by Ginna Gray
Dirk halted in front of her. The wide lapels on the robe fell open to the belt, which was loosely tied around his waist, revealing a muscled chest liberally dusted with dark hair. Alissa swallowed hard and stared at that vee of bare flesh. Tom had not had a hairy chest.
Alissa's nostrils flared as his scent drifted to her, dark and heady.
His gaze lifted from the womanly roundness of her hips to linger on her breasts and the pebble-hard nubs pushing against the satin gown. Then he stared at the spot where the shiny cloth fluttered rhythmically, betraying the wild beating of her heart.
His gaze drifted downward.
Alissa trembled. She couldn't believe it. She had never considered herself a particularly sensual woman, yet with only the slow, hot sweep of his eyes, he was arousing her unbearably. Heat washed through her as, slowly, he visually savored every curve and dip; her small waist, the inviting flare of her hips, the long, curving line of her thighs, the pink toes, curled against the hardwood floor beneath the hem of the satin nightgown.
With the same intense appraisal, he retraced the path.
Then, at last, their gazes met.
"You're beautiful." His voice was a rough whisper. Silver fire burned in his eyes. He stroked the side of her neck with his fingertips, and Alissa thought her knees would give way beneath her as the gossamer touch trailed a scorching path over her skin.
The fresh scent of soap and clean male flesh drifted to her, and she realized that while she dawdled he had taken a shower in one of the other bathrooms.
He slipped his fingers into her hair and held her head between his big hands, tipping her face up to his.
"So very beautiful," he murmured again, as though to himself. His breathing was slow and deep, and a muscle jerked along his jaw as his gaze roamed her face, then slid down over her creamy shoulders to the rounded swells above the ivory gown. When his eyes lifted to hers, again they blazed. "I don't know how in hell I've kept my hands off of you all these years." His thumbs swept back and forth over the hollows beneath her cheekbones. His face was flushed with desire, but there was a tautness about him. A tremor shook the hands bracketing her face and revealed a fierceness running just beneath the surface. "You take my breath away, sweetheart."
The trembling deep inside Alissa spread outward, shaking her whole body. She felt weak and wobbly, and every nerve ending in her body hummed like a high-voltage line. She didn't think she could stand much longer.
One of Dirk's hands slid down the side of her neck, and the pad of his thumb pressed against the pulse throbbing at the base. Alissa gasped, and a shiver ripped through her.
"Your heart is pounding." Reading the apprehension in her eyes, he frowned. "You're not afraid of me, are you?"
"No. It's not th-that."
"Then what is it?"
Alissa licked her lips. "It's just that … I'm afraid … I'm afraid I'll disappoint you. I mean, I've had so little experi—"
He bent and stopped her rush of words with a hard kiss. When he raised his head, Alissa's eyes were glazed with passion and slightly out of focus. He smiled tenderly. "Sweetheart, you could not disappoint me if you tried." He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. Holding her tightly against his chest, he tilted his head and rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, rocking her gently. "Don't you have any idea how incredibly sexy you are? How much you turn me on with those shy looks?"
"But—"
"Ssh…" He slipped a hand beneath her chin and tilted her head up. His thumb rubbed across her lips, and a wonderful warmth flooded Alissa when she saw the look in his eyes. "Trust me, sweetheart, you have nothing to worry about. I intend to give you all the experience you need."
His hand slid down her back over the sleek satin and cupped her bottom. Watching her, he flexed his fingers around the firm, rounded flesh, and as he pressed her lower body against the hard evidence of his manhood, his expression changed from tender to passionate.
"Starting right now," he said, in a raspy whisper that trailed over her skin like warm velvet. "I don't want to think about anything but you," he murmured, lowering his head. "Feel anything but you." He placed his open mouth on hers. Their warm breath mingled. The tip of his tongue delicately touched hers, sending a shock wave through her. "Against me," he whispered against her trembling lips. "Around me."
The evocative words sent a shudder of longing rippling through Alissa, and her eyes fluttered shut. Melting against him, she lifted her arms to encircle his neck. Her weak moan was lost in his mouth as at last their lips melded in a long, hot kiss, rife with hunger and passion.
For Alissa, the world spun away, and problems and doubts faded like smoke in the wind. Coherent thought became impossible. All that existed for her was sensation: the prickly feel of the short hairs at his nape against her sensitive fingertips, the slight minty taste of toothpaste on his tongue, the sleek smoothness of his robe and the tickle of his chest hair against the bare skin above the low-cut gown, the sensuous glide of his hands over the satin covering her buttocks, the burning heat of their bodies, the small, frantic movements and the hunger they incited.
Alissa moved restlessly when Dirk broke off the kiss. She tried to recapture his mouth, but he grasped her wrists and pulled her arms down to her sides. She moaned in protest, but the sound died as he eased the straps off her shoulders and down her arms. The ivory nightgown slithered down her body and fell in a circle of shimmering folds about her feet.
Holding her upper arms, Dirk backed away a half step and looked at her. As his silver gaze boldly devoured her, Alissa grew hot all over and felt her nipples pucker, her feminine core quicken.
His eyes found hers again, and the look in them threatened to buckle her knees.
"Now it's your turn," he urged roughly. "Undress me, Alissa. Put your hands on me."
The desperate longing in his voice pierced right to her heart. Though she was trembling, Alissa didn't hesitate. When he released her so that she could push the robe over his arms, she wasn't sure she could stand on her own, but somehow she managed it, and the wine silk robe joined her gown on the floor.
Then she looked at him, as he had looked at her, and her breath caught. She could not have looked away if her life depended on it. Dirk was magnificent. His legs were long and well shaped, corded with muscles and dusted with dark hair. Broad shoulders and a powerful chest tapered to a narrow waist and lean hips. His navel was a shadowy cavity amid the whorl of black hair that narrowed downward from the thatch on his chest. Her eyes followed that pattern of hair to where it narrowed into a thin line over his hard belly, then down still farther, to where his manhood sprang, erect and rigid.
"Oh, Dirk." Her eyes lifted to his in wonder and love. Acting purely on instinct, she touched him intimately.
Dirk sucked in his breath, and the muscles in his face clenched, as though the feather-light embrace had caused him pain. With a groan, he snatched her back into his arms, and she gasped as her sensitive nipples sank into the crisp hair on his chest, but the gasp became a moan as their flesh met and melded.
"Oh, Dirk! Dirk!" she cried, stringing urgent kisses along his neck as he held her close.
"Let's go to bed, Alissa," he murmured against her hair. "I want to make love to you. Now."
The deep, dark tones vibrated with a sizzling passion that pushed her over the edge. She was so aroused she could not reply. All she could do was cling to him as he eased them both down onto the mattress.
"Your body was made for loving," he murmured, cupping her breast. The next instant, his mouth closed over the engorged nipple, and she cried out, her back arching as he drew on her with a slow, sweet suction.
Awash with a need she was beyond questioning, Alissa moved her head from side to side on the pillow. Her restless hands slid over his shoulders, his neck, the back of his head, her fingertips kneading the hard, warm flesh, urging him closer.
Moving lower, Dirk kissed the undersides of her breasts, her belly, the points of her hipbones. She wa
s mindless with need, driven beyond sanity or conscious thought by the sensations bombarding her, the piercing pleasure she had not known existed. When the tip of his tongue stabbed into the hollow of her navel, a shattering burst of ecstasy sent a violent shudder through her.
As though that shudder were the nudge that finally snapped his control, Dirk took her mouth again. With hot, openmouthed kisses and urgent hands, he pushed Alissa to the edge of delirium. When his searching fingers threaded through the triangle of curls and found the moist heart of her desire, she cried out in fierce pleasure, her hips bucking against his hand as her legs parted.
Accepting the unconscious invitation, Dirk moved into position between her thighs. Braced above her on trembling arms, his gaze locked with hers. His eyes glittered like hot chips of ice in the lamplight. "Alissa," he said in a guttural voice, and entered her with a slow, silken stroke, making them one.
The incredible pleasure was so intense it took their breath away. Dirk threw his head back and clenched his teeth to keep from crying out. For a moment he remained still, savoring the moment of possession, his eyes closed in an agony of pleasure, his face flushed and rigid.
The fire that burned within them could not be held in check for long, however. Need quickly consumed his control. With sure, exquisitely sensual movements, he began to draw her with him into a heady realm where only passion and its beckoning promise existed.
Trembling, Alissa clasped his hard body to her. Caught in the conflagration, they moved together as one, searching, striving for the ultimate pleasure. The fire raged, and the sweet tension built until it could no longer be borne, and the world seemed to shatter into a million pieces.
Alissa's body arched like a drawn bow, and she clutched Dirk's back, an incoherent cry tearing from her throat. "Dirk! Oh, Dirk!"
"Yes!" He growled out the word between clenched teeth, his voice harsh and deep with satisfaction as the shattering climax overtook him.
He collapsed on top of her. Alissa's hands stroked over his sweat-slicked back as his muscles quivered with tiny aftershocks. They lay still, both gasping for breath, both shaken by the incredible beauty of what they had just shared.
Drifting, Alissa clung to him, scarcely aware of the world around them, her body aglow. For what might have been hours or merely minutes, she floated somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, absently stroking Dirk's damp back, a small smile curving her mouth as she listened to his labored breathing close to her ear.
A long time later, Dirk lifted himself up on his elbows and looked down at Alissa's flushed face. Her eyes were closed, and he stared at her delicate eyelids, saw the beguiling way her lashes fanned across the tops of her cheeks in feathery crescents. A soft smile curved her lips, which, bare of lipstick, were rosy and slightly swollen from his kisses. Sweet heaven, but she was beautiful.
And she was his, he thought with fierce satisfaction. His wife.
A welter of emotions tightened his chest almost painfully, a sensation so strong and overwhelming he couldn't put a name to it.
She shifted beneath him, and he became acutely aware of her soft body, the silky smoothness and warmth of her naked skin against his.
He loved the feel of her, the smell of her, the taste and texture of her skin. He looked down to where her bare breasts pushed against his chest. Their bodies were still joined intimately, as one, and he hated to break that connection. For an instant, he wished that they could stay as they were forever. But, of course, they could not.
"Are you all right?" he asked softly as he felt her move again.
Her smile widened, but her eyes remained closed. "Mmm. I'm wonderful."
Smiling, Dirk dipped his head and kissed the pulse that still beat erratically at the base of her neck. Then, with reluctance, he rolled off her onto his back, pulling her with him and tucking her against his side. She made another purring sound and snuggled her cheek in the hollow of his shoulder.
Staring up at the ceiling, Dirk absently rubbed his hand up and down her arm. He felt her soft breasts pressing against his side and smiled. He couldn't remember ever feeling like this with a woman before. This comfortable. This connected. It was as though, in Alissa, he had found a part of his soul that had been missing. The tickle of her eyelashes against his shoulder alerted him that she was surfacing once more. He looked down at her and smiled. "Hi."
Her answering smile was warm, and the look in her eyes made him hot all over again. "Hi," she said shyly.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
She chuckled, even though the question brought a blush to her cheeks. "I'm not made out of spun glass, Dirk. I'm fine. Actually, I feel wonderful." Her expression turned serious, and she gazed up at him with wonder. "This may sound silly, coming from a woman who was married for so long, but … this was all new to me. I mean … I loved Tom dearly, and we had a good marriage, but … I never knew that making love could be like that. So … so intense. And so wonderful."
Neither had he, Dirk thought, shaken. A part of him was glad, fiercely so, yet the discovery made him uneasy. He had considered himself well versed in the art of love-making, but their chemistry together was explosive and overwhelming, light-years beyond anything he had ever experienced. And totally beyond his control.
He studied her face for a long time. He saw the look in her eyes, and he knew she was hoping he would tell her the experience had been unique and special for him, too. He wanted to tell her it had, but he couldn't quite make his tongue form the words.
His chest was tight with a host of new and confusing emotions that he hadn't bargained on, that he had no idea how to handle.
Growing anxious, Alissa watched him and waited. For a moment, he looked as though he were about to say something, but instead he bent his head and took her lips in a slow, sensuous kiss. "Don't move. I'll be right back."
"Where are you going?" she asked as he shifted her away from him to climb from the bed. The instant he sat up, Alissa gasped. He looked over his shoulder, frowning at her shocked expression. "What is it?"
"Your back. How did you get all those scars?" Several round, puckered marks and numerous thin silvery lines marked his back. When he twisted partway around, she could see more on his abdomen and shoulders, and a closer look revealed that the marks were all over his body, but less visible beneath the hair on his chest and arms and legs. There were even scars on his buttocks. She raised horrified eyes to his. "What happened to you?"
"Nothing. Those are just the result of normal childhood accidents. That's what happens to rough-and-tumble little boys."
"Oh, but—"
"Look, I'm sorry. If you find my body so repugnant, I'll put on a robe."
"No. It's not that at all!" she cried, horrified that she had insulted him. "I … I just wondered what happened. That's all."
"Fine. Now you know."
Alissa could have told him that boys didn't come any more rough-and-tumble than her nephews and none of them were scarred like that, but he obviously didn't want to discuss the matter.
Not the least bit self-conscious, he strode for the door, stark naked. Even as fresh color bloomed on her cheeks, Alissa stared at that long back and broad shoulders, the flexing movements of his buttocks, unable to tear her gaze away.
When he disappeared into the hall, she became suddenly aware of her own nakedness, and with a distressed moan she sat up and reached for the covers. She had just tucked them under her armpits and leaned back against the pile of pillows when Dirk returned, distracting her again with his magnificent body.
He crossed the room and climbed back into bed before she even noticed he was carrying a small box.
"Here, this is your wedding present," he said, handing it to her."
"Wedding present? But … I thought the nightgown was my wedding present."
A rare, devilish grin curved his mouth. "No. That was mine."
"Dirk, you didn't get me more expensive jewelry, did you? Really, you shouldn't—"
"It's not jewelry."
> She looked at the gift again and frowned, turning it over in her hand. What else could it be in a box that small?
"Why don't you just open it?" he finally said, chuckling when she gave it a shake.
Despite his claim, she expected to see the glitter of diamonds when she lifted the lid from the box, but lying on a bed of cotton was a key, the old-fashioned skeleton kind, with a two-inch blade. She turned confused eyes on Dirk. "A key?"
"It's the key to the Buchweiss house. Joe and Roger showed me around the place while we were there at Christmas. I contacted the real estate agent and bought it the next day."
"You bought the Buchweiss house?"
"Actually, I bought the whole farm."
"But … why? What are you going to do with all that land? You're not a farmer."
"Hardly. But then, it's not mine. It's yours. The place is in your name."
"My—?" She was so stunned, all she could do was gape.
"I know you like to spend a lot of time with your family. We can't impose on Callie or Joe all the time, so I thought it would be nice if we had a place of our own nearby. That way we can go up on weekends whenever you want. Joe told me the house is over a hundred years old, but it's sound. I figured you could fix it up however you like, maybe move your furniture in there."
So that was why he had insisted that she keep her things. He'd been planning all along for her to use them in the farmhouse. Bowled over, she shook her head. He had thought of everything.
"As for the land, Joe and Roger can farm that." He threw the last in quietly, almost as though it were an afterthought, but she knew better.
Alissa was so overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness and generosity that she was speechless. She couldn't believe it. Dirk had devised a way not only to allow her to keep in close contact with her family, but to save them from financial ruin, as well.
At work, he had a reputation as being tough and hard-edged. Oh, when it was necessary, he could turn on that rough charm easily enough, but because he was a bit of a loner, many people thought he was remote and unfeeling. They were wrong. This was not the act of a cold man.