Into Thin Air (39 page)
She gulped.
"Of course," he said, biting her earlobe, "you once claimed that
a wall would do."
"Uh-huh," she said, bending her neck to the right, just a bit, in case he had trouble finding it.
He didn't.
Pulling her earlobe gently between his teeth, he kissed, painfully slow, the sensitive area below it.
While his fingers were big, they were far from clumsy as he continued to drag his lips across her neck, and he loosened every satin-covered button on the front of her gown. His hands skimmed the burgundy silk covering her stomach, on either side of her ribs, and the outer curves of her breasts.
He was driving her crazy.
"Help me out of this gear, girl," he said, his accent heavy. " 'Twould take me far longer by myself."
First came his sword and belt, which he propped up against the window. Then the black tunic, which she helped him lift over his head and lay, alongside the sword and belt, on the floor. Next came his hose pants, or leggings, and he kicked off his boots and spurs.
"So," Ellie said, her eyes growing heavy with desire,
"that's
what a knight wears under his mail."
Gawan grinned. "Aye. One doesn't wish for certain parts to be pinched between the steel."
"Ouch," Ellie said, smiling. "Come here, warlord."
And he did, and then all of Ellie's confident humor vanished as Gawan finished removing her burgundy gown. He dropped it to the floor.
He stared at her heaving breasts, which were accentuated by the corset.
With a slowness that made Ellie's breath catch, Gawan traced the silky material just at the swell of her breasts, and then followed the boning to her hips. When he looked up, his eyes all but burned with passion.
He muttered something to her in Welsh, and Ellie had no clue what he'd said. It sounded pretty good.
Reaching behind his head, in a totally male fashion, he pulled his undershirt over and off, and tossed it on the floor.
Loose, long curls fell over his shoulders, swarthy skin covered rock-hard muscles, and those ancient battle markings crossed his chest, down his arms, and, she knew if she looked behind him, down his back. Her fingers itched to touch him.
As her corset came loose, Gawan dropped it to the floor, only to frown when he saw yet more undergarments to rid her of: her bra and panties.
But instead of ridding her of them, he pulled her against him, one hand splayed across her back, the other buried in her hair, and he angled her head just so, traced her bottom lip with his thumb, then replaced it with his mouth.
Fully alive, not In-Betwinxt, Ellie's entire body tingled with new sensations, and she threaded her fingers through his soft hair and kissed him back. Although there was a slight scruff to his cheeks, his lips were soft and pliable, and they left nothing of her untasted. When their tongues brushed together and he skimmed her breast with callused hands, she nearly came unglued.
Slowly, they moved backward, and Ellie's fingers trailed down Gawan's stomach, where she reveled in every muscle etched there, a series of ridges placed there by the vigorous swinging of a heavy sword.
And the farther down her hand trailed over that skin and rock, the more desperate his kisses became.
While still standing, Gawan stopped long enough to shed what Ellie would laughingly later refer to as his
warrior's drawers,
and then pull her down atop him, amidst the soft down blankets and pillows piled high in that antique lighthouse.
Heat shot through Ellie's body as Gawan's hands deftly found, released, and discarded first her bra, then her panties, and his hands left not a single inch of her body unexplored. He kissed her hungrily everywhere, always ending back at her mouth, yet he took an exquisite, lingering taste of her lips, of her tongue, and of that crazy corner of her mouth that had marked her for eternity as his Intended.
No words were needed between them, only their senses, and as he moved over her, he braced himself with one arm, leaving the other to touch her everywhere, and the heat rushing through her made her squirm beneath him, until finally, he lowered his head, took her mouth in a sensual kiss, and entered her in a fierce claim, muscles hard, body taut, deliciously
right.
For a moment, he held still, fully inside her, looking deep into her eyes. "I saw you, for a split second in the hospital," his voice rasped, heavy with passion. "You looked at me, too, just before ..."
Ellie wrapped her legs around his waist tightly, Gawan filling her even more, and she dragged a finger across his scruffy cheeks, his chin, and then his lips. She met his steady, darkened gaze. "I saw you, too. And I saw us."
He kissed her then, long, slow.
"Cara 'ch,
my wife." His voice was a hoarse whisper.
And he moved, slow at first, then uncontrolled, starved, and Ellie held on until the climax claimed her, so intense she arched, her fingers buried in Gawan's back.
His release rocked her at the same time, overpowering, and his body shook with it.
Gawan slowed then, his breath as ragged as hers, and as the remnants of their climax eased, he remained inside her, his body braced above her, beautiful brown eyes staring down at her.
"I've waited for you, Ellie of Aquitaine, now of Conwyk, for nigh on a thousand years." He kissed her then, slow, his tongue brushing hers gently. "I'll love you forever."
Wrapping her arms around Gawan of Conwyk, Ellie pulled him back for another kiss. Her very own Junior Warlord. Angel Extraordinaire. Her beloved Intended.
She looked at him, and the love she saw in his eyes made her heart tremble with joy. "I'll love you for Infinity."
And she did.
Into Thin Air
Copyright © Cindy Homberger, 2007
ISBN: 978-0451222626
SIGNET ECLIPSE
First Printing, November 2007