“Are you hot?” he said. Sheesh, that sounded like a line.
“Take off your shirt, Gray.”
Another goodly sip of brandy—and Marley matched him swallow for swallow—and he hauled his T-shirt over his head. This was one of those times when a man could be grateful if he’d kept himself toned and hard around the edges. He had always been fit.
“Nice,” Marley said, her head tilted, her assessment unabashedly direct. “I like a little hair on a man—especially if it’s dark. Your stomach looks as if you eat ground rock for breakfast.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“You’re welcome. Feel cooler now?”
He laughed. “What do you think?”
Her smile was unexpectedly wicked. “I hope not.”
She sobered and lowered her eyes. “I don’t know what’s come over me. I don’t even sound like the Marley everyone knows.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure of myself around men.”
“Really?”
“Really.” She bowed her head and studied her hands. “Now I’m embarrassed.”
He inclined his head and waited until she looked up again. When she did, he smiled at her. “I’m not embarrassed,” he said.
“Oh, boy.” Marley took in a deep breath and blew it out. “Perhaps we should try to focus on something constructive. We could make a list of what we discovered tonight. I find it helps if I write things down.”
“What I want right now doesn’t need writing down,” he said. “Do you think you can say the things you’ve just said then move on to another topic? It’s not going to happen.”
“Gray.”
“What, Marley?”
“It’s not fair to let you get in any deeper with me. I bring some pretty unusual baggage with me.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Ooh.” She set down her glass and held her head in her hands. “Why does it all have to be so complicated? The Millet Bonding. There’s a phase that should scare the pants off you.”
He laughed until he fell against the back of the couch. “Nice line,” he said when he could speak.
“If this Bonding does exist between one of us and someone who comes into our lives, there’s a kind of test.” She held up a hand. “Please don’t interrupt. It’s a stupid test because it causes some sort of shocking reaction. Pain—addictive, so I’m told, an explosion, I don’t know because I’ve never experienced it and, frankly, I’d decided I never wanted to.”
“Until me?” he asked quietly.
She closed her mouth tightly.
“Marley, love, something happens every time we touch.”
She nodded.
“Has that happened with any other men you’ve met?”
“Never before. Once I thought it might, but I was wrong.”
His stomach rolled over and his body clenched. “But there’s more? If this bond is there, the results can be bizarre?”
“Not bizarre,” Marley said. “Mind-blowing. And according to our lore, once experienced, it’s hard not to want to repeat the process at every opportunity.”
“I see.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Are you hot?” Gray asked.
“Yes.”
“Take your shirt off.”
She turned bright red. He reached out to her with only his face and sucked on her lips. Marley shuddered and so did he, kept on shuddering and kept on kissing.
Putting inches between them, Marley grasped the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. The long, tight sleeves took some working off.
Her body was beautiful. Small and compact, and completely desirable. Her soft pink bra didn’t quite cover her nipples and Gray was tempted to sit on his hands just to control them. He wanted to grab her.
He caught sight of the angry marks on her wrists and the palm of her hand. “I don’t want to hurt those wounds,” he said.
“You won’t. And if you do, I’m not going to notice.”
Gray leaned toward her again and this time he curled his tongue beneath one bra cup to tease the nipple from its hide-and-seek lace. Marley made a sound and leaned back on her hands, thrusting her breasts toward him.
He grasped her waist and pulled her close. All sensation melded together, a mix of pleasure and pain that made him feel drunk and very thirsty for more.
Vaguely he was aware that their timing didn’t feel so right. But the thought was gone as quickly as it came. She was fire and silk in his arms.
Pressure mounted through his body, expanded his veins and muscles and pumped power into him. He was a strong man, but with her he was iron.
“I can’t wait,” he said against her ear. And he kissed her deeply while she drove her hands into his hair. And from his hair she went to the bulge in his jeans. She unsnapped and unzipped the pants and forced her hands inside.
Gray moaned and heard the answering sound from Marley.
He picked her up by the hips and buried his face in her breasts. His fingers destroyed the clasp on her bra and he panted at the sight of her naked breasts. He worked his thumbs in circles, getting ever closer to her nipples until, with a growl, he used his teeth to bring sobs from her.
Walking with her, he pressed her back against the wall and let her slowly slide down until her toes touched the ground.
“I’m on fire,” he told her. “Burning up.”
“Yes.”
With one sweep he ripped off her shorts and panties and shucked his jeans.
“I want to know what you like,” he said, and slid the heel of one hand down her tummy.
Her eyes didn’t leave his. With parted lips, she panted. Her pelvis met his palm and he curled his fingers into her.
“Gray.” She said his name, long and low and pressed herself tightly against his hand. “That’s what I like. You know. You just know.” Her wince, the break of sweat on her brow, excited him even while fresh pain thudded from deep in his loins, down his thighs.
She stiffened with her release and wound her body more tightly about his.
Pounding in his groin and belly built and he gasped. The sounds from his own throat amazed him. Keening, animal cries. Tears slid from Marley’s eyes.
Once more he lifted her.
This time he lowered her rapidly and filled her, locked his thighs and knees against wrenching vibrations to make a kind of unworldly love he had never, could never have imagined possible.
He couldn’t see clearly. The room moved.
Pressure built. He clung to Marley and clung to the wall. Dimly he feared what he might be doing to her, but she helped him, drove herself down over him again and again.
A searing, like a white-hot spear, seemed to split him in two and then, as quickly as it had all mounted, it ebbed on the sweet, soaring tide of their climax.
Gray looked down at her, at the undulations of their slick bodies, at the mixture of pleasure and pain on her upturned face.
He didn’t know how long they kept on moving together, and against each other, or how long they stroked, skin to skin, and he would never remember all the words that tumbled out of them. But when they slumped against each other and slid to sit, leaning body to body, on the floor, he knew one absolute truth. They would be drawn together again and again and they would never as much as glance at each other without thinking about the incredible sex they could share.
Chapter 29
Marley watched first gray light filter through the slatted blinds on her bedroom window. She couldn’t have slept for more than an hour yet she was wide-awake and filled with a premonition that something huge was about to happen.
Lying on his stomach, his face turned toward her, Gray had her pinned to the bed with a muscular arm and a powerful leg. He was heavy, but in a way she’d like to get used to.
Ideas and impressions crowded in on Marley.
Today there would be change, major change. She shut her eyes and concentrated. It would be the case. Nat would make progress and they would start to get closer to finding Liza and Amber.
Her eyes wanted to pop open, but she squeezed the lids together tightly. A pinpoint of light became a pearly, glowing little heap. She centered her attention harder, brought her focus to the center of the light.