waking minute. A world you can never forget, no matter how much time passes, no matter how much distance comes between, no matter how many sad things happen.’
The firelight was dancing in his eyes, and her gaze was drawn inexorably to his as he went on, his voice husky and low.
‘And you don’t know what it’s like to ache for another person’s tenderness—and not to find it. To look for a face you love so much it hurts—and not see it. To yearn for a voice that you can no longer hear.’
‘That’s not love,’ she said unsteadily. ‘That’s obsession.’
‘Then I’m obsessed,’ he said. ‘What’s the difference?’
‘Obsession is more dangerous,’ she replied.
He shook his dark head. ‘Only to me. Not to you.’
‘You’re dangerous to me, Ryan. That’s why I had to get away from you.’
‘You were too young to understand then,’ he replied. He reached out and drew his fingertips slowly down her cheek. His touch was like velvet, but she shuddered in reaction. ‘Now you’ve matured. You’ve been through tragedy and danger. You have grown into yourself. We’re ready for each other now.’
‘You’re mistaken!’
His warm hand cupped the back of her neck and drew her face to his gently. Penny felt everything she had achieved over the last year start to sink into treacherous quicksand as her mouth approached his. She felt his breath on her lips, and closed her eyes.
‘Ryan, I don’t want this!’
‘I think you do.’ His mouth closed over hers.
For a moment it was as though she were drowning. And then her mind was flooded by passionate memories. They had been lovers once, such wonderful lovers.
It had been so long.
Desire rose in her with a force that could not be denied. She locked her arms around his strong neck and kissed him back, her body arching to his.
After a moment, the two of them slid to the floor in front of the fire, still locked in their embrace. The heat of the flames licked at them, igniting them still further. Ryan pulled at her blouse and Penny heard buttons snap off with the urgency of his need.
Still kissing, whispering one another’s names, they undressed each other with clumsy haste. When she was naked, he pushed her onto her back and stared down at her with devouring eyes.
The blaze of the fire made tiger-stripes across his magnificent naked chest. He was like a great cat, brooding over her, and like a cat he touched her skin with his nose and drew her scent deep into his nostrils.
‘You always smell so wonderful. Your skin is like rose petals.’
‘A rose with thorns.’ But though she uttered the warning, she was responding to him. This was insanity, worse than madness, because she was colluding with her own downfall.
He stroked the curving softness of her belly. She shuddered at his sensual caress. ‘You will always be mine, Penny,’ he whispered. ‘Nobody else’s. Mine alone.’
He kissed her nipples gently. The silky disks ruckled in his mouth, their hard tips pushing against his tongue with unabashed desire. He sucked the eager peaks, one after another, and Penny whimpered his name softly.
He gazed down at her, his eyes heavy with desire. ‘I’ve missed you so much. I thought I had lost you forever!’
Her naked body was like alabaster in the firelight. Her hips were fuller than her narrow waist would have implied, and he stroked the curves with the fingers of an artist touching an exquisite vessel.
‘Your hips were made for love, my darling,’ he whispered. ‘For bearing children. I’m so sorry you lost our child.’
‘How could you think I would throw away my baby?’ she demanded, raising herself on her elbow. ‘How can you say you love me, if you think that?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘This morning I felt as though you had stabbed a dagger into my heart.’
She felt the scalding tears slide down her cheeks. They splashed onto her nipples, shining wet on her skin. ‘Why did you come?’
For an answer, he sealed her mouth with his own. It was a kiss as hot as her tears, filled with passion and desire. His hands caressed her naked body, moulding the tender curves of her breasts hungrily, sliding down between her thighs to cup the nest of soft curls there.
She responded with a rush of desire that overwhelmed her.
‘Have you been with anyone else since you left me?’ he asked her, looking into her eyes.
‘No,’ she confessed. ‘Have you?’
‘No. So we don’t need to go to the clinic for a clean bill of health before we do this…’
She kissed him to stop him saying any more.
Ryan’s tongue was in her mouth, seeking her own, demanding a response. She felt his fingers encounter the melting wetness of her own desire. With gentle, expert movements of his fingers, he brought her to the very edge of her climax in no more than a few seconds. She cried out against his mouth. His own urgency matched hers. As though unable to resist any longer, he mounted her.
Penny cried out again as she felt the swollen length of his manhood between her thighs—a feeling so familiar, so thrilling, so achingly beautiful. She locked her arms around his neck and looked up into his eyes. Ryan was panting as though he had run a mile, his eyes no longer cold or hard, but glowing with passion.
She raised her hips, her thighs lifting to hold his taut, muscular waist.
The invitation was unmistakable. With a soft, purring sound, Ryan lowered his body so that his erect manhood caressed the wet petals of her sex. Penny moaned, her eyes half closing. He slid himself to and fro across the most sensitive zones of her body, arousing her unbearably.
She had been alone for so long, locked in her own misery. Now he was back, and deep inside her. Penny had not known that there was so much need in her, so much emptiness aching to be filled. So much tenderness aching to be given.
She dug her fingers into his powerful shoulders, demanding that he enter her; but it was not until she was already starting to climax that he finally thrust slowly and deeply into her body.
Ecstasy flooded her whole being. She felt herself arching against him, calling his name inarticulately. He filled her so completely, each movement bringing new waves of pleasure and fulfilment, as though her soul was stretching and expanding.
And at last he reached his own vertex and crushed her in his arms, covering her face with burning kisses.
Slowly, like leaves settling to earth after a gale, normality returned. They slid into an exhausted tangle by the fireside.
‘Now that I’ve found you, I will never let you go.’ He pulled her head onto his chest and cradled her there, the way he used to do, long ago.
They lay in silence for a while, listening to the crackling of the flames. Then he spoke.
‘I almost lost you forever, and I didn’t even know. You’re not safe to be out on your own. Why won’t you let me cherish you for the rest of your life?’
‘Because I need to live it for myself,’ she said.
‘I don’t want to live your life for you, sweet girl. I just want to be next to you.’
‘You don’t. You want to swallow me up.’ This was getting perilously close to the sort of arguments they’d had in London. ‘And you couldn’t have stopped me from getting encephalitis, anyway.’
‘I would have made sure you got the best treatment, the best doctors in the world.’
‘Oh, I know that, Ryan. If you could, you