He groaned tightly and began to move, slowly at first, then with a soul-splintering speed that had his h*ps pistoning against hers. Their bodies met and separated over and over as tension coiled and need escalated.
She felt it building, knew her release was so close she could almost touch it. The tingling sensations soared and a delicious ache rose inside until it was nearly unbearable. His strength surrounded her, his body filled her and he didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. She moved with him, her body welcoming his, holding him tightly, creating a fabulous friction that accelerated the desire clawing at them both.
And when the first tiny explosions shattered within her, Julie’s eyes flew open so that she could look at Travis as her body exploded in a shower of light and color and sensation like she’d never known before. His gaze was dark, hot, steady.
“Let go,” he whispered.
And she did.
“Travis!” She held on to him, arms locked around his neck, legs crossed at his spine. She pulled him in tighter, closer, holding him to her as an enormous wave of pleasure crested inside her.
Her cl**ax pushed him over that teetering edge of control and before the last of the sweeping tide of ripples had died away, Travis called her name on a hoarse shout of victory and emptied himself into her.
When the storm was over, Travis’s blood was still pumping like fury through his veins. He’d thought having her would clear his head, make the wanting less, the attraction he’d felt for her less powerful.
Big mistake.
Julie nestled against him, laying her head on his shoulder and he wanted her all over again. Her heat, her touch, her explosive reaction to his lovemaking all combined to only feed the fires already quickening inside him. He hadn’t eased the desire he felt for her, he’d only fed the flames.
He turned his face toward her, kissed her forehead and murmured, “I’m not done.”
She lifted her head, kissed him lightly, briefly and whispered, “Me, neither.”
In an instant, his body thickened inside hers, tightening, hardening. She shifted in his arms, wiggling her h*ps and everything in him fisted hard and tight. He wanted her. More than he had before.
Turning, he held her close, their bodies still joined, he took the few steps to the nearest couch and laid her down. Beside them, the fire burned, and light and shadow played across her features in a never-ending shift of patterns that only served to make her more beautiful, more dreamlike.
Travis wanted nothing between them this time. He slid free of her body long enough to tear his clothes off, then he bent down over her and helped her shimmy out of her dress. Then she was naked, lying on the soft, pale fabric of the couch and lifting her arms to him.
“Do it again, Travis,” she whispered as he came into her embrace. “Take me there again and let me take you.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice.
Covering her with his body, he braced his weight on his hands at either side of her head. Her eyes were wide and shining in the firelight, the deep green sparkling with a golden glow that intrigued and captivated him. Her mouth was swollen from his kisses and when she touched the tip of her tongue to her lips, he bent his head to capture it.
Their mouths fused as he entered her on a slow slide of languorous satisfaction. He pushed himself into her heat with a calm deliberation he wasn’t really feeling. Every instinct had him clamoring to take her, to drive himself into her body, but his will kept him moving slowly, drawing out the pleasure, making each inch of her he claimed a small victory.
“Travis—” She tore her mouth from his and sucked in air desperately. Lifting her h*ps under him, she sought to take him in more fully, to draw him deep, high inside. “I need…I need…”
“Me, too.” His words were strained, hollow, echoing with the desperation suddenly tearing at him. With each of her movements, she tore at the foundations of his self-control, his will.
He hadn’t expected this lightninglike connection between them. Now, he couldn’t imagine doing without it.
Travis felt her body tighten around his, felt the first velvety grip of her inner muscles and watched as her eyes flashed with wonder. Then he let himself go, falling into the green of her eyes and the warmth of her body.
The next morning, Julie was feeling completely sated and impossibly lazy. Her body ached in a very good way and just for a second or two, she stretched on the bed and let herself remember the night before.
Lying in Travis’s arms. Feeling the magic that sprung up between them when they touched. Experiencing the incredible sensations caused when their bodies joined. And just for that second or two, she allowed herself to pretend that this marriage was real. That they’d really found something amazing together.
But in the next moment, that illusion was shattered.
“I don’t believe this!” Travis’s outraged shout carried from the next room.
She bolted up in the oversized bed in his room and scrambled off the mattress. Naked, she stood there for a second, wishing she had her robe. Then she shrugged and dragged a sheet they’d yanked loose during the night around her body. Tripping on the edges of it as she went, Julie stumbled into the main room.
Travis was still as a statue, standing in a wide splash of sunlight pouring through the open French doors. A room service cart loaded down with coffee, fresh fruits and an assortment of breakfast pastries stood unnoticed beside him. He held a newspaper and his features were filled with fury as he stared at the front page.
“Travis?”
His gaze snapped to hers and she watched as the anger in his eyes shifted to a different, much harder to read emotion. “We’ve got a situation.”
“Yeah, I heard,” she said, tugging the sheet out of her way as she walked toward him. “What’s wrong?”
“What isn’t?” When she was close enough, he turned the paper toward her.
“Oh, my G—” With her free hand, she snatched at the newspaper and tilted it so that the black-and-white picture taking up most of the front page was in the sunlight. But she hadn’t really needed clarification.
The headline was large and black. King and His New Queen. She winced at that and wondered idly if that would be her new nickname in the press. But when she glanced farther down and took in the picture below the headline, the title Queen was the least of her worries.
The photograph was crystal clear and so detailed, the photographer might as well have been in the room with them. Or rather, on the terrace.
There she and Travis were, captured in the moment when desire had leaped up between them. Her head was thrown back in ecstasy as his hands cupped her br**sts and his mouth was at her throat.