Dateline: Kydd and Rios by Tara Janzen Read Free Book Online

naked in each other’s arms. He used his hands and mouth a hundred different ways on her body, turning her into fire and flame, bringing her to the brink of release and easing her back down. He didn’t want her frightened by the intense emotions and sensations of a lover’s climax, but he definitely wanted her to climax. Her arousal was paramount in his mind, for some admittedly selfish reasons. He wanted to feel her release wash over him. He wanted to love her and know she felt everything he felt. He wanted to share this night completely, to make her feel her body in all its exquisite perfection, to leave a brand upon her heart that no other could erase.
    Nikki shimmered and arched under his sweet, relentless torture, loving him in return, learning how to make his pleasure last, how to draw her tongue across his mouth and her hands down his body until he had to make her stop.
    “Please,” he begged, his fingers tightening around her wrists. “Give me a chance. I don’t want to hurt you.”
    “You had your chance a year ago, Rios,” she murmured close to his ear. She loved the feel of his body, slick and hot, over hers, and wanted him, as he’d promised, deep inside her. “You could have walked away.” The last was a bare whisper against his throat. She adjusted her hips, silently telling him of her readiness and the desperate need consuming her.
    “Not then,” he said huskily. “And not now, but I’ve got to have some cooperation or I’m going to—”
    “You’re not going to hurt me, Josh. Not now, not unless you stop.” She wrapped one silky leg around his hips, and instantly unraveled his last tenuous hold on control.
    Clenching the sheets in his hands, he covered her mouth with his own and tried to hold himself back. Instead he found himself slipping inside her, every moment becoming more urgent.
    Nikki gasped, and felt the world open up like a flower’s petals rising to meet the sun. He filled her completely and still took her higher, beyond any realm of sensation she’d imagined. Each thrust of his body weakened her hold on reality. She held him tighter and tighter, reaching for an elusive pinnacle, a pinnacle he took her to when he slipped his hand between their bodies and touched her with a rhythmic, intimate caress. Then she was tumbling down in rippling waves of eternity, hearing her name whispered over and over in her ear. The end was sweet and long, lasting forever, tying her irrevocably to one man.
    Spent, sated, and filled with wonder, Josh collapsed on top of her. Never, ever, would he let her go. He rubbed his face in the creamy valley of her breasts, kissing each in turn, worshiping the woman who had exploded all his myths of love, turning them into ashes compared to the reality of loving her. No matter what he’d said or done earlier, in the morning he knew he would be down on his knees with his heart in his hands, begging her to stay.
    Nikki ran her fingers through the tangled strands of his hair, holding her tears inside. One taste of such magic would never be enough, not for a lifetime. No random chance had given her Joshua Rios. They were meant to be together. 
    “I love you, Josh.” The words were spoken softly to hide the catch in her throat.
    He heard it anyway. He lifted his head and gently eased out of her body. “Don’t cry, Nikki, please.” He kissed her lips, her cheeks, her brow. “I love you. Don’t cry.” With consummate care, he reassured her of his love, his presence, his desire to hold her and always keep her safe.
    But in the silent dark hours before dawn, after he’d loved her again and while he slept peacefully in her arms, she found the strength to slip away from his side.
    Quietly she dressed and repacked her suitcase, picking her clothes up off the floor. Then, with only one longing, loving backward glance, she closed the door behind her—and locked it to keep him safe.

Five
     
    Summer heat lay over San Simeon like a steaming blanket, smothering the