Healing His Heart (21 page)

Tears prickled again behind her eyes. In the period of an hour, life had done an about-face from despair to indescribable happiness. He'd come back to her.

Suddenly, she had to kiss him, had to make love to him. He tasted of golden tomorrows, his mouth opening to hers. For long moments, they kissed, the mingling of souls in every breath.

Love, need, longing. He meant everything to her and in that moment, she needed to show him how cherished he was. Julia bent to nip at his neck, gliding a hand over his chest.

Caleb leaned his head back on the high sofa back, submissively. Julia thought her heart would burst. He was home, here with her because he loved her.

Framing his face between her hands, she pressed her lips against his ever so softly. No matter how dark the road ahead, he'd never have to face it alone.

She whispered kisses along his chin, warning him. Julia meant to make love to him all night long-and for all eternity.

Without warning, she wiggled off his lap.

He leaned back, his eyes dark and intense as she bent to slip out of one shoe and then the other, balancing with one hand on the mantel.

Sometimes action
s spoke louder than words. Some
times a man had to be seduced by the woman he loved.

Ever so slowly, Julia unfastened the button at the waist of her narrow skirt. One wiggle and two shimmies of her hips sent it down to pool around her feet. Caleb's eyes dropped with her skirt and moved slowly back up her body.

Leaning down, she drew her hands slowly up the sides of her legs, up over ankles, calves, knees, and then her hands glided up to her hips.

She heard Caleb draw in a deep breath.

Assured that she had his total attention, Julia tucked her fingers beneath the waistband of her pantyhose and slipped them down over her hips. A pulse of excitement skittered over her skin as she bared herself to him.

Propping a foot on the hearth, she slipped a leg free of its stretchy covering, switching to do the same with the other.

Caleb shifted restlessly on the couch, but he stayed put, seeming to understand that she was creating this moment for him.

Julia felt heat rising with the flow of his gaze, like mercury in her veins. Wearing only panties and her sweater, she scooped the skirt off the floor, teasing him with a view of her fanny in the process. Straightening, she tossed the skirt over the back of a chair.

Caleb sat on the edge of the couch, his body tensed forward.

Julia's body flushed in response to the heat in his eyes, a sensation of warm honey running under her skin.

Stripping off her sweater, she stood before him, her satin panties and bra shimmering in the soft light of the lamp. A sensual excitement thrilled through her as she met his brooding gaze-the spark flaming into a blaze.

"You look almost fierce," she told him breathlessly.

"Hungry," he shot back, his gaze roaming over her bare skin.

Julia reached back to unhook her bra. Her fingers, made urgent by the alertness of his taut body, stumbled over the familiar action.

The hook opened at last and the straps of her bra fell forward, sliding down her arms, freeing her breasts.

A muffled groan broke loose from Caleb. Pirouetting a half-turn, Julia draped her bra over the chair. Shaking her hair back over her bare shoulder, she chanced a glance back at him.

Caleb still hadn't left his place on the couch, but, to her shock, he was shedding his own clothes at the speed of light. And still managing to devour her with his eyes.

Resisting an urgent need to feel his nakedness against hers, she slowly skimmed her panties down, catching them with one foot. Balancing on the other foot, she tossed the scrap of satin on the chair with her foot and turned to face him.

Her smile slowly faded. He stood in front of the couch, naked and powerful and overwhelmingly desirable. A current, as jolting as electricity, shook her. She could hear his breath, a ragged rhythm. His manhood stood erect, ready below the taut muscles of his stomach.

"Now?"

Julia nodded unnecessarily as he moved to her. Gathering her against him, Caleb's lips met hers in a crushing kiss. He broke off the kiss to whisper, fiercely, "I love you more than you could ever know."

He showed her with the sweep of his hands, worshiping every curve of her body. Bending to nuzzle the valley between her breasts, his hands swept up the backs of her legs, then stopped to fondle her bottom.

Caleb switched off the lamp, leaving them bathed in a flickering firelight that echoed the fire building within them. Lifting her, he went back to the couch, placing Julia astride him on his lap.

She gazed into his face, consumed with emotion so powerful, it left her shaken.

Caleb knew a man could ask for nothing more. A woman-the one who held his heart and future, the one who would bear his children-offering herself like a feast for his pleasure.

Her gently-curved bottom was poised between his knees, and the sweet, damp cleft between her thighs hovered over him like heaven's gates.

"Nothing, nothing on earth can be wrong at this moment," Caleb whispered.

His free hand swept slowly over her breasts, thrust forward by the curve of her back. Her nipples puckered beneath his stroking and she almost purred. With one hand supporting her back, Caleb bent to cup Julia's breast, his fingers arousing sensations of pure pleasure within her flesh.

Julia's head tilted back, and he felt a tremor run through her as his mouth closed on the tip of her breast. Suckling her, Caleb savored the scent of her skin and the fresh, woman-smell of her sweet arousal. Her nipples were warm beneath the lap of his tongue, quickly hardening with the tug of his mouth.

Her hands braced on his shoulders, she sighed and arched forward. Caleb's hand stroked the smooth skin of her back, the perfect indentation of her spine. Leaving one breast, he nuzzled at the other, a man torn between treasures.

“Yes,” Julia gasped. “More….”

Caleb's chuckle rumbled in his chest. Her hands shifted restlessly on his shoulders, moving to trail over his chest, clenching again as he suckled her more strongly. The scent of her passion flowed between them, drawing him closer-bee to nectar, steel to magnet.

His lips trailed up the smooth satin of her skin to string a line of kisses like pearls along her throat. Smoothing his hands over her strong thighs as they clenched around him, Caleb drew her hips closer till the soft down between her legs hovered near his erection, taunting him.

Her dampness excited him, man's eternal fascination with the complexity of feminine pleasure. This soft hollow, this nest of sweetness, held the power to draw him in, take his manhood in all its power in one glorious, triumphant explosion.

His fingers brushed at her soft core, gently stroking the folds that would soon hold him. Julia moaned and trembled on his knees.

"Yes, sweetheart," he muttered. "That goes double for me." As his fingers delighted in her slippery heat, the ache of his arousal throbbed through him until his whole body beat with its rhythm.

"Shift back, just a little, angel."

"Like this?" Julia asked, her voice strained.

"Mmmm," he sighed as she descended on him, surrounding him, tight and ready. “Oh, God, yes. Just like that. "

Drawing her down, his lips met hers in a crushing kiss as she rocked on his lap with increasing passion.

Caleb felt her pulse around him, and held her hips as she climaxed, fighting for his own control. Then he felt her tremors subside and her breathing slow from its frenzy.

Slowly, then he stroked her back, the curve of her spine as she leaned on him. His throbbing length still buried within her depths, he whispered, "Don't move."

Caleb's arms brought her closer, his face buried in her shoulder. Slowly, she began to rock him again, her body holding his, stroking him with each movement, until he stiffened w
ith a hoarse cry at his release
....

Hours later, Julia lay in her bed, wrapped in Caleb's arms as he slept. Never had her life been more complete.

"You're supposed to be sleeping." Caleb's voice rumbled in her ear.

Julia tilted her head back to see his eyes glittering in the darkness. "Having you here beside me feels too good to sleep through."

"Sure," he scoffed. "Tell me that in ten years."

''I'm looking forward to it," she assured him
.