Island Heat (A Sexy Time Travel Romance With a Twist) (17 page)

Good Lord above, the man had gone and risked his neck just to get me another cat. I continued to stroke the soft fur of the kitten, who now purred against my neck, burrowing for warmth against my hair. Fear, love, and outrage warred within me. Fear for Salvador’s safety, and how far he’d take this ‘courting’ thing – love for him, that he’d go so far and risk so much just to bring a smile to my face.

Outrage trumped them both. The man – no, the
idiot
– had put himself in serious danger just to get me a present and to prove a point.

Olivia’s giggles of delight interrupted my rapidly blackening thoughts. “His whiskers tickle,” she said happily. “Oh, thank you, Eustace!” She gave him a one armed hug of delight, cradling the kitten with the other.

He smiled down at his sister, and I noticed Salvador watching me, waiting for his adoring affection as I appreciated his present.

I extracted the tiny, mewing kitten from my shoulder and handed it over to Olivia. “If you will excuse me for a minute, I need to talk to Salvador alone,” I said, maintaining my composure before stalking away to the far end of the cave and slinging the curtain of Salvador’s room shut behind me.

It took longer than I thought for Salvador to come after me, but he limped in soon enough, a stony look on his face. “Eustace and Olivia have gone down to the bathing pool with the cats. They thought we needed some time alone.”

I took one look at him, at his unapologetic face, and reached out and slapped him.

Crack.

No sooner had my hand connected with his cheek, than I burst into tears and collapsed on the bedding in noisy sobs. All the tension in my body, all the tension over the past few weeks, the sexual frustration between myself and Salvador, had culminated in that one heart-stopping, terrifying moment when I saw his bloody body pulled up on the platform, and thought I couldn’t breathe.

Somewhere along the lines, somewhere between dragging my feet and screaming about how I hated this island, I’d gone and fallen in love with the big Spanish galoot.

And he’d just about scared me to death.

I sobbed on the blanket, big, noisy sobs, angry at myself as much as him. It was stupid to get so frightened, and stupid of him to risk his life, all for a stupid courting present.

Within moments, he was down beside me on the furs, hugging me against his chest, and I was enveloped in the scent of masculine sweat and the unique, warm smell of Salvador. “Diana,” he soothed, stroking my hair and saying my name in that wildly sexy accented way of his. “I am sorry,
belleza
. I thought you would care for the small cat. I only wanted to make you smile, not cry.”

“How can you risk your life like that?” I cried, turning in to face his chest and slamming a fist against his breastbone weakly. “How can you even think of doing such a thing? You’d leave me here, stuck without you, for eternity?” I sobbed at the very thought, so choked with fear. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

His fingers brushed my cheeks. “You would survive, little
belleza
. You are a strong woman. Come, do not be so afraid for me.”

I resisted the urge to hit him again. “How can I not be afraid for you?” I sniffed loudly, the sound echoing in the small, quiet room. “I’ve fallen in love with you, you big idiot.”

There, I’d said it. It hung open in the air between us, and I felt acutely vulnerable.

“You love me?” He said, his voice husky with surprise. A pause, then, “Or do you simply say that because I am the only man on the island?”

The clever man was turning my own words against me. I had to laugh at that, my tears drying in the light of his radiant smile. He looked so happy that I felt my anger withering away, replaced with something a bit hotter – desire. I turned in his arms, giving him a rough shove backwards onto the blankets. “If you don’t believe my confessions of love, perhaps I should show you?”

“I think I need a demonstration,” he agreed, laying backward, his hands sliding over my hips.

My mouth descended on his in the briefest of kisses. “We’re alone?” I asked against his lips.

“Harold is on the far side of the cave and asleep in his den, and the other two are gone for a few hours,” he said thickly, grasping my hips and sliding them down his torso to cradle them against his own. “It is just you and me.”

“Well, my sexy conquistador,” I said, leaning over him and letting my nipples brush against his chest through my blouse, and feeling the sharp intake of his breath as I straddled him and his hardness. “You said you would not take me until I asked you for it, yes?” Deliberately being teasing, I rotated my hips against his erection in a deliberate, teasing motion.

His low groan excited me, and I felt his fingers clench hard on my hips. “Yes,” he said in his too-proper, thickly accented English. My heart swelled with love for this man. I knew at that moment that I could rub against him all day like a cat in heat, and he’d do nothing more than give me my pleasure and ignore his own.

He loved me enough to forsake his own needs, even after going four hundred and eighty-nine years without a woman. Wasn’t that the ultimate in love?

I stroked my tongue across his mouth suggestively. “Salvador Diego de la Cuerva,” I said huskily. “I want you. I want you to take me now and make me yours.”

He stilled beneath me. “You said you wished to be married—“

I ground my hips against his erection. “I love you. You love me. There is no priest on this island. Would you marry me?”

“You know I would.” His voice sounded strained in the darkness.

“I’d marry you too. Now, can we get on with the wedding night?” I kissed him, hard and full on the mouth, my tongue just ever-so-slightly stroking into his mouth in a tease.

He groaned and flipped us both over in the rugs, and suddenly I was on my back beneath him, and his body was over mine. “This is what you want?” The crux of his hips pressed against mine, his cock hard against the vee of my thighs, leaving no doubt as to what he suggested.

In response, I twined my arms around his neck and drew his face down to mine again. “More than anything.”

The kiss was soft, slow, lingering, full of promise. I wanted more than just that – we’d been teasing each other with stolen kisses for weeks, and the interlude in the nest made me hungry for more. So I pressed my hips up against his suggestively. “Maybe we take these clothes off?”

The next few minutes were a flurry of undressing – me first, since mine were easier to shuck, and then when I was naked, I reached for his breechcloth. He hesitated for a moment, and I knew he was thinking about asking me again if I was certain, so I reached for the knife he kept strapped to his back and pulled it out. “Hold still so I can cut this thing off of you.”

He chuckled, closing a hand over mine. “That is not necessary, Diana.”

“Better safe than sorry,” I said, unwilling to give an inch. “I’m not letting you stop this again.”

But I let him pry the knife out of my hands, and in the next moment, I heard the sharp snap of cloth knots ripping, and warm fabric fell against my leg. I slid my hands experimentally downward, looking for his body in the dark, and my hands met with nothing but smooth, hard buttock. I gave a sigh of delight at that. “You feel wonderful.”

He pressed his hot length against my sex, rubbing against the curls there and burying his face in my neck. “So do you.”

I dug my fingernails into his back. “Now you’re just teasing me.”

Salvador hissed with pain at my touch.

I remembered the scratches and let go. “Sorry—“

He rolled his hips against mine in a delicious surge, and the rest of the apology escaped my head, and I lost track of everything but the delicious feel of his body wedged against mine. “
Belleza
,” he said against my throat, breathing heavily. “I do not think I can go slow...once we start.”

He was asking me if it was okay to lose control. I smiled into the darkness and lifted my legs around his hips in response, opening fully to him. My hands went to his shoulders once more, pulling him down on top of me. “I want you, Salvador,” I said. “Fast or slow.”

Salvador gave a thick groan, and I felt the head of his erection poised against the entrance of my body, and I shuddered with anticipation. It felt like I’d been waiting forever for this.

Then in one swift motion, Salvador buried his cock in my body, and I gasped at the mix of pain and pleasure that shot through me. He groaned as if he were the one in pain, and I loosened my grip on his shoulders – I hadn’t realized I was digging my fingernails in again. “Sorry,” I said again, sliding my fingers up to twine in his hair.

He didn’t respond, just withdrew slowly, slowly, and then thrust hard back into me again. This time, I was ready for the feeling, and my gasp of pleasure turned into a low moan of my own. I locked my legs around his hips and rose them to meet his next thrust, encouraging him with my body.

Still, he paused again, and the wonderful sensations ebbed away, and I began to wonder if something was wrong. Oh Lord, what if he was upset that I wasn’t a virgin? “I’m sorry,” I blurted out suddenly. “I’m sorry I’m not a virgin.”

“
Belleza
,” he said, his voice exasperated and straining, “Quit apologizing to me.”

“Then quit stopping,” I said, lifting my hips to grind suggestively. “I want this, Salvador! Stop torturing me.”

With that, he lost all control. I heard a low growl in his throat, and he thrust into me roughly, to my vast delight. I loved the feel of him on me, and encouraged it when he thrust hard and rough again. This was what I wanted, all of him, losing control. I wanted to see him as wild as he made me. My hands slid down to his buttocks and I clenched them, trying to drive him deeper into me with every thrust, encouraging him with low, hoarse cries of his name.

Harder and harder, faster and faster, Salvador thrust into me, to the point where I was no longer actively encouraging him to lose control, but had lost it myself. My sharp, high little cries of pleasure filled the small cave surrounding us, but I couldn’t stop, no more than he could stop his endless, frenzied thrusting into my body. My hips met his with each motion, and I could hear him growl my name on his lips with every hard rocking motion that made me quiver.

Though we’d had little-to-no foreplay, I’d long since become lost in the sensations of Salvador’s body rocking into mine, and my body tightened on its way to climax. When I shattered, I didn’t care that I was digging my fingernails into the furrowed scratches on his shoulder, or that I was yelling something like “Oh God!” into his ear at the top of my lungs, or that anyone might have heard it. All I knew was that moment, when Salvador thrust into me again and tore me over that edge into bliss.

He followed not two moments later, with a rough jerky thrust and a shout of his own.

I came down after a time, panting, realizing that Salvador had collapsed on top of me – his weight was delicious – and that from the force of our pounding, the blankets had been shoved completely behind us and my head was wedged rather uncomfortably against the rock wall of the cave. Still, Salvador’s breath brushed gently against my nipple, and I didn’t have the heart to disturb him. Instead of complaining, I just wrapped my arms around him and basked in my happiness.

“I love you, Diana,” he said quietly into the darkness.

“I love you too,” I said, my heart swelling in my breast, and I meant it.

*** *** ***

When Eustace and Olivia didn’t return right away, we tidied the small bed and then dropped right back into it, under the covers this time, and spent a long, slow afternoon exploring each other and making love. I bathed his lovely body with a damp cloth, mindful of his scratches, and just that simple act was enough to get me all bothered once more, especially when he spent the entire time trying to kiss every inch of my skin, until we were both breathless with the wonder of it all. When we heard Eustace and Olivia return, I was in the middle of a raging climax, and my cries were swallowed by Salvador’s mouth, and in turn, I swallowed his when he came a moment later.

We lay panting in each other’s arms as quietly as possible, still dazed from the sensations.

“Salvador! Diana,” I heard Olivia’s feet pat on the cave floor as she ran towards our room, and as one we both ducked for the blankets. “You should come and see the kittens! They’re so –“

“Livvy!” Eustace’s voice was sharp, nearly strangled. “Let them have their privacy. They’ll come out soon enough.” Lord, but the man sounded embarrassed. No doubt he was imagining all the dirty, smutty things we were doing to each other behind the curtain.

And he’d have been right.

I thought their return might be an end to our playful, sensual afternoon, but to my surprise, Salvador began to kiss me again.

“But, the others,” I said, nearly losing my mind when he slid his hand between us and coaxed the sensitive bud between my legs. A startled, gasping moan broke my lips and Salvador shushed me with a kiss. “They will not enter our room,
belleza
.”

There was a certain dangerous, exciting element to making love in the cave with the others just a short span of rock away, and the third time I climaxed, I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood, and when Salvador came down to kiss me, I bit his too.

“You are like a little wildcat,” he teased me in my ear later, as we lay recovering.

“Wildcat!” I said, sitting up and clutching the blankets around me. “My kitten!” I could hear Olivia’s giggles of delight from the far end of the cave and I gave Salvador a kiss of happiness. “Thank you for my present, love, though I’ll kill you if you ever try something so dangerous again.”

His hands slid around my waist, caressing my flesh even as I tried to dress. The man couldn’t seem to get enough now that we’d broken the dam of his reticence. “It wasn’t dangerous.”

I snorted. “Says the man covered in cat scratches and with a twisted ankle. Tell me again it’s not dangerous?”

“It is not,” he insisted, “Unless one startles the cat.” The slow, deliberate way he said it made me pause, and I looked over at him.