„Raven,“ Janna said raggedly, feeling his tongue in slow, honeyed caresses that unraveled her. „Raven.“
„Yes,“ he said as triumph flared heavily through him. „Like that. Call my name while I love you. When you say it like that it makes me want – everything. With you. Here. Now. Forever.“
Janna clung to Raven and called his name in a husky, helpless litany of love while he cherished her. When she could no longer stand he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the small bedroom. Very gently he put her on the dark bedspread and then simply stood next to her, his clear black eyes watching her flushed body as though he had never seen a woman before.
„Raven?“ she asked in a trembling voice.
Without looking away from Janna, Raven began to undress. „I’m going to love you,“ he said deeply. „I’m going to love you until I’m the only thing in the world to you, until my name is the only word you can remember, until you’re crying for me with every breath you take. I’m going to watch your eyes change to silver when I slide into you and you come apart beneath me. Then I’m going to lick the tears from your face and begin all over again.“
The hot, nearly savage certainty in Raven’s eyes was reflected in his hard flesh as he knelt over her, touching her, loving her. Janna tried to speak but could not, for her body had been taken from her at his first intimate caress. She tried to speak again, but all that came out was a primitive sound of pleasure that made him smile.
And then the only sound in the room was Janna’s voice calling his name in a husky, helpless love song for the raven who did not love her in return.
Chapter 9
On the last day of August Janna awoke slowly, rubbing her cheek against the resilient wall of muscle that was Raven’s chest. He made a sound of sleepy contentment, cuddled her even closer and fell back asleep between one breath and the next. Janna nuzzled Raven’s warm skin contentedly but didn’t go back to sleep herself. She hadn’t wanted to sleep at all last night after they had come back from their trip to the Yakoon River. She hadn’t wanted to waste a single instant of what might be her last hours with Raven.
Today she was going to tell him that she loved him. Today she hoped that he would accept her love rather than tenderly denying it. Today he would either love her in return or she would have to leave – for Janna knew if she stayed any longer with Raven she wouldn’t be able to leave him. She wasn’t even sure that she could go now. She only knew that she had to try. She loved Raven far too much to burden him with a woman and an emotion that he didn’t want.
Surely he loves me, if only a little, Janna thought, pressing her cheek into Raven’s abundant warmth. No man who didn’t love just a little could be so gentle, so passionate, so pleased just to be with me.
Raven made no secret of his pleasure in Janna’s company. Even though she had pointed out that Angel and Hawk had come to the Queen Charlottes to see Raven, not a strange woman, he had ignored Janna’s protests. He was rarely beyond her reach and was never beyond the sound of her voice. She fell asleep with the taste of him on her lips and the warmth of him within her, and she awoke to the feel of his heartbeat beneath her cheek and the heat of his body pressed full-length against hers.
She had sat in Raven’s lap and whispered frumious nonsense in his ear and had heard his deep laughter mingling with her own. She had gone to the legendary Tlell River and seen fishermen pull shining salmon from whiskey-colored water that was as clear and wild as a hawk’s eyes. She had seen gusts of wind swirl over river and sea, brushing the water’s surface with quicksilver designs. She had heard gulls wheel and keen on the leading edge of a storm, birds crying their need to the careless sky. She had stood on the banks of the Yakoon River and seen a spruce tree burning like a golden flame against the primeval green of the forest. There was no other tree of its kind on earth. Not one. Unique, alone, living in an untamed Eden. Janna had wept to see Raven and the golden spruce together, their power and their isolation complete.
And always, always, whether on the sea or in the forest, Janna had sensed in the primal silence the returning echoes of a raven’s lonely cry.
She knew only one way to reach into that isolation, to answer that searching cry. Yet each time she had tried to tell Raven of her love he had taken the words from her lips, the breath from her body and he had substituted his own sensual words, his own breath in her body until he became part of her once more and she could say only his name, feel only his power within her, know only him and the elemental ecstasy he brought to her.
The thought that she might never again know that shimmering flight in Raven’s arms made Janna close her eyes in silent pain. With a deep, slow breath she fought back the sadness, for she had promised herself that this day would be as perfect as she could make it. There would be no tears, no wounded dreams crying to be made whole. There would be only laughter and companionship and the haunting, bittersweet beauty of one final day in Eden.
And at the end of that day she would tell Raven that she loved him. At the end of that day she would know whether he loved her in return.
Janna kissed the muscular warmth of Raven’s chest, nuzzling the vaguely curly wedge of hair that tickled her nose. She discovered the dark disk of his nipple just within reach of her tongue. She circled the sensitive flesh, enjoying the taste and texture of Raven. It was delicious to have him all to herself, to slowly awaken him as he had always awakened her – deep within the hot, silken web of his sensuality, fully aroused by erotic sensations that were both dreamlike and very real, flying even higher as he merged with her and brought her the ecstasy that came only on the glittering black wings of a wild raven.
Now it was Janna’s turn to savor the sleeping power of the man she loved. She might never have another chance to awaken Raven with slow, hot caresses. She might never again know the pleasure of bringing him from sleep into ecstasy.
Janna eased aside the bedcovers and looked at Raven’s naked, beautifully masculine body. She knelt over him as her fingertips smoothed each ridge and swell of muscle, her touch soothing, encouraging him to remain within his dreams. He shifted beneath her caresses, responding even in his sleep, moving closer to the warm hands stroking him. Smiling, wondering what his dreams were like at the moment, Janna tasted Raven’s skin with slow, catlike touches of her tongue while her palms savored the heat and muscular lines of his torso. As she nibbled and softly nipped her way from his chin to his hips, she sensed him awakening. The tip of her tongue circled his navel and then filled it with hot, delicate caresses.
Beneath Janna’s hands Raven’s thighs were hard, corded with muscle, powerful even when relaxed. The dense thatch of hair that lay between was an irresistible lure to her. She eased her fingers into it, seeking and finding all the changing textures of his masculinity. The differences between his body and her own fascinated her. She cherished those differences with her fingertips, her palms, her hands holding and caressing him as he changed to meet her touch. His potency compelled her in an elemental way. She wanted to know him with the same searing, wild intimacy with which he had known her.
„You’re fishing in rocky waters again,“ Raven rumbled, his tone both amused and thick with arousal.
„Yes,“ Janna said, cradling his very different flesh in her hands, „I know. This time, I know.“
Raven smiled as he remembered the first time they had awakened in bed together, when Janna hadn’t recognized the distinctive male flesh rising hard and hot beneath her hand.
„I want to… touch you,“ she said softly, caressing him. „Do you mind?“