«In this,» he moved his hips, «I am no different.»
«Dear God,» she whispered. «Again.»
«What?»
«Do that again. Please, Wolfe. Again.»
With a whispered curse that was also a prayer for strength, Wolfe moved within Jessica once more and at the same time caressed her with his fingers.
She made a low sound as a network of sensation raced through her, leaving ecstasy shimmering in its wake. She gave herself to the tender ravishment and to the man who had called passion from her depths. With each sensual peak shivering through her, she kissed him, whispering to him, telling him the only truth that mattered.
«You are…my Lord Wolfe.»
Her words became part of the blood hammering through Wolfe’s veins. Feeling and hearing the silky climax unravel Jessica was burning him so softly, so completely, that he didn’t know he was wholly afire. A shudder went through him at each touch of her mouth, but her words were even more seductive, telling him what he had always known and never wanted to face.
«I will take…no other man…into my body.»
Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s hot back to the rigid muscles of his hips, seeking his very different flesh, finding it. With exquisite care, she drew her nails over him.
«Make me yours, Wolfe…only yours.»
Jessica’s name was an anguished cry against her throat as Wolfe’s control broke. He drove completely into her, changing her body in a sweeping, irrevocable instant.
Her breath tore as she was filled to overflowing. He was so deeply inside her that she felt the pulses of his release as clearly as she felt her own heartbeat. She put her arms around his shaking body and held him, kissing his eyes and cheeks and the corners of his mouth until he had the breath to speak once more.
«Now you are mine, Jessi. Only mine.» As Wolfe lowered his mouth to hers, he whispered, «May God have mercy on my soul.»
«Wolfe?» Her arms tightened around him. «What’s wrong?»
«It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve burned for you so long that Hell has nothing new to teach me. But I have new things to teach you, Jessi. Heaven and Hell combined.»
Before Jessica could say anything more, Wolfe sealed her lips with a kiss that claimed her mouth as completely as he had claimed her body. Then his hips moved powerfully and she forgot everything but his heavy presence within her.
Pleasure coursed through Jessica with each thrusting motion Wolfe made. Her body tightened and tightened until she couldn’t breathe, yet still Wolfe moved in sensual rhythms over her, against her, within her, setting fire to every bit of her, burning her alive.
She tried to speak but could think of no words, much less shape her tongue to form them. All she could say was his name, and she said it again and again as he ripped the world away, leaving her nothing to hang onto but him.
Forerunners of savage ecstasy clawed through Jessica, drawing her body into a shivering arch. She gasped at the unexpected sensations. They were more acute than anything she had ever known, almost frightening in their intensity.
«Wolfe?»
«You’re feeling it now, aren’t you?» Wolfe’s voice was as dark as his eyes watching her. «You wanted this, Jessi. You’ve wanted it since you were fifteen. And since you were fifteen, I’ve wanted to give it to you.»
Jessica gasped and her eyes widened with surprise as sensual lightning transfixed her, arching her into Wolfe’s driving body. He laughed and bit her neck hard enough to leave passionate marks.
«Heaven and Hell combined, Jessi. I’m going to burn you all the way to your soul.»
The restrained savagery of Wolfe’s teeth against her hot skin dragged a moan from Jessica. When she made a sharp, rising sound, he sealed her mouth with his own. He took her cries into himself and dragged more of them from her, wanting all that she had to give.
Nails scored Wolfe’s skin, drawing a primitive sound of need from him. The small pain simply served to focus the seething violence of pleasure. When he shifted his mouth to the pulse beating wildly in Jessica’s neck, she responded to the barely veiled savagery of the caress by arching like a drawn bow.
Wolfe held her there, stretched and quivering on a rack of pleasure, and then he began moving again, driving her higher and higher with each powerful motion of his body. Her breath became as broken as his, her skin as hot, as slick, until she was wild with need for the consummation that he kept just beyond her reach.
«I can’t bear it,» Jessica said raggedly, dragging her teeth across Wolfe’s chest in sensual punishment, twisting beneath him, seeking relief.
Wolfe laughed and bit her shoulder as he pinned her with his hips. «I’ve burned like this for five years. Surely you can stand five minutes?»
When Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s body, he shuddered, caught her wrists, and held them in one hand above her head.
«None of your sweet tricks, elf.»
«You are — torturing me.»
«I’mtorturingme. I’m teaching you. Wrap those beautiful legs around my waist. Yes, like that. Now lift your hips,» Wolfe whispered against Jessica’s mouth, biting her between each word, «and you will find what you’ve been seeking so hotly.»
Jessica lifted toward him as he drove into her. The ecstasy was so intense, she would have screamed if she could have, but Wolfe had taken her breath even as he had claimed her mouth. He slid his arm beneath her hips, dragging her so tightly against his body that he could feel her very bones. Then he thrust into her hard and deep, wanting to find the point beyond which she would refuse him.
What he found was more sleek yielding to him, heat surrounding him, burning him, Heaven and Hell combined as he hurtled headlong with her into the sun.
Later, much later, Wolfe held Jessica while she slept and he counted the cost of what he had done.
18
When Jessica awoke the next morning, Wolfe was standing by the window, as naked and magnificent as the mountains rising to meet the dawn. He was looking out over the rugged land with an expression of loss and yearning that made her heart turn over. She wondered what he was seeing in the wild sunrise.
And why it made him so sad.
«Wolfe?»
As he walked toward Jessica, his expression changed. The gentle smile he gave her made tears burn behind her eyelids. Indigo eyes swept over her, lingering on the banked fire twisting through her hair and the crystalline perfection of her light eyes. Long, lean fingers traced her eyebrows, her cheekbones, the curves of her mouth. He sat on the bed beside her and kissed her tenderly.
«Good morning, Mrs.Lonetree.»
Wolfe had not called her that before. The words pierced Jessica as deeply as the sorrow beneath her husband’s smile. Trembling, she smiled up at him in return; and then her heart caught and her smile threatened to turn upside down.
She had never seen anything as poignant as Wolfe’s haunted eyes and tender smile.
«Did I remember to tell you last night how beautiful you are?» Wolfe asked.
«You made me feel beautiful.»
«You are.» His eyes closed for an instant as though in pain. «And so fragile.»
«What’s wrong?» she whispered.
«Nothing. Save this…and this…and this.»
As Wolfe touched each small mark he had left on Jessica’s skin, he pulled down the bedcovers. The silence
