An Unbreakable Bond (20 page)

“And I guess you’ll go running back to Daniel.” Jealousy reared its ugly head as he thought about her leaving and being with someone else.

Annabelle let out a strangled laugh. “Are you really that thick in your skull?” she shouted back whilst looking at his black sodden shirt as it hugged his torso, revealing the outline of the muscles beneath. All man, all power and ready to do battle.

Good, she needed a fight.

“Well, I must be thick if I thought that bringing you here would give us a chance to find out how we felt about each other!” he bellowed.

His words caused her to stall in her anger and unexpected hope flared in her belly. It dawned on her that this whole trek to Texas hadn’t been solely about April, he’d wanted her all along. Not just for a quick romp or to exhaust the lust between them, but because he actually felt something for her. A tingle of pure unchecked ravenous hunger for him ran up her spine and a bubble of mirth threatened to burst out.

The storm was now fully overhead and the lightening continually flashed across the sky. The air hummed with electricity and his whole body was primed. All he needed was just one hint, one little crack in her armour and he would pounce. “Damn it! Do you love him, I have to know?”

“Who?”
She shook her wet tendrils to clear her head. “Love who?”

“Daniel?” he replied in exasperation.

Throwing back her head into the fullness of the rain, she allowed that bubble of mirth to fly out. The laugh was so hearty and full that it caused him to smirk in response.

Not even a powerful flash of lightening stopped her from laughing. “Yes, I love him,” she hollered out into the dark night as she threw her arms out into the rain.

The smirk on his face froze in place and his whole inner world crushed lower than the soles of his feet. Desperation filled his heart. “Well, he can’t have you!” he ground out through clenched teeth. Reaching out, he grabbed her vest and yanked her towards him.

She stopped laughing and looked at him as the rain poured down his face. Ferocious need glared back at her, illumined by the lightening above.  Gently reaching out she cupped his face. It was time. “Daniel is gay, Tristan. I love him like a brother, but I love you like a woman loves only one man in her entire lifetime.”

The softness of her words almost didn’t make it through the pounding of his heart and the thunder above, but something registered in him. There was no tension, no resistance in her body as he held it against his. He searched her eyes for the truth of her words, and there it was - all of her shining right back at him.

The instant he saw it, he pulled her so close, so fast, that he didn’t know whether she’d jumped him at the same time or not. Their teeth clashed and a fire so blazing through his soul stamped out all reasoning.

Clinging to him, this time wild horses wouldn’t stop her from claiming every bit of him. Ripping open his shirt she greedily roamed his body in a frenzy that matched the pouring rain. Feeling him and pinching his skin, she was out of control, meeting his tongue in a madness of greed and sheer need.

Whipping off his belt and pulling at his pants, she used her feet to push them to his ankles. There was no turning back. She heard her vest rip, followed by her shorts. Not caring that they were naked in the rain, she wrapped her legs around his torso as he lifted her body to him.

Sinking to his knees in the dirt he bent and sucked on her nipples as she straddled him on the rain drenched floor. She was glorious, wet and wild.

Arching her back, she pulled him with her to the ground, not letting him move his mouth from her breasts, gasping in huge moans as he nipped and sucked.

The rain pounded their bodies and the thunder rumbled through the air, but nothing would stop this moment.

The taste of her skin was driving him wild. His hands were roaming everywhere in a flurry of touching and kneading and he began to move downwards kissing her abdomen.

Wrenching his head up by his hair, she looked maddeningly into the black of his eyes. “No! No you don’t. Don’t you dare make me
wait!
” Not giving him a chance to respond, she wiggled down until their lips were fused once again and she lifted her body so that her opening could make contact with the head of his erection. “I’ve waited ten years for this and if you don’t take me now, I swear, I will make you pay!” There was nothing sweet about her right now, she was as reckless as the storm above them and she wanted him wholly and completely.

He laughed and then swore as she pushed against him. Her heat and wetness made him jolt. Raising himself, he took her by the waist and in one long stroke he filled her completely. Stilling himself and giving her time to adjust to his size, he didn’t take his eyes from hers. When he pulled out and pushed in again they slid along the mud drenched ground. “Say it! Say it again!” he growled out like a wild animal.

She held onto to him for dear life and arched herself against his thrusts. “Please, I need you to give me everything you have.”

“Say it!” I need to hear you say it!” he rasped out. The tension in his body of holding back that last scrap of himself was almost physically painful.

“I love you,” she whimpered.

The damn burst in his heart and they began a wild and desperate dance as he pounded into her only to be met stroke by stroke with her own savage need. This wasn’t just about pleasure or possession. It was the fight for power and surrender between a man and a woman, with love as the ultimate balancing force. Nothing could have prepared them for the enormity of this moment.

Annabelle responded to his every move. Never had she experienced herself at this level of such wild abandonment. All sense of who she was and where she was faded away. The build-up of energy inside was so potent that when it broke she wasn’t sure she would make it out alive on the other side. Almost clawing at his back to urge him on, she screamed his name into the blackness of the stormy night.

The call of his name with such force sent him over the edge. “You’re mine!” he raged. “Never will another man touch you.” The tremors of her body wrapped around his male hardness as it moved inside of her.

“I’ve always been yours, Tristan,” she panted heavily. “There’s never been another since that night.”

The shock of her words rocked him at his core. Crashing his mouth down on hers, he gave one final thrust, causing a roar to emerge from the very root of his being as it moved up and out of his lungs. Spent, he dropped his weight onto her body.

The rain was bouncing off them, but she didn’t care. Stroking his hair, she whispered all of her love to him. Ten years ago she’d given him her heart and soul and there was nothing left of her to give to anyone else.

Raising himself to his knees he collected her into his arms and made a beeline for the lake house. Once inside he flicked open the fuse box and turned on the electricity.

She laughed softly at the earlier memory of herself running through the house in the dark.

Not stopping, he headed for the shower and stood both of them under the spray.

Not a word passed between them.

Gently they soaped each other whilst deeply kissing and exploring each other’s bodies. Finally, they towel dried one another and he laid her down on the bed and made slow and sweet love to her over and over. All night he spent nipping, tasting and filling himself with her essence.

Lying in his arms in the early morning light she heard him muffle something into her neck.

Hang on. Did he just say what she thought he said? She pushed at him until he rolled off. “Did you just say what I thought you said?”

“Christ, Annabelle, I love you.” He grinned, remembering ten years ago and captured her open mouth with a kiss. “Marry me, Ma Belle?”

The swell in her heart made her want to dance around the room in joy. Holding his face in her hands, she found his heart stamped all over it. Mischievously she said, “You do realise that you’re ten years too late?”

A shadow fell across his face in the form of regret. “Please, can you forgive me? I now realise that this is exactly what I wanted to say to you back then, but my youthful pride wouldn’t let me?”

Looking deeply into the cobalt blue eyes of her man, of her Tristan, of their souls bound together by an unbreakable bond that not even time, family, duty or distance could undo, she whispered, “Yes Tristan, I would have married you yesterday and I will marry you today, tomorrow and forever.”

And they sealed it with the caress of love.

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