Nan Ryan

by Written in the Stars

  He lovingly stroked her shoulders, her back, her buttocks, until finally his hand slipped between the rounded cheeks of her bottom. Diane squirmed, sighed, and slid her knee higher on Star’s body, up to his trim waist. Star moved his hand farther forward, and with slow, infinite tenderness he began intimately caressing her. Diane’s mouth left his. She settled back on the pillow and looked into his dark, flashing eyes.

  “I love you, Star,” she said breathlessly. “You make me so happy.”

  “I want to make you happy, sweetheart,” he said softly, “in bed and out. If you stay with me for a lifetime or leave me tomorrow—”

  “I’ll never leave you,” she breathed, and her eyes slid closed in ecstasy.

  Star’s fingers were gliding easily now, wet with the hot silkiness flowing from her. He was rigidly erect but firmly resolved not to hurry her or himself, to take plenty of time, to make this a sweet and lasting act of bliss.

  After a while Star flexed his hips and surged his pelvis forward, intentionally allowing Diane to feel the rigid hardness of his pulsing erection. He heard her catch her breath.

  His caressing hand left her as Diane’s arms tightened around him. She turned onto her back and pulled him on top of her. He took her hand in his and drew it down between their naked bodies. His hand fell away. Diane’s hand shyly enclosed him. Then her bare body shuddered pleasantly as that hot, hard power involuntarily surged against her loving fingers. Awed, she drew a shallow breath and cautiously guided him into her.

  Star made slow, caring love to Diane. Sweetly, gently he took her. He waited for her. Adept now. His studied self-control back in place. Well taught he was. And willing to teach this beautiful woman. Willing as well to learn from her.

  Holding back, prolonging their pleasure, Star purposely waited until Diane was so aroused she frantically called his name and bucked her hips, wanting him as deep as he could go. Only then did he give it all to her.

  “Sweet love,” he murmured, flexing his hips and buttocks, driving rhythmically into her, lifting her to him.

  “Star, Star,” she screamed, clutching his biceps, her purple eyes wide with shock and wonder.

  “Yes, baby. Yes, sweetheart. Oh, yes … Diane.”

  “Staaaaarrrrrrrr,” she screamed as love’s most pleasurable physical gift was generously given to her by the man she loved.

  Diane unselfishly returned the favor, making certain that Star received a like offering. Indeed, he did. Anxiously he accepted the treasured gift of love’s extraordinary carnal joy. And Diane experienced a wonderful mixture of feminine pride and tender protectiveness as she clung tightly to Star while he spasmed in total fulfillment, calling her name. And then Star made Diane the happiest woman in all the world.

  “I love you, Diane,” he said at last, his low, flat voice breaking with emotion. “Sweetheart, I love you. I love you. Oh, God, Diane, honey, I love you!”

  Chapter 36

  “How would you like to take a hot bath with one tired, dirty Indian?”

  It was a half hour later. Star lay sprawled out on his back, totally spent. Diane lay quietly enfolded in his long right arm, snuggled close.

  When he spoke, she struggled up onto an elbow. She looked at Star’s face. His eyes were closed, the long dusky lashes making spiky crescents above the prominent cheekbones. His cruelly sensual lips were relaxed and slightly parted over perfect white teeth. His too-long blue-black hair tumbled errantly over his high forehead and spilled across the beige-cased pillow.

  Diane let her gaze leisurely slide down Star’s lean frame. The steely length of his limbs was potent even in the relaxed attitude in which he was lying. She smiled dreamily. His superb male body held the same dangerous strength as before, but she was no longer the least bit afraid of all that formidable power.

  From a man who looked like Star she had once expected savage cruelty. Instead he’d shown amazing gentleness, and that made him all the more appealing, all the more exciting.

  Happy as she’d never been in her life, Diane leaned over and impulsively kissed Star’s drum-tight brown belly.

  Star’s hand lazily lifted, came to rest on her bent head. In that flat, unexcitable voice, he said, “Is that a yes?”

  Her lips still on his smooth, warm flesh, Diane replied, “If the tired, dirty Indian is you, then I’m all for it” She kissed his belly again.

  Star cocked one dark eye open as his fingers tunneled into her wild mane of raven hair. “You keep that up, Paleface, and there’ll be no hot bath.”

  Smiling, Diane raised her head, looked up at him. “Are you threatening me, Redman?” She laughed gaily. Then screeched loudly, “Starkeeper!” as he cast off his lethargy, yanked her up, pushed her down onto her back, and rolled atop her.

  His bare, broad chest crushing down on her breasts, his face inches above her own, Star turned his most menacing expression on her. He had the look of a villain with his dark face and his cruelly sensual lips thinned and stern.

  He said, “White girl mighty foolish. Laugh at big, bad warrior.”

  Diane continued to laugh. And she laughed all the harder when he growled and buried his face in the curve of her neck and shoulder, as if he were the big bad wolf, going to eat her up. She laughed and shrieked and beat on his back while he moved steadily down her body, snorting and biting and blowing on her stomach the way an adult teasingly devils a small child.

  Highly ticklish, Diane tossed and squirmed and shouted for him to stop, laughing all the while, loving every minute of it. Ripples of laughter causing her bare body to jerk spasmodically, she grabbed double handfuls of his dark hair and yanked hard, warning him that he’d “better stop it this instant or I’ll—”

  Star stopped before the sentence was completed. Pressing a wet kiss to her quivering belly, he slid agilely off the bed and stood up. He swiftly pivoted with the natural grace of a dancer, leaned over, encircled Diane’s narrow waist, and lifted her to her feet atop the bed. He stood at the bed’s edge, knees braced against the mattress, his arms wrapped tightly around Diane’s hips, his head thrown back looking up at her.

  He said, “Time I take you to magic waters, wash smug smile off pretty white face.”

  Still laughing, Diane shook her head about, her long, tangled hair swishing around her face and shoulders. “Un —unless you—you plan to—to”—she could hardly speak for giggling—“to … wash my mouth … out with soap”—she drew a strangled breath, wiped at the tears in her eyes—“I don’t think—think you can make me stop laughing.”

  “Show you I can,” he said, promptly tossing her over his shoulder, wrapping a long arm around her thighs, and heading for the bath with her screaming and struggling and kicking.

  And laughing.

  Star was right. Diane’s riotous laughter soon turned to long sighs of quiet contentment as he tenderly kissed her, their lips melded in a soft, liquid movement of unhurried exploration.

  They sat in a huge square tub of gleaming black marble with silver fixtures which was filled to the brim with thick, rich suds and hot, steamy water. The giant tub rested along a high-ceilinged wall fashioned entirely of the same black Carrara marble. Directly across the plushly carpeted bath from the black marble tub was a wall of glass, just like the one in the bedroom. A third wall, adjacent to the tub, was solid mirror from floor to ceiling. The fourth was row upon row of black walnut drawers with silver handles, in the center of which was a door leading into a dressing room.

  When he’d kissed her into silent submission and total relaxation, Star deftly turned Diane around to sit comfortably between his spread knees. He tied her heavy hair up off her neck with a white leather string, then positioned her so that her back rested against his chest, her head on his left shoulder.

  All traces of laughter were gone.

  But Diane was smiling foolishly, her eyes closed, as she sat there luxuriating in the steamy chin-deep suds with Star. Sighing softly, she opened her eyes. Through the wall of glass she watched as a chill north wind
blew clouds across the Nevada moon. It was magical. Like a wonderful dream from which she never wanted to awaken. Such great fun to be gloriously naked and comfortably warm and at the same time feel as if she were outside in the elements.

  “Star?” she said lazily.

  His head resting against the tub’s padded headrest, Star murmured without opening his eyes, “Yes, sweetheart.”

  “I like all this glass, but aren’t you afraid someone might see us?”

  Star’s hooded eyes came open. His dark head came up off the tub’s rim. He lowered his lips to Diane’s slippery shoulder, kissed it, and said, “Sweetheart, this is private property. I own it. Everyone knows I own it. There’s not a man in the state of Nevada—white or Indian—who’d be foolish enough to ride onto this property unless he came up the front drive.” He turned his face in, brushed his open lips to the side of her neck. “Relax, my love. Our privacy is assured here.”

  “Our privacy is assured here.” Diane softly repeated his statement, liking the sound of it, liking the thought of it. Liking the feel of Star’s warm mouth on her wet flesh.

  It suddenly dawned on Diane that no one knew where they were.They were naked together in Star’s black marble tub at his remote mountain mansion in Nevada and nobody knew it. Nobody! They were safe and alone in their own little private world. How exciting! How grand it would be if they could remain here in sweet seclusion for eternity. Or for at least a few precious days before they contacted anyone.

  “Star,” she murmured, her hand coming up to tangle in his silver-streaked black hair at his temple. “We do have total privacy here, don’t we?”

  “Absolute. No one knows we’re here,” he said, echoing her thoughts. He slowly raised his head. “We’re all alone. Just you and me.”

  Diane turned to look up at him. “Do you know what I’m thinking?” She let her head fall back against his wet shoulder.

  “Yes,” he said, “but we can’t. Tomorrow we are taking the train to meet your family in—”

  “Star, let’s don’t.” Interrupting, Diane raised a hand to his chest, trailed her fingers down its center. “Let’s stay here.”

  She turned the rest of the way around to face him, shooting a long, slender leg across his body and bringing it down to sit astride him.

  “Sweetheart, we can’t. We have to catch that train to San Francisco.”

  “Why?” She slid her hands around his ribs. “Who’ll know the difference?”

  Star drew a long breath and gently cupped her face in his hands. All his love in his eyes, he said softly, “Diane, I love you. I want to marry you.”

  “I want the same thing, Star, but for now I just want to be alone here with you, without the world intruding.”

  “God, honey, if I had my way, I’d keep you locked up here with me forever. But be sensible.” His thumb rubbed back and forth over her soft lips. “I’ll have a hard enough time getting your grandfather’s permission to marry you.”

  “I don’t need the Colonel’s consent,” Diane quickly informed him.

  “But I do.” said Star. “And you do, too, sweetheart. You love me, but if marrying me meant never seeing your grandparents again, you would never be happy as my wife. And I’d be unhappy because you were unhappy.” He sighed wearily, closed his eyes, opened them. “Jesus, Diane, don’t forget, I kidnapped you. I’m guilty of a very serious crime and one for which I’m sure your grandfather would like to see me hanged.”

  “The Colonel is guilty of the same crime, darling,” Diane reminded him. “You were kidnapped. In chains, dragged down out of the mountains and thrown into a cage.”

  “Ah, Diane, that was different. Besides, the old Colonel didn’t do it. He wasn’t—”

  “My grandfather is responsible,” Diane stated emphatically. “It was the Colonel’s show, his employees who brought you in, his decision to hold you against your will.” She ran a hand up over Star’s slippery chest. “My grandfather did you a terrible wrong, but I love him, so I’ll forgive him.” She paused, looked into his navy eyes. “And you will forgive him, too, because you love me. Won’t you?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Well, he’ll forgive you for the same reason. He loves me.” She flashed Star a brilliant smile and added, “In time he’ll learn that you’re actually a kind and caring man. You’ll learn the same thing about him.” She leaned forward, kissed the hard, flat muscles of his chest.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Star said when she raised her head.

  “I am. I know I am.” Her lovely smile was disarming. “So can we please wait awhile before we go to San Francisco?”

  Captivated by her smile, Star asked, “How long?”

  “A week!”

  He shook his head. “Three days at most.”

  “Five,” she anxiously protested.

  “Four. And that’s my final offer.”

  Diane flung her arms around his neck. “Oh, thank you, Star, thank you.” She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and murmured, “Four whole days! Four wonderful days alone here. Four fabulous days with no one on earth knowing where we are—a lovers’ holiday.”

  The idea was as appealing to Star as it was to Diane. He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, leaned forward, and kissed her. Diane’s lips immediately softened, opened. She felt his tongue probing. He drew her closer. She felt his heart beat against hers. She felt his lean frame shudder.

  And soon she felt his body changing as his kisses, gentle at first, became more demanding. Her hands slid up to play along the back of his neck. His strong fingertips found the small of her back, pressed her closer. So close she could feel his growing erection pulsing and pressing against the ultra-sensitive flesh between her open legs.

  Star reluctantly tore his heated lips from hers. He could tell that Diane was growing aroused, just as he was. He loved to watch her face, the suggestion of sensuality that was always there now heightened by her response to him. The lovely violet eyes had deepened to purple beneath the long, lowering lashes. The earthy, kissable mouth was glistening, the lips full and half parted. Her breathing had changed. It was shallow, short.

  Diane had become aroused. So aroused she was already wondering if it was possible to make love seated in a tubful of sudsy water. She was also torn. Torn between the desire to close her eyes and keep them tightly closed as if to shut out the rest of the world forever and the desire to open them wide and enjoy these precious moments in this private paradise where the most exciting man she’d ever known was naked and throbbing against her.

  In a gesture of sexual intimacy Diane dipped her hands under the water’s warm, soapy surface and timidly wrapped them around Star’s fully formed erection. Surprised but pleased, he reciprocated, his hands moving under the water, intimately caressing the insides of Diane’s pale thighs.

  “Sweetheart,” he said, swallowing with difficulty, “do you know what you’re doing to me?”

  “No. Yes. I mean, I’m not totally sure,” she admitted frankly. “But I’m curious. Do you mind?”

  He shook his head and gritted his teeth when the fingers of her right hand slid slowly, searchingly up to toy with the velvet-smooth head of his throbbing tumescence. Appealingly curious, Diane explored and stroked and acquainted herself with his fascinating male body. She raised her eyes to his face and watched him. His hooded eyes were half closed, and his dark face flushed with heat as her fingertips gently examined the awesome hardness jerking involuntarily from her touch.

  “Star, darling?”

  “Hmm?” was all he could manage. A vein throbbed on his forehead, and his heart thundered in his chest.

  “Is it possible—I can’t help wondering—to make love while we’re in the water?”

  His voice flat but strained, Star said, “Jesus, baby, you have the answer right there in your hands.”

  “Yes, I guess I do.” Then, almost shyly: “Star, will you please make love to me here in your marble tub?”

  “If you insist,” was
his low, clipped answer before he took her fully in his arms.

  Diane learned it certainly was possible to make love in the water, and it was quite pleasurable as well. But not half so pleasurable as when, her body a part of his, Star rose to his feet and climbed out of the marble tub. Dripping water and soap suds, he fell to his knees on the plush beige carpet and carefully laid her on her back, following her down.

  The lovemaking continued uninterrupted. This was a truly passionate love affair, and both knew that in the other they had finally met their match.

  Her eyes opening and closing in erotic pleasure, Diane was rewarded with visual impressions to match the incredible physical sensations.

  Outside the gleaming glass wall was a magical wilderness wonderland shimmering in the silvery moonlight. And in the mirrored wall a darkly handsome man making passionate, beautiful love to an eagerly receptive woman who looked remarkably like herself.

  The experience was unbelievable.

  She was watching the naked pair making uninhibited love in the wild outdoors. At the same time she was warm and comfortable and very much a participant in the intimate act.

  In perfect symmetry the pair of lovers in the mirror and the couple making love outdoors moved together, sighed together, even climaxed at exactly the same moment as Star and Diane. But Diane never noticed.

  Her purple eyes were tightly closed as she writhed in the deep, shattering throes of ecstasy.

  Chapter 37

  Golden days.

  Silver nights.

  Total perfection.

  A brief magical interlude of absolute bliss stolen out of time and place.

  Pagans in their own private paradise. Hot-blooded lovers surrendering to desire at any hour of the day or night. Innocent children playing and laughing together. Good friends holding hands and talking quietly at twilight. Close companions, comfortable in their silences, enjoying the peaceful solitude.

  They were all these things, Diane and Star, in the following four lovely days, changing roles like a couple of chameleons.

  On their very first morning in the mansion Diane awakened at dawn despite the fact that she’d slept for little more than an hour. She stretched lazily, sighed softly, and turned her head to look at the slumbering Star.