Gray moaned and heard the answering sound from Marley.
He picked her up by the hips and buried his face in her breasts. His fingers destroyed the clasp on her bra and he panted at the sight of her naked breasts. He worked his thumbs in circles, getting ever closer to her nipples until, with a growl, he used his teeth to bring sobs from her.
Walking with her, he pressed her back against the wall and let her slowly slide down until her toes touched the ground.
“I’m on fire,” he told her. “Burning up.”
“Yes.”
With one sweep he ripped off her shorts and panties and shucked his jeans.
“I want to know what you like,” he said, and slid the heel of one hand down her tummy.
Her eyes didn’t leave his. With parted lips, she panted. Her pelvis met his palm and he curled his fingers into her.
“Gray.” She said his name, long and low and pressed herself tightly against his hand. “That’s what I like. You know. You just know.” Her wince, the break of sweat on her brow, excited him even while fresh pain thudded from deep in his loins, down his thighs.
She stiffened with her release and wound her body more tightly about his.
Pounding in his groin and belly built and he gasped. The sounds from his own throat amazed him. Keening, animal cries. Tears slid from Marley’s eyes.
Once more he lifted her.
This time he lowered her rapidly and filled her, locked his thighs and knees against wrenching vibrations to make a kind of unworldly love he had never, could never have imagined possible.
He couldn’t see clearly. The room moved.
Pressure built. He clung to Marley and clung to the wall. Dimly he feared what he might be doing to her, but she helped him, drove herself down over him again and again.
A searing, like a white-hot spear, seemed to split him in two and then, as quickly as it had all mounted, it ebbed on the sweet, soaring tide of their climax.
Gray looked down at her, at the undulations of their slick bodies, at the mixture of pleasure and pain on her upturned face.
He didn’t know how long they kept on moving together, and against each other, or how long they stroked, skin to skin, and he would never remember all the words that tumbled out of them. But when they slumped against each other and slid to sit, leaning body to body, on the floor, he knew one absolute truth. They would be drawn together again and again and they would never as much as glance at each other without thinking about the incredible sex they could share.
Chapter 29
Marley watched first gray light filter through the slatted blinds on her bedroom window. She couldn’t have slept for more than an hour yet she was wide-awake and filled with a premonition that something huge was about to happen.
Lying on his stomach, his face turned toward her, Gray had her pinned to the bed with a muscular arm and a powerful leg. He was heavy, but in a way she’d like to get used to.
Ideas and impressions crowded in on Marley.
Today there would be change, major change. She shut her eyes and concentrated. It would be the case. Nat would make progress and they would start to get closer to finding Liza and Amber.
Her eyes wanted to pop open, but she squeezed the lids together tightly. A pinpoint of light became a pearly, glowing little heap. She centered her attention harder, brought her focus to the center of the light.
She looked at the ceiling. The bicycle helmet had been there all along, close to the victim, but camouflaged in the shadows. When Red Eye dragged the person across the floor, the helmet must have been caught up, then shaken loose and left behind.
Gray’s ruffled hair curled at his neck and across his brow. His eyes moved beneath the lids and his lashes flickered. His cheek and jaw were dark with beard stubble. Relaxed, his face looked young and achingly appealing. Her tummy flipped. They had made love twice before exhaustion claimed both of them. The experience defied description and she wanted to feel again what they’d felt together. The Bonding had been theirs and it was a sign she must soon explain to him all its implications.
There was nothing to force him into melding his life with hers, but she would never be whole again without him—any more than he could hope to experience with anyone else what they had shared.
Across the bed, faint stripes of gold stroked them through the blinds. The sun started its ascent. Outside the bedroom, a small stone terrace with fancy iron railings overlooked gardens behind a house tucked in the middle of the block. The owners were rarely there and Marley enjoyed the privacy of her haven. She enjoyed it even more with Gray there beside her.
He mumbled in his sleep and tucked her tightly against him.
Her family would have to be dealt with and they would have questions no man should have to answer about making love to a woman.
The blinds rattled.
Marley frowned and peered at them. A breeze flowed over her and she saw Gray’s hair move so she wasn’t imagining what she felt.
The windows were closed and locked. The bedroom door was shut. The fan ran, but she often lamented that it didn’t create any real air current.
On the ceiling a shape formed, a gold rectangle.
Marley blinked several times. The image was fuzzy and she wanted her eyes absolutely clear. There it was, not the sunny gold that lay in bands over the bed, but deep, dark, rich gold like molten ore poured into a mold.
The shape trembled, came a little closer, then receded. Part of it flapped down and she looked at the gorgeously embossed flyleaf of a book. When the tissue-thin flyleaf flipped away, blinding arcs of color beamed forth as if from deep inside an empty cavity. Then the cover settled gently back and more prisms blazed from the depths of jewels mounted in the gold surface.
Marley closed her eyes again. The image unsettled her. A field of magnetism emanated toward her, tugged at her as if to pull her from the bed.
Uncle Pascal, requesting her attention while she could still see the fantastic book, disoriented her.
He didn’t respond immediately and when he did she could tell he was unsettled.
As carefully as possible, she eased herself away from Gray and stood up. Her legs felt rubbery and her head ached. Neither discomfort surprised her. When she started to move around, a number of parts hurt. She wished she could curl up with Gray again.
She scuffled into the bathroom and took a five-minute shower. After cleaning her teeth and washing her face she looked in the mirror to see if she had erased any signs of wild lovemaking. She didn’t think she had managed very well. In a drawer she found a fuzzy scrunchee and gathered her hair into a volcanic bundle atop her head.
Naked, she returned to the bedroom and rushed into a bra and panties and a yellow cotton sweat suit.
“C’mere,” Gray said from the bed. “Where d’you think you’re going? We aren’t finished yet.”
She got just close enough to make it impossible for him to grab her. “You’re right. We’re not finished. But I’ve got to go over to Uncle Pascal’s. I think there’s a family meeting going on. As soon as it’s done, I’ll be back. But don’t stay if you have to get on with something.”
