed with you, a chuisle. Breakfast in bed and then I want to talk to you about what else you have in there.” He jerked his head in the direction of the sketch book.
Maybe breakfast wasn’t quite in the same league as the spread Kate had provided the previous evening and maybe it was the wrong time of year for him to get a rose from the garden for the tray that he took into the bedroom, but Kate’s delight in the simple selection left Sean in no doubt that he’d done the right thing. Once they’d finished, he reached across and picked up the sketch pad.
Kate groaned. “Do we have to do this?”
“Why not?” Sean was genuinely curious. “You should be proud of this—I’m proud of this. I had no idea you were so talented.”
His praise pleased her, he could see, but the embarrassment was stronger. She wouldn’t meet his eyes as she told him that she’d been making part of her income from paintings and sketches and doing some design work as well.
“A bit of a change from bookkeeping,” she admitted, looking at her fidgeting fingers as she referred to the job she’d had when they first met. “I’m not making a fortune and I don’t expect I ever will, but I’m making an adequate living and I’ve got more work coming in by word of mouth.”
One thing in particular concerned him. “Are you managing financially?”
She shrugged. “Things can be a bit tight at times but I get through.”
KellysWoman Page 7