The Bronzed Hawk (12 page)

They had become so close in the last few days that she’d absorbed an incredible amount of information about his character without really thinking about it. His intelligence went without saying, but she had also found him courageous, patient, and incredibly tolerant. Though some of their experiences had been terrifying, she realized to her amazement that she had never once really regretted her decision to come with Nick. In fact, she knew now that when he was no longer with her, the days would prove to be dull and zestless.

Zestless? She shook her head, as the thoughts running through her head took on a frightening significance. She had always enjoyed life to the hilt, seeing each new day as an adventure. Now she was admitting to herself that because one Nick O’Brien might someday walk away, that he could turn that adventure into a desolate wasteland. How could the absence of one man make such a staggering difference?

“I couldn’t wait any longer,” Nick said huskily. She hadn’t been aware of the door opening, but there he stood in the doorway. He was lithe and muscular, strong and virile. And the expression on his dark, lean face was beautifully taut and hungry. And then she knew the answer to all the questions that she had been asking herself.

She leaped to her feet and grabbed at the bedpost to steady herself, for she was suddenly dizzy with the knowledge that had burst on her like an exploding nova.

O’Brien closed the door behind him and then turned to look at her as she stood by the bed clutching the carved bedpost tightly, her whole body tense and poised as if to fly away. The
flickering glow of the candle explicitly outlined her small figure in the sheer gauze gown. “Lord, you’re beautiful!”

It was only after he had crossed the few yards separating them that he noticed the strange startled look in her wide green eyes. She was staring up at him as if he were a terrifying stranger.

A frown darkened his face. “What’s wrong? God help you if you’ve changed your mind, Kelly. I’ve just about reached the end of my patience.”

She shook her head, and her long lashes lowered to mask her eyes. She took one step forward and pressed herself to his lean, hard body, slipping her arms about his waist and nestling her head like a loving child against his chest. “No, I haven’t changed my mind,” she whispered, her words muffled.

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked in exasperation. His arms went automatically around her and absently began rubbing her back through the thin cotton. “Why the hell were you looking at me like that?”

She wanted to answer,
Because I looked at you
and suddenly realized that I love you. Because I’m scared to death thinking of life without you
. Instead, she nestled deeper in his arms and said, “I guess you startled me when you came in. I wasn’t expecting you yet. And this gown isn’t exactly modest—perhaps I’m a little embarrassed.”

“You have no need to be. You look like a very erotic Egyptian princess,” he said thickly, his hands sliding down to cup her buttocks and press her up to his aroused loins. “
Very
erotic.”

Kelly gasped as she felt his hardness through the thinness of the gown. It was as if she were naked, she thought. Then her lips curved wryly as she realized that this was almost the case. “For a man with total recall, that simile is pretty far off the mark,” she said faintly, as his lips grazed her temple in a kiss as light as the brush of rose petals. “I don’t think there are any blond Egyptians.”

His lips moved down to nibble delightfully at her earlobe. “There are, you know,” he said absently. “As a matter of fact, there’s a band of Bedouins—”

He was abruptly silenced as she turned her head swiftly and closed his lips in a kiss of lingering sweetness. “Shut up,” she whispered. “I don’t give a damn about your blasted Bedouins.”

He chuckled, his blue eyes twinkling. “You shouldn’t be so narrow-minded, love,” he said softly, as he nibbled at her lower lip. “There’s something you can learn from every culture. Remind me to tell you about some of the Bedouin’s unique sexual practices.” His lips parted hers, and his tongue began a hot, leisurely exploration that caused her body to arch against his and a low moan to start in her throat. His hands moved around to caress her breasts through the thin gauze, and the combination of his hard hands and the abrasiveness of the gauze aroused her even more. “On second thought, I’ll demonstrate them,” he said hoarsely, as his lips left hers. “But not until you graduate from the novice class, sweetheart.”

He picked her up swiftly and laid her on the white chenille coverlet. He stood looking down at her, his face darkly intent as his hands unbuttoned
his white linen shirt. His gaze traveled over her in frank enjoyment. “I love the way those perky pink nipples poke against that little bit of nothing as if they’re trying to get out,” he said teasingly. He shrugged off the shirt and threw it carelessly aside. “Let’s help them, shall we?” He sat down on the bed beside her and leaned down to kiss each pink bud lingeringly and then proceeded to lick and bite at the taut tips through the transparent material until she was clutching at his dark head and making whimpering sounds deep in her throat. He raised his head to examine his work, his face flushed and sensual and his aquamarine eyes glazed. “Yes, I think it’s definitely time we let them loose.”

He sat her up gently, and it took only an instant to ease the gown up to her waist and pull it over her head. He tossed it on the floor with his shirt. Sitting on the side of the bed, he gazed at her for a long moment, his eyes committing every silky curve to memory.

Kelly felt as if she were going up in flames as he slowly bent and sucked gently at one breast
while he kneaded the other with a brisk, forceful motion. The tactile contrast was terribly arousing, and she ran her hands lovingly over the wiry pelt of hair on his chest, then to the smoothness of the muscles of his shoulders. “You feel so alive,” she whispered dreamily, closing her eyes to better enjoy the sensations that Nick’s lips and her own hands were telegraphing to her. She felt almost weak with pleasure. “I never dreamed that anyone could feel so wonderful. Do all men feel this good?”

Nick’s lips and hands suddenly left her breasts, and she opened her eyes in surprise. His forbidding expression made them open even wider. “Don’t even think about trying to find out, Goldilocks,” he said between clenched teeth. “Don’t even think about it!”

“But I wasn’t—” Kelly started hurriedly.

She didn’t have time to finish before Nick’s lips were crushing hers with a punishing ferocity, his hands tangling brutally in her curls to hold her head in place while he ravaged her mouth and tongue with almost savage passion. Then his hands ran probingly over her slim back down to
her buttocks as if he wanted to brand each silky inch of her flesh with his stamp of possession.

She pressed closer to him even as his lips left hers and moved down to the crazily beating tom-tom in the hollow of her throat. “If you’re wondering about your next man already, perhaps I’d better increase the tempo a bit to keep you interested,” he said as his hands worked swiftly at his belt. Kelly could feel his heart thundering beneath her hands along with a new muscular tension bred by the anger that she could recognize in his voice. “I was trying to exert a little control considering your inexperience, but I wouldn’t want to suffer later in comparison. So let’s forget about patience and tenderness and move on to more exciting things.”

He stood, turned his back to her, and stripped off the rest of his clothes. When he joined her this time on the bed, he pushed her into a reclining position on her back and lay down beside her, one hand casually cupping a breast while the other played idly with the curls at her neck. His lips moved in tiny, teasing kisses over her face and throat while his thumb teased her
nipple. Kelly shivered as Nick threw one leg over hers and his lips moved to her ear, his tongue darting teasingly in and out.

“We’ve established how responsive your breasts are to loving,” Nick said, supporting himself on one elbow as he looked down at her. His blue eyes were still stormy, and she knew that he had not recovered from that unreasonable flash of jealousy. “Let’s see what else you like!”

And for the next ten minutes he did just that. His lips and tongue went over every inch of her body, caressing and teasing until she was ready to go mad with need. Then he started to use his teeth, gently biting and nibbling. She began writhing and arching her back. When he parted her limbs and started to bite gently on her inner thighs while his fingers began an even more intimate probing, she couldn’t take it anymore. She pulled his head up and looked into his eyes, her own brimming with tears.

“Nick, I’m going crazy,” she whispered. “What are you trying to do to me?”

His expression was ruthlessly hard. He continued stroking her while he coolly appraised her
wild, bright eyes and heaving breasts. “I want to make sure you remember me,” he said tersely. His hand made a motion that caused her to arch in a fever of need, and she gave a little gasping moan. His lips curved in satisfaction. “And I think you will, won’t you, sweetheart?”

How could she help it when he was making sure that her body was just one aching void waiting to be filled? she thought in exasperation. Was he so idiotically jealous that he was going to torment her like this indefinitely until he thought that she’d learned her lesson?

Evidently he felt she’d had enough, for he suddenly moved over her, parted her legs deftly, and slipped between them. His fingers were still involved in their erotic loveplay, and his eyes were narrowed on her face to catch every nuance of emotion he was evoking. “You’ll remember me doing this to you, Kelly. Your body will remember and want me to do it again and again. Tell me how much you want me, Kelly. I want to hear you say the words.”

He wanted to hear the words, did he? Well, she had had enough! “Yes, I’ll remember this,”
she said hotly, her green eyes flaming up at him. “And you’re so hellishly good at it that I’ll probably want you to do it again.” Her hands were knotted into small fists. “And, yes, I want you to give me what you’ve been teasing me with ever since I injured your ego with that perfectly innocent remark. I want you like crazy, you damn chauvinistic pig, but I sure as hell don’t like you very much at the moment!”

His face was a mask of blank surprise as he looked down at her belligerent face, and then suddenly he began to laugh. His shoulders shook with the force of the mirth that continued to pour from him while Kelly looked up at him in angry puzzlement.

When he finally managed to subdue his laughter to an occasional chuckle, he kissed her gently on the lips. “It’s said that everyone in the world has a double, but don’t let anyone tell you that’s true, love. There’s not another Kelly McKenna in the entire universe.” His dark face was alight with laughter, and his eyes were blazing jewel-bright with tenderness and humor. “Will you let
this poor egotistical chauvinist come into your sweet warmth and love you, Goldilocks?”

“Oh, yes,” she said softly, beaming up at him in loving satisfaction. “By all means, yes!”

He was infinitely gentle at first, but that didn’t last long. They had both been stretched to the limits of their patience by his lingering foreplay. His lips and hands ran feverishly over her in a hot ritual of passion as his hips moved with a strength and urgency that caused her to whimper and cry out his name in an agony of anticipation.

“That’s right, call my name, love,” he said, his breath rasping in his chest, his eyes on her face. “I love to hear you cry it out in that sexy little voice.”

He got his wish only an instant later when she almost moaned it in an agony of ecstasy as the tension that had been mounting in quantum leaps suddenly exploded into a delirium of mind-shattering delight.

She didn’t know how long it was before she was able to stop the trembling that was shaking her limbs and steady her breathing. They were
lying side by side, and she had her head pressed into the hollow of Nick’s shoulder. His arms still held her tightly. His heartbeat reverberating beneath her ear was just as fast as her own, she realized with satisfaction.

“Are you all right, love?” Nick asked gently, his lips brushing across her temple in a warm caress. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“I don’t know whether you did or not.” Kelly sighed contentedly as she snuggled closer. “At that point I couldn’t have cared less. Lord, I don’t know how anyone survives this sort of thing if it happens as often as I understand. It nearly blew me into smithereens!”

Nick chuckled in amusement. “Very delicately put, Goldilocks.” His lips moved to the curve of her cheek. “It’s the nature of the species to survive this particular experience, though I admit that all of them aren’t this mind-blowing. You’re a very special lady, Kelly.”

“I was okay, then?” she asked, tilting her head to look up at him earnestly. “I was a little nervous about that.”

He kissed her lightly on the nose. “Oh, yes,
you were definitely ‘okay,’ ” he said softly. “We’re as fantastic together as I thought we would be. God, you fit me like a glove, sweetheart. It was like coming home.” He covered her breast gently with his hand. “I’ve only just left you, Goldilocks, and I’m already lonely for you.”

Kelly felt a surge of heat running through her and that incredibly melting ache beginning again in her loins. Her eyes widened in surprise. “I think I want you again, too. How could it happen again so soon?”

Nick’s blue eyes were warm with tenderness. “It seems we’re better matched than I thought,” he said, grinning mischievously. “I think you’re going to prove a deliciously lusty wench.” He gave her a quick, hard kiss, then pushed her firmly away. “Much as I’d love to oblige you, you’re going to have to restrain yourself from attacking me for a bit, love.” He stripped back the white chenille bedspread and then tucked both of them beneath the covers, settling her head once again in the curve of his shoulder.

Kelly’s hand moved lazily to his chest and began to toy idly with the springy dark hair on
his chest. “Why do we have to wait?” she asked curiously. “If we’re both agreeable, it doesn’t seem very reasonable.”