His mouth came down on hers and she relished it. Relished the power that burned between them now that they had been stripped bare of all the lies and secrets. Each time they had come together it had been to use this passion, this insatiable need, in order to escape. But she wasn’t hiding any more. All of her was open to him, exposed to him in a way she hadn’t been before.
And it was shocking in its intensity.
If she had thought coming together with him before had been incredible, it was nothing in comparison to this. She clung to every second, every touch, every taste, revelling in the energy that brought her alive within his embrace.
As his tongue pressed into her mouth she took it, long and deep, within her. She fought to match him, plunged her own tongue into the wet heat of his. Instead of bringing capitulation it enflamed their mutual desire. Teeth scraped against tongues, lips grazed against teeth, and heart clashed against heart.
His hands came down around her backside and lifted her against him. Her shoes dropped onto the floor as he marched them over to the bed. Instead of letting her go he stood there, holding her in his arms, allowing her open legs to press against his erection, and she shifted her hips forward to feel the tip of his arousal meet her core.
She rocked her hips once more and it was enough.
He knelt on the bed and laid her down, maintaining a kiss that served only to bring them closer. He kicked off his shoes, tore at his shirt, and as she lifted her dress over her head he rid himself of his trousers and underwear.
He stood over her, naked and glorious. ‘I need you, Eloise,’ he said, his voice grave and thick with passion.
* * *
She nodded, but it wasn’t enough. Odir needed to hear her say it too. The extent of that need scared him, but now was not a time for fear.
He spread her beautiful legs, opening her to him.
‘Say it.’
He saw her struggle to find the words and something primal rose within him. Primal and demanding.
‘Say it.’
He watched as the look in her eyes transformed into something fierce—a recognition of what he needed and what she so desperately wanted. She was utterly glorious, naked and perfect. Her breasts rose in time with her short breaths and Odir knew that he was standing on a precipice—that it was more than desire burning between them.
‘I need you too.’
He sank into her warm, wet heat, pressing as far as he could possibly reach, and there—up to the hilt—he finally found what he had been looking for.
But somehow it still wasn’t enough.
She was wrapped around his length, and he felt sensation upon sensation as she raised her hips to take him even further. His curses littered the air about them as he lifted her leg from the bed and placed it over his shoulder, finding an even deeper purchase. Her impassioned gasp teased him, and he silently promised them both that he would make this marriage more. More than it had been.
He withdrew so slowly, so exquisitely, and despite his intention of driving her wild with need he nearly came. He withdrew completely and then returned to her, so deeply inside her that he felt entwined with her—more than him and more than her, something new and bigger than each of them alone.
* * *
How could one person feel all these things? Eloise wondered.
The need within her was rising to an unfamiliar height as again he withdrew from her, but this time she wasn’t going to let him have his way. She reached behind him and drew him back into her. But the illusion of power was simply that—an illusion. He had let her have control and she thanked him for it. She pulled him against her, pressing him deeper within her, and smiled when he accused her of trying to kill him.
Her husband had given her the freedom to vent her wildest fantasies, and whilst she might not have experience her body knew what it desired, what it needed. He must have read it in her expression, seen it in her eyes, because right there, buried deep within her, he gathered her in his arms and rolled onto his back.
Eloise shifted her legs, her knees either side of his thighs, and almost cried out loud. Never before had she experienced this kind of completeness or felt so connected to another person.
She rocked forwards and backwards and knew from the words that exploded from Odir’s mouth that he was as close as she was to orgasm. She savoured this moment...the power that she had to give them what they both so desperately wanted. She felt powerful in all the ways she once had not.
But soon all thought was driven from her mind as cries of pleasure fell from her lips, drowned in the sound of Odir’s ragged breath, and she was launched into a world of starlight and sensation as the two of them found their completion.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
August 2nd, 06.00-07.00, Farrehed Embassy
FOR A MOMENT Eloise thought it might have been the sound of the shower that had pulled her from her dreamless sleep. For a second she was confused. She looked about the room, but knew she wasn’t in Heron Tower any more. Then it came again. A pounding on the door. The kind of urgent pounding that refused to be ignored.
Odir flung the door of the bathroom back on its hinges and she could almost believe that it had left a dent in the wall.
‘What?’ he barked from the bedroom, his voice clearly travelling far enough to reach the intruder out in the hall.
Eloise shook her
