“I wish I could see you better,” he said as his lips skimmed across her cheek, then moved down to her neck.
Another streak of lightning flashed through the sky and on his face was an expression of such complete adoration that she was overwhelmingly undone. It was an emotion she had yet to see in him before this moment. It was as if in the dark of the night he felt safe enough to let down the hard shell surrounding him and was completely unaware of his vulnerability.
The rest of her fight with herself was lost as she pulled him closer, needing to comfort him, to love this vulnerable side of him. Yes, she most likely would be hurt, but this was Shane, this was the man she’d loved for so long. She couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.
Not letting him know what she’d just witnessed, she said, “I guess we’ll just have to remember each other’s bodies by touch alone.”
A groan escaped his throat, barely discernible above the raging storm around them. He grabbed her shirt, pulled it off and tossed it aside.
The rain continued to fall, but it was only a drizzle now, just enough to make them slide against each other as the lightning streaked across the sky, giving Lia glimpses of Shane’s perfect form, his enraptured expression.
“I can’t touch you in enough places. It’s been so long. I need you, Lia,” he gasped as he struggled to pull off the rest of her clothing, which was plastered to her skin.
“Yes, way too long.” She helped him with the removal of their clothes.
Within moments, they were both naked. Her back was cradled against the soft grass; he leaned against her, his mouth roaming across her neck while the rain pulsed against her skin.
When his mouth captured her nipple, Lia arched off the ground, reaching up to grasp his hair and tug him closer. Why had she thought she could resist this?
Shane’s mouth moved down her stomach, and the sensation of his tongue swirling along her heated skin while the rain hit her ni**les was building her pleasure in an unimaginable way.
“You taste so sweet,” he growled as his mouth reached her h*ps and he spread her legs apart. His hands ran across her thighs, pushing them farther and farther apart, opening her to him.
Lia’s head fell from side to side as she groaned in need. His tongue lapped at the outside of her core, teasing her to madness as she waited for him to take her to a higher place.
“Please, Shane, please make me come,” she cried.
“Oh, Lia, I’m going to give you pleasure long into the night,” he promised, making her shiver as he clasped her sweet spot with the warmth of his lips and sucked her into his mouth while feverishly flicking his tongue.
Her h*ps arched into the air as she pushed into him, reaching…reaching…almost there…
“Yes,” she cried, her voice being carried away on the wind, rising in the sky to mix with the storm clouds. Thunder echoed, shaking through her body, and making her orgasm go on endlessly.
As Lia started to descend from the high of a spectacular orgasm, Shane made his way up her body, taking his time as he licked away the rain still washing across her. When his face came into view and blocked out the downpour, another flash lit the sky, and the look in his eyes took her breath away.
“I’m right where I need to be, Lia. Your beauty, strength and passion overwhelm me. You’re strong and brave, talented and kind. You mean everything to me. Yes, I love how my body feels as I sink deep within you, I love the taste of your release on my tongue, but more than that, I love everything about you — from the sweet taste of your skin to the fire that lights your eyes. I can’t ever let you leave me. There are those who say that if you love someone, you must set the person free, but they have never been with you, because to set you free would be to lose myself.”
He entered her body, slowly and sweetly — wondrously — and Lia flew again, but not away from him. She flew higher than she’d ever been, her body clutching him, holding him deep within her.
Safe.
Warm.
Loved.
Lia didn’t want to be set free. She wanted to be right there in Shane’s arms with the rain blanketing them, the thunder rumbling in the sky, and the lightning giving her flashes of the passion and love on Shane’s face.
“I don’t want to go,” she whispered when she could speak again.
Shane began moving, and all she could do was cry out as he brought her to the peak again and again, as he’d promised, while he surged deep within her body.
She loved him. She had for more than ten years, and no matter what had parted them, she had a feeling that nothing would separate them again.
Chapter Twenty
Adriane
Adriane was shocked at how much he was enjoying his time with Rachel. He still hadn’t learned anything about her, because she was much better than he was at this game of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He found himself wanting to lie in her arms and speak of the throne, of his brother, of his duty. He was barely able to hold himself back.
This was supposed to be nothing more than a fling, just something to ease his stress before he took on the responsibility of his position — a responsibility that he didn’t even want. But somehow this American girl had slipped past his defenses.
It wasn’t love.
Adriane wasn’t such a fool as to believe in love at first sight. He knew the fragile emotion existed, but he chose not to fall into its merciless grasp. Once love got its talons into a man, it would never let go, never let him think objectively again.
No. He would marry a proper woman when the time came, and his wife would produce heirs for his kingdom. That was what a king did. That was what was responsible, what he’d known he must do from the time he was seventeen and discovered he’d inherit the throne one day.
Still, though he didn’t want his affair with Rachel to end, duty called. He must return to his homeland and perform as king of Corythia.
“I can’t believe how virile you are. Do you ever get enough?”
Adrian turned to look into Rachel’s gleaming green eyes, and he almost gasped, as he always did, when confronted by her beauty. Instead, he reached upward and tweaked her hardened nipple.
“Look who’s talking, wildcat. You’re always just as eager,” he reminded her as he crushed her smooth body against him, allowing her scent to engulf him and inhaling it deeply. Desire, sure and strong, thrummed inside him as he lay over her, his arousal pulsing as he moved it against the hot folds of her core.