Every part of her recognized and accepted him—the scent of him, the magical feel of him, her wild response. Her very flesh lit up in ecstasy for him. So did her heart, flowering in her chest.
Dev kissing her was the most ravishing feeling in the world. It was so intensely erotic, it transformed her not into an acquiescent, trembling creature, but a voluptuous woman. She cried out with pleasure. He was a masterful manipulator, but the mastery was inherent in everything he did. How could she relish the sexual excitement that came with the dominant male, then tell him perversely that she feared domination? She had to be a basket case.
Still kissing her, Dev moved off her, falling back onto his side. “You drive me mad with wanting you,” he rasped. “I should really be thinking about going into therapy if I had the time. I could take up something calming like arts and crafts, maybe wood whittling.”
“I’m sorry, Dev.” She pressed close to his body, sighing and breathing into his ear.
His mouth clamped on hers. “Damn you, Mel.” His hand slid a little roughly down the length of her abundant hair. “Just tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.”
A shiny tear fell onto her cheek. “You.”
“You want me, not us?”
“Just love me, please,” she begged.
“But I want us, Mel! Be warned. There’s a caveat attached to all this. I’m not going to wait for you forever.” He spoke forcefully, even as he was trying to keep the immensity of his desire for her in check. There were still walls to be knocked down with Mel. Even as a child, Mel had felt impelled to rebel against Langdon authority. He knew his grandmother had been hateful to Sarina. Mel, too, but it was Mel’s determined nature that made her fight back.
His great hope was his grandfather’s passing would put an end to the chaos of the past with all its moral dilemmas. Mel’s fears were born out of extremes. He understood her. He loved her. But it was hell. So much time and pain had passed between them. There had to be a resolution.
Her body gave off heat and its own intoxicating fragrance. He could feel the heat off her beautiful breasts and the heat between her legs. He rested his hand there. “Listen, I adore the nightgown, Mel, but it has to come off.”
“Just do it,” she begged, moving her body to make things easier for him.
“That’s an irresistible plea if ever I heard one,” he mocked. “Okay, let’s try it inch by inch.” He drew her nightgown slowly up the length of her legs, past her taut stomach, her narrow waist, letting the silk-satin lie in folds under her breasts. Then he moved down to the bottom of the queen-size bed—too small for a man like him—taking her elegant feet in his hands.
Mel lay back, eyes closed, in a state of surrender. Her short-term forays into other far less troubling relationships had brought home to her she would never be satisfied with any other man but Dev. No one else seemed to know what she wanted. No one else could cause the throbbing in her breasts, the mad flutter like a million butterflies in her stomach, the little electrical charges all over, the tiny, keen knife-like thrusts between her legs. No one else could even bring her to orgasm. She had never been able to fake it. Odd that lack had never been noticed.
Dev was kissing her bare feet. The lick of his tongue and his kisses moved languorously up her trembling, increasingly restless legs. He pressed his lips to her flat stomach, the tip of his tongue tracing the whorls of her navel, then his mouth began its downward trail again to where her body was pulsing white-hot. She could hear his breath deepening and quickening. Her own breath was shortening. With exquisite smoothness, his index finger glided inside her—she was so ready for him. Her heart leapt like a wild bird bouncing off the walls of its cage.
God! Oh, God! Oh, God!
“Please, Dev, come inside me.” She knew she was whimpering. The muscular contractions were growing so strong, she felt she might climax too soon.
“Just you wait a bit longer,” Dev murmured, clearly taunting her. “Punishment isn’t over yet. I want you to come alive for me, no one else.”
Her flesh had melted. Her bones had turned to liquid lava. This was what Dev wanted, as much sensation as possible. “Dev, my heart is ready to explode.” She was feverishly turning her head from side to side. Her long legs had fallen apart of their own accord.
“Just a little longer,” he murmured.
“You devil!”
“Whose fault is that? With you, I have to take my pleasure when I can.”
Moments later, judging it precisely, he removed her nightgown with care, then threw it unerringly towards a chair, where it landed in a silky pool. Her breasts were uncovered to his gaze, her hyper-sensitive coral-pink nipples tightly budded and standing erect.
There was a roaring in Mel’s ears as he took one, then the other, into his mouth.
“Tell me you love me,” he muttered, determined on causing her at least some of the pain she caused him.
She didn’t answer. Her total focus was on wrapping her legs strongly around him, tightening them. She wanted to capture him, not knowing when exactly he had managed it, but he was as naked as her. Their nakedness felt absolutely right. It had from the very first time. Dev was her first lover. He had taken far more than her virginity. He had taken her lifelong allegiance.
“You know I love you.” Her body was breaking out in a fine dew of perspiration, the exquisite agony of want. “You’ve marked me forever.”
“I’d say we marked each other,” he said harshly, not at all satisfied with her answer. “Say it. You-love-me.”
“I-love-you.” She tried to lift her head off the pillow, her voice barely above a ragged whisper. “Oh, please, Dev.” Her body, so long starved of him, was frantic for release. Yet he wanted to circle her like an eagle.
He bent his head to lick away the trail of her hot tears, then descended into kissing her, savouring the lush texture of her lips, tasting the nectar within. Only then did his strong hands move beneath her satiny heart-shaped rear, cupping it, then lifting her body high so its delta was close-up and ready. He wanted to bury himself deep, ever deeper inside her so they fused.
Her little keening cry was the trigger. He came in a flooding roar. She came with him in her own burst of fire.
He wouldn’t have changed places with any other man in the world.
He had waited and waited for Amelia. It had made many aspects of his life excruciatingly difficult. What Mel had to learn now was he would never let go. The waiting was over. He would not stand for interference from anyone. That included Mel. The king was near death. Long live his successor.
Gregory Langdon lay very still in his magnificent brass-studded mahogany bed that had been custom made for him decades before. His skeletal hands rested on the coverlet. The heavy curtains Sarina had almost drawn shut blocked the glare of sunlight from outside. His son, Erik, was downstairs. Ava, Erik’s daughter, his beautiful granddaughter, had arrived with her no-account husband. He guessed the cracks were already appearing in that ill-advised marriage. He and Ava had quarrelled over the young man she had only imagined she loved. On the surface, Luke Selwyn had appeared a suitable suitor for his granddaughter’s hand.
