In the Midnight Hour (38 page)

He kissed her again, slower this time, tasting and suckling her tongue until every nerve in her body came alive.

Strong hands roamed over her body, arousing every nerve, making her want and crave him in a way more intense than anything she’d ever felt before. Even the dream. This was Val touching her and loving her, in every sense of the word. She felt the emotion in the reverent way he cradled her breasts, teased her nipples. The way he kissed her neck and rasped his beard-stubbled cheek across her skin, as if he sought to mark her as his.

Then he slid down her sweat-dampened body, his lips closed over her nipple, and he suckled her with a fierce sweetness that actually brought tears to her eyes. His hand swept up the inside of her thigh and he cupped her heat. He trailed a fingertip along the slick, wet folds, before sliding one finger deep, deep inside.

She gasped, arching into his touch, taking as much as he could give while he whispered the sweetest encouragement, telling her how warm and wet she felt, how much he wanted her, urging her to come to him, to let herself go.

And she did, screaming his name as stars exploded behind her eyelids before everything went a shimmering black.

“
You are so beautiful
.” His soft murmur brought her back to life a moment before he settled himself between her parted thighs, his hardness probing the ultrasensitive spot between her legs.

She’d yearned for this moment since he’d first appeared to her, but for all her enthusiasm, she couldn’t help the sudden fear that bolted through her. He was so hard, so hot, so huge. Her eyes snapped open.

This was
it
. The end of the line. Step fifty.

As if he sensed her doubts, he didn’t plunge forward. Rather, he kissed her, his lips as soft and tender as his next words. “
I’ll stop, chérie. I don’t want to, but I will. For you
.” His gaze caught and held hers, and where she’d expected to see the self-assurance of an experienced lover, she saw a hint of uncertainty and dazed awe. “
Anything for you
.”

“No.” Her hands grasped his buttocks when he started to pull away, urging him back until the tip of his erection nestled inside her. “I’m not having second thoughts. I’m just nervous. I don’t know why I’m nervous. I know all the hows. Boy do I ever, after Guidry’s class.” She took a deep, steadying breath. “I know how everything’s done, I’m just afraid you’ll be disappointed. I mean, three hundred and sixty-nine women—”

“
And I cannot remember even one
.”

“But you bragged about your memory. That you knew every name, every face.”

“
I did. Before I met you
.” He shook his head. “
It’s the damndest thing, but try as I might, I haven’t been able to draw forth one single, solitary name. Nor a face. Only you, Rouquin
.” Blue eyes drilled into her. “
You are all I see when I close my eyes, all I smell, all I feel. Just you
.”

“Really?”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “
My word as a gentleman
.”

“Mmm …” She wiggled, her hips drawing him a fraction deeper, feeling herself stretch. He sucked in a sharp breath. “You don’t seem like much of a gentleman right now. Why don’t you come a little closer and let me take a better look?”

He glanced down at his chest, at her breasts crushed beneath his weight. “
I don’t think I can get any closer
, chérie.”

“Did I say closer? I meant deeper.” She grasped his buttocks and spread her legs wider.

Val thrust fast and sure and so deep Ronnie felt as if he were splitting her in two. Then he stilled, his muscles bunched tight beneath her hands, his hard, thick length pulsing inside her.

“
Ssshhh
,” he murmured against her lips, licking at a tear that slid down her cheek. “
No more pain
,” he promised. “
Only pleasure. A lifetime
”, he vowed.

After several frantic heartbeats, the pain receded. Val moved his hips the tiniest bit and heat fluttered through her. She became increasingly aware of the delicious pressure of his sex inside her and she rotated her pelvis, giving him deeper access, begging him for more.

He flexed his buttocks and began to move slowly, penetrating deeply. His hands played over her body, touching and caressing, building the pressure inside her. He sucked and licked her nipples until she was panting and moaning and clinging to him.

This was going to kill her, she quickly decided as sensation spiraled along her nerve endings. Everything good in life turned lethal in the end. Chocolate—disastrous to her hips. Cheesecake—a cholesterol chisel picking at the walls of her arteries. This … ah,
this
… this was so good she was bound to die from the sheer pleasure of it.

The pressure built inside her, like a pot of water just put over the burner. The heat licked at her, pleasure bubbling through her in slow, trickling ripples. Then the bubbles grew in momentum as Val moved inside her, in and out, creating a dizzying friction until it was too much. The pressure too intense. She exploded, heat bursting through her as she cried his name and felt a joy unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.

Val felt her muscles tighten around him, milking him as the ecstasy gripped her. He plunged once, twice, thrice, burying himself to the hilt as he followed her over the edge. Time lost its importance and everything faded away as he held her in his arms and exploded inside her, their hearts thundering in perfect sync.

“
I have never known a woman like you
, Rouquin.” Val lay on his side, his head propped on his elbow as he traced the tip of her breast as if he’d never seen one before. “
Never
.”

“You’re one of a kind, yourself.” She touched his jaw, traced the lines of his face, her breathing still raspy from their recent lovemaking, her body still buzzing from the flood of sensation. “I never thought I’d find someone that I would want to spend the rest of my life with.” She closed her eyes against a sudden blur of tears. “I was so determined not to find someone, so convinced I wanted a career more than domestic bliss.” She sniffled. “Now I’d sell my soul for a little house, a few kids, and a future growing old with you.”

He cupped her face. “
Don’t think past this moment
, chérie.
I’m here with you now. I’m here
.” His hands stroked her body as he sought to wipe the sadness from her face and give her as much happiness as he could. He parted her legs, sweeping a hand upward to cup her. “
I want to be here
,” he murmured, before he dipped his head and replaced his hand with his mouth.

A sob broke from her throat as he kissed and licked and tasted her sweetness. When Val slid up her body, her eyes were bright with passion rather than sadness. “
Shall we have another lesson
, Rouquin?”

She smiled. “I already know the fifty steps.”

“
Then it’s time we moved on to the fifty positions. One down and forty-nine to go
.”

“We don’t have enough time.” A stark expression gripped her face.

“
Perhaps not, but we’ll enjoy the time we do have. Class is in session
.” He rolled over onto his back, pulling her astride him. The tip of his staff probed her passage.
Merde
, she was scorching hot. Drenched. Eager for him. He gripped her hips and pulled her down, embedding himself in one smooth, upward surge.

Her breath caught. Her palms flattened against his chest. Her eyes closed and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth, her body shuddering at the pure pleasure of their coupling.

He reached up to graze the throbbing tip of her breast with his knuckle and her eyelids fluttered open. Gone was the sadness, the worry, the fear. Desire glittered in her eyes. And love, so fierce and consuming that it cinched the air in his chest.

“I’m waiting, teacher,” she breathed. “What next?”

“
Ride me
,” he said, his throat raw with feeling.

She started with a slow rise and fall that sent the blood pounding through his veins until he gripped her hips and urged her higher, faster, until she screamed his name, the tight muscles of her sheath convulsing around him. Val followed her, his release violent, potent, as he bucked beneath her, gripping her hips, anchoring her to him as he spilled himself deep inside her.

She collapsed atop him and he held her. And despite his fervent vow to hold the moment, he couldn’t help but wonder how he would ever find the strength to let her go.

And then he wept, because, strength or not, he would have to.

It was nearly time.

Val stood at the open French doors and stared at the darkened street. Just this side of three a.m., there was little activity. The occasional bark of a dog, the passing blur of headlights as a car sped by.

The clock tick-tocked away and Val closed his eyes. Anger welled up inside him. But far greater than his resentment at finding his one true love when he had but a few blissful moments to give her, was the gratitude he felt at having found her at all. A lifetime he’d lived, and he’d never known the joy he’d felt in the past few weeks, the past few moments.

“Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” Ronnie’s voice whispered over his shoulder, and he turned to find her standing behind him, an oversized T-shirt molded to her lush, naked body. She sniffled and wiped at a tear that squeezed past her lashes. “I keep telling myself that.”

“
It is true
, chérie.” He pulled her into his arms and gave her a long, hungry kiss before settling her back against him, his arms circling her waist as they stared out at the street below.

Ronnie closed her hands over Val’s, holding tight. As if by holding on to him, she could keep him here, in her arms, her life, for a few minutes longer.

Forever, her soul cried.
Forever
.

The clock ticked away in the background, each second thundering through her head, taunting her. She fought against the dread welling inside her, the sadness, and instead relished the feel of Val’s warm arms, the solid strength behind her.

A blaze of headlights cut through the night as a car turned the corner and rolled down the street. Ronnie watched as Professor Guidry’s Volvo rolled to a stop in his driveway. He gathered his books and climbed out of the car. Obviously a late night at the campus. Very late, but then, he was notorious for his dedication to the Thursday-night experiments.

She concentrated on the slap of his footsteps rather than on the clock, anything to distract her from the time, to keep her from turning and burying her head in the crook of Val’s shoulder and begging him to stay.

It would do no good because leaving wasn’t his choice, and she didn’t want to make things any harder. He had to leave—

Cuckoo
. The clock sounded just as Guidry’s voice split open the silent night.

“Damn it!” the professor bellowed as his foot slipped on the steps and he pitched forward. Papers flew as he scrambled to catch his balance.

Cuckoo
.

He recovered himself and jerked upright. His head smashed into the doorknob, he grunted, and his knees buckled.

“Prof—” Ronnie started to cry out, her voice drowned in the third and final
cuckoo
.

The noise faded into quiet, and Ronnie realized Val’s arms were no longer around her, his strength was no longer at her back. She jerked around and saw nothing but her dimly lit apartment.

The clock had struck three a.m., and Val was gone.

Chapter Twenty-one

“No,” Ronnie breathed, fighting the truth. It couldn’t be! A coldness wrapped around her, tightened until she couldn’t breathe. She struggled for air; her fingers clutched at the door as her knees buckled.
No!
her mind screamed over and over.
Don’t let this be happening. Don’t let it be real. Don’t let him be gone. Please!

She sank to the floor, her throat burning, tears streaming down her cheeks.
No!

But all the denial in the world couldn’t change anything. Val
was
gone, and Ronnie was alone.

The sound of doors slamming finally penetrated her misery and she turned in time to see the lights flick on next door to Guidry’s house. Ronnie took one look at the professor’s limp body sprawled on the front stoop and panic bolted through her, shoving aside the anger and despair long enough to force her to her feet.

Nine-one-one
, her brain screamed.
Nine-one-one!

A half hour later, standing near the curb wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, Ronnie watched the paramedics load an unconscious Guidry into a waiting ambulance. He’d taken a nasty hit on the head and suffered a concussion, but at least he was alive.

The knowledge stuck in her mind as she walked back to her apartment. Once inside, however, she discarded any thoughts about Guidry’s welfare. She simply stood there, staring at the chaos. The rumpled bed. Her discarded clothes lying here and there. Her books in disarray atop her desk. The entire place was a mess, the way it had been before Val had come into her life.

She sank down on the edge of the bed and touched the indentation where he’d lain. She could smell him, see him, but she couldn’t
feel
him.