by Kay Maree
He gripped the back of her head and closed his mouth over hers.
If he remained in his current form for the next thousand years, he’d never know what possessed him to kiss her once again. But kiss her he did.
He couldn’t seem to get close enough. Her scent, her intoxicating flavor swirled through him, creating a need he was powerless to resist.
His hands came up without conscious thought to gently push her down to the cushiony softness of the sofa.
He followed her down.
Gina’s left leg dropped off the side of the couch, leaving her open and vulnerable beneath him.
Settling between her thighs, Colton moaned into her mouth, his tongue dancing with hers, and pressed his erection against her warm center.
She tilted her pelvis up, a blatant invitation to grind against her. And he wasn’t about to disappoint.
Colton rolled his hips, nearly hissing into her mouth at the feel of a thousand nerves scattering through his rock-hard shaft.
Lifting his head slightly, Colton peered into her questioning eyes. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life. “I want you.”
Her gaze became hooded. “Can you? I mean, is it possible?”
Was it possible? It had to be, he thought, rocking his hips forward one more. He was as solid as if he still lived. “I shouldn’t. I know that I shouldn’t, but God help me, I need you.”
She reached up, flattened her palms against his chest, and gave a gentle push.
Colton sat back on his knees between her open thighs, stunned and more than a little in awe when she gripped the hem of his shirt and jerked it up.
He ducked his head, helping her remove the offensive article he’d worn for the past three years.
She tossed it to the floor and reached for his belt.
Colton’s hand covered hers. “What if this is all in my mind? What if I’m still sitting under that cypress tree at the shipyard, imagining this whole scenario?”
“You’re not imagining anything. If you are, then I’m in the same dream as you.”
He wasn’t sure of anything anymore. How Gina was able to strengthen him, touch him, and make him feel the impossible was too much to comprehend.
Gina suddenly stilled, uncertainty returning to her eyes.
“We don’t have to do this if you’re uncomfortable with it,” Colton rumbled. “I can only imagine how disgusting I must look to you.”
Gina moved to sit up, leaving Colton no choice but to back off and give her room.
She straightened her shirt, a look of surprise on her face as she turned to face him on the couch. “Disgusting? Is that what you think?”
Colton shrugged, embarrassed under her close scrutiny. “I would be if I were in your position. I reek of smoke, and my clothes—”
Gina’s harsh laugh cut off the remainder of his words. “Do you want to know what you smell like to me? You smell delicious, masculine and fresh. Better than anything I’ve smelled in a long time.”
Now, it was Colton’s turn to be surprised. He glanced down at the soot on his hands and pants and then at Gina’s clean T-shirt. No stains from his body had transferred to her. “This isn’t really happening, isn’t it?”
Chapter Fourteen
Gina watched the play of emotions on Colton’s face. It quickly became clear to her that he saw himself in a different light than she did.
She took hold of his hand and rose to her feet. “Come on.”
At his questioning look, she elaborated. “I think what you’re seeing is your last memory before your— Before the fire. You’re making new memories now.”
Colton allowed her to tug him forward and lead him into her frilly pink bathroom.
She bent and turned on the shower. “Take off your pants.”
“I’ve tried before,” he admitted in a wooden voice. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Gina raised an eyebrow. “Like your shirt lying back there next to the couch?”
“I don’t know how that happened,” he murmured. “I’ve never been able to take it off. Besides, what would I do then? Haunt the shipyard in the nude?”
Gina’s lips twitched. “Now, that I’d pay to see.”
She reached for his belt. “May I?”
Colton didn’t answer. He simply stared back at her with hooded eyes.
Gripping the belt, Gina fought back the sudden bout of shyness that snaked through her and slid the leather through the buckle. It freed with no problem.
She then popped the button on his pants and dragged down the zipper.
He wore black boxer briefs, she noticed.
Taking an unsteady breath, she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of his navy-blue pants and tugged them down.
Colton’s hands rested on her shoulders as she dropped to her knees to unlace his boots.
She glanced up at him, her stomach a ball of nerves, and attempted a reassuring smile. “Almost done.”
The look of awe on his face turned her insides to mush. God, but she wanted him.
How? she wondered, removing his boots and pants before rising to divest him of his briefs. How could she want him? He wasn’t even alive.
He’s just as much alive as Damien and Tori, her mind whispered, conjuring up an image of the newlyweds kissing outside Scruples. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that they could be vampires.
The boxer briefs suddenly stopped their descent as they hung up on Colton’s rather large erection.
Gina’s breath caught. Not only did he seem more than alive to her, but he had the most amazing—
“Gina?” Colton whispered, pulling her out of her fascinated perusal of him.
Averting her gaze, she dragged the briefs down his legs and turned to check on the water.
“Gina…”
She couldn’t face him. Not after she’d been caught staring at his overly endowed package. No, she wouldn’t look at him. She slowly turned around.
Colton stood before her in all his beautiful glory. He was cut in all the right places, reminding her of a painting she’d admired in a museum a few years back.
“You did it.” He took a step toward her, his hand lifting, palm up. “I don’t know what power you hold over me, but you have brought me back to life.”
Gina’s stomach flipped. She knew somewhere deep in her heart that Colton Baines wasn’t alive, but it sure as hell felt as if he was. She could see, hear, and taste him. Not to mention smell his amazing scent.
She wasn’t sure how much time she had left with him before he found his way to wherever he was meant to be. But she was determined to make the best of the time she did have.
Without answering him, she gripped the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it over her head.
Colton’s soft intake of breath was the only sound he made as her breasts were freed from the lacy pink bra she wore.
She stepped out of her sweatpants, taking her panties down with them, all the while holding Colton’s passionate gaze.
He stepped in closer. His voice came out so low she could barely hear him. “You’re beautiful, Gina. I’m almost afraid to touch you.”
Gina took hold of his hand, stepped over into the shower, and pulled him in with her. She gently pushed him back under the spray of the water. “Clear your mind and just feel.”
His eyes remained open as if he feared she would somehow disappear.
Gina had never been more turned on in her entire life.
She leaned forward to grab the shampoo bottle, her nipples hardening where they brushed against his chest.
A groan rumbled from deep in his throat, but he didn’t move.
Squeezing some of the strawberry-smelling liquid into her palm, she set the bottle behind her on the side of the tub and lifted her hands to his dark hair. The feel of the silky strands sliding between her fingers felt amazing.
Gone were the thoughts of ghosts and vampires. There was only
Colton, the man, standing in her shower. And tonight, he belonged to her.
Gina stared into his hazel-colored eyes, eyes so alive and full of life. Eyes that watched her back with an intensity that weakened her knees.
Were those tears she saw swimming in their depths? She couldn’t be sure with the water cascading down his face.
She finished washing his hair, bypassing the washcloth to feel his skin beneath her palms.
Soaping up her hands, Gina coasted them over Colton’s shoulders in slow, sensual strokes. His muscles jumped and flexed with every pass of her hands.
She moved to his hips, slipping her palms around to his ass before sliding them down his thighs.
The sight of his erection pulsing before her drew her in. She lowered to her knees, wrapped her hands around him, and guided him to her mouth.
“Gina…” he groaned, burying his hands in her hair.
Chapter Fifteen
The sight of Gina on her knees before him had to be one of the most erotic images Colton had ever seen. But nothing compared to the feel of her mouth closing around his aching erection.
“Gina…” The hands buried in her hair tightened against his will. He had to fight his overwhelming need to thrust.
His entire body came alive with feelings he’d thought long forgotten.
Colton hadn’t so much as smelled anything in the past three years other than smoke and death. Yet there he stood, inhaling the scent of strawberries coupled with the intoxicating flavor of Gina.
She suddenly closed her fist around the base of his shaft and followed the path of her amazing mouth.
Disbelief warred within him, conflicting with the unbelievable evidence of the beautiful sight kneeling at his feet. No matter how much his mind whispered that this couldn’t be happening. She was real. This was real. And man, did it feel incredible.
Colton’s head dropped back on his shoulders as Gina gripped him tighter, increasing the pumping motion of her hand until he thought his legs would collapse beneath him.
Unable to take her oral torture a moment longer, Colton backed up a step, pulling free of her beautiful mouth.
He bent, gripped her beneath the arms, and pulled her to her feet.
His hands seemed to be everywhere at once. He couldn’t get enough of touching her. She was warm, soft, and so alive.
Unable to get close enough, Colton swung her up into his arms, jerked the curtain back, and stepped over the side of the tub.
He didn’t slow until he reached her bedroom where he practically tossed her onto the bed and followed her down.
“If I become too rough with you,” he growled in a shaky voice, “please tell me. I don’t want to hurt you. I would never want to hurt you.” His mouth slanted across hers.
Her flavor. The moan he swallowed the instant it left her throat. The heat coming from her writhing body. Her legs cradling him, tightening around his ass. The slick, wet warmth of her center, combined together to snap Colton’s control.
He rose up enough to slip his hand between their bodies, grip his near painful erection, and press it against her opening.
Without breaking the suction he now had on her tongue, he flexed his hips, glorying in the sweet sound of pleasure she made in the back of her throat.
Colton growled into her mouth, thrusting deeper, feeling her inner walls tighten around him.
He broke off the kiss, his breathing choppy and strained. “I don’t know how this is possible, Gina. But I’ve never felt anything close to what I’m feeling right now.” Another long, achingly slow thrust. “And I don’t want it to end.”
She stared up at him something resembling sadness in her gorgeous pale blue eyes. “I know. I feel like you’re going to disappear, and I’ll wake up to find it was all a dream.”
Colton’s heart ached with the knowledge that he could very well disappear. He had no idea how long he had with Gina, but he was determined to make what time he did have good for her.
Rising up on his knees, he gripped her around the waist and brought her with him. She gasped with the next thrust.
Her arms locked behind his neck, and she rocked against him, matching him stroke for stroke.
Face to face, they moved as one, sliding against each other until Colton could hold back no longer.
A shout wrenched from his throat, and he drove into her with one last powerful thrust. His body shook with the force of his orgasm. His muscles seized up, and his breath froze in his lungs.
It took him a moment to realize he held Gina in a powerfully tight hold.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed, dropping his head to her shoulder. “That’s never happened to me before.”
She turned her face to the side and kissed his temple. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It was still the most incredible thing to me.”
“Was?” He lifted his head. “I’m not done with you yet. Far from it.”
Her eyes widened a second before he lifted her from his lap and tossed her onto her back.
The sight of her splayed out before him, looking up at him through passion-filled eyes was an aphrodisiac to Colton’s starved senses.
He lowered to his stomach between her slightly parted legs, wrapped his fingers around her shapely thighs, and opened her wider for his seeking mouth.
His eyes remained locked on hers as he lowered his head and swiped his tongue over her soft, wet center.
A shudder passed through Gina. Her breathing accelerated, and her hips lifted slightly in invitation.
Colton growled low in his throat, closed his mouth over the small raised flesh beneath his tongue, and sucked.
“Oh God,” Gina moaned, her hands going to his head.
The feel of her gripping his hair in her fingers only served to fuel his need for her, his need to please her.
He lashed her with his tongue, all the while keeping the suction of his mouth centered on her sensitive bundle of nerves.
Gina’s muscles suddenly tightened as did her fingers in his hair. A low cry ripped from her lips, signaling her release.
Colton backed off slightly, focusing instead on the surrounding areas around her swollen nerve endings. He’d learned over the years that too much stimulation on overly sensitive nerves could have adverse effects.
He continued to softly encircle her with the tip of his tongue until her tremors slowed and her fingers relaxed their hold on him.
If she thought he was finished with her, she was sorely mistaken. Yeah, she was in for a long, pleasurable night.
Chapter Sixteen
Gina couldn’t seem to move. Her muscles felt liquefied, and small contractions still lingered inside her.
Colton had turned out to be a master at oral sex. Unlike the couple of other lovers she’d had who ruined the experience by being too rough and not knowing when to ease up. No, Colton definitely had it down to an art.
He abruptly rose up, flipped her around to where her head rested at the top of her bed, and jerked her knees apart.
“You better hold on,” he growled, gripping her hands and leading them to the bars of her wrought iron headboard.
Gina was stunned and more turned on than she’d ever been in her life.
She barely had time to wrap her fingers around the bars before Colton drove into her depths once again.
Her eyes rolled back in her head.
The feel of him stretching her and filling her with his thickness brought her back to the edge she’d toppled over only moments before.
He surged up onto his knees, gripped the top of the headboard, and spread her thighs wider with his own.
Gina could only hold on, her hooded gaze locked with his as he rocked his hips, penetrating her with calculated strokes.
A slow heat began in her abdomen, spreading through her lower body with every thrust he made.
He released one of his hands from the headboard and brought it between their joined bodies.
Gina crie
d out with the gentle pressure of his fingers stroking along the sides of her swollen bundle of nerves. Her eyes slid shut.
He pressed into her as deep as her body would allow, rolling his hips forward in short, sensual strokes. And his fingers—ah, the sweet pressure of his continuously moving fingers— sent Gina into the abyss once again.
She held on to that headboard for dear life, riding out the powerful orgasm rolling through her with an ecstasy that ripped a cry from her throat.
Somewhere in the midst of her mind-numbing pleasure, she heard Colton’s shout, felt his warm seed enter her body as he shuddered above her.
Long moments passed before Gina could form a coherent thought. She let her fingers fall away from their hold on the headboard and opened her eyes.
Colton stared down at her with a shuttered look she couldn’t seem to read.
“That was incredible,” she whispered, attempting to gauge his thoughts.
Still, he didn’t speak.
Insecurity began to settle inside her. Had she done something wrong? “Colton?”
He let go of the bar he held and settled down over her to rest on his elbows. “I’m scared of losing this. Of losing what I feel when I’m with you.”
Gina’s heart lurched. No matter how much she might wish it to be otherwise, Colton wasn’t alive. He was a spirit, who for reasons she didn’t quite understand, was able to interact with her. But for how long? How long before he found his way and left her forever?
“I know,” she managed to say around the lump in her throat. “But neither of us knows what will happen or what the future holds. We have to make the most of what time we do have together.”
Strange how she’d gone from wishing he’d leave her alone to hoping he didn’t leave anytime soon in such a short time. And looking up at him now, she realized the danger she was in of losing her heart.
Colton lowered his head, resting his forehead against hers. He gently brushed a kiss across her lips and then slowly pulled from her depths.
Gina held perfectly still as he rolled off her to lie on his back. She lay there for several heartbeats before rising and donning her robe. “I’ll be right back.”