But Luke found he couldn’t pull back. An unexpected, fiercely feminine strength held him close, for Carla was placing no leash on her own response, her own dreams. She was kissing him as she had dreamed of being kissed, hunger and trembling, heat and sensual fire; and something more, something she couldn’t name but knew waited for her within this one man’s arms.
Luke bent down, arching Carla’s supple body more deeply, bending her into the curve of his own body, satisfying her instinctive urgency to match a woman’s soft heat with a man’s hard need. His arms tightened even more as he slowly lifted her until she had no support but his strength, no place to rest but against his hard flesh, nothing but his heat and hunger surrounding her. She was spinning languidly, turning, folded in hot darkness, sweetly consumed by fire, and Luke was spinning with her, the taste of him spreading through her, his arms locked around her, a dream coming true, wrapping her in ribbons of fire.
A long time passed before Carla felt herself being lowered slowly to the ground, still held so close as Luke eased her down his body that she could feel each ripple of his muscles, the snaps of his shirt, the blunt metal of his belt buckle and the much blunter ridge of his arousal pressing against her. When her feet touched the ground she stumbled, taken unaware by the weakness of her knees. Instantly his arms tightened, supporting her. She felt the rock hardness of his thighs and then he groaned, locking her hips against his as he moved in the primal rhythms that had once frightened her and now sent an incandescent heat cascading through her, echoing the movement of his hips.
Groaning, Luke tore his mouth away from Carla’s and forced himself to loosen his hold on her. He was breathing roughly, all but out of control. His mouth felt empty, violently hungry for the sultry completion it had so recently known. He closed his eyes, caught between frustration and surprise.
"Luke?" Carla asked shakily. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?"
His eyes opened. Her breath stopped as she looked at the twin pools of molten gold. His smile was like his eyes, hot and restrained, bemused and very hungry.
"It’s all right," Luke said. "I just thought I knew all that mattered about men and women and sex. I was wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"I can’t put it in words, but I know it’s true just the same. Give me your mouth again, sunshine. I’ve never enjoyed just kissing anyone so much in my life."
"But I’m not – not that experienced," Carla said, perplexed and pleased at once, her thoughts vaporizing at the heat of his eyes, her hands clinging to his arms because she was thoroughly off balance.
Luke’s eyelids lowered in reflexive pleasure as he ran his thumb over Carla’s flushed lips. She followed his caresses with the tip of her tongue, caressing him in turn.
"You’re so damned honest," he said huskily. "Your words, your responses. I didn’t know a woman could be that passionately honest. It’s making things harder than I expected. Kiss me, baby."
"What things?" Carla said shakily, letting Luke take the weight of her body as she reached up to give him the kiss he had requested. Then she heard her own words and buried her face against his neck, realizing anew precisely what that hard ridge of flesh was beneath his jeans – and aware, too, that his arousal made her feel proud and restless and more than a little curious all at once. "Er, besides the obvious, that is."
"It’s obvious, all right." Luke laughed softly, realizing that his changed body didn’t frighten Carla as it had three years ago. He tilted her face up and saw the mixture of feminine pride and virginal curiosity in her expression. Amusement and passion warred for control of his body. Both won. "God, I wish I could stop time and keep you locked away forever. My own very private supply of sunshine," he said against her lips.
When Carla started to answer, Luke took her mouth with a hunger that shook both of them. She felt vividly the velvet penetration of his tongue, the power and hardness of his arms lifting her, the world turning and dipping, ribbons of fire wrapping around them once more. When the ground came up softly to meet her, she realized that she was lying on one of the sleeping bags with Luke beside her, urging her closer and closer to himself. She trembled even as she pressed more intimately against his big body.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yes."
"You’re trembling."
"So are you."
"I know. I barely had the strength to lift you."
Carla’s eyes widened and her hands tightened on Luke’s muscular shoulders, silently pointing out the inherent power of his body.
"Yeah, being weak came as a surprise to me, too," he said, his voice uneven with desire and laughter. He whispered her name and bent down to her mouth once more. "I ache, Carla. Want to kiss me and make it all better?"
The passionate whimsy of Luke’s question made her smile. She was still smiling when his mouth came down on hers in a slow, complete mating that drew a moan from deep within her. He drank the small sound and thirsted for more.
Luke’s hands smoothed over Carla’s body, seeking her breasts, caressing them in hot silence. Her cotton shirt and sheer bra didn’t conceal her immediate response. He caught the hardened nipple between his fingers and plucked rhythmically, hearing her shattered moan, tasting it, feeling it, demanding it with the deep seduction of his kiss and the hunger of his hands.
When Carla’s breasts were hot and swollen, their tips hard and aching for more of Luke’s caresses, his right hand slid down her body. Stroking, probing, smoothing, inciting, he savored the curve of her waist and belly. She arched against his hand, burning and shivering, needing something more, unable to tell him what she wanted because her mouth was wholly his, caught in a slow mating she didn’t want to end.
Luke’s palm caressed her hips and thighs repeatedly, pressing against her, moving her in the rhythms of his tongue deep within her sweet mouth. Gently, inevitably, his hand eased higher and higher between her thighs until he could go no farther. His fingers curved around her and his palm began to move slowly, insistently, rhythmically; and the sultry heat that blossomed at his touch made him groan.
His hands and mouth became harder, more demanding, dragging a broken sound from Carla, a sound that incited Luke unbearably. He wanted to hear more such cries ripple from her, wanted to coax them from her in a fiery, unending cascade, wanted to discover and savor and taste each of her responses. He wanted to consume her and find hot consummation in an unbridled intimacy he had neither sought nor desired with any woman but her, and he wanted it until he died.
The broken whimpers Carla was making finally penetrated Luke’s passion. He tore his mouth away from hers and dragged his hands free of her rich, alluring softness.
"Luke – please – I – "
In the moment before control came back to Luke, he shuddered like a man in torment.
"Sorry," he said hoarsely, smoothing the hair away from Carla’s face. "I’m sorry, sunshine. I didn’t mean to frighten you."
"That’s not – " Carla’s voice broke. "I didn’t mean – "
She tried to bring herself under control but couldn’t. She made a ragged sound and captured one of Luke’s hands, kissed his palm, then closed her teeth on it in helpless response to the baffling, conflicting feelings raging within her, wanting to caress and savage him at the same time.
"Oh, baby," Luke said, closing his eyes, his whole body clenched in violent response. "You’re killing me and you don’t even know it."
"I’m sorry," Carla said shakily, shocked by her own actions. "I don’t know why I did that. I just – just – "