When she unfastened and unzipped his jeans, Colby’s hands tightened again in her hair. Wordlessly he lifted his hips against her, letting her know the full extent of his arousal. She reached into the opening of his jeans, cupping him intimately. And then her hair flowed over his thighs as she worshipped him with her mouth.
Colby groaned, enduring the sweet torture for as long as possible. But in the next moment he was lifting her and pushing her onto her back. He rose, looming over her for a long moment as he studied her nude body in the weak gleam of the flashlight. His hand moved along her thigh until he reached the flowing liquid warmth that marked her own desire.
Gently he stroked with his fingers until Diana thought she would fly apart into a thousand pieces. A moment later, when he touched her with his tongue, she knew she was lost.
The world spun around her. Her body was an exotic instrument that only Colby knew how to play. She clutched at him, writhed against him, sobbed out her feminine demands.
And finally he came to her, burying himself deep within her until she was filled with him and he was surrounded by her. The white-hot heat of their mutual passion exploded around them, enveloping them. They clung together, whirling about in an endless universe that knew no beginning and no end.
Diana gave herself completely, bestowing herself as only a woman in love can when she knows she has found the right mate. It was a total capitulation to her own passion and to her lover’s. It was the kind of surrender that forever chains the conqueror.
This time it was right. This time they were meant to be together. This time she was free to give that which he could never take from her by force. And she gave it to him willingly, with all her heart, knowing the time had come at last.
Past, present and future were now linked.
Diana cried out, and Colby drank the sound from her lips.
When it was over, neither spoke. They fell into an exhausted sleep in each others’ arms.
He dressed slowly, watching her come awake in the glow of the remaining flashlight. He wondered what she would say about the violent passion that had taken them both by storm in the middle of the night.
Would she be angry at his carelessness? Or would she retreat into that self-contained, fiercely independent part of herself and act as if nothing had happened?
It hadn’t been a dream, he was honest enough with himself to admit that, but there had been an odd, dreamlike quality to the whole thing. Should he say something first?
No, he decided. Let her bring up the subject if she wants to. Let her decide to say something about it, if something needs to be said. What had happened had been an unplanned accident. Neither of them was to blame. Both of them were responsible.
Colby knew he was searching for excuses, and there were none. Neither of them had any excuse except the age-old one of ungovernable passion. That passion had descended swiftly, taking them by surprise while they were both half-drugged with sleep. It had swept them both into a shattering conflagration of the senses and then cast them adrift, allowing them to lose themselves once more in sleep.
The passion had dominated him so completely that he hadn’t remembered to use the contents of the little foil packet in his wallet. And she hadn’t thought about it, either.
All of which added up to the fact that Diana might even now be pregnant.
Colby wondered why he wasn’t more alarmed at the thought. By rights, he should be chewing his fingernails to the quick this morning. He hadn’t had this kind of reason to worry since he’d been nineteen.
She would be upset, he knew. A little scared, perhaps. Even at her age she was bound to be nervous about this.
Maybe he should say something first.
But what could he say? Sorry, I forgot? I woke up in the middle of the night in a cave and you were in my arms and I had to have you, and nothing in this world could have stopped me from taking you?
Because that’s the way it had been for him. At his age, that excuse wasn’t worth the breath it took to say it.
Diana stirred and opened her eyes. She focused on the dull glow of the flashlight for a moment, obviously trying to get her bearings.
“Colby?“
“Right here, honey.“ He leaned over and kissed her bare shoulder. “You as stiff and sore as I am?“
“I may not be able to sit up, let alone walk again.“
He smiled, telling himself he was relieved that she wasn’t going to start out the morning by berating him, even though he deserved it. But part of him was irritated by her calm attitude. Was she going to ignore the whole thing?
Diana could be so strong-minded. A regular amazon.
He eased himself to a sitting position and helped her to sit up beside him. Then he began massaging her shoulders with an easy familiarity. She sighed and leaned into the brisk rubdown.
“Better?“ he asked. She looked good in the morning, he thought – even after having spent the night on a stone floor – sweet, vulnerable, relaxed and sexy.
“Much better. Colby, we’re in the grotto room. How on earth did we get in here? I don’t remember moving.“ She stared around with a small frown. Then she seemed to notice the clothes that were scattered around them.
Maybe she didn’t remember any of it, he thought, jolted. After all, she had been half-asleep. “I carried you in here when the wind started whipping the water into the main chamber. We’d have been drenched by now if we’d stayed out there.“
“Oh. Thanks, I guess. But the sooner we get out of here, the better. No offense, but there’s something about this place that really gives me the creeps.“
“Were you scared last night?“ Colby asked quietly as he got to his feet.
She looked at him in surprise. “No, not really. I don’t like the place, but I have to admit I didn’t suffer any real claustrophobia in here. I slept amazingly well, in fact, all things considered.“ She got to her feet, dressing quickly.
“How about you? Scared to your toes like last time?“
He shook his head. Why wasn’t she saying anything about the unplanned and unprotected lovemaking? She was acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened even as she put on the clothes that he’d removed last night in the heat of passion. “No. It wasn’t the same as last time at all.“ Nothing had ever felt so right, in fact, as making love to Diana on the floor of the grotto. He was chagrined that she wasn’t going to mention it. He felt like asking, Was it good for you, too? just to see what she would say.
“Hope that storm has stopped,“ Diana was saying in a conversational tone.