Westmoreland's Way - Brenda Jackson [44]
Feeling her heartbeat almost out of control, she shifted her gaze from him to glance around the room. Her great-grandfather’s journal sat in the middle of a wingback chair.
She returned her gaze to him, knowing he’d been watching her intently and was probably waiting for her to make a move. She decided to do so. Moving away from the door she crossed the room to him and, the minute she stood in front of him, his arms easily slid around her.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said, reaching up and placing her arms around his neck.
He gave her a dimpled smile that was so sexy she felt her knees weaken. “Nothing at all. In fact I was just thinking about you.”
“You were?”
“Yes.”
And if to prove that point, he pulled her closer against him and she felt the erection he wasn’t trying to hide. The magnitude of it resting snugly against the juncture of her thighs felt hard and hot. “And just what were you thinking about?”
“This.” And then he swept her into his arms and kissed a startled gasp from her lips.
He took her mouth with a greed that made her moan in his arms as he placed her on the huge bed. And he continued to kiss her as she felt the heat of his body over hers. Whenever he kissed her like this, he had the ability to make her forget everything but him and how he was making her feel. Her thighs were nested between his and, although they were fully dressed, she could feel every hard and solid inch of him.
Slowly he withdrew from her lips, and as she stared deep into his eyes she caught the light from the lamp that brightened the eyes looking at her. And she knew at that moment that she could see a mirror of herself in his eyes. What she saw was a woman fiercely attracted to the man she was with and thinking she didn’t want to be anywhere else.
“I want to show you how much I’ve missed you,” he said huskily, kneeling before her while running a fingertip along the side of her face.
She met the intensity of his gaze, recalled every single thing he had done to her the previous time and felt her inner muscles clench at the thought he would be doing so again. That in itself made her lean up and whisper the challenge. “Then show me.”
“With pleasure,” he whispered close to her lips before taking those lips to begin a slow, sensuous mating that she felt as a gentle throb between her thighs. This kiss had all the high intensity, provoked the stirring sensations of the kisses they’d shared that night, but she could feel something different this time. It was there in the way he wielded his tongue in her mouth. He kissed her with a possessiveness that made every cell in her body become hypersensitive. And by the time he freed her mouth from his, she could only stare up at him, totally and fully at a loss for anything except the man gazing back at her. The look in his eyes clearly said he was claiming her. Here and now.
Warning bells sounded in her head. She knew what the outcome of her future had to be. He did not. She had to marry Fletcher—she didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was something he would not understand and something she could not let him or anyone else prevent. It didn’t matter what sacrifices she knew she was making. What mattered most to her were her sisters.
She hoped the vibes she was beginning to intercept from him were wrong and that he was not considering anything beyond what they had shared this week. Maybe she’d made a mistake in coming here tonight. Had removing her engagement ring made him think that she was willing to put aside her future with Fletcher? She had to make sure he understood that was not the case.
“Dillon?”
He reached out and placed a finger to her lips and, as if he comprehended what was going through her mind, said softly in a husky tone, “Although I don’t have all the facts, I do understand, sweetheart, more than you know, and I think it’s time for you to understand