by Miranda Lee
She nodded in dazed agreement and Gareth angled her inside the narrow doorway before lying them both down on the bed, Leah underneath him, her legs still wrapped around his hips.
Leah was fiercely aware that he hadn’t come, his body still deliciously big and hard within her. His control amazed her, as did her own rapidly returning desire. She’d never felt like this so soon after having a climax before. She usually took ages to be turned on again, but her body seemed to be craving Gareth even more for having been satisfied once.
She wanted him to move, wanted to feel his flesh filling hers before partly withdrawing then plunging back in, deeper and deeper. Her heartbeat quickened at the thought, her lips parting, her mouth and throat drying as a shallow panting escaped her lungs. Her legs tightened around him while her tongue swept out and over her parched lips.
Gareth watched the action from where he was leaning over her, his elbows on either side of her tensing body, his hands cupping her face.
‘Let me,’ he said, his mouth descending to wet her lips with slow, seductive licks of his tongue.
Her mouth gasped open wider, inviting him, begging him.
At last he obliged, his tongue sinking slowly into the waiting cavern, sliding down the centre of her tongue before curling up and raking the tip over the sensitive skin of her palate. He repeated the action over and over till she was beside herself with wanting, her hips lifting off the bed in an effort to take him deeper into her body. She moaned her frustration, her hands lifting to rake her fingers through his hair, her eyes wide and pleading upon him.
At last his mouth lifted and he began to move within her, doing exactly what she wanted, but slowly. So very, very slowly. The feelings he evoked were exquisite as he undulated within her, withdrawing almost to the point of no return before sinking back down into her depths. She felt as if she was floating on a sea of pleasure, cresting with the waves before dropping down into the troughs.
Gradually, however, the sea turned stormy. She was cresting higher, crashing down lower. Her nails dug into his back; her back arched up from the bed.
‘Oh!’ she cried out as a fierce spasm sliced through her flesh.
‘Leah,’ Gareth groaned, and exploded inside her, his whole body trembling violently.
She was beyond replying, beyond anything but holding him to her, savouring her own sensations, and his, rocking her hips against his as he came, and came, and came.
At last he was still, collapsed across her, his lips in her hair. Leah lay beneath him, wallowing in his weight, and his flooding warmth.
The thought finally infiltrated that this was how silly women had unwanted babies, by allowing themselves to be carried away in the heat of the moment. But, oh, the glory of that heat! And that moment! She could not have stopped him for the world. Thank heavens a baby was unlikely tonight!
Her hands splayed across his back as she held him close to her. She murmured his name as she kissed his shoulder. ‘Gareth…’
Yes, it was Gareth she wanted, she decided with an astonishing mixture of satisfaction and as yet unsated desires.
Not Gerard.
Gareth.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘NO, DON’T,’ Gareth said, flinching when Leah touched a soft fingertip to his scar.
‘But I don’t find it ugly or anything,’ she murmured. ‘Nothing about you could possibly be ugly.’
They were lying out on the deck in the stern of the boat behind the wheel. Leah had brought up a few duvets from the bunks below and made a type of mattress for them to lie on under the stars. Gareth was stretched out on his back and she was on her side, propped up on one elbow.
‘I want to look at all of you,’ she murmured thickly. ‘Touch all of you. Kiss all of you…’
She had wanted to do all of those things in the shower they’d just tried to share, but there was hardly room for one in the tiny cubicle, let alone two. Gareth’s sheer size had made things impossible and in the end they’d showered separately, any fantasy Leah had had about the shower providing some exciting intimacies temporarily put aside.
Not so now. Gareth was lying there magnificently naked and totally at her disposal.
He groaned when she went perilously close to his rapidly reviving penis, and once again Leah’s thoughts flew to Gerard.
He’d never groaned when they made love. Had never made a sound. The sounds had all come from her. The moans and groans, the pleas and cries, the gasps and sighs. Stung by this thought, Leah decided she liked hearing Gareth groan, and sought to make him groan some more.
She ran a fingernail up and down the length of him, ever so lightly. His flesh fairly jumped, and the sound he made sent an erotic shiver rippling down her spine. She touched him again, but not with her fingernail this time. Three soft fingertips skimmed over the straining flesh, followed by her whole hand, encircling him, teasing him, tormenting him.
Soon it wasn’t the sounds coming from Gareth’s throat which enthralled Leah but her own arousal. A hot twisting ache was gripping her between her legs and her nipples were standing on end, impatient in their need to be caressed. Leaning down, she rubbed the sensitive peaks all over him, then cupped her hanging breasts around him, rocking backwards and forwards, squeezing the swollen curves into a type of tunnel into which he was thrusting. She heard his raw panting breaths, felt his body stiffen, heard his cry of warning. But she didn’t care. She was as much out of control as he was.
She climaxed when he did, without his having laid a finger on her.
Leah lay there afterwards, stunned. Gareth was solicitous in his care of her, cleaning her gently with a warm flannel he brought from below, then drying her with a towel. When she began to shiver he covered her with one of the duvets then slipped in to cuddle her close.
‘You all right?’ he asked gently.
‘I…I don’t know…’ She felt she was unravelling. Her head. Her body. Amazingly she still wanted him, wanted to do even more things to him, things she’d had to be persuaded to do for Gerard, and some things she’d never done. My God, she’d become a wild woman. A wanton. A…a nymphomaniac!
‘Don’t be embarrassed, Leah,’ he murmured. ‘What you did was beautiful and incredibly passionate. I loved it. You loved it. That’s because we love each other.’
She turned to look at him in surprise, saw the love for her shining in his eyes, felt her own heart lurch in response.
‘I loved you from the first moment I saw you,’ he said thickly.
Tears sprang to her eyes at the memory of Gerard saying that to her, more than once. Only with Gerard it hadn’t been true.
‘You really mean that?’ she choked out.
‘I’ve never meant anything more in my life.’
Sincerity blazed within the blue of his eyes. Sincerity and the most heart-rending appeal.
‘Say you love me too, Leah. I couldn’t bear it if you didn’t.’
‘Oh, Gareth!’ she cried, and threw her arms around his neck. ‘I do,’ she sobbed. ‘I can see that now. I love you so much it’s like an ache deep inside me that never seems to be satisfied. I love you so much it…it frightens me.’
‘Don’t let it, darling,’ he soothed, easing her back down onto the duvet and smoothing a few strands of hair back from her flushed face. ‘I feel the same way about you. Believe me when I say all I want is to love you, and look after you.’
‘Yes, yes, I do believe you. You’d never do what your brother did. You’d never lie to me, or try to con me. Why, there’s not a bad bone in your whole body!’ And she snuggled into him, kissing his chest, his throat, his chin.
‘Leah…’
‘Yes, my darling?’ She glanced up, smiling, and saw his serious face. Her alarm was instant, making her stomach churn. ‘What is it? What’s the matter?’
He didn’t say a word, his eyes darkly troubled. Leah just knew he was thinking about Gerard. He’d said he wasn’t worried about his brother but she knew he was. She resolved then and there to do something about
Gerard herself. He was her problem, after all.
‘Don’t think of Gerard tonight, Gareth,’ she advised, her heart full of love for this man. ‘He’ll only spoil things, like you said. We’ll worry about him later.’
‘Later,’ he repeated, still looking anxious. ‘The trouble is, Leah, later always comes. And sometimes later is not better.’
‘Do you want us to both go down and tell Gerard straight away?’
He actually shuddered. Leah reached up and kissed him on the mouth.
‘Like you said,’ she whispered, ‘I’ve been missing for six months. A little longer isn’t going to make any difference to Gerard.’ But already she was making plans to put an end to her supposed disappearance, to put an end to her sham of a marriage.
Gareth sighed. ‘I guess you’re right. A little longer won’t make much difference now. It’s just that—’ He broke off and Leah glanced up again.
‘Just what?’
‘You do realise we haven’t used protection tonight, Leah. I can assure you I haven’t given you any dreadful disease, but have you given pregnancy a thought?’
‘Yes. It did cross my mind. Briefly. But it’s not very likely. My period only finished a couple of days ago.’
‘You’re not on the pill, then?’
‘No. I used to take it, but I stopped when I left Gerard. He didn’t want to have children yet, you see,’ she said bitterly, thinking how he’d said he wanted her all to himself for a while. Wanted more time to brainwash her totally to his wants and needs, more like it!
‘Well, I want children with you, Leah,’ Gareth assured her. ‘And as soon as possible.’
‘You don’t want to wait till we can be married?’
‘No,’ he said abruptly.
‘A baby,’ she mused, a warm, squishy feeling in her stomach. She would so love having Gareth’s baby. ‘But it’s highly unlikely a baby will come from tonight. In a few days, maybe?’ she said, looking up at him with love and hope in her face.
He stroked a possessive hand down her throat and over her still erect nipples. ‘Then in a few days we’ll make love all night every night,’ he promised thickly. ‘But for now, just kiss me again, Leah. Kiss me everywhere. Take me away to that perfect place where nothing exists in this world but you and me, together.’
She did kiss him everywhere. With relish and at length, till he was groaning again.
‘God, but I adore you doing that,’ he rasped, his hand shaky in her hair. ‘I can’t tell you how it makes me feel. You do love me, don’t you? Oh God… Don’t stop… Don’t ever stop…’
She did. Eventually. But only to take him inside herself, to take them both to that perfect world where nothing existed in the world but the two of them, together.
And it was perfect. Exquisitely so.
Leah remembered what Alan had said about knowing by morning which man she preferred, both in bed and out. There was no longer any doubt in her mind. It was Gareth she loved. He was the reality, her feelings for Gerard the illusion. That had just been an infatuation, a naive young girl falling victim to a dominating and wickedly attractive man.
But he would not have the power over her now he’d once had. She was sure of it. Now she was truly in love, with Gareth, who had all of Gerard’s physical attractions and none of his flaws.
She stared down at him as she rode him, enthralled by the glazed passion in his face, enthralled by her own passion. She felt the pleasure concentrate within her once more, felt it gather, rise, twist, then shatter into a million pieces, her climax even more intense than any she’d experienced before.
‘Oh. Gareth,’ she cried, their bodies spasming as one. ‘My love…’
He gathered her down to him, holding her close while his seed pumped deep into her empty womb. She thought about how, in a few days’ times, that womb would not be so empty. Hopefully, a tiny egg would be waiting for him, waiting to burst into a new life.
Such thinking reinforced her resolve to have done with Gerard by then, to have severed that tie once and for all. She wanted to conceive Gareth’s child with nothing hanging over her head, or his, wanted him to be as sure of her love as she was of his.
‘I love you,’ she murmured, and embraced him back. ‘Love you,’ she repeated endlessly, till she fell asleep in his arms.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘SUCCESSFUL night last night, I presume?’ Alan said when he picked her up the following afternoon for work. He’d been discretion itself when he’d arrived at the boat that morning and ferried them both to shore. None of that ‘wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more’ stuff which Leah had been dreading.
‘Pretty good,’ Leah understated.
Alan chuckled. ‘You’re a cool one, Leah, I’ll give you that. But, looking at that poor wrecked man this morning, I’d say it was more than “pretty good”. Are you seeing him again tonight?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I hope you gave him the opportunity to catch up on some shut-eye today. We chaps do have a limit, you know, especially once we’re over thirty. Not like these randy young bucks who can oblige every ten minutes.’
‘Alan!’ she protested, trying to look shocked through laughing eyes. Little did he know it, but Gareth would have given any young buck a run for his money last night. But he had looked a little weary by the dawn, and after dropping her home had gone back to his apartment for a long sleep. She’d tried to do the same, but had woken after only a couple of hours, her mind already racing with her plans for the following day.
‘I hope you’re being careful,’ Alan said suddenly, and Leah’s heart leapt.
‘Careful? What do you mean?’
‘Well, you don’t really know this Gareth guy, do you? I mean…you only know what he’s told you about himself. That’s the way when you meet someone on holiday. Believe me when I tell you I’ve met some seemingly nice ladies in my day who spin you the most incredible yarns just because they’re away from home.’
‘Gareth would never lie to me,’ she said firmly.
‘What makes you so sure of that?’
‘I just know it.’
Alan shrugged. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
‘I won’t have to.’
‘Some women never learn,’ he muttered under his breath.
‘That’s not fair. Gareth is nothing like Gerard. You yourself said I would learn a lot from spending the night with him. And I did. I know now what love is. I know what I want in life, and in men. I’ve been running away from both and it’s got to stop. Which leads me to ask a favour of you, Alan.’
‘Oh? What kind of favour?’ he asked warily.
‘I’m going to tell Gareth that you’ve got a day cruise booked for tomorrow and you’ll be picking me up for work at nine-thirty.’
‘Why? Where will you really be?’
‘In Brisbane, asking Gerard for a divorce.’
‘Without telling his brother?’
‘Yes.’
Alan shook his head. ‘Nothing good comes of lies, Leah.’
‘It’s not a bad lie.’
‘There’s no such thing.’
Her face hardened. Alan just didn’t understand. ‘Will you do it for me, or won’t you?’
‘What exactly do I have to do? I don’t quite understand my part. After all, you can tell Gareth whatever you like. We’re not likely to run into each other.’
‘You might.’
‘So you want me to make myself scarce for the day, is that it?’
‘Yes. And could you possibly drive me to the airport?’ The plane fares and a night in a Brisbane motel would take every cent she had in her bank account.
‘At nine-thirty?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay.’
‘Oh, Alan, you’re a doll!’
‘More like an idiot. When will you be back?’
‘In time for the cruise the following night.’
‘You’d better be.’
‘I will. I promise.’
Guilt c
onsumed Leah the moment the lie was out of her mouth. She was in bed with Gareth at his apartment, her body still humming from his impassioned lovemaking when she braved the issue of where she would be the following day.
‘You’ll be gone all day?’ Gareth said, disappointment in his voice.
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘What about tomorrow night? Will you be free for dinner?’
‘I’m not sure. We don’t have a sunset cruise on The Zephyr on Mondays, so day cruises on Mondays sometimes linger on into the evening. I…I’d better not promise anything. Look, I’ll ring you when we get back, okay?’ She was planning on ringing him anyway, from Brisbane, after she’d seen Gerard. She would have to if he wasn’t going to worry, since she wouldn’t be back in Broome till Tuesday.
‘I guess that’ll have to do,’ he said disgruntledly.
Leah’s guilt increased. It was awful deceiving the person you loved, but she was determined. It would be all for the best in the long run.
‘Why don’t you book one of the day tours around Broome?’ she suggested. ‘They’re very good. If you ring down to Reception they’ll book it for you. Oh, maybe not. It’s a bit late.’
The wall clock said nine-thirty. Gareth had brought her back here to his place supposedly to cook her dinner—a thought which had intrigued her—but they’d ended up in bed before a single bite had passed their lips.
‘I wouldn’t want to do that, anyway,’ he said. ‘Group tours are not really my thing. I’ll just potter around by myself, look at the scenery, check out the dinosaur prints.’
‘Oh, those! Well, I think I should warn you that the ones you can see are not real ones, you know. They’re duplicates. The real ones are out under the water line. I think you can occasionally glimpse them at low tide.’
‘No matter. I just want to see how big they are. Fancy something to eat yet?’
‘You can really cook?’
He grinned. ‘Do you doubt it?’
Her own smile was sheepish. ‘Er…I haven’t had much experience of men cooking.’