The rain tapping at the windows was like background music now. The ticking of the clock on the mantel in the parlor could be heard faintly over their harsh breathing and the pounding of their hearts.
At last he set her down. Then he pulled her close and hugged her tight. He was amazed that she was so slight. His arms encompassed her with room to spare. He planted a tender kiss on the crown of her head.
Wordlessly taking her hand, he led her toward the stairs. He went ahead, but kept his eyes on her as they made the long, slow climb to the second story. He pulled her inside his bedroom and pushed the door closed, shutting the world out. Leaving her to stand in the middle of the room, he went to the bed and turned it down. Then he extended his hand to her and nodded toward the bed.
“We have to talk,” she said huskily.
“No, we don’t.”
Slowly he began unbuttoning his shirt. Rana’s breasts ached with reawakening desire. He peeled the shirt off and tossed it heedlessly onto the floor. Hooking his thumbs in the waistband of his jeans, he pulled them down.
When he straightened up, he was naked. And splendid. He came swaggering toward her across the shadowy room. The watery light from the windows cast beguiling, fluid shadows over his nakedness. She wanted him again.
Her arms dangled loosely at her sides, a testimony to her compliance. Without a word he pulled her unbuttoned blouse from the waistband of her skirt. It joined his shirt on the floor. He eased the straps of her slip down her arms and lowered it as far as her waist. His hands made one tender pass across her breasts. He dipped his head and touched the crest of one with his tongue; then, because it performed with such feminine beauty, he dallied there longer than he had planned.
“ Trent,” she gasped when she felt her knees about to buckle beneath her.
“Shhh.”
He unbuttoned her skirt with dispatch and pulled it and the slip down to the floor. They faced each other naked. He swept her up in his arms and deposited her lovingly on the bed, then followed her down, covering her.
She welcomed his weight. It pressed her into the mattress, and she loved the feeling. He was hard and heavy. She ran her hands down the supple expanse of his back and over his buttocks. She’d never had access to a man like this before. His sheer masculinity was a curiosity she wanted to explore and examine. Playfully she dug her short nails into his buttocks, and he grinned.
She kissed him. Wantonly.
He kissed her. Wetly.
He slid his tongue in and out of her mouth until she was breathless. “Still want to talk?” he drawled as his parted lips meandered over her neck and chest.
“We should.” She moaned when he covered her nipple with his mouth, rubbed it with his tongue.
“You’ve never learned to relax, Miss Ramsey.”
He moved lower, kissing her stomach as he went. She shivered with carnal delight. His tongue dipped into her navel, laved it thoroughly.
“ Trent?”
“Hm?”
Instinctively she drew her knees up. He positioned himself between them.
“We really should-”
His next caress was so giving, so unselfish, it stopped her words… her heart.
“This is what we should be doing,” he whispered against her softness. “And I intend to go on doing it for a long, long time.”
Seven
“You never did tell me where Ruby is.”
He shifted his long legs beneath the sheets and found a warmer spot next to hers. “You didn’t ask.” He butted his nose against her jaw.
“I did so.”
“You did I must have had my mind on something else.”
“All you said was that we were alone.”
“Good thing, too.” He chuckled before his mouth settled on hers for a deep, satisfying kiss. “I’m sure that hallway has never seen such excitement.”
She yanked on a chest hair, and he yelped. They laughed together, and when their laughter subsided he said, “Auntie left this morning to sit with a sick friend. She said she might not return until tomorrow. So,” he said, dragging out the word, “tonight we have the whole house to ourselves.”
“But we’re not using the whole house, only this bed.”
“That’s the general idea.”
Their lips met. The kiss was soft and sweet. His lips plucked at hers, and they responded. “I never imagined that I’d be with you this way,” she whispered against his mouth.
“I imagined it. A lot.”
“Well, actually I did imagine it. I just… Oh, you know what I mean.”
“I couldn’t imagine you this way.” He ran his hands over her hips caressingly.
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn’t imagine what your body was like beneath your clothes. I confess that one of my better-developed talents is being able to undress a woman with my eyes.” He frowned. “I couldn’t even begin to undress you, and it drove me nuts. I wanted to know what you were like naked.” His hands moved to her breasts and kneaded them lovingly. “I am delightfully surprised.”
Moving lower, he began loving her breasts with his mouth. Rana laid her hands on either side of his head. His hard jaw was getting bristly from his beard. It rasped pleasantly against her skin.
The rain continued through the night, and so did their lovemaking. Surely no two human beings had ever been more physically compatible. His slightest touch awakened a vibrant sexuality that she hadn’t known she possessed. They made love repeatedly. The mood and tempo varied, but his body never failed to bring hers to a pinnacle of sensation and satisfaction.
Gradually she was overcoming her shyness with him. At first she had been hesitant to initiate anything, even to touch him.
“Lay your hands on my chest,” he urged breathlessly when he surprised her by rolling her atop him. “Touch me. Please touch me.”
She did as he asked, though her touch was tentative. Then she felt the beating of his heart against her palm and she allowed herself to do what she had wanted to do many times. Her hands thoroughly explored his chest. Her fingers combed through the dense hair and investigated the nipples until he was gasping and writhing beneath her.
She could feel him, full and hard, against her middle, and she wanted to know him in the most intimate way. Moving aside, she knelt over him and touched him with her mouth. Trent uttered a hoarse cry. He wound handfuls of her hair around his fists. Her lips and tongue tested his strength delicately, until he could bear no more, and positioned her over him again.
And just when Rana thought there was no more to learn, he would introduce her to an entirely new erotic experience.
Only once during the night were they out of harmony with each other, and that was when he reached for the lamp on the bedside table.
“No!” She reacted violently, and drew the sheet up over herself.
His amazement showed. “But I want to see you,” he explained tenderly. “I want to see us together.”
“No, please, Trent. If you want me to stay, leave the light off.”
“I don’t understand.” He didn’t. Up until that moment, she had demonstrated a willingness for them to express their mutual feelings in any way. Why the aversion to having the light on? He took her in his arms. “You’re beautiful. I can feel how beautiful you are. Let me see you.”
She snuggled her face against his chest, loving the way its forest of hair felt against her cheeks and lips. “Please, Trent. I like it better dark. Please.”
She knew that her hair was tousled, wild, and abandoned, the way it had often been photographed. Her glasses were still downstairs in her purse. And though she had gained some weight, her body would look much as it did in print ads and commercials, because cameras added pounds.
Tonight was so special. He was loving her without any thought of her appearance. She didn’t want to spoil it by risking discovery now.