Eternally Yours (22 page)

He stared at her, his expression almost sad. Geoff was surprised to see that he didn’t gloat. His descendant had some good breeding, after all.

“I’m glad you were able to look beyond my arrogant insistence and come to that decision yourself,” he said.

She laughed, again looking away from his heavy gaze. “Well, I’m glad you helped me see past a few raw memories so I could take in the big picture. Preserving this for the future makes a lot more sense than destroying it to try to erase a painful period of my life.”

He gave her a look so tender that Geoff knew that barriers were breaking down between the couple. To his surprise, instead of feeling envious, he felt a bud of hope.

Kiss her, he thought. Kiss her, for heaven’s sake.

Stepping toward her, Mark reached up and brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “No one can erase his or her personal history, but I hope you’ll find another way to get past the pain.”

Geoff sucked in his breath. As the mood grew more tender, he began to feel ashamed of his voyeurism.

I’ll leave them now, he thought. I can check back in the morning and see if he’s still here.

He drifted out of the house, hopeful yet afraid to be hopeful.

* * * *

The earnestness of Mark’s words moved Lara. No other man she knew had ever spoken to her with such sensitivity--certainly not her ex-husband. At times Mark may have had his moods but only because he felt life so fully. Now she wanted to share more of her life with him. She wanted to enrich her experiences with his perspective to add to her own.

Her gaze dropped to his lips. Most of all, right now she wanted him to kiss her.

As if reading her mind, he bent and pressed his mouth to hers, the touch warm, the pressure tentative. She put her arms around him, taking in the broad strength of his shoulders. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back and let her lips part. He deepened the kiss, his tongue playing at her mouth. She met it with hers, hungry to taste him.

His arms slid around her, and her body melted into his. She felt warm, safe, like nothing else mattered. His closeness, the clean scent of his skin and the warmth of his body comforted her. Amid all of her recent fears of the supernatural and the unknown, he felt reassuringly physical and of this world.

Briefly he left her lips and looked into her eyes. They faced each other, inches away, with sober expressions.

“Is this real?” she asked, even though the question sounded silly. “The ghost...he can’t make us do whatever he wants, can he?”

He shook his head. “There’s nothing otherworldly about my feelings now--no mystery. I want you, Lara, because you’re not only beautiful but full of insight and brimming with life.”

She smiled softly. “Then we have more in common than I realized.”

He grazed her lips with his. “Do you feel like you’re being controlled from beyond?”

“No. But I hope your ancestor is discreet enough to give two people some privacy when they need it.” The words popped out of her mouth before she thought about what they implied. Now she realized she’d practically come out and told Mark how much she wanted him.

She lowered her gaze, but she couldn’t deny her feelings. She did need to be alone with him. Taking him by the hand, she led him over to the couch.

They collapsed onto the cushions in each other’s arms. He pulled her close to him, kissing her more urgently now. She felt her heart pounding in her chest and heard his breath quicken.

He’s going to make love to me.
The thought made her dizzy with excitement. It had been a long time. For years Ron hadn’t seemed to care much about whether or not they made love. After a while she had built up her own walls of defense and shied away from trying to entice him. Now she remembered what it felt like to long to become one with another person--and to know that he wanted you, too.

She kissed Mark like a woman starved for love and held him tightly, squeezing him against her. With one will, they slid down to stretch out on the couch, him on the outside, her inside. She felt the length of his body flush against hers, the way she had it for one short moment on the night of the storm, but now she could respond the way she couldn’t then, the way she’d wanted to.

Pushing her hips into him, she reveled in the feel of his erection, hard and insistent.
He does want me
, she marveled. Until that instant she hadn’t completely believed it.

“Oh, Lara.” He buried his face in her hair. “You smell wonderful...and you feel fantastic.”

He sank his fingers into the curls at the nape of her neck and kissed the sensitive skin beneath her ear lobe. Tingles of excitement flickered along her spine.

She let her head fall back and let him kiss her throat. The baggy T-shirt she wore suddenly felt constraining. When he slipped his arm under the hem and palmed the exposed skin of her waist, she propped herself up on one elbow and pulled off her shirt with her other hand.

“You have a beautiful body,” he breathed, his gaze encompassing her bare belly and wandering upwards.

Did she? The fire in his look made her believe him for the moment. But she was glad she’d worn one of her nicer bras, an ivory satin confection trimmed with lace.

Focusing on her eyes, he smiled and leaned down to meet her mouth again. The kiss built slowly, first tender and gradually more demanding. He reached around to her back and undid her bra. The release of tightness from around her chest felt like a gift of freedom.

He cupped one of her breasts, which she’d always considered a little deficient. All of her body was small.

“You’re perfect,” he murmured and lowered his mouth to her, circling his tongue around the rim of her nipple. Spirals of pleasure radiated from the hot trail he left. She arched her back, and bliss sparked through her, warming her, charging her with life.

She slid her hands under his shirt and felt the heat of his skin, the firm muscles of his abdomen. As if automatically, her hands drifted to his waistband, and she undid the top of his jeans.

He had a button fly, she realized as she felt several of the other buttons loosen. The backs of her fingers grazed the single layer of cotton that covered his erection. She gasped--along with him.

“I want you, Lara,” he whispered in her ear.

She wanted him, too. Closing her eyes, she touched him again, this time not by accident.

He pressed against her fingers, and she savored the hard heat of him. She wanted to feel him inside of her.

Running his hand down to the waist of her shorts, he undid the button and pulled down her zipper. She felt his fingers slip under the denim, and she lifted her hips to let him push the fabric down past her thighs. Kicking off her sandals, she reached down to make the job easier for him, helping him pull off her shorts. While he took his jeans off, she wriggled out of her panties.

The stark yearning in his eyes when he looked down at her told her how much he appreciated her nakedness. He settled down on top of her, his body strong and warm.

She pulled him tight against her, lifting her chin to meet his mouth with hers. As she reveled in the taste of him, he slid his hand down her torso and slipped his fingers between her legs. She sucked in her breath and writhed with ecstasy, astonished by her own response. If she’d ever wanted a man this much before, she couldn’t remember it. She certainly hadn’t imagined she could feel this way now.

“Make love to me, Mark,” she murmured, surprising herself.

He answered by kissing her more deeply, as if he wanted to consume her. His fingers still played at her body, and she felt herself growing close to climax already--but she wanted to reach it with him, not alone.

“Now,” she urged him. “Please.”

Pulling away from her mouth he met her gaze, his eyes intent, his expression serious. He shifted his hand from her body to guide himself. She felt the tip of him press at her--then push inside.

“Oh...” she moaned. He filled her, and euphoria flowed through her being, emanating from the point where they were connected.

Kissing her neck, he pushed again...and then again, each time elevating the degree of her pleasure.

“Oh, God,” he said, breathless. “God. Lara, you feel amazing--too amazing.”

She gasped as he thrust again. “You do.”

Grasping his butt, she drove him deeper into her. They both moaned.

“I’m close,” he said.

“Me, too.”

He pushed into her again, and the tension in her exploded. She shuddered with wave after wave of bliss.

“Oh!” He looked at her with wide eyes, then thrust once more and broke into his own climax.

She trembled again along with him, warmed with the knowledge that he was giving her his very essence. It occurred to her that they should have discussed “safeness,” though she knew she wouldn’t get pregnant, because she’d been taking the Pill to fend off menstrual cramps.

As their swells of pleasure tapered off, he leaned forward and dotted her mouth with baby kisses. “That was wonderful.”

“It was.”

He gently slid off her, taking the outside of the couch again, holding her close to him.

She rested her cheek against his chest and listened to his heart, still beating rapidly. His skin felt hot and moist. He smelled sexy, she thought.

They caught their breath in silence. Overwhelmed by this sudden development in their relationship, she didn’t quite know what to say. She hadn’t expected to have sex with him today or at any time in the near future. Her thoughts hadn’t even progressed to that point. She wasn’t sorry about their intimacy--it had been too fantastic to regret--but she wished she had made the decision with her head about her instead of on the spur of the moment.

He stayed quiet, too, but he snuggled close to her. His nearness reassured her. She took it to mean that he didn’t regret their actions either--at least, not yet. He may well have been having similar thoughts to hers. Given his unhealed wounds over his ex, he couldn’t have seen this coming.

Her gaze wandered to the bookcase that housed the secret entrance, and she remembered the ghost. A flutter of uneasiness shivered through her.

“Are you cold?” Mark asked. “Maybe we need a blanket.”

“No. I’m okay.” She hesitated but decided to voice her concerns. “I was just thinking about the ghost again. All this between us happened so suddenly...”

“Not really. When you think about it, this has been building up for a while. It seems like a natural progression to me. Don’t you think so?”

She reflected on how her feelings for him had evolved since they’d first met. Their conversations and his writing had influenced her changing views. The course of events did feel natural. She’d come to know him over the last week or so. That was all. “I guess so.”

“I’ll tell you what.” He lifted her chin to tilt her face up toward his. “Why don’t we go out somewhere tomorrow, away from both your place and mine? Then we can see how we feel about everything away from this charged atmosphere.”

She nodded slowly, a sense of relief spreading through her. “I like that idea. Did you have something in mind?”

“How about a ride into the countryside--maybe up toward the mountains? I know a little historic village with some nice shops, including a candy store that sells homemade chocolates. There’s a beautiful old inn that serves great tavern fare. We could have dinner there.”

“Sounds perfect.” She let her head drop back on his chest. Closing her eyes, she gave in to the magic of the moment. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so much at peace. She belonged here in Mark’s arms.

A tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her she’d vowed to be cautious about the relationship. Mark may have brought up tomorrow, but what would happen beyond that?

As happy as she felt, she tried to dismiss the thought. A person could always find time for worry and speculation, but moments like this didn’t come often.

Chapter 15

Making love to Lara had blown Mark away. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so in sync with a lover. In the aftermath he still felt strongly connected to her, as though she were a part of him.

He wanted her to stay that way.

She fell asleep in his arms, warm and trusting. Her soft, shallow breathing made her seem vulnerable. He felt an overpowering urge to protect her--not that she wasn’t strong on her own, but her life must have been hard this past year, going through a divorce. Now he wanted to take care of her. He only hoped he could give her what she needed.

For a moment the idea scared him. What
did
she need?

Support of her art and her ideas, he supposed--and that would come easily enough. Besides, he would learn more about her and find out what made her happy. There was nothing to be afraid of. In fact he couldn’t wait to get started...though at the moment, sleep did seem a welcome second choice.

He drifted off not long after her.

Hours later he woke to find her stirring beside him. Dusk had fallen, and the room had grown shadowy. Feeling chilly, the two of them snuggled up to one another. They had a belated discussion about contraception, and he was relieved to learn that she’d been taking the Pill. Without grilling each other on their sexual histories, they also decided to go for HIV testing together soon. So settled, they eventually ended up making love again.

Later they ordered Chinese take-out for dinner and drank a bottle of wine between them. He didn’t leave until three in the morning--and then only because both of them thought that if he stayed they wouldn’t get anything productive done the next day.

Despite having such a late night he woke up early. Thoughts of Lara flooded his mind like the morning sun streaming through his window. The events of the previous night felt almost like a dream. He couldn’t wait to see her again and assure himself that it had all really happened. When they’d parted in the wee hours they’d thought it best to wait till afternoon to get together again, but now he regretted the delay.

Too wound up to go back to sleep, he got up and worked on his manuscript for the next few hours. Though his thoughts kept straying to the huge change in his life, at the same time his mind was alive and sparkling--capable of moving in several directions at once. Before he knew it he’d pounded out five typed pages. His inspiration seemed to be back.