Fantasy Lover(96)

He'd heard her calling to him. And at times, he was sure he'd felt her hand on his skin, pulling him back from the madness.

Her touch had been his salvation.

Closing his eyes, he enjoyed the sensation of her hands sliding over his body as she bathed him. Down his chest, his arms, his stomach. And when her hand accidentally brushed his erection, he jerked from the force of it.

How he wanted her.

"Kiss me," he breathed.

"Is it safe?"

He smiled at her. "If I could move, you'd already be in this tub with me. I assure you, at the moment I'm as helpless as a babe."

She licked her lips tentatively as she brushed her right hand over his. Her touch was gentle and warm, and she stared at his mouth as if she could devour it. That look went a long way in banishing the chill from him.

She leaned forward and kissed him deeply. Julian moaned at the contact, wanting more. Needing more of her touch.

To his amazement, he got it.

Grace left his lips only long enough to peel her clothes from her body until she stood naked before him. Slowly, seductively, she crawled into the tub with him, straddling his waist.

Julian moaned at the feel of her hairs on his stomach. She returned to his lips with a kiss so hot, it scorched him.

Damn it, he couldn't even hold her! His arms wouldn't budge on their own. And he desperately wanted to hold her tight against him.

She must have felt his frustration, for she pulled back with a smile. "It's my turn to care for you," she whispered before burying her lips against his throat.

Julian closed his eyes as she trailed her kisses down his chest. When she reached his nipple, he reeled from the pleasure of her tongue teasing and suckling him. Never had anything touched him more than her actions. He couldn't remember the last time someone had truly made love to him.

And no one had ever been so thorough. So giving.

He sucked his breath in sharply as she reached down between their bodies to stroke him. "I wish I could make love to you," he whispered.

She lifted her head to meet his gaze. "You do that every time you touch me."

Somehow, he found the strength to wrap his shaking arms around her and pull her against his chest. He claimed her lips with his own.

He heard her pull the stopper out with her foot as she deepened her kiss, all the while her hand tormented him with light, gentle strokes against his swollen shaft.

His head reeled from the sensation of her touching him there. He lived for her touch. Craved it in a way that was indefinable.

Once the water had drained from the tub, she left his lips to blaze a scorching trail down his body. Julian let his head fall back against the edge of the tub as she licked his stomach and swirled her tongue over to his hipbone.

Then, to his utter shock, she took him into her mouth. Julian growled as he cupped her head in his hands and savored the feel of her tongue and mouth swirling around him. No woman had ever done that before. They had only taken from him, none of them had ever given.

Not until Grace.

Her touch shattered the last bit of his will, the last bit of his resistance to her. His entire body shook from the warmth of her actions.

"I'm sorry," she said, pulling back from him. "You're so cold, you're shivering again."

"I'm not shivering from the cold," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'm shivering from you."

Her smile pierced his heart as she dropped her head and returned to her relentless assault on him.

By the time she finished, he felt as if he'd been tortured all over again. He couldn't have been any more satisfied had he actually climaxed.

She helped him out of the tub. Still his limbs shook. And he had to lean on her to get to the bedroom.

She laid him down gently and covered him with all her blankets. She placed a tender kiss on his brow as she tucked the covers around him.

"Are you hungry?"

All he could do was nod.

Grace left him long enough to warm a bowl of soup. But by the time she returned, he was sound asleep.

She set the bowl on the nightstand, then climbed into bed behind him. She curled her body around his and faded off to sleep, too.

It was three days before Julian's strength came back. The entire time, Grace stayed with him. Helping him.

He found it hard to fathom her strength and devotion. All his life, he'd waited for her. And as every day passed, he realized just how much he loved her. How much he needed her.

"I have to tell her," he said as he toweled himself dry. He couldn't let another day pass without her knowing just how much she had come to mean to him.

Leaving the bathroom, Julian headed to the bedroom where Grace was on the phone with Selena.

"Of course I didn't tell him what his mother said. Jeez!"

Julian took a step back, and leaned against the wall as Grace continued talking.