"Outlaw" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowell Elizabeth)

13

Diana laughed shakily, wondering at the curious weakness that had followed Ten's caress. He had broken the rules, but in such a way as not to touch any of the forbidden areas.

"Does that little laugh mean I can do it again?" Ten asked.

The subdued humor in Ten's voice was another kind of reassurance to Diana. Steve had been deadly serious whenever they had been alone, intent on getting as much from her sexually as he could, as quickly as he could.

"Yes," Diana whispered.

A shiver of response followed the seductive movement of Ten's fingertip from Diana's head to her heels. This time he slid beneath her arm, as well, caressing the sensitive skin.

"You're a pleasure to touch," Ten said, kissing Diana's nape again. "Soft, resilient, alive." His tongue traced the line of her scalp to her ear. He smiled to hear the sudden intake of her breath. "You have the sweetest curves. Here," he said, biting her ear gently. "And here." His fingers curled around her arm caressingly. When his fingers moved on, his mouth lingered. He kissed the bare skin of her arm, biting softly, drawing tiny sounds from her. "And here."

Ten's hand shaped the tightly drawn line of her waist, kneading lightly, then more firmly. Slowly, inevitably, his palm moved over the full curve of Diana's hip. "And here." His fingers fanned out, shaping her. As his teeth closed over her nape, his hand flexed into her resilient flesh, luxuriating in the feel of her.

The unexpected caress drew a ragged sound from Diana. Currents of sensation rippled through her, making her want to shift restlessly. She stirred, and her movements acted to increase the pressure of Ten's hand. When his palm smoothed down her bare thigh, she forgot to be worried that he would slide his fingers between her legs. Only when his hand had stroked over her calves to her ankles did she realize that the danger zone had been bypassed once more.

Ten continued the slow, undemanding sweeps of his hand up and down Diana's body. The long caresses were punctuated by his teeth biting gently at her nape, her shoulder, the elegant line of her back; and each time his hand traveled back up her body, he skimmed closer to the shadowed secrets between her thighs and the fullness of her breasts. He explored the smooth curve of her belly with slow pressures that eased her hips back into the muscular cradle of his legs. The pressure of her against his fiercely aroused flesh was a sweet fire that made his hands shake.

Breath held against a groan, Ten waited for Diana to retreat. When she didn't, he pressed her even closer, savoring the pleasure-pain of his own need for a moment before he released her, not wanting to frighten her. His hand shifted, stroking slowly up the center line of her body, giving her every chance to refuse the growing intimacy of his touch.

Buttons caught and tugged against Ten's hand. He made no move to undo them despite his aching desire to touch Diana without the barrier of cloth. He simply caressed her from navel to breastbone to neck and back again, following the center of her body, knowing only a hint of the womanly curves that were calling to him.

"Wait," she said huskily.

Immediately Ten's hand stopped, then withdrew. Before he could retreat farther, slender fingers covered his, holding his hand against her belly. Her shoulders moved, her fingers urged his-and suddenly Ten found his hand inside Diana's blouse, cupping the lush weight of her breast. A groan was pulled from his throat, a low sound of desire that mingled with the one she made as her nipple peaked in a rush of sensation that left her weak.

Diana's breath unraveled into broken sighs as Ten's hand moved slowly from one breast to the other, caressing her, cherishing her. When his finger slid beneath the thin fabric of her bra and circled the tip of one breast, she gasped at the unexpected pleasure. He teased her nipple again, then withdrew, leaving her aching for more.

"Ten?"

He made a sound that could have been "More?"

"Yes," she sighed.

A long finger skimmed over Diana's nipple again, but the sensation was much less acute, because there was cloth between them this time. Without stopping to think, she released the front fastening of her bra, baring herself to Ten's touch.

A hammer blow of desire went through Ten, making his hands shake. He eased one long arm beneath Diana's head, cradling her and at the same time giving both hands the freedom to caress her. He caught her nipples between his fingers and squeezed gently, smiling at the rippling cry of pleasure he drew from her lips. The sight of her rose-tipped, creamy curves nestled in his darker hands made fire pool urgently in his body, swelling him against his jeans until he could count each heartbeat as a separate surge of blood. He caressed her hard nipples again, wishing he could take the responsive flesh into his mouth.

Diana's breath fragmented into a low cry as Ten tugged rhythmically on her breasts, soothing and teasing her in the same skilled motions. He squeezed again, harder, knowing that she was now too aroused to feel a lighter touch. Her back arched in a passionate reflex that pressed her breasts against his hands. He rubbed slowly in return and was rewarded by a shivering cry of pleasure.

Deliberately Ten's hands retreated from Diana's breasts to her ribs, dragging slowly across her body, peeling away her bra and blouse. She made no objection, simply moved her shoulders sinuously, helping him. Her reward was the return of his hands to her breasts in a slow loving that drew ragged sighs from her lips; and then she felt the heat of his mouth going down her spine in a sensual glide that made her shiver repeatedly. Each restrained bite was a separate burst of pleasure sending glittering needles of sensation throughout her body. When his tongue traced her spine all the way up to her nape, she called out his name in a throaty voice she didn't recognize as her own.

"I'm right here, baby," Ten said, biting Diana's nape with enough force to leave small marks, tugging at the full breasts that lay within his cupped hands. "And so are you."

Slowly Ten released one breast and sent his hand down the front of her body again. "There is so much of you to enjoy," he said in a low voice. This time he didn't turn aside from the soft mound at the apex of her thighs. Nor did he linger. "Not just the obvious places, the battlegrounds of school kids," Ten continued, smoothing his hand over Diana's hip to the small of her back. "I like touching the rest of you, too." He traced the swell of her hip down to the back of her thighs, and from there to her firm calves and delicate ankles. "Smooth, firm…"

Ten's hand caressed higher, finding and stroking the inside of Diana's thighs as far as he could without seeming to pressure her for more than she was willing to give. His caress went from the back of her knee to the small of her back. He stroked first one hip, then the other, cupping and squeezing, drawing a surprised gasp of pleasure from her. She shifted almost restlessly, giving Ten's hand greater freedom. He moved his hand farther down, curling around her, holding her intimately. Heat burst through her, changing her gasp to a moan.

"Would you like lying just as you are now, but with no clothes to dull your pleasure?" Ten asked softly, kissing Diana's nape, her shoulder, her vulnerable spine. His hand tightened against her, subtly caressing her. "It's your choice, honey. You're as safe as you want to be."

"That's not…fair." The last word came out in a rippling sigh as Ten's hand flexed once more against her softness and heat.

"I thought you liked being teased," Ten said, smiling against Diana's spine despite the sudden, savage clenching of his own need.

"You're not teasing me," she whispered.

"I'm not?" Ten's hand flexed again and he groaned quietly at Diana's helpless response to his touch. "Baby, I'm sure as hell teasing one of us."

He felt her hand moving, heard the soft slide of a zipper and sensed the sudden looseness of her shorts. His hand bunched, catching cloth between his fingers, pulling it away from the hot secrets he longed to explore.

When Diana felt her remaining clothes being tugged down her legs, felt the powerful, cloth-covered male legs rubbing against hers, a shaft of panic went through her, memories of another time, another place, pain. Her legs clamped together and her body jack-knifed in an instinctive effort to protect herself.

Instantly Ten let go, leaving Diana's shorts and panties around her knees. Grateful that she couldn't see the tension in his body, Ten brushed a butterfly kiss on her shoulder.

"It's all right, Diana. It stops right here."

Gently Ten began to ease his left arm from beneath Diana's head. She grabbed his left hand and held it against her breast once more.

"Don't leave," she said raggedly. "I didn't mean to react like that. It was just when I felt the zipper scrape down my leg and felt your legs and you were still dressed-but it's all right now. I know where I am, who I'm with."

Ten kissed Diana's shoulder again but made no move to reclaim the soft curves he had already made his own, much less the shadowed heat that lay newly revealed to his touch.

"Would it make you feel better if I weren't wearing my jeans?" Ten asked.

She laughed a little wildly. "Yes. I know it sounds crazy but-yes."

With a silent prayer that his self-control was as good as he thought it was, Ten rolled over, removed his clothes and returned to his former spoon position with Diana. The feel of her bare bottom nestled deeply into his lap made him clench against a savage thrust of need.

Diana and I could be dead naked together and she could still say no and that would be that. So cool off, cowboy. This one is for Diana, not me. As much as she wants, when she wants it, however she wants it. That's what I promised.

I must have been out of my mind.

The sweet heat and feminine curves of Diana's body called out to Ten in a siren song as old as man and woman and desire, making Ten want to curse his stupidity for promising not to coax or beg or demand from Diana what he had never needed so much before in his life.

He lay motionless, his left arm pillowing Diana's head, his right hand clenched into a fist that rested on his equally clenched thigh.

"Ten," Diana whispered. "Please touch me again. It's all right. I trust you. I won't panic again. And I like-I like the feel of you without your jeans."

Slowly Ten's right hand loosened. He took a deep, secret breath, then another, relaxing himself in a ritual that was almost as old as desire itself.

"Are you sure?" he asked, not knowing of whom he asked the question.

Diana answered it for both of them. Without warning she took both of Ten's hands and rubbed her breasts against his palms, letting him feel the hardness of her nipples and at the same time easing some of the wild ache in her body. His strong fingers closed around her, plucking at the tight velvet peaks, coaxing a ripple of sound from her. After a moment the smooth heat of his right hand caressed her belly, her waist, the small of her back; then a single finger traced the shadow cleft between her hips.

If Diana had thought to conceal herself by locking her knees together and jackknifing her body, she had failed. Ten found her softness unshielded, defenseless, and he traced it lovingly. A sudden shudder took her whole body, surprising her. Her husky cry was matched by Ten's groan of discovery as her heat and pleasure spilled over him.

"Ten," Diana cried, feeling another of the strange, tiny convulsions building in her. "I-"

The word became a gasp and another shudder and then another as she felt his touch glide into her body, retreat, return, only to retreat once more, leaving her dazed and empty, aching. He skimmed the edges of her softness, probing sweetly, discovering the aching nub hidden between sleek, silken folds, rubbing it slowly, hotly, stripping away her breath, her thoughts, her restraint.

Diana twisted sinuously, trying to know more of the pleasure that was greater than any she had ever felt but still not enough; it was driving her mad. Ten was driving her mad, stealing into her so gently, retreating, always retreating when what she wanted, what she must have, was his own flesh filling the emptiness she had never known existed within her own body.

"So soft," Ten said, his deep voice a rumbling purr. He teased Diana slowly, loving the wild tremors of her response when he slid unerringly into her softness, groaning as he touched as much of her as he could. "So damned hot."

Ten's name broke on Diana's lips, a strained sound that could have been either fear or passion. Slowly, reluctantly, he began withdrawing from her body. Her hand locked over his, holding him in place.

"Are you sure you want this?" Ten said hoarsely, rubbing his cheek along her bare hip.

"Yes."

"And this? Do you want this, too?"

His hand shifted. The sensuous pressure within Diana increased. The glittering sensation that had haunted her body condensed into a network of wild lightning. The sound she made was as involuntary as the tightening of her body around him. Afraid that he had hurt her, Ten withdrew before she could stop him.

"Baby? Was that pleasure or pain? You're so tight…"

Diana looked over her shoulder at Ten with sapphire eyes that burned in the aftermath of sensual lightning. Slowly she turned her whole body until she was facing him. When she spoke, her voice was low. smoky, as helplessly sensual as her response to him. She guided his hand from her shoulder to the dark triangle at the base of her torso. When he accepted her wordless invitation and returned to her body, a shaft of pleasure made her gasp and tremble even as she instinctively sought more of Ten's touch. His hand shifted and she felt herself gently stretched. Sensual lightning came again, as unexpected and ravishing as it had been the first time.

"You were right," Diana said when she could speak.

"About what?"

"This. It's as much pleasure as your senses can stand."

Ten laughed softly, then groaned as Diana's mouth caressed his bare chest. "We've just skimmed the surface," he said, bringing her mouth up to his. "But I'm glad you're enjoying it."

She smiled hesitantly. "Are you enjoying it, too?"

"Baby, I'd have to be dead and buried not to enjoy touching you."

Ten felt Diana's slender ringers searching restlessly over his chest, pausing to tease the flat male nipples, then moving on to his back. She probed the line of his spine between ridges of muscle, stroking him, learning what it felt like to hold a man in her arms. Closing her eyes, sighing, half-smiling, she kneaded the long, heavy muscles of Ten's back, openly savoring the heat and power of his body.

Seeing Diana's enjoyment at touching him was as arousing as anything a woman had ever done to Ten. The tips of Diana's breasts were like tight pink rosebuds pressing against him with each movement of her hands. When he could no longer bear looking at her breasts without caressing them, he bent his head to her. A startled gasp became a moan as he circled one bud with his tongue, then took her deeply into his mouth, tasting her, tugging softly on her, making her shudder with each soft stab of his tongue, each exquisitely restrained caress of his teeth, each movement of his fingers within the clinging heat of her body.

Sounds rippled from Diana, the elemental huskiness of passion combined with rising notes of feminine surprise. The hot movements of Ten's mouth and hands increased, deepened, quickened, and she called his name with every rapid breath she took, every stroke of sweet lightning scoring her, shaking her, until finally she shimmered and burned in his arms, her body consumed by the pleasure he had given to her.

Ten held Diana as close as he dared, stroking her trembling body with hands that also trembled, kissing her flushed cheeks, her eyelids, her reddened lips, until finally her breath came more evenly. Her lashes stirred and lifted, revealing eyes more blue than any gems Ten had ever seen.

"How can I…what do I say?" Diana whispered.

"Whatever you want."

"I love you, Ten."

The line of Ten's lips shifted into a bittersweet smile. Before she could say any more, he kissed her gently. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, baby. Damned glad."

Diana opened her mouth to object that what she felt was more than the aftermath of physical pleasure but Ten's tongue slid between her lips. Without thinking she closed her teeth, lightly raking his tongue then soothing it with slow motions of her own in a pattern he had taught her. The tightening of his in response and the sweet friction of his own tongue made her nerve endings shimmer again, echoes lightning from her breasts to her knees. Her caught, broke, caught again.

"Ten?"

He closed his eyes, trying to ignore both the soft heat of Diana's body and the hard heat of his own.

"I want more of you," Diana said huskily, sweeping her hands from his shoulders to his waist. "I want all of you. If you-do you want me, too?''

"Move your hands down a little more and tell me what you think," Ten said hoarsely.

She had moved her hands barely at all when she discovered precisely what he meant. The sound he made while she measured his arousal with a slow pressure of her palm could have been pain, but she was looking at his eyes and she knew it wasn't. She repeated the caress again, drawing another hoarse, low sound.

"Baby, you'll…"

Ten's breath hissed between his clenched teeth. His hand slid from Diana's knee to the apex of her thighs as he sought the secret well of her femininity. It was even hotter and softer than his memories. She whimpered and moved with his touch. Her response and her hands searching over his hard, eager flesh nearly undid him.

Very carefully Ten eased Diana's hands up his body, kissed her fingertips and palms and held them hard against his chest while he caught his breath.

"Ten? What's wrong?"

"Hush, baby. Nothing's wrong."

Ten turned away and took a packet from his jeans pocket. With the swift, sure motions of a man performing an accustomed task, he opened the packet. When he turned back to Diana he wasn't completely naked. He saw her rather startled, somewhat dismayed look. With a calm that was exactly opposite to what he was feeling, he put his finger under her chin and tilted her face up to his own.

"Want to change your mind?" Ten asked.

Rather tentatively, Diana ran her fingertips over Ten's tightly sheathed flesh. "It felt better…without."

He clenched his teeth against agreeing with her. It had felt one hell of a lot better to be completely naked. Just as she, now, felt exquisite to his bare fingers as he once more slid into her, testing her readiness to receive him and simultaneously drawing a low sound of pleasure from her as she melted at his touch.

"Sex is temporary," Ten said tightly. "Children aren't. It's a small price to pay for a big amount of protection."

Diana's head snapped up, surprise clear on her face. At that moment Ten realized she hadn't even considered the fact that she might become pregnant He wanted to swear and laugh and then swear some more at her trust, but most of all he wanted to plumb the depths of her heat with the very flesh that she was once again caressing tentatively. Though her touch was muffled by the price of protecting himself against the lifetime complications of fatherhood, the feel of her hand was nonetheless driving him to the edge of his control.

"Baby?" Ten said.

The aching restraint in his voice made Diana's heart turn over. "Yes," she whispered. "Whatever you want, just show me."

"The first time, it would be easier if… will it bother you to be beneath me?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

Holding Ten's eyes with her own, Diana lay back and opened herself to him. Her complete trust pierced Ten, making him tremble with an emotion that was deeper and more devastating than desire. Slowly he settled between her legs, watching her for any sign of fear or pain. He saw only blue eyes that widened slightly at the gently probing pressure between her legs, then her eyes closed and she unraveled in a long, shivering acceptance of him within her body.

The ease with which Ten became a part of Diana was another instant of piercing emotion deep within him…and then he was moving and she was clinging to him, measuring him in a new way, moving with him, loving him as she had never loved another man.

Fire swept through Ten's restraint, burning him, burning her, each wanting more and yet more. Instinctively Diana's legs shifted, wrapping around his lean hips, luring and demanding with the same motions. He answered with hard, sweeping movements, driving into her, filling her, drinking from her sweet mouth until he felt his self-control slipping away. He fought against ecstasy, not wanting it to come to him so soon, not wanting to end the burning arousal that was in itself a savage pleasure; then it was too late, the pleasure was too piercing, too overwhelming.

Ten took her one final time, all of her, and held himself there while ecstasy stripped everything away but Diana and the deep, endless pulses of his own release.