Page 68 of After the Spy Seduces

On the eastern horizon, the sky was beginning to lighten as dawn approached. Finally. He had no idea how long he’d been out here, waiting for daylight to come so he could sail the boat back to the wharf. But long enough that the waves had picked up and were now rocking the boat side-to-side in a slow, steady motion in anticipation of the breaking day.

Time had run out.

He would take her back to shore, put her onto the first coach headed west, and then leave. Just as he’d planned. She’d forget him soon enough. After all, she was the beautiful, intelligent daughter of one of England’s most respected generals, and she would find a husband who would cherish her and love Meri as his own. The husband she deserved.

Kit would forget her, too, eventually. But not until the day he died.

Beside him, the little hatchway opened with a soft click. Wrapped in a blanket around her shoulders, Diana climbed carefully up onto the small deck. Then wordlessly, she knelt down beside him.

Her blue eyes were as deep as the eastern sky behind her, holding the same radiance as the dawn. His gut clenched when those eyes stared into his, when she reached up to touch his cheek.

Leave me alone…I can never be the man you need me to be.But he couldn’t find the strength to utter the words that would send her away.

When she brushed her thumb across his lips, then leaned in to kiss him, the tenderness nearly undid him. It wasn’t passion he tasted on her lips but understanding and forgiveness.

Silently, she slipped over his legs to straddle him, the entire time deepening her kiss, until she entreatingly coaxed him into opening his mouth to her so that she could claim what lay inside. The tip of her tongue slid over his inner lip to taste the sweetness there, then twirled slowly around his tongue, drawing it out until she could close her lips around it. Her gentle suck coiled through him, right down to the tip of his cock.

She sat away from him. With her eyes never leaving his, she pushed the blanket from her shoulders. It slid down her back and bared her completely, both to his eyes and the dawn.

Sweet Lucifer.

Her pale skin was awash in the sapphire and midnight blues of the sky. Only the dusky pink of her nipples contrasted the cool, cobalt light falling upon her as the last vestiges of night gave way to morning. Unable to resist her siren song, he traced a fingertip lightly over each ripe bud, watching as they grew even more taut beneath his attentions.

He leaned forward and took one between his lips.

Her breath caught, then she relaxed against him as he suckled at her. He drew her deep into his mouth, and when she arched her back toward him, he rewarded her with a gentle nip and hot lave of his tongue. Then he moved to give the same sweet torture to her other breast.

So sweet and tempting…a goddess.

Her bare flesh was warm and smooth beneath his hands as he trailed them across her back beneath the silky curtain of her hair, then down to cup her buttocks in his palms. When he squeezed them, an insensible moan of pleasure spilled from her lips.

He released her breast from his mouth with a delicate kiss to her nipple, then tantalizingly scraped his teeth up over her throat. With a whimper of growing desire, she tilted back her head and curved the long column of her neck against his lips. He seized the invitation and placed long, open-mouthed kisses over her neck and along her bare shoulder.

Except for soft sighs of desire, she made no sound as he stroked his hands over her. Hehadto touch her, not just because he ached for the solace she offered, but to make certain that she was real, that he wasn’t dreaming.

Then she took his hand and slowly guided it between her legs. She begged with a whimper for him to pleasure her as she cupped his face between her hands and brought her mouth to his, her golden hair falling around his head and shoulders as she sat perched over him. He gladly did as she bade, and beneath his teasing fingers, her quivering folds turned slick with evidence of her desire.

With every panting breath she inhaled, the ache in his loins grew more intense. Every nip and lick and kiss she placed to his lips and neck hardened him, every shudder of her thighs made him shake. And when a throaty moan rose from the back of her throat at the feminine need he stirred inside her, he couldn’t stop his own answering groan.

She reached between them and unbuttoned his trousers, freeing him into the cool morning air. Then she took his hard length in her hand as she rose up onto her knees above him.

“What sacrifice?” she repeated his words against his lips and lowered herself. As she slowly sank over him, sliding him inside her tight warmth, she shivered at the intimate connection of their bodies and answered, “The duty of surviving, the responsibility of holding him in your memory for the rest of your days and keeping him alive in your heart as long as possible.”

She shifted her hips and settled completely over him, taking him deep inside her. Her breath came fast and ragged, and every small pant pulsed through her into him, racing along the length of his cock like a lightning rod to his heart.

“That’s the sacrifice you have to make.” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her breasts pressed flat against his chest, and placed a kiss to his temple. “The sacrifice of living.”

Then she began to move, rocking her hips against his in a smooth and loving rhythm. All thoughts of Fitch and the Home Office fled, until there was only Diana. Until all he knew was the exquisite feel of her tight warmth bearing down around him, the strength of his embrace encircling her.

He sat up and pressed his hands against her bare back to keep her close, and in response, she locked her ankles at the small of his back. With each roll of the boat beneath them, he rocked into her in a steady rhythm, one as natural as the open air and sea around them. The sky came alive as the sun peaked over the horizon and flooded its golden light over her shoulders.

He whispered her name and gave himself over to the sensation of their joined bodies, of him buried inside her and her clenched around him. They mixed until he couldn’t tell where he ended and she began, until their heartbeats pounded fiercely in unison. They were shamelessly exposed to the dawn, yet neither cared about anything but moving together toward bliss.

This wasn’t sex. This wasn’t even making love. It was absolution, and in her arms, he was finally healed.

“You’re not leaving me this time,” she whispered into his ear, her legs tightening their hold around his waist. “I want you, Christopher. I want all of you, in every way.”

He couldn’t stop the hot shiver that sped through him, the tightening coil she twisted inside his gut until he wanted to explode. He took her hips in his hands and guided her movements against him, keeping himself buried deep inside her.