Dream Wedding(167)

He sat up and pushed down the covers, then pulled her into a sitting position and tugged off the nightgown. With her body bare to his gaze, she relaxed back onto the bed, drawing him with her. He kissed her deeply, then broke that kiss to touch his mouth to her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks and her nose. He left a damp trail down her neck, then loved her breasts with mouth and tongue and teeth until she was shaking beneath him.

“I want you,” he breathed against her heating skin. “I want to be with you and in you. I want to make love with you so much that we really become halves of the same whole. I want to be deep inside you—and I want you to have our children. I will always love you, Cassie. No matter what. Forever. I promise.”

She felt the wetness of her happy tears as they trailed down her temples and into her hair. She felt her body ready for him.

“I want you, too,” she whispered. “I want your babies and your arms around me at night.”

She had more to say, but he was moving lower, kissing her belly, then kneeling between her legs so that he could give her the most intimate kiss of all. He parted the soft folds of her feminine place and touched his lips to her center-most place. Pleasure shot through her. Pleasure heightened by the realization that Ryan loved her as much as she loved him, and that they’d committed to each other. No matter what, they would always be together.

Then she was unable to think at all. She could only feel the sweep of his tongue against her and the pressure of the finger he’d slipped inside her. He moved in a matching rhythm designed to take her to the edge of madness and beyond. She parted her knees more to allow him to get closer, then dug her heels into the bed. As she neared her release, she half sat up to watch as well as feel his magic. She stroked his head with her fingers, giving a quiet moan as the pleasure intensified.

Then she was lost in the perfection of the moment, caught up in a storm that rearranged the universe, then delivered her safely to her lover’s arms. Ryan caught her as she fell and entered her while she was still quivering. Long, deep incredible thrusts filled her woman’s place and took her back up on that wonderful journey.

They opened their eyes at the same moment and stared at each other. She could not say who held the other tightest. They were so joined that she could feel his own need as well as her own—she knew the exact moment when he would find his release.

Her body shattered with his. They loved and gasped together as if they’d been born to be lovers. Perhaps they had been, she thought drowsily.

When their bodies had calmed, Ryan kissed her gently, helped her pull on her nightgown, then settled her next to him in their wide bed.

“I love you,” he murmured, already half-asleep.

“I love you, too,” she told him.

She fingered the lace on the nightgown and knew that despite the legend, she’d found her home and her destiny. She and Ryan were going to do well together.

Contentment filled her, warming her from the inside out. She found herself dozing off, safe in the comfort of his arms.

The dream returned. Cassie stood on the porch of the Bradley house, staring at a man walking out of the shadows. Old Man Withers appeared in front of her and glared.

“Not me, you ninny,” he growled and stepped aside. “Him!”

She hadn’t seen the second man before, but there he was, moving into the sunlight. “Ryan!”

In her sleep, Cassie smiled and reached for her husband-to-be. In his sleep, he pulled her close. In the morning she would tell him the truth about the dream, and that would only make him love her more.