Beverly Barton - This Side of Heaven

He watched, transfixed by her beauty, while she untied her belt and slipped out of her robe, letting it fall to the rock walkway beneath her feet. The breeze tousled her hair around her face and shoulders and molded her thin, aqua gown to her round curves. Without saying a word, she reached up and lowered the straps of her gown, one at a time. They dropped down onto her shoulders. Her breasts swelled above the silky material, her nipples pressing against the softness.

When she reached up to tug on the bodice of her fitted gown, Nate stepped forward, pushing her hand away, re­placing it with his own. With a slow, gentle tug, he pulled the gown down to her waist, baring her full, rounded breasts. He ran the tips of his fingers down the length of her body, from neck to waist, letting his hand still momentarily when he touched her breast.

She moaned when he flicked her tight nipple with his fin­gernail. He jerked her to him, crushing her swollen, throb­bing breasts against his chest. She felt him, all of him, hard and hot and pulsating.

He was so big, so primitively male, that she shuddered with a maiden's fear of conquest, knowing that soon her body would accept the wild thrusts of his huge body.

He ran one hand down her hip, over her buttocks, kneading softly, clutching her soft flesh in his callused hand, bunching the silky fabric of her gown. With his other hand, he grasped her head, spearing his fingers through her golden hair, letting it ripple over his hand, his bare shoulder and arm.

Easing his hand lower and lower, he edged her gown higher and higher, until he was able to slip his hand be­neath and touch her naked skin.

She ached with emptiness, her femininity pulsing pain­fully with a need only this man could appease. "Please," she whispered, her lips parting on a sigh as his hand moved between her legs to caress her inner thigh.

"Tell me what you want." He maneuvered his fingers between her closed thighs, dipping inside her damp, sweet body. Her thighs parted, her knees melting.

"Make love to me." She struggled for breath, then lost it completely when he circled her throbbing need with his thumb and forefinger.

With one agile move, he jerked her gown down her hips, letting it puddle around her feet like a pale aqua pool. He could smell her heat, thick, heavy, female moistness wait­ing for him to lay claim to it. It was all he could do not to take her where they stood, not to plunge into her with all the violent need commanding his male body.

He kissed her then, his lips tenderly loving at first as he tried to control the desire raging inside him. She was ev­erything he'd ever longed for—and more. Deepening the kiss, his tongue boldly lunged and was met by the equally powerful drive of her tongue. Challenged by her forceful response, the seeds of a long dormant passion blossoming with an untamed fury, he lowered her down, down, down onto the soft, wet grass. With his knees straddling her hips, he gazed at her naked beauty, devouring her, drinking in the sight of her womanliness. Then he looked into her eyes-warm, rich, brown eyes that had haunted his dreams for twenty-five years.

He shook with desire, wanting her, needing her as he had never needed anything. He wanted to take her with all the savage wildness he barely controlled, but knew he mustn't allow himself that pleasure. No matter how strong a woman Cyn Porter was, she was also small and fragile and hadn't known a man's possession in a long time.

Nate prayed for the strength to take her gently, but the moment she touched him and called out his name, he knew he was lost.

She let her hand rest on his stomach, longing to lower it and take him within her grasp. ''Nate... Nate..."

In one swift, perfectly coordinated move, he entered her, his thrust hard and demanding, calling forth all the un­leashed passion in her soul. She cried out, so great was the pleasure of their joining, such pure, unforgettable rapture. She arched her body, lifting her hips to meet each vigorous lunge, a shattering crescendo of sensation taking over her body, spiraling out from her core, spreading into every nerve ending, every cell.

He lowered his head, his black hair caressing one breast while his mouth suckled the other. Tiny fissions of undi­luted ecstasy exploded within her. She writhed beneath him, arching higher and higher, seeking a closer joining.

Taking her hips into his hands, he lifted her against him and increased the tempo of their lovemaking. "You want more?" he asked, his voice thick with desire.

"Yes... more." She clung to his back, her nails scoring his bronzed flesh with love trails.

"Deeper. Faster." His thrusts grew wilder, hotter, more intense.

"Yes!" she screamed. "Harder... harder..."

And he obeyed her command, giving her the depth of his hardness. Suddenly she cried out, tears of joy cascading down her cheeks. He listened to her moans of fulfillment, taking them into his mouth, savoring their sweet, undis­guised surrender. She was his once again, as she had been in his dreams, only the reality far excelled the dreams. He felt her shuddering release, her body tightening, clenching him like a tight fist. With one final, brutal stab, he fell headlong into climatic fulfillment. His groans echoed in the stillness of the early morning, their guttural eruption the sounds of a healthy male animal who had claimed his mate.

Cyn had never known such total wonder, such complete and utter satisfaction. Nothing in her life had prepared her for Nate Hodges's possession.

His big body lay over her, damp and hot and heavy. He raised himself onto his elbows, looking down into her dazed brown eyes. "Did I hurt you?" He knew he'd taken her with savage force, seeking his own pleasure while trying to give the same to her.

"No," she said, reaching up to touch his face, a face so dear to her. "But I am lying here in the wet grass and I'm getting cold."

He smiled. Standing, he pulled her to her feet and picked her up. She shivered, partly from the cool morning breeze on her damp flesh and partly as an aftershock from such unequaled fulfillment.

"Stay with me a few more hours." Holding her naked body against his, he stepped inside the house.

"Will you send me away then?" she asked, knowing the answer before he replied.

"I'll have to," he said.

"Let me help you. Let me stand by you through what­ever trouble you're in." She kissed his neck as her fingers laced themselves through his long hair.

"I don't want to talk about it. Not now. I want to make love to you again while I still can." He carried her down the long, dark corridor, kicked open his bedroom door and placed her on his rumpled sheets.

She opened her arms, taking him into her body, giving her lover, her fierce and lonely warrior, the safety he could find only within her embrace.

Nate took all she had to give, knowing he would never get enough. But for now, he was satisfied. For now he had found a sanctuary for his heart and soul.

Later, he would have to send her away. Even if these pre­cious moments were all they would ever have, he could sur­vive as long as he knew she was alive and safe. But if anything ever happened to her, if Ryker harmed her, then Nate knew he would be eternally lost. Cynthia Ellen Porter was his very soul.

Chapter 9

Cyn sat on the edge of the bed in Nate's sparsely deco­rated bedroom. She pulled the lapels of her aqua robe across her breasts, then tightened the belt. When she had awak­ened, she'd found her gown and robe on the wooden chair beside the bed. Nate, dressed in nothing but his cutoff jeans, had been standing by the window looking outside.

They hadn't spoken as their gazes met, and the hot pas­sion that had existed between them in the previous hours ignited once again. She'd been shocked by her own primi­tive need to have him touch her.