Cory that Rachel was burning up like a torch with the relief and the release of tension. There was high colour along her cheekbones and a hectic sparkle in her eyes. All the passion and excitement that he had known was latent within her was awake and burning and it was demanding a response from him.
‘You should get out of your wet clothes and take a hot bath,’ he said, trying to control the most inappropriate images of lust and desire that tormented him. ‘I will heat you some water and fetch you a drink-’
He got no further. Rachel put a hand around the back of his head and pulled it down, touching her lips to his. Cory gasped. He felt her tongue slide along his lower lip, a little hesitant, seductively innocent. He grabbed her and kissed her back with no half-measures.
Five minutes later they were both panting, but Cory still held on to his self-control. His body was burning up with need but there were a thousand and one reasons why to take Rachel to bed now was the worst idea in the whole world.
‘Rachel,’ he said, ‘we must stop this. You will only regret it later.’
Rachel placed her hand against his chest. ‘I think not. I love you, Cory. You saved my life today.’
Cory closed his eyes in an agony of denial. ‘Please, Rae-there is no need for you to express your gratitude in this particular way.’
‘Don’t joke,’ Rachel whispered. ‘Not now.’
Once again she placed her arms about his neck and drew his head down to hers, pressing the whole length of her body against his. Cory shook with suppressed passion. He knew that this was in part a natural reaction to the release from death and the need to celebrate that escape by celebrating life. The same force that drove Rachel possessed him too. When he thought that he might lose her his entire being had cried out against it. Rachel had been a part of his life for so long that he could not bear to lose her now. Not now, not ever.
She was kissing him again, teasing his lips with hers, driving him to wildness. The scent of her hair and her skin sent sanity spinning from his mind.
‘Rae,’ he said, ‘if we do not stop this now, then you will end in my bed-or rather, I shall end in yours.’
Rachel eased back and looked into his face. ‘It is the second door on the left upstairs,’ she whispered.
Cory looked down at her, his eyes blazing. Then he picked her up and carried her up the stairs, sending the bedroom door crashing open and kicking it shut behind them.
Their clothes were sodden but quickly shed. Cory ripped off his jacket and shirt whilst Rachel knelt behind him on the bed, nipping his collarbone, nibbling his earlobe and pressing her lips to the soft skin of his neck. He could scarce believe that this was Rachel, the prim young lady who had spoken of passion as though it were an unwanted encumbrance in life. And when he turned to her, maddened by her caresses, she giggled and pulled him down with her into the billows of the big four-poster bed. She made a soft sound and rubbed against him, their bodies separated now by nothing other than her soaked chemise and his pantaloons. She ran her hands over his bare chest and back, arching against him and exulting in the contact.
Cory freed himself sufficiently to find the fastenings of her chemise, but the saturated material failed to co- operate.
‘Tear it,’ Rachel said. Then, when he stared, she set her hands to the material and simply pulled it apart. It separated with a ripping sound and Rachel wriggled out of it. Her shoulders were pink and stung with cold. Before Cory’s fascinated gaze she dropped the scrap of material over the side of the bed to lie discarded on the floor. If he had not seen the shaking of her fingers, Cory would have thought her completely composed as she half-sat, half-lay before him in her nakedness.
It was just like his most fevered imaginings, only more so. Her breasts were big, but they were high and round with small, pink nipples already tight from cold. Her stomach was flat and her legs long and lissom. Cory’s body felt so rigid that he thought he must explode there and then. He reached instinctively for her, saw the tiniest hint of anxiety in her face, and remembered in a rush that she was a virgin.
He forced himself to patience, wrapping his arms about her and holding her close. He ran his fingers very lightly over the skin of her back and upper arms, feeling her shiver under his touch. He brushed his hands over the rounded softness of her buttocks and the sweet curve of her breasts, sucking her nipples and licking the pulse at the base of her throat. He heard her make a small mewing sound of pleasure. Rachel’s eyes were closed now, her head thrown back, her eyelashes dark against the pink-staining of her cheeks, and her breath coming in little gasps. Cory lowered his head to her breast, and slid his hand gently up the silken softness of Rachel’s inner thigh. She moaned and her legs parted for him, and he touched her tentatively, feeling her body tense against his fingers. She opened her eyes. They were drowned with passion and they smiled at him.
‘Are you not going to take off your trousers?’ she asked.
It was agony to leave her even for a moment, but Cory followed her example, ripping the pantaloons and casting them aside on the floor before pressing the full, hard length of his naked body against hers.
She shifted her body to accommodate his, soft and willing, and Cory brought his lips back to hers, kissing her deeply, possessively.
‘I love you, Rachel…’ It was true. He felt a huge exultation sweep through him. Rachel was here in his arms, just as she was always meant to be, and she was his, only his, now and always.
Rachel made a little sound of pure pleasure and pulled him to her, and Cory grasped her hips, easing himself gently inside her. She was hot and tight, and within a few seconds he had forgotten all about gentleness, and had caught her fiercely to him thrusting powerfully, until he was swiftly overcome. Through the explosion of rapture he felt like groaning. This was not what he had intended for Rachel, this callow selfishness. He had been overwhelmed by his need for her and the frustration of abstinence. And now Rachel would be severely disappointed.
He could see by the small frown on her face that she was dissatisfied. He rolled away from her and propped himself on an elbow, kissing her brow, stroking the soft skin of her shoulder.
‘Sweetheart, I am so sorry…I could not help myself…’
Rachel smiled uncertainly. ‘Was it my fault?’
Cory’s heart swelled with tenderness. ‘Of course not. Only for being so utterly desirable. In fact, it was my fault. I have wanted you for so long. You see now what I have been trying to tell you all along-my rake’s reputation is completely unjustified.’
He rained tiny kisses along the curve of her shoulder and down over her breast. Rachel wriggled.
‘I do not believe you can be so bad,’ she said, ‘for I was starting to enjoy myself. I think it might have been rather pleasant had it gone on longer.’
Cory smiled. ‘I am glad that you think so, for we have not finished, Rae. In fact, we have only just begun.’
He saw Rachel’s eyes widen with shy curiosity. In the slumberous depths Cory could see a passion that had barely diminished. He slid both hands possessively over her breasts and heard her gasp.
‘Cory…’
He bent his head to one rosy crest, nipping it between his teeth. Rachel squeaked. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Cory kissed her, thrusting his tongue deep whilst his fingers moved back to the secret place between her legs. She was slick and wet and he felt her tremble helplessly, her thighs falling apart to allow his fingers entry. And then she was writhing with pleasure beneath his hands and he was filled with the most triumphant tenderness as he eased her shuddering body to ecstasy.
He held her possessively close, feeling the echoes of pleasure subside through her body. After a moment she gave a tiny yawn.
‘I was right. That was very nice.’
Cory smiled against her hair. ‘I am so glad you think so,’ he said.
Rachel turned her head and kissed him sleepily.
‘Is that the end, then?’
‘No,’ Cory said. ‘Now we sleep. And later…’ he smiled ‘…later there’s more.’
Chapter Twenty
When Rachel awoke it was full dark outside and she was alone. The sound of rain drummed on the roof and the curtains were not drawn, leaving the window a pale grey square of dark. The wind shrieked and thunder echoed away on the horizon.
