Oh God.
Every muscle tensed, every nerve screamed as his mind and body prepared for the inevitably, until in the blink of a butterfly’s wing, the currents shifted in his sails, replaced by the high pitched wail of a banshee.
“Snake!”
Reece’s brain was thrown into a bucket of ice cubes, and his body quivered, not in delight but shock. He tried to regain his senses, reorient to this world, this night, and the predicament of his exposed lower extremities.
“What the hell?”
She flailed in the water. “Big snake!”
Reece drew in a labored breath and increased the tenor of his frustration. “Jesus, Lilah, you’ve got to expect him to react to…to what you were doing down there. I’d think you’d be happy for the way he…”
“No, damn it.” She pointed to the shore. “Not him, it. Look, it’s heading toward the water.”
“What are you talking about?”
Reece squinted and canvassed the shoreline. Except for a slight disturbance at the edge of the water, there were no other creatures on Gall Island, except one frantic female clutching her nude form and one male staring solemnly at his rescinding posture as a man.
“There.” She waved her finger toward a wisp of movement. “See him now?” She slipped behind Reece, pressing her breasts against his back and flaming his ardor once more.
He stared harder. A dark black ribbon slithered toward their right.
Shit. That’s it for the night. Unless I can salvage things to my advantage.
“That’s a black racer and quite harmless.”
“You sure?” She peered over his shoulder, her warm skin playing havoc with his inflamed senses.
He turned and pulled her to him once more. “Very sure. But, I’ve got another snake that’s not so harmless.”
She giggled, and he felt the tension flow from her body as she melted into his. “How venomous is this snake?”
“Venomous to the first tantalizing bite of flesh he finds.” He bent his head and latched onto one of her breasts.
“Oh Reece. You have no idea how good you make me feel.” She clutched his head, pulling him tighter to her bosom. “Make me feel more. Make me forget the ghosts of my past.”
He lifted his head, trying desperately to maintain some sanity. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go back to the boat. The cushions in the v berth are quite comfortable.”
Her features blanched. “You must think me a complete ninny to have behaved so aloof and now act… loose, but you made me lose control in a way I’ve never felt before.”
“I’m all for losing control.” He held her hand and tugged gently in the direction of the boat, toward what he hoped would be the beginning of their future together.
Twenty One
His large hands wrapped around her waist and lifted Lilah to the side of the boat. With as much grace as possible, she swung her legs over. He climbed aboard and followed her into the cozy V-berth. The small room in the bow of the ship had thick cushion for a bed and couldn’t have provided a more intimate backdrop for their joining.
She hesitated, suddenly overcome with awkwardness. He slipped in behind her and drew her to him. At the touch of flesh against flesh, all inhibitions fled, and once again she drowned in a sea of bliss.
The pillows pressed against the back of her knees, inviting a more comfortable position. She slipped onto the blue and plaid backdrop, completely at ease with the way his eyes darkened as they feasted on her body.
He joined her and laughed when he bumped his head against the low ceiling. “Small but cozy.”
“There’s nothing small – oh, you mean the room.” She flashed a seductive smile, one she hoped would extend the mood.
“You’re good for my ego,” he admitted, then enveloped her with his embrace. “God, you feel good.”
Soft heat blanketed Lilah’s body until all worries melted away. Nothing mattered except the magical sensations offered by Reece. Any inhibitions she’d entertained fled on a wave of strong desire.
“I want to feel you, taste every inch.”
The pounding of their hearts created one rhythmic beat. His breath caressed her ear. “I imagined us together, like this, from the very beginning, but I never dreamed…”
She placed a single digit against his lips. “Me too.” Craving lips lapped up the flavor of his skin, searing a trail of kisses along his neck and biceps. His groan morphed into a growl, and Reece twisted her body around so her knees drew up against the cushions. At his urging, she leaned back and scooted farther onto the soft foam mattress. He gazed down and fixed on her patch, absorbed what she offered, and as if by instinct alone, his tongue dampened his mouth, while the flow of air in and out of his chest quickened.
Lilah held out both hand and with a pleading tone, “Come to me, please, before I explode. Make my body soar.”
She watched unabashed as he slid the lambskin onto his swollen appendage. The thought of their bodies linked, blending as one, churned her hormones until moisture flowed in preparation for their coupling.
He placed a knee on each side of her hips and bent his head to capture her lips. His slow seductive foreplay primed deep within that special place that had been left untouched for too long.
She cupped his butt, sampled the smooth heat that fit into both hands.
He groaned. “Damn, woman. What are you doing to me?”
She recaptured a single breath to respond. “Loving you.”
He froze and stared into her eyes. “Do you?”
“What?”
“Love me.”
Her hands stilled as she contemplated her feelings for this man. She’d known him for such a short time and yet she felt a connection that surpassed time. Why had it taken so long for her to say the words? “Yes. Yes, I do. Reece, I know we haven’t dated long, but …”
A broad smile transformed his stern features. “I feel the same, Lilah. You’re the one.”
“Show me.” She drew him to her.
He buried all that he was, everything he had, and her body developed a mind of its own. It enveloped all offered by this man. With each probe, her loins quivered with delight, massaged and consumed the furnace burning inside, then pulsed with gratitude for the forgotten sensations.
When the gift of his masculinity withdrew in preparation for the next thrust, her brain screamed in fear he’d changed his mind, would remove the source of her ecstasy, forever.
The experience, the melding of her spirit, intellect, and body lifted Lilah like never before, into the clouds. From above she watched and listened to the writhing lovers as they shared, melted together. Their voices formed a sensual symphony of erotic tones and guttural melodies, and she lost all connection with the world.
Only he, the man soothing, stimulating, tantalizing her flesh existed for her, within her, around her. The purring sound escaping from her throat deepened, merged into a complex string of cries, howls and whimpers, as if a craven beast were begging for an end to its hunger.
“I can’t take any more. Too much pleasure, I can’t…”
He paused movement and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek.
But she didn’t want gentle; she wanted the deep thrusts, the pounding of flesh against flesh that would take her on a journey of forever. “No, no, don’t stop, not yet, please don’t stop.”
His pace accelerated until finally they howled together, like two animals baying in the dark of night at some celestial object.
The intensity elevated to the crest of the mountain, and everything disappeared while they floated as one for an eternity before returning to earth and collapsing in each others’ arms.
Lilah tried to mouth the words, proclaim her emotions but her body refused, exhausted, spend. Instead she could only whisper, “I love you, Reese.”
~ * ~
In the background, around the edge of his senses, a warm soft blanket caressed his skin. The sensation went beyond the typical afterglow and pleasant tingle of spent bliss. Reece’s mind descended from peaceful slumber to a new field of thought, one with certainty, knowledge that someone wanted all that he was, strength and flaws combined. In return, he would commit his heart, his soul and more; whatever she needed on her journey through life.
He felt movement, as if his ear, his neck, the top of his shoulders were being embraced with soft moist lips, and he returned from that limbo state between sleep and consciousness. Reece reached back, rubbed the smooth curved skin of her bare thigh. The emotions, the comfort, the feeling of belonging, echoed the realization he’d found what he thought was impossible, and his mind confirmed;
She’s the one.
He turned his head to find her watching him, her expression pensive. He wanted to wipe the haunted look from her eyes. “What are you thinking about?”
“Besides the most amazing sex I’ve ever experienced?”
“Yeah, besides that.” He laughed.
“My sister, the break-in, the fact that while this was a very nice interlude, I still have demons waiting for me at home.” She turned away, giving him her back. “I’m tired of the media hounding me, and I’m tired of looking over my shoulder for an alleged hit man.”
He propped himself against the side of the boat, a sheet draped loosely over his lap. “Lilah, there are two realignments I want you to make in your perspective.”
“What?”
“You are no longer alone in this, and never will be again. Second, none of this shit was your fault, but what you went through is to be expected from that cesspool of a town.”
“That’s easier to say than to accept.” She rotated and scrambled to sit beside him, the sheet pooling around her lap. “The way they hammered me constantly, insinuated it was my doing, the manner in which…”
He instantly smothered her mouth with his. “No, sweetheart, you must get this straight, it was never you.”
In that moment, she seemed so frail, broken, like that little girl lost in the terminal. The need for his vigor, his reassurances shone within her green orbs and touched a part of his soul he thought dormant. He wrapped an arm about her shoulder and drew her closer.
“Understand, Lilah. There are those that have no qualms about using you as fodder or an excuse to take blame, and the people in DC are replete with that attitude. Washington is a piss hole full of little monkeys in clown suits. They have no idea what this nation is about or needs, but they chatter constantly, blaming everyone else for their own incompetence. You were simply a diversion, an excuse to redirect attention from their ineptness to solve the case. I’m surprised they didn’t threaten to toss you in jail and lose the key.”
“They did, they really did. I was so scared. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but they wouldn’t believe me.”
“I’m not surprised. You were wounded, frail, no political clout, easy pickings for that pack of jackals. I know it sounds insensitive, and I’m sorry about that, but your husband was an ass. No real man treats his wife, or any woman in that manner. My second piece of advice is you vanquish any guilt for his passing; guy was a waste of skin and bone.”
“Did you know him?”
“Only from afar.”
“How?”
Reece scratched three fingers across his forehead a few times. “Back at the bar, when you stated your Ex was a senator, I recalled news reports from one side of the political spectrum that touted the man as a saint, while the other leaked his record of indiscretions and even stories of alleged funds misuse from his campaign account. Fact is, Lilah, I think the party in control wanted to redirect attention from the rumors before the truth came out, and you were just a convenient scapegoat to insert in the crosshairs. They’ve done it before, used someone as a patsy to protect their own interest. Who better to use as a red herring than someone who had no clout to fight back?”