Suspicions: A Twist Of Fate / Tears Of Pride

“Of course I do…but I was in a hurry…”

“That’s no excuse!” he rifled back at her.

Erin was confused by his only slightly suppressed anger, and she felt her temper rise to meet his. “Look, Kane, thanks for your concern, but it’s really not your problem.”

“It is my problem, when it concerns your safety.”

“I’m all right. I just forgot to latch the door. That’s not such a crime.”

A more contrite look softened his features. “I suppose you’re right,” he sighed, raking strong fingers through his coarse brown hair. “I didn’t mean to jump down your throat.” He walked over to her and brushed a light kiss across her forehead. “But I do wish that you would be more careful.”

“I’ll try,” she agreed in order to ease the tension that was building between them. She could see that he was beginning to relax, but the lines near the edges of his eyes looked deeper than they had this morning. She tried to tell herself that it was probably just the first day at the bank that had taken its toll on him, or possibly that he was concerned about Krista. But she couldn’t help feeling that there was a larger problem storming through his mind—a problem that concerned her.

“Would you like a drink?” Erin suggested.

“Oh.” He slapped a palm against his forehead. “I forgot the wine—something came up at the bank. Forgive me?”

He was teasing, Erin knew, but she could sense an inner turbulence below his light attempt at humor. “Consider yourself forgiven,” she agreed, “but my liquor cabinet isn’t all that great.”

Kane walked over to the cupboard that she indicated and searched through the bottles. “Saying that is being kind. It’s downright pathetic.”

“I don’t see that you have much room to complain, since you were the one who forgot the wine in the first place,” she reminded him, trying to suppress a smile.

“Touché, Miss O’Toole. Now let’s see what we have in here.” His voice was muffled as he pushed aside partially filled bottles of liquor and finally pulled out an unopened bottle of brandy. With a triumphant flourish, he held out the bottle for Erin’s inspection. “Look at this. Maybe the evening won’t be a total loss after all!”

“A loss? You practically insisted on inviting yourself over to a home-cooked dinner, and already you’re insinuating that the evening will be wasted?” She could feel him looking at her, but she didn’t turn around and started slicing the greens for a salad. She was only kidding, of course, but he deserved a shot after barging in that way.

In a moment his arms were encircling her waist and his breath moved her hair as he whispered in her ear. His voice was low and full of promise as he spoke. “I don’t think that any time would ever be wasted if I could share it with you.”

She let the knife slip to the counter. His touch was warming her abdomen, and the feel of his hot breath against her neck made her heart race. She tried to keep her head and recapture the light mood of the minute before. “That sounds like a line if I ever heard one.”

“A line? Oh, Erin, don’t you think I’m a little too old for lines? Don’t you know what you mean to me?” There was a torture in his words as if he was admitting something that he himself didn’t want to hear.

His hands persuaded her body to rotate and face him, and when her eyes found his, she saw that his gaze had darkened with a smoky passion. Smoldering embers lit his eyes as he bent his head slowly downward to capture her trembling lips with his. The warm, seductive pressure of his mouth roving passionately over hers made her dizzy. She tried to blink and restore some sanity to her emotions, but she couldn’t. It was as if her entire body began and ended where her lips met his. Her knees began to give way and melt beneath her. And as he tasted her, an aching need began to consume her.

Her response was complete. Her blood warmed in a swirling moist heat. She began to return his kiss, hesitantly at first. But as he kindled the fires of desire within her body, she responded in kind. Her kisses became anxious pleas for a more intense lovemaking. Boldly her fingers crept up his chest until her arms encircled his neck. She felt the thick muscular cords near his spine and unconsciously began to massage away the tension that seemed to devour him tonight.

Kane groaned with pleasure, his voice an echo of hers as she gasped for air. His tongue met hers and danced hungrily in a torrid fever, first flicking light touches to hers and finally molding it with a moist and fevered need. “Erin,” he breathed, letting her name whisper against her. “I need you…tonight.”

Erin’s mind continued to remind her that she should stop him now, while she still had the chance, but she found herself resisting common sense and embracing temptation. Never had she felt so ignited, so completely female.

His lips scorched a trail of featherlight kisses from her eyes to her throat and on to her tender ear. His delicious breath tingled her inner ear, sending shock waves of passion resounding through her mind. She let her head fall away from him, hoping to somehow make her neck and earlobe more available to him. His thumb traced the hollow of her throat, gently at first, but with increased pressure in tight little circles…around and around, until she thought that she wouldn’t be able to breathe.

Erin sighed briefly and resigned herself to the fact that her mind wanted him as much as her body did. “Oh, Kane,” she murmured, “I need you too.” She succumbed body and soul to her desires and arched her hips against his. His breath ruffled her hair and he smiled down at her before lifting her off her feet and carrying her into the bedroom.

“I know that you need me, Erin. I thought that you would never realize that we were meant to be together.”

“Together?” she breathed.

“As man and woman. I knew it from the first time I saw you, sitting amid that ridiculous pile of books in your office.”

Together as man and woman, she thought, but for how long? For an hour, a day, a week? Her mind raced forward, but her body wouldn’t let go, not tonight. She felt him pressed hotly against her, smelled his warm clean scent and saw a stormy passion in his face that she had to capture. She needed him every bit as much as he needed her, and perhaps much, much more.

Erin let herself follow the path of her emotions. The magic of his kiss had aroused her to the point of no return, and she was heedless of anything save his sensitive touch. She couldn’t deny herself any of the pleasures that he could spark in her. Since that first moment in her dimly lit office, she, too, had been aware of him first and foremost as a man. His sensuality couldn’t be ignored, not for a second. His dark eyes, well-muscled body and virile self-assurance had enticed and beckoned to the center of her femininity, and she was tempted beyond reason to respond.

Erin’s body seemed to warm from the inside out, melting in fevered washes of heat and desire. Any reservations that might still have lingered in her mind were slowly and unconsciously stripped away from her as he rained liquid kisses over her skin.

The bedroom was bathed in moonlight. Kane laid Erin on the bed, and she felt the cool satin of the comforter through the sheer silk of her blouse. She was still dressed, although as he stood over her, she felt naked. Naked to the pain of needing him. Naked in the knowledge that she loved him. And naked in the recognition that her love was unreturned. His heavy-lidded eyes were unreadable, but Erin was very certain that although there was a smoke of passion in his gaze there was no flame of love.

Regardless of that fact, she couldn’t and wouldn’t deny the urges of her body. She loved him, despite his lack of love for her. The bed sagged beneath Kane’s weight, and Erin felt herself tremble. His finger traced the length of her arm, but his eyes never left hers. He was watching her, almost studying her, seeming content to let his gaze caress her.

“Tell me no if you want me to stop,” he commanded in a hoarse voice. His lips brushed tentatively over hers.

Her response was a grateful moan. Their lips met in a hot embrace, and she let her arms wind around his neck in a display of total abandon. She wanted all of him with a burning need that she had never before felt.

He let his hands stroke her face and throat in moth-soft caresses, until at last they reached her collar and finally the buttons of her blouse. He opened the blouse slowly, letting the fine silky fabric part of its own accord. And then gently he raised her shoulders to let the blouse slip to the floor. His eyes watched her torso as her breasts rose and fell with each of her gasping breaths.

“Erin…God, but you’re beautiful,” he sighed, fingering the lacy bra that was still a seductive barrier between his flesh and hers. His fingers teased and finally unclasped the skimpy piece of lingerie, until at last her aching breasts were unrestrained.

A groan escaped from his lips as he slowly massaged each dark-nippled breast to arousal. When he could feel the hardness of her breasts, he cuddled them softly and buried his head between the two feminine peaks. Erin arched against him, unable to control the hot urges that were firing her. She reached for his shirt, and as quickly as possible, removed it from his body, until her anxious fingers found the thick soft mat of fur that covered his chest and the male nipples beneath it.

As he enticed her, so did she him. She let her fingers touch and caress the firm muscles that flared rigidly over his body. Her hands traveled up his spine, vertebra by vertebra, feeling the hardness of his back through the moisture of his sweat.

The room was dark; only the soft glow from the partially opened door mingled with the moon glow to add a shimmering pallor to the night. But Erin could see Kane as clearly as if it were a bright summer day. All of her senses were alive to him. His touch fired her, his scent encouraged her and his salt-sweet taste lingered on her lips and tongue.

His hands traveled to her skirt and panty hose, quickly discarding a portion of the clothing that separated them. He cast off his pants as rapidly, never for a moment leaving Erin alone. Always one part of him was pressed warmly and possessively over her.

Her blood was boiling through her veins, spiraling upward from the deep mercurial well that was vibrating from the essence of her femininity. His lips traveled over her breasts, teasing and tasting each one while his hands slowly and rhythmically rubbed soft patterns against her abdomen, dipping deliciously below the elastic of her panties, and then letting the fabric snap tantalizingly against her skin.

Kane toyed with her last article of clothing until she thought she would go mad with the urgency of her need for him. When the agonizing last flimsy barrier was finally freed from her body, she groaned in pure animal pleasure and desire. He let his lips graze the muscles of her abdomen to circle her navel. His tongue warmed her flesh and she pulled him more closely to her.

All thoughts of anything but the mastery of his lovemaking were torn from her mind, pushed aside as quickly as her clothing. She was conscious of only one thing: the bruising, pulsating desire that dominated her mind and body. Time had ceased. Doubts had fled. All that she cared about was Kane: the skillful play of his fingers on her thighs and buttocks, the searing brand of his kiss over her breasts and abdomen, the enticing lure of his strong body.

She could feel the granitelike touch of his naked leg against hers, the soft hair tickling her cleanly shaven skin. She could also tell that he was holding back his physical needs to give her the utmost pleasure. In the half light of the moon she could see his arousal and feel the warm length of him brushing against her.

Just as she felt that she would surely melt with need of him, he came to her, fusing the fine muscles of his body with hers in a hot, rhythmic blend of passion. She felt him push her over the delicate edge of desire to fulfillment, and in the warm wash of exploded passion, he came with her in a burning torchlike shudder of surrender.

Erin felt a sigh flow from her lips as she held him tightly and securely, holding on to him as if her life depended on him. It had been many, many years since she had made love to a man, and never had she felt the wonder or the magic that Kane had aroused and satisfied in her tonight. Although she felt an incredible bliss, her torn emotions got the better of her, and she began to feel the hot sear of tears burn at the back of her eyes.

Embarrassed at herself, she tried to move away from Kane and blink back the unwanted tears. But as she slid against the satin comforter, his arms locked over her, imprisoning her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he whispered silkily, his voice still holding the satisfaction of afterglow.

Erin’s voice caught in her throat and she couldn’t force herself to answer him.

“Erin?” Kane’s voice was more aware than it had been. “Is something wrong?”

She shook her head negatively, but when she did, she felt his strong fingers reach up and stroke her face. His hands stopped their movement as his fingertips encountered the first tear that had slid unrequested down her cheek. “Oh, no,” he murmured.