tell you?” His chest was moving unevenly with the heaviness of his breathing. “Let me go, Zilah.”
“No, I want to help you,” she said calmly. “Tell me how I can best do that.”
“Zilah, for God’s sake, shut up,” he gritted out through his teeth. “Do I have to spell it out for you? If you don’t get away from me in about two minutes I’m going to have your clothes off and be inside you.” His hands suddenly cupped her buttocks and brought her forcefully against his hard arousal. “I went to sleep wanting you and woke up with all the barriers down.” His words were coming in little gasps as he rubbed her against him with a slow, sensual tempo that caused a hot flowering deep within her. “All I can think of is how you’d feel around me, the way your nipples hardened when my tongue touched them.” His hands were clenching and releasing her buttocks as he spoke. She could feel her naked breasts swelling and firming against the hard wall of his chest as if on command. It was a command, she realized hazily, the most basic known to male and female. The soft pelt of hair on his chest was moving against her bare skin with the ragged tempo of his breathing, teasing, inciting, readying her for the next intimacy. “I want to feel you naked against me, to open your thighs and touch you. I want to make you melt and flow.” His teeth suddenly clamped down on the lobe of her ear with a force that was almost painful. “Stop me, dammit,” he growled desperately. “Because, God knows, I can’t stop myself.”
The darkness was swimming around her like ebony waters of forgetfulness where nothing existed but touch and sensation and Daniel’s need crying out to her. And not only Daniel’s need, she realized with a little shock. She needed him with a fierceness that was as primitive as that first instinctive maternal craving to give comfort. How could that be when…The doubts and questions flowed away into the darkness as she felt Daniel tremble against her. Not with fear but with desire. It was like being caught in the funnel of a tornado and being swept away from everything she had ever known. The only things that were real were the sensations Daniel was provoking with every word, every touch.
“I don’t think I can stop you either,” she said faintly. “I don’t think I even want to.”
He went still. “Oh, Lord, I wish you hadn’t said that.”
She hadn’t thought the muscles beneath her hands could become harder, but they did. His entire body was gathering charges of tension like lightning about to strike. “I didn’t want it to be like this. I wanted to show you that I could be something besides a roughneck who knows only how to take.” His hands were suddenly working swiftly, feverishly, at the zipper of her jeans. “I don’t even know if I can be gentle with you.”
“You don’t have to be gentle.” It wouldn’t matter. Not with Daniel. She wanted to give him whatever he wanted. Fill every need before he asked. He was stripping away her jeans and the panties beneath them with frantic urgency, and then she was naked in the darkness. His hands were running over her body as if he couldn’t get enough of the textures of her. He squeezed the softness of her breasts in his two big hands, then moved down her rib cage in a long, lingering caress. His fingers were hard and callused as they brushed against her softness. Sandpaper and silk. She felt every nerve and pore come alive in a tingling rush as he touched her and then moved on, lingering on her navel to playfully insert a finger while he patted her stomach with the other hand. Then his hand was tangling in the curls that guarded her womanhood, tugging gently. “Open for me,” he said thickly. “Please, Zilah. I can’t wait anymore. Let me come in.”
She didn’t think she could wait either. How could darkness so intense hold fingers of flames and curling blossoms of fire that took her breath and made her mindless with pleasure? Her thighs opened with languid invitation that was purely instinctive. Command, response, reward.
Reward. She inhaled sharply as she received a blindingly sensual reward for obedience when his hands touched her with a probing intimacy that sent a shock of desire twisting through her.
“You’re so warm and sweet down here,” Daniel muttered. “I wish I could see you. I’d light the lantern but I don’t think I can wait a minute longer.” His finger suddenly found the soft sensual trigger he’d been seeking, and he began a rotating massage that brought a soft cry from her.
Her hips lifted in an offering that was as old as time. His husky laugh held an element of satisfaction. “You want me? Now, Zilah?”
“Now.” She could barely get the word past the tightness in her throat. She was on fire. Every breath was difficult to the point of pain. Her head was thrashing back and forth on the slickness of the silver sheet in mindless aching need. Darkness, touch, flame.
“Good.” The word held a guttural urgency that was totally male. She was vaguely aware that the touch was gone. Only the darkness, and the throbbing, flaming need remained as Daniel moved with frantic swiftness to strip off the remainder of his clothes.
She was shivering with hunger. Aching with emptiness. She could feel the muscles of her stomach clench and knot, pleading for the touch she had known so briefly.
Then the touch was back, parting her thighs, stroking her gently, opening her with an eagerness that held a hint of restrained savagery. He was between her thighs. The powerful muscles that corded his own thighs were taut against her softness. She couldn’t see his bulk looming above her and somehow that only added to the erotic excitement. She could see only in her mind’s eye the pelt of auburn hair that covered his chest, the sensual heaviness of his face, the sheer massive size of him that made her feel small and helpless in comparison. She couldn’t see him but she could feel him nudging against the heart of her. For an instant there was a flicker of memory that caused her to tense. Then it was gone. Because there wasn’t anything in the past that bore the slightest resemblance to what she was experiencing now. New. Everything was new and clean and as basic as if it were happening at the dawn of time. Daniel’s magic again.
He was entering her carefully, trying not to hurt her with his sheer size. She could sense the care, the agonizing tension in him. His breath was coming in little rasps. He was trying to give her the gentleness he thought she wanted, she realized with a rush of tenderness. Even though the restraint was hurting him, he was trying to give to her. Well, she wanted to give to him also. Give and give until there was nothing left to offer. Hard and fast. He had said he liked it hard and fast.
Her hands suddenly closed on his hips, her nails digging into the hard flesh. “Daniel.” Her voice was a soft yearning murmur in the darkness. “Come.” Her hips surged upward, taking him with a boldness that brought a low cry from his lips. She felt like uttering the same cry, but she was afraid he would mistake it for pain. So full. Stretched, complete and yet still throbbing with emptiness. “Come…to me.” She could barely get the words out.
“Sweet heaven, Zilah.” He shuddered. She could feel it within her, and it brought a quivering flutter to every nerve and limb. Together. How close they were. One flesh. “I’m going wild. I’ve never felt like this in my life. I’m afraid to let go. I’ll hurt you, dammit.”
“You won’t hurt me.” Her fingers tightened on his hips. “It’s all right, Daniel.”
“I hope so.” She could feel the forces swirling about him in the darkness. Electricity gathering for the strike. “Because I can’t stop myself now.”
He plunged forward, wildness overcoming restraint as he took her with a force and beauty as hot and violent as the lightning to which she had mentally compared him. He was lifting her up to meet each strong thrust, grinding against her as if he wanted to reach beyond closeness to a unity that couldn’t be broken as passion passed.
She was vaguely conscious that he was talking to her as he moved, telling her how sweet she was, how good she felt around him, of the other ways he was going to love her. His words were as hoarse and wild as the rhythm of his movements. Sometimes shockingly graphic, sometimes tender as a mother’s kiss. She tried to help him, meet fire with fire, but once loosed, he overwhelmed her. It was like a tempest picking her up, tossing her from crest to crest, yet never letting her leave the center of power.
Lightning, power, strength that never conquered, beauty that never yielded. It couldn’t go on. Yet it did. A moment. Forever. Darkness. Flame. Lightning again. A breathless shock that burned her to the core, then another, spreading, rippling in patterns of power. Daniel’s power. So much power in one man, she thought feverishly. So much beauty and primitive need that-Then she could think no more as the lightning struck with a final blue-white force that absorbed the flame and the darkness and everything in the world except the man who wielded it.
She heard Daniel cry out and then felt the heavy weight of him upon her. His heart was beating so hard it appeared to be trying to burst from his chest. Or was that her own heartbeat? It was difficult to tell, so closely were they joined in body and spirit. He shifted off her and to the side, still holding her with possessive strength.
“Did I hurt you?” His question was gruff, but she could still detect the concern. “I didn’t mean to be so rough. I think I went a little crazy.”
Hurt? She didn’t know if there’d been any pain or not. It had all been too world-shaking for her to separate the
