'Look at me, Caitie.' The restraint in his voice belied his heavy, aroused breathing.
Her lashes fluttered open and she glanced down at him, blushing all over again when she saw the carnal heat in his gaze. She started to lower the skirt to hide from his hungry eyes.
'No, don't,' he said abruptly, stopping her. He moved closer, adoring her with his gaze. 'You're so beautiful.'
With him, she
The unexpected sigh of his hot, damp breath on her inner thigh sent a bolt of liquid heat surging through her, nearly short-circuiting her nerves. His strong hands held her quivering thighs apart and supported her when her knees would have buckled. She realized his brazen, erotic intent in the way his tongue caressed her flesh-long, soft strokes that teased and tantalized in an attempt to coax her thighs farther apart for him.
'J.T.,' she gasped, hating how her voice trembled with uncertainty and the desire for him to continue with his sensual invasion. The tug-of-war of emotions raging inside her confused her, wanting J.T. to continue, but knowing how wrong it would be to let him take her any higher.
But the sensations didn't feel wrong, not with J.T.
'Open for me, Caitie,' he murmured huskily, and when she finally did he groaned deep in his throat and pressed his mouth against the apex of her thighs, tracing the soft, alluring folds with his tongue, probing delicately.
Caitlan moaned at the exquisite feelings J.T. evoked in her, soaring her out of control, past the stars and the heavens. He pushed her closer to a place she knew would be nothing short of paradise.
J.T. reveled in Caitlan's open response, loving the breathless catch in her throat and the lush, petal softness of her desire. He nuzzled her softly, wanting to savor the sweetness of her, wanting to fill himself with every secret, silken part of her. He tasted her sensual melting just as her panting filled his head. Knowing she neared the crest, he splayed his hands on her quivering thighs, lending whatever support he could.
Then it came, the tiny spasms rippling through her. He listened to her breathless moan of pleasure; then his name slipped past her lips as the tremors subsided.
In a fluid movement he stood, ignoring the stiffness in his knees for the beautiful expression on Caitlan's face. Before she had a chance to float back to earth, before the edge of her climax ebbed away, he pulled her leg around his hips, pressing denim against her sensitive flesh, and let her get used to the hard, thick length of him, and the idea of them joining completely.
Her eyes widened in shock, but before she could say anything he covered her lips with his and thrust his tongue into her mouth, kissing her slowly, deeply, showing her how good she tasted, like warm, silky honey and feminine satisfaction. He showed her with the deep stroking of his tongue how he wanted to make love to her body. Showing her, again and again, that he couldn't get enough of her, that tasting her, kissing her, touching her, was nothing compared to the way he wanted to fill her and make her his. Only his. He ached with a raw need so powerful it threatened the shields around his heart. The emotion frightened the hell out of him, but he refused to give up the sweet softness and solace Caitlan's body offered.
Caitlan wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close. Twisting sinuously, she rubbed against him, pleasuring herself and at the same time arousing him to the point of exploding. She went wild, arching closer, and when he heard those broken whimpers begin, signaling how close she was to climaxing yet again, he pulled away from her, letting her leg go.
She gave a cry of protest, and he palmed her breast, rubbing her nipple with his thumb. 'Tell me what you want, Caitlan,' he demanded. He tried to shake the vulnerability creeping up on him, the feeling of becoming so totally lost in Caitlan that he'd never be the same again.
She looked like a wanton gypsy, her disheveled hair framing her pretty face, her lips swollen from his kisses. Her eyes were limpid with passion and something deeper and more touching that J.T. didn't want to analyze. 'I want…' She looked away, a timid catch to her voice.
Damn, he couldn't believe she was so flustered after everything he'd done to her, everything she'd done so uninhibitedly. With his finger beneath her chin, he brought her gaze back to his. 'Tell me, Caitie,' he urged.
'I want you,' she pleaded in a ragged whisper. 'I want this. Please.'
Her confession should have brought him satisfaction. Instead, he experienced a startling wave of emotion that gripped his heart. He refused to fully acknowledge the growing feeling.
Guiding her hand to the front of his jeans, he cupped her palm over the burgeoning ridge there, leaving the ultimate decision up to her. 'If you want me, then help me, Caitlan. Show me exactly what you want and I'll give it to you. I'll make it so good you'll be addicted, and I'll give you as much as you want… ' He let his words drift away, giving her the option of halting their lovemaking if she wanted to.
Her fingers trembled, but she didn't pull away.
A reluctant kind of acquiescence shimmered in her eyes, as if she couldn't help wanting him, any more than he could control how being one with her was becoming as essential as breathing.
'Once I'm deep inside of you they'll be no turning back,' he went on. 'The choice is yours, Caitie, but make your decision fast.'
She did then, tugging at his zipper and freeing him. Groaning at her sweet surrender, he wrapped her fingers around his length, moving slowly, sliding against her cool palm. When the building pressure shoved him to the very edge he drew her leg around his waist once again, but this time nothing separated their flesh.
'Wrap both of your legs around me, Caitie,' he said, and she did, circling her arms around his neck at the same time. Her nipples grazed his chest; their bellies rubbed erotically. Bracing her against the wall, he tilted her hips for his entrance. She was wet, very wet, and slick from spent passion, but as he pushed inside her, she stiffened and whimpered, burying her face into his shoulder.
J.T.'s body shook. She was tight, so tight he suspected this was her first time, or very close to it. But he was at a point where he couldn't stop, not even if someone put a gun to his head. Ignoring the instinctive urge to thrust deeply, he murmured soft words to her, entering her slowly. He pulled her legs as high and tight as he could around him, and with a sweet little cry she arched and he slid into that satin sheath to the hilt. He groaned as liquid heat engulfed him, fusing them as one. They fit perfectly together, he thought, as if they had been made for one another.
Wanting to lose himself in the magic of her, he moved slowly, then thrust harder, sliding deeper, over and over, until her moans of pleasure mingled with his.
Still, he didn't let go, found he couldn't release that knot winding tighter and tighter within him. With each silken stroke, the flame of desire burned hotter, incinerating his original carnal hunger into deeper, more intense emotions. He'd told her he couldn't care, but he was feeling and needing and she was the reason.
And somehow he'd known it would come to this. From the first moment in the line shack when he'd woken to find her beneath him, he'd
She whimpered his name, a throaty plea to end the madness he created. Her fingers dug into the muscles in his back, her legs gripped him tight, and she rubbed her breasts against his chest, begging him for the pleasure waiting on the horizon.
But she was the one who held the key to their fulfillment, he thought in a desire-filled haze. He didn't want to spiral over that crest without her, and vaguely wondered when he'd become so chivalrous, putting a woman's needs before his own. With Caitlan, it mattered.
'C'mon, Caitie,' he whispered huskily in her ear, tempering his strokes to slow, deep thrusts that filled her up, then retreating until she cried for him. 'Be greedy, sweetheart. Take it all and let it happen.'
And then it did. Her lashes fell to sultry half slits and she moaned softly, tossing her head back. She looked beautiful, tousled and incredibly sexy while she took her pleasure. The medallion grew hot where it was crushed between his chest and hers, a tingly heat that showered through his veins like sparks of wild lightning, giving him the sensation of being one with Caitlan, she the other half of him he'd been waiting a lifetime for.
Ecstasy swelled up and through him like an explosion, and he surged one final time, surrendering himself to her without any barriers. Endless pulses of release wracked his body, the rapture piercing and overwhelming. He groaned, low and deep and animal-like, luxuriating in the exquisite awareness of being alive again, of feeling so deeply, so intimately joined with Caitlan. She erased the loneliness and absolute despair he'd been living with for sixteen long years.
Emotionally and physically satiated, J.T. sank to his knees on the cool earth floor, taking Caitlan with him so
