Page 78 of His Sinful Touch

It was only a few feet to the bed, but the journey there took a long time, for they paused to kiss, to caress, to unfasten a garment and toss it aside. By the time they reached the bed, their clothes were gone, their bodies too heated to feel any evening chill. Sabrina gazed at Alex’s long, lean body in appreciation, all former embarrassment falling away. Placing her hand on his chest, she moved it slowly across his skin, tracing the lines of his muscles, the bony ridges of his ribs, following the hard center line of his chest downward.

She kissed his flesh, her tongue circling the hard buttons of his nipples as he had done with her the night before, and her hands roamed farther, skimming down his back and over his buttocks, sliding back around across his thighs. Every small sound he made, every twitch, every flare of heat in his skin, multiplied her own pleasure. She felt the passion surging in him, intensifying her own.

Beloved, she thought, though she dared not say it. Not yet. Not now.

Alex lifted her up and laid her down on the bed, stretching out beside her. He caressed her body with the same loving attention Sabrina had shown to his, and as his hands and lips moved over Sabrina, the heat inside her built to such heights she thought she could not go any higher, feel any more. Yet each time his lovemaking carried her on.

Then, at last, he moved between her legs, coming into her with the same slow power. Sabrina wrapped herself around him, moving with him, and gave herself up to the storm of pleasure. He filled her senses, her mind, her very being, it seemed, and when she reached the peak and shattered, she felt him shudder and fall with her into the sweet ecstasy.

* * *

HE AWAKENED IN a dark room, the only light a shaft of tepid sunlight through a high window. And even in the dream, he recognized it as the same place, the same time, the same chill of fear. He tried to turn over and bury his head to make it go away, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t think, trapped in the undefined dread.

“Alex. Alex!”

His eyes flew open. Sabrina bent over him, shaking his shoulder. He stared at her blankly, lost between worlds. “Oh. Sabrina. I’m sorry.” He sat up, rubbing his hands across his face. “Did I wake you?”

“You were dreaming. I woke up and you were thrashing about and mumbling.”

He could feel the film of sweat on his skin and the heat of his body beneath it. Why had his body betrayed him, sending the dream to him now, of all times? The last person he wanted to witness his weakness was Sabrina.

“Yes. I had a nightmare.”

“About what?”

“Nothing, really, you know, just the sort of crazy thing one dreams. It’s over now.”

Sabrina’s forehead creased in concern. “It didn’t seem like nothing.” She paused, looking at him, and when he didn’t reply, she let out a sigh and flopped over onto her back. “Very well. If you don’t wish to tell me...”

The chill in her voice equaled the one of the air touching his damp skin.

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you,” Alex explained hastily, then stopped, scrabbling for a reasonable excuse, since the fact was that she was exactly correct. “Bloody hell,” he muttered.

“I told you about my nightmare,” Sabrina pointed out.

“Yes, but...”

“But what?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Why?” She turned to her side again, batted her eyes at him and said in a saccharine voice, “Because you’re a big, strong man, and I’m just a little woman?”

“No!” he said in a groan, pulling at his hair. “Devil take it. You’ve clearly been around my mother too long. It’s because I don’t want you to see...that.”

“See what?”

“My fear. Over nothing. My...weakness.”

“Alex...” She snuggled up to him, laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arm around him. He had to admit, it made him feel inexplicably better about the whole thing. “Having a frightening dream isn’t weakness. Everyone has nightmares. I’ll warrant even Achilles had nightmares.”

“Yes, well, who wouldn’t, getting dipped in the River Styx when you were a baby?” She chuckled, and that sound, the vibration of it against his chest, somehow made everything better, too. He let out a sigh. “I have the same nightmare, over and over. I’ve had it for years. I’m in a dark room. Alone, knowing I’m locked in. Unable to get out.”

“Like what happened to you years ago. When I ‘saw’ you.”

He nodded, sliding his hand up and down her arm. “Yes. They started after that.”

“That’s perfectly understandable.”