His breath caught exactly the same moment his arousal thickened. This was definitely one hell of a game she was playing. He hadn’t expected it to take this turn so quickly, but he wasn’t complaining. He had told her that he would leave it up to her to let him know if and when she was read y to take their relationship to another level. This was her way of letting him know she was read y.
Now it was his job to find her.
He was the hunter and would find his prey. With a determined purpose he walked across the room to the small kitchen that had a breakfast bar and table. He opened a closet door and found it empty.
He then re traced his steps back to her bedroom and went to check out her bathroom. He found it almost empty. A red lace bra was hanging from a light in the ceiling. He reached up and pulled it down.
He was getting hot.
Walking back to her room he got on his knees and looked under the huge king-size bed and found nothing. He looked in the closet and came up empty. He opened the French doors and walked out on the balcony. It was bare.
Frustration, added to in tense arousal, wasn’t a good thing. The pres sure of his erection against his pants was almost killing him. When he found Dana she would pay dearly for this torture. He walked back through the connecting door into his suite and glanced around. The bedroom door was closed and he distinctly remembered it being open when he’d left.
An enticing possibility flooded his mind, made his body hard en even more as he slowly crossed the room. He glanced down the moment he reached for the doorknob and saw red lace. Leaning down he picked it up. It wasn’t much, barely a scrap, but he definitely knew what it was and where it came from.
Bringing the item to his nose he in haled Dana’s scent, a different one than the perfume. It was a womanly scent that was all hers. Privately. Exclusively. Deciding that she definitely wouldn’t need it any more tonight, he slipped her thong into his back pocket. Slowly opening the bedroom door, he walked into darkness and closed the door behind him.
Dana held her breath. Jared had finally found her. Not that she had done a good job at hiding. She thought she had made it easy for him but evidently she hadn’t.
She had known the exact moment he had returned and had heard every step he’d taken around the room. She’d known when he had searched her suite and when he had returned to his own. And now he was here, in his bedroom, and she was in his bed, totally naked and waiting for him.
Her mind was made up, her decision final, with no regrets. When he walked away she would have re minders of this night. They would be memories that would last her a lifetime because she knew whatever he did, Jared never did anything halfway. He was meticulously thorough and methodically efficient.
“I know you’re in here, Dana,” he whispered huskily in the darkened room. “And read y or not, here I come.”
She heard his footsteps, slow, yet determined. She heard the sound of his breathing, quick and uneven. She almost held her breath when he came closer and closer to the bed. She felt his presence and smelled his masculine scent.
And when he switched on the lamp, bathing the room with a soft translucent glow, their gazes connected. Held. Then slowly, his gaze drifted from her face and moved down ward to the sheet that covered her nude body. Then it moved back up to her face. It was a while before he spoke.
“I found you,” he said in a rasp y voice that was so husky it stirred heat all over her skin. “So what do I get?”
She paused a moment before saying, “Anything you want.”
A hint of a smile touched his lips. Intense desire darkened his eyes. “Anything?”
“Yes, anything.”
He continued to hold her gaze. “Are you sure?” he asked moments later.
“Positive.”
His sensuous smile deepened. “And you’re ready?” he asked, wanting to be doubly sure that she was. Once he began making love to her, he would be hard-pressed to stop. Unable to help himself he reached out and pushed away a strand of hair that had fall en in her face. He needed to touch her, connect with her on any level.
“Yes, I’m read y.”
“With no regrets?”
She in haled slowly. Knowing what he was asking and why. Nothing had changed. Sooner or later, possibly even sooner, depending on the results of his mother’s surgery, he would be walking out of her life. She knew it. Had accepted it. And would be pre pared when it happened.
But she wanted to seize the moment. Celebrate life. With him. “There won’t be any regrets, Jared. I knew the score going into this game.”
She then slowly eased up, letting the sheet fall away, hearing his sharp in take of breath when it did so. Getting on her knees she brushed her hand against his chest and moved slowly down ward to feel the hard planes of his stomach. “Are we going to talk all night or are we going to get on with what we’ve wanted for quite a while?”
He reached out and traced a path around her nipple with his finger, teasing the darkened tip. “And what is it that you think we’ve wanted?”
“Some of each other.”
“Some?”
Her lips smiled with warm confidence. “Okay, I stand corrected. All of each other.”
Without giving her the chance to draw her next breath, Jared pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his, igniting an explosion of passion between them. He kissed her with hungry intensity. It seemed as if a dam had burst, emotions were flooding and there was no one around to fix it.
Dana’s arms came around him and held on, taking everything he had to give and wondering how she had denied herself for so long. Jared was a special man who had al ways treated her like a lady. And for that she would al ways be eternally grateful.
He slowly re leased her and stepped back. Her legs trembled from the impact of his kiss. He continued to hold her gaze, looking at her with virile intensity, as he unbuckled his belt. She felt heat pouring into her stomach and drifting down ward between her legs as she began catching fire from his flame.
“Tonight I’m going to do all those things I’ve been dreaming of doing to you,” Jared said, his voice a thin whisper and full of sexual need. “I want to see you reach a climax again, several of them, over and over. But this time, you won’t be alone. I’ll be there with you, joining in and sharing the pleasure.” His words were seduction all wrapped in silk.
Dana watched as he pulled his shirt over his head. With the top of him bare, he exuded strength, power and muscular endurance. He had a beautiful chest and his dark coloring made him look even more beautiful to her. He tossed the shirt aside, then sat down in a wing chair to re move his shoes and socks. After that was done, he stood and went back to his pants, tugging the belt from the loops.
He smiled over at her. “When I told you that I wouldn’t push until you were read y, I knew that meant my patience would be tested. I’ve been wanting you forever and tonight I plan to show you just how much.”
Dana continued to watch as he slid down his pants and under wear. She blinked when she saw the size of him. She had felt his hardened erection plenty of times against her but now seeing it in the flesh was putting a whole new spin on things. Jared was loaded. He had been very fortunate when certain body parts had been distributed.
“Umm, interesting,” she whispered softly, meeting his gaze and smiling.
He chuckled. “Interesting? Is that all you can say?”
“I’ll wait to make sure it can work before making any more comments.”
He laughed, loving every moment of sharing this camaraderie with her, while at the same time fire bolts of desire raced through him. “Trust me. It will work. In fact I plan for it to go into over time.”
The room got quiet as the reality of what they were about to do set in. For the longest time, their gazes connected and their minds were of one ac cord. Naked, Jared slowly walked over to the bed and took Dana’s hands in his. He brought them to his lips and kissed her palms.
“You do things to me that no other woman ever has, Dana. Y
ou make me feel things. Make me want things. I don’t want you to think what we’re about to do is just another roll between the sheets for me. It’s something I consider exceptional and extraordinary.”
The love Dana felt for Jared in creased ten fold. She loved him with all her heart. Tonight she wanted to physically connect with the man she loved. Deciding he had talked enough, she tugged on his hands and they tumbled down into the bed.
Jared’s body ended up on top of hers and he glanced down at her, feeling the heat of flesh touching flesh, and framed her face with his palms. He studied her features as if implanting them in his memory.
And then he kissed her. Hungrily. Devouringly. And he couldn’t stop. He wanted her with a vengeance, a deep-rooted passion that he couldn’t understand. He heard the gentle moan of passion that escaped her lips, and felt the warmth of her fingers caress his naked skin as his tongue continued to ravage the sweetness of her mouth. Finally, the need to breathe and to shield her from pregnancy made him pull away. “I have to protect you,” he said with hot desire running rampant in his voice.
He slowly stood, crossed back over the room for his pants. He fished through his pocket, pulling out her under wear instead of his wallet. He glanced over at her and smiled. “Nice color.”
She gave him a short laugh brushed with embarrassment. “Glad you like it.”
Tossing them aside he then checked his other pocket for his wallet, pulled it out and retrieved a condom packet. Several. He knew she was watching as he put it on, and was over whelmed by the sensations that rammed through him as he pre pared to bur y himself in her softness.
After he finished the task he glanced up and met her gaze. “What do you think?”
He saw the heated desire in her eyes, saw the slight shivering of her body. “I think,” she said softly, “that more than anything, I want you in side of me, Jared.”
Jared in haled sharply as he felt a tightening coil in his lower region. He should have known she would say or do something to en dear her to him that much more. He wanted to fight it but couldn’t. And he knew what he was feeling had nothing to do with the length of time it had been since he’d had a woman. It had every thing to do with this particular woman.
He slowly walked over to the bed, slid in and pulled her into his arms. Emotions he’d never felt before took their toll and he kissed her while giving into his overheated senses. He then moved from her lips to her breasts, determined to top what he’d done to them the other day. The lips and tongue torturing her now were those of a man who wanted to make his woman as wet as she could get. Torture was too mild a word to use for what he was doing. He took his time reacquainting himself with the taste of her skin, the feel of her flesh, liking the way her nipples hardened in his mouth as he feasted on them greedily.
When her scent became intoxicating and way too potent, his hand moved in slow precision and reached down ward to touch the most intimate part of her, finding her not just wet but completely drenched. He vividly remembered a scene from one of his dreams that he longed to act out. He shifted his body and moved away from her breasts, began tracing a path down her chest to her navel with his mouth, glorying in the sensual taste of her naked skin.
He continued to trail kisses all over her. Rolling her on her stomach, placed kisses all over her spine, the center of her back and all over her shoulders. He then gently rolled her back over and met her gaze. By the look in her eyes he knew she was trying to con tem plate his next move. He leaned back and with out saying a word, his hand traveled between her legs, parting them just seconds before he lowered his mouth to her with hungry intensity.
Of their own ac cord, her hips lifted to him and to make sure they stayed there, he grabbed hold of them, held them as he greedily devoured her in this very intimate way. He heard her moan with every insistent stroke of his tongue. He tasted her heat, her fire and her passion. Passion he was both creating and satisfying.
“Jared!”
He quickly pulled back and covered her body with his, inter locking their limbs. He took her mouth at the same time he entered her, sliding in side of her in one smooth thrust as she welcomed him into her body. The same heat consuming her was eating him alive. He began moving as sensations, too over powering to be real, clamored through him, making his strokes harder, stronger and deeper, robbing him of any logical thought but one. Don’t hold back. Share everything with her and deal with the consequences later.
And when her body exploded into what seemed like a billion pieces beneath him and carried her to a spiraling climax, he broke their kiss and buried his face in her neck. Kissed her there. Marked her. He continued to take her over the edge with stead y thrusts of possession.
That same explosion, the finality of every physical sensation he could think of, over took him. He hollered out her name as his body shook with the magnitude of an earthquake, the force of a hurricane and the electrifying power of a thunderstorm. What he had found in her arms, in side her body was in tense pleasure, too magnificent to measure and too rapturous to de scribe.
And he knew as the earth slowly ceased spinning and his body relaxed, utterly consumed and feeling like a life less weight floating on shafts of air, that this was an experience he’d never shared with any woman before. He was bombarded with the need to hold her and make love to her all through the night.
At that very moment, Jared had to con cede that when the time came, walking away from her would be the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.
Shortly after mid night, Jared stood bare foot on the balcony and leaned against the railing. The incessant pounding of the waves beating against the shore matched the raggedness of his breathing and the distinctive hammering of his heart.
Emotions that he had never dealt with before were coming at him from all directions, different angles, crowding in on him. He re leased a long deep breath as he tried to fight them. But it was use less. Dana had touched him tonight in a way no other woman had, and it hadn’t been all physical.
It seemed that after making love to her that first time, an undeniable urge to do so again and again had taken over, and so they had all through the night. He had shared more than just his body with her. He had also shared his soul. It seemed as if she had some how eased in side his heart and was still snuggled there.
After making love to her the last time he had lain awake while she drifted off to sleep be side him. Sighs of satisfaction had continued to flow through his body long afterward. When he’d glanced over at her, he had been touched by how peaceful she looked. Struggling with feelings that were foreign to him, he had slid out of bed and slipped into his pants. Before he had left the room he had glanced back, lingering in the doorway. The moon light shining in through the window focused on Dana curled in his bed, her naked body barely covered while she slept. Her bare breasts, firm and full, had tempted him to taste them again.
Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Jared pulled in a bro ken breath, knowing that no matter how many women he’d slept with before Dana and no matter how many he would sleep with after, he would only find total, complete and satisfying re lease in her arms. Only hers.
Jared turned slowly, sensing Dana’s presence immediately. A lump thickened in his throat when he saw she was wearing his shirt, a shirt that barely covered her.
Their eyes met. Held. And then she said softly, “I woke up and decided that it was lonely in bed with out you.”
Jared didn’t want to tell her the reason he’d left was that he had needed distance from her; he’d been driven to have a few moments alone to get his head back on straight. Making love to her had literally blown him away. Instead he told her part of the truth. “I wanted to hear the sound of the ocean and see the moon and all the stars.”
He drew in a deep breath of air, not able to think beyond the need she aroused in him, and then added slowly. “But do you know what I want now more than anything?”
Dana shook her head. “No. What?”
“To make love to you again.�
� A part of him wished he could have mustered enough strength to have said that for the remainder of the night they needed to sleep in separate beds; they were getting into something neither had counted on, something he definitely didn’t want. But as she slowly began taking steps, crossing the balcony to him, the only thing he could do was open his arms.
The moment she came close, he gathered her to him, needing to hold her. He felt the will power he had tried to re gain slip away. She pressed against him, needing to be held. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they stood that way for a long moment, body to body, soul to soul. Slow warmth spread from her to him and it seemed that her every curve was molded against his firm muscled length.
And then he swooped her up into his arms and with hurried steps carried her back into the bedroom and placed her on the bed. He leaned down and caught her lips in a kiss that was deep, sensual and demanded full surrender. The sounds of pleasure emit ting from her made him want her that much more and his stomach clenched with profound need.
He re leased her to pull the shirt from over her head, and then proceeded to re move his pants. After taking the time to put on protection, he joined her in bed. She whispered his name and the only thing Jared could think about was demonstrating with his body just what she did to him and how much he wanted her.
The knowledge that she wanted him as much as he wanted her sent his desire sky rocketing in all directions. He intended to spend the rest of the night sharing in tense passion with the one woman whose name was more than a whisper on his lips. It was a name that was finding a way to his very soul.
Jared’s last thought as he captured her mouth with his was that having her seep into his heart was something he could not let happen. No matter what.
Nine
Claimed for Destiny Page 11