Sex with Katherine was fantastic; she was fearless, eager, impatient.

And she wanted only him.

There was a concept.

He relaxed and felt the tension in his shoulders melt away.

Felt his old familiar world of sexual play restored.

No longer in the mood to work, he turned off his computer and pushed away from his desk.

But he stood outside the bedroom door for a long time before he finally went in. Then he stood by the bed watching Katherine sleep. Was there a chance in hell he knew what he was doing? Where this was going? Did he even want it to go anywhere? Could it be possible that it was more than sex?

Sensing his presence, Kate’s eyes fluttered open. “Come hold me,” she murmured, her voice soft with sleep.

“I’ll be right with you.”

She smiled at the familiar phrase, then pursed her lips in a reply that didn’t quite make it past her drowsy senses.

Dominic battled the magnetic pull of her soft pink lips. He wanted to grab a fistful of her hair, tip her head back, make use of her mouth, conquer her, possess her. Mark his territory.

He beat back the reckless impulse, reminding himself she’d only just returned to him. Backing away from his violent urges as if from fire, he took a deep breath, then reached up, pulled his T-shirt over his head, and dropped it on the floor.

By the time he climbed into bed and drew her close, she was deep in sleep once again. Her breath was a faint whiffle across his chest, her silken curls tickled his throat, the slow rhythm of her heart against his ribs oddly tranquilizing.

He felt strangely divorced from the desolation of his life: his unfortunate history and unforgiving memories, old resentments and older family drama. And the world around him shrank to this bed on this plane with this woman in his arms. The wasteland of his memories faded and he decided that if feeling a little unbalanced about love and intimacy was the price he had to pay for this sweet, invisible peace, he’d pay the fare without complaint.

And tip the mythical gods to boot.

He inhaled deeply. The flowery scent that rose from Katherine’s skin was weirdly therapeutic. Like aroma therapy, he decided with a smile. Calming.

Delicious.

He closed his eyes and slept.

FOURTEEN

He thought he was dreaming. Then he realized he was inside her. He didn’t know how long the boundaries of dream and real life had merged, but his dick was rock hard, buried deep, and Katherine was softly purring as he lazily moved in a smooth, silken drift, in, out, in… oh fuck—that was so intense it made his jaw ache. Pulling her closer, he wrapped his arm around her waist as she lay curled against him, her back to his chest. Splaying his fingers over her stomach, he tugged her into his erection, drove in a fraction more, and smiled as her sleepy purr turned into a breathy little gluttonous gasp.

Moving his hand upward, he ran his palm slowly over the soft curve of her breast, filled his hand, then flexed his fingers and gently squeezed. The moan coming from deep in her throat was unbound pleasure. “Feel that little ripple slide down to my dick?” he whispered, thrusting his long, rigid length deeper, then deeper still.

“Ummm.… ummm—oh God… don’t move, don’t move…”

“What if I do?”

“I’ll die,” she breathed.

“We can’t have that.” The amusement in his voice was unmistakable. “It would ruin our vacation.” Slipping his hand downward, he gently stroked the pressure cooker of her clit with extraordinary delicacy and subtlety, the pad of his finger almost weightless.

Her response was immediate and predictable: breath held, coiled and shaking.

Dominic moved then, but in a good way, in a way that sent a thrilling little frisson up her spine, jolted every strung-out pulsing nerve, brought her in brief, trembling moments to the hovering brink of climax, and when his massive arousal cleared a path to that perfect zero spot, she gasped, then screamed as orgasmic bliss exploded.

“Happy vacation,” he whispered against her ear, flooding her sex with a spiritually attuned white-hot river of cum. It was near enough to morning to no longer worry about unintended consequences. Immune from liabilities now, he was free to fuck to his heart’s content.

When Kate’s last bone-melting, heart-pounding spasm waned, she sleepily breathed, “I don’t know if that was a dream, but it was super nice…”

“Ummm…” he agreeably murmured, not entirely awake either after a month with little sleep. Lifting the hair on the back of her neck, he gently kissed her nape and tugged her closer, still partially erect inside her. “Go to sleep, baby. I’m here…”

Hours later, coming out of a dead sleep, Dominic squinted at the light edging the window blinds.

“Are you awake?”

“Getting there,” he mumbled, the soft demand in her voice dragging him up from the depths of slumber.

She wiggled her bottom in a little undulating rotation.

He sucked in a breath as his dick surged in size and length. “That’ll do it,” he said in a normal tone of voice. “I’m up.”

Then she reached between her legs, found one of his testicles with her fingertips, and gently tugged on the sensitive flesh at the same time she pushed her little ass backward and whispered, “I need you. Deeper.”

“You’ve got us, baby,” he murmured. “We’re all up.” And following instructions, he drove forward with a thrust that really woke him up and resulted in Katherine’s high-pitched gluttonous cry, which always added inches to his dick. As if her ravishment ramped up his libido. As if her wanting him with equal recklessness was their justification and intent, the razzle-dazzle splendor that shaped their willful desires.