Tiger's Eye (50 page)
“Lisa?” The voice was low and familiar. Lisa opened her eyes to see a dark shape looming over her.
“Sam?” The identity of the owner of that voice burst on her like a revelation. Blindly she reached for him, feeling as if she would be safe only if he would hold her in his arms. He bent toward her, and her hands touched bare, muscled shoulders, slid around his neck, and clung, pulling him down with a strength she hadn’t realized she possessed.
“Hold me, please, Sam,” she whispered brokenly.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Strange how that voice had grown so familiar to her in the short time she had known it. It was as if he was her dearest friend, someone known and trusted who could be depended on to keep her safe.…
“Oh, Sam, it was awful.” The words were muttered shudderingly against his throat, her hands clutching him as if she would never let him go. He came down onto the cot with her, pulling aside the blanket to draw her fully against him. His arms came around her, pressing her to the long, hard length of him. Lisa’s own arms stayed locked around his neck.
“Tell me about it,” he murmured, his hands stroking her tumbled hair soothingly. She poured out the jumbled story of her nightmare while he held her, stroking her hair, her shoulders, her back. When she got to the part about the fire, she trembled and his grip tightened comfortingly. Lisa buried her face in the hollow of his neck when she finished, drawing a deep, shaking breath and closing her eyes. He said nothing, just continued to hold her, his hands never ceasing their gentle caresses.
After a few moments Lisa became aware of his chest hair tickling her nose. She moved protestingly, but the sensation didn’t go away. So she put out her tongue to push it aside, only to encounter the warm, salty-tasting skin of his neck.
Unthinking, she followed her instinct, letting her tongue explore the throbbing hollow and find its way up the strong cord of his neck. Beneath her ear she could hear his heart begin to pound in slow, steady strokes. The sound excited her. Lisa opened her lips against his throat, kissing it. She felt his body tense.
“Lisa …” he said hoarsely, warningly. She kissed his throat again, passionately, refusing to think of anything except how right it felt.…
“Love me,” she whispered against his skin. “Please, Sam, love me.”
Lisa heard the harsh indrawing of his breath with a little glow of satisfaction. It was intoxicating to realize that he wanted her, too.…
“Lisa …” He seemed still inclined to argue, so Lisa did what all her senses were clamoring for her to do. She touched him, blind in the pitch darkness, one hand sliding down over his hair-roughened chest, sensuously stroking his flat, hard-muscled belly, coming to rest at the waistband of his pants. There it hesitated for an instant, then slid inside, worming its way across his tightening abdomen to surround the huge, granite monolith that burned and throbbed at her touch.
As her fingers closed on him he groaned, then groaned again, his hands coming up to catch her shoulders and flip her onto her back with such force that she was momentarily robbed of breath. Then he was on top of her, his body hard and heavy, his breath coming in fast, hard pants. His mouth fastened on hers with a greedy passion that seemed to want to devour her. Lisa’s lips opened to him endlessly. Their tongues touched, warred, caressed. He kissed her hotly, and with fierce ardor she responded, wanting his possession more than she had ever wanted anything in her life. In the tiny part of her mind that was still capable of functioning, she realized dimly that this was what she needed, what she had been starved of for years: the hard, fierce lovemaking of a man.…
His hands were unsteady as they undressed her, popping the buttons from her shirt in his haste. Lisa moaned as his fingers found her breasts, closing over the soft mounds in a grip that should have hurt but didn’t. Then he was tugging at his pants and she was helping him, her mouth running greedily over his body, on fire for him. When he too was naked he pushed her back and she went willingly, her legs parting and her hands eager as she guided him to her. He thrust into her with hard urgency, and Lisa gasped with pleasure, thinking she would die of pure bliss. His answering growl inflamed her. She rose and fell with him as he moved in, then out, then in again, in a relentless, driving rhythm. Her head was thrown back, her mouth wide open as he took her, her nails digging mindlessly into his muscled back. There was no room in her head for anything except the wonder of her own need. Then his hands closed over her buttocks, lifting them so that he could thrust more deeply inside her, and his mouth clamped over hers with a harsh groan. Lisa could stand no more. Pleasure that had been denied for years burst gloriously inside her, and she cried out against his mouth. He felt her joy and responded with one final, savage thrust, holding himself inside her, shaking. Then it was over.
Lisa felt herself drifting off with his flesh still joined to hers and his body heavy and wet with sweat as he sprawled across her. Then, just before she gave in to the irresistible urge to sleep, she thought she heard him swear.…
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