The sounds of the ocean were so large against her quiet breathing, he felt her chest expand against his, the musky perfume of sex hanging in the air.
Man, what a marvelous smell. He hadn’t known that he missed it until now. That smell, mixed with Catherine’s smell—something soapy and flowery, but completely addictive.
Her bare thigh pulled up between his legs, brushing against him, and he sprang to life, fully aroused and ready to go. She was sleeping so peacefully, and he didn’t have the heart to wake her because that would be a selfish thing to do, completely taking advantage of the situation. But then she slid up his chest, her breasts pushing against him in a move that strippers would covet, and her eyes opened.
A lover’s eyes, sly and sleepy.
Daniel knew that he couldn’t live without seeing that look again.
He pushed inside her, saw her eyes go wide and felt a momentary pang of guilt, but then her lips curved, and her hair fell over his face, sliding across his cheek, and the guilt faded. The pleasure began.
THE SUN ROSE IN THE EAST, just as it always did. Daniel woke with an aching hard-on, just as he always did, but there was a woman next to him. A nude woman. A nude, sexually willing woman.
Daniel smiled and reached out a hand to touch her breast. She wasn’t built like Michelle, who’d been short and slim, with what she termed “a lot of junk in her trunk,” and Daniel could feel the differences.
Catherine was tall, with lush curves that filled his hands perfectly, hands that had never felt empty until now. In his opinion, she had the body of a goddess, earthy and rich, solely designed to give him pleasure. Her skin was the color of the morning sky at first blush, soft and warm.
His fingers caressed Catherine’s nipple, feeling it react, and he wondered at that small miracle. A woman’s body reacting. She sighed, her body arching into his hand as if it belonged there.
The sunlight cast a shadow on his empty ring finger, and he felt something stabbing at him, but he brushed it away. Not today. Today he was going to live. It was Sunday. His last day, and he wasn’t going to miss this. When he left, he would bear the weight of the band again, but right now, he just wanted to live like a normal man.
Catherine woke as he imagined she did everything else. Slowly, methodically, with exquisite purpose. Her lashes moved, fluttered up, and then he found himself falling into her eyes once again. She was so soft, so uncomplicated, so irresistible.
He touched, circling her breast, feeling the constant beat of her heart. Her body tensed, still not comfortable with being nude, but he’d work on that.
Whoa.
Daniel frowned, and she touched his mouth. “Something wrong?”
He shook his head. “No.”
Today was it. Nothing more.
“When do you have to leave?” she asked, reminding him exactly how much time he had left.
“I’ll take the late train,” he said, in absolutely no hurry to leave.
“Good,” she answered, moving back the sheet. He had thought she was shy, but the odd thing about her? She seemed to love to watch his body, loved to touch his body, too, and jeez, what man in his right mind was going to object?
She traced a line down his chest, her eyes flaring dark. He loved to watch her, too, loved to watch her mouth grow slack with desire.
It had been so long.
His body jerked impatiently to life, and she smiled.
One day left.
Daniel didn’t wait. He rolled over her, and drove inside, savoring that one second when everything within him converged to this single point, this single moment when his entire body came spluttering back to life, rough and cold and long unused—but not today.
The lashes fluttered closed, her mouth tense, and he watched her, watched the sun filter through the shutters, casting alternating lines of light and dark on her full breasts.
Daniel wanted to be in control of his emotions, wanted to be calm, easy. She needed that, but panic grabbed at him, sharp claws digging in deep.
Just one day.
One day before it all disappeared. Again.
So he thrust deeper inside her, her eyes focused on him, and he wanted to smile at her, wanted to act like everything was normal, but was it?
A rumbling sound came from low in his throat, a rough noise he’d never heard before. And he drilled inside her slick heat, until his mind was black, until his eyes were blind, because his body needed this.
It’d been so long.
His cock burned, the blood roaring through it like a fire feeding on air.
One day left. He moved faster, harder. Oh, he’d missed this. Harder, deeper, needing to touch her, needing to feel her, needing to…Breathe.
He needed to breathe.
He’d never used a woman like this before, not even Michelle. Daniel knew he shouldn’t, but then Catherine’s hands fastened on his shoulders, her teeth dug into her lower lip and her eyes flared with something dark and aware. It was the darkness in her that pushed him on. Raising himself up on his arms, he took. Oh, damn, he took. His head roared, louder and louder, until the pounding in his cock matched the pounding in his head.
Her head listed to one side, the tawny fall of her hair sweeping over the sun-gilded curve of her neck. Her body arched upward with each thrust, shuddering moans of pleasure escaping from her lips. Absorbing him, taking him…comforting him.
Daniel felt his body about to come, but he wasn’t going to do this alone. Not alone. He hated alone. He reached down and flicked against her. Found the place that she needed and watched her body buck.
He touched her, finding where they were joined, and his hand moved faster, and he kept thrusting inside her. She had to feel this. She had to feel the same hopeless need that he did.
Her teeth bit into her lip, and he noticed the blood.
“Come on, Catherine,” he begged, because he needed her with him.
His hand moved, palm against her bone, and her eyes closed, her back lifted, and the moans grew loud and ragged. “A little more,” he said, fighting back his release. She was close. He knew she was close.
She let out a cry, sounds stuttering, and her hips were sliding against him, against his cock, against his hand, until her body jerked once, her mouth opened and he couldn’t resist.
He took her mouth, he took her body, and as the climax fell over them, Daniel surrendered to the darkness.
One day left.
CATHERINE LIFTED her head, stared and then fell back against the pillow. “I think the world was stirred.”
“Thank God,” he said, more of a prayer than a curse.
She reached out next to him and grabbed his hand, tracing over his palms, his fingers. He froze because it was wrong. He should be wearing his ring, but then Daniel forced himself to relax. To remember.
Gradually, the tension left and he closed his eyes.
“What do you want to do today?” she asked.
Right now, he would happily stay in bed all day, but that wasn’t the politically correct thing to say, so he shrugged. “It’s up to you.”
“Could I draw you?”
“That’s what you want?”
She nodded eagerly, and he knew he couldn’t deny her even though the idea of being stuffed in some dainty French chair with his head twisted just an inch to the left would be hell.
“Okay,”