Sinful Nights(21)

I didn't know what I was doing,' Sapphire defended herself, I must have turned over in my sleep and when  … '

You're used to sharing a bed with someone? Like you do with your  lover?' Blake accused harshly, Is that what you were going to say?'

And if it was?' Sapphire flung back at him recklessly. Anything to keep  him from discovering just how much she was affected by his proximity.    

 



 

Then there must be other things you're missing, beside a warm body in  bed beside you at night,' Blake countered softly. Sapphire couldn't tell  if it was challenge or anger that turned his eyes to molten gold, but  even as she moved away from him, his fingers clamped into her waist,  refusing to let her go. As she struggled to free herself her breasts  brushed the taut skin of his chest and even through the fabric of her  nightdress she was overwhelmingly conscious of the contact, closing her  eyes against a sudden too-painful image of skin against flesh, of Blake  stroking and caressing her.

Open your eyes,' Blake demanded harshly, shattering the erotic bubble  of her thoughts. You aren't going to pretend it's someone else who's  holding you in his arms, Sapphire.'

Who was it who taught you to be so arousingly responsive?' he muttered,  his eyes on the swift rise and fall of her breasts, her nipples  pressing urgently against the fine fabric of her nightdress, in wanton  supplication of the caresses her mind had envisioned so very recently.

Sapphire felt a wave of shame course through her. How could she be behaving in such an abandoned fashion?

Who?' Blake pressed. Your precious Alan, or another lover?'

Does it matter?' Hot tears stung her eyes, caused as much by his cruel  blindness as her own weakness. He was the only man she had ever met who  could touch the deep inner core of her femininity; he was the only man  with the ability to unleash her desire.

Perhaps not.' The heat had gone from his voice to be replaced by a  cynical blandness. That it has been achieved at all is miracle enough I  suppose. When I think of the way you used to shy away from me.'

Shy away? Sapphire stared at him. What about all the times she had  willed him to make love to her? What about the times she had lain in  this bed praying that he would stretch out and touch her?

I think it's time we were getting dressed,' she told him hurriedly, trying to dispel her tormenting memories.

So, you haven't changed completely,' Blake drawled. You still run away  from situations you find unpalatable. Well, this is one occasion my  dear wife, when you can't run. Unless, of course, you want me to pursue  you, and carry you back to this bed?'

Why should you want to do that?' Sapphire tried to sound sophisticated  and amused but instead her voice was a breathy, hesitant whisper,  Blake's smile telling her that she had not succeeded.

Do I really have to tell you?' He leaned towards her, the fingers of  his free hand curling round the strap of her nightdress and slowly  sliding it down her arm. The bedcovers had slipped down to her waist  during their earlier struggle, and Sapphire watched like a rabbit  transfixed by the hunter as Blake leisurely revealed the creamy slope of  her breast.

You've changed,' he murmured, studying her until the colour ran up  under her pale skin. You're fuller here,' his thumb skimmed the outline  of her breast, resting so briefly against her nipple that she couldn't  be sure whether the caress was deliberate or accidental, and narrower  here.'

His fingers touched her waist, and she shivered convulsively, her throat  dry and tight with the aching need she could feel burning up inside  her. She wanted to slide her fingers into the crisp darkness of his  hair, to hold his head against her breast, and caress the male contours  of his body. Shame and fear mingled into a stomach-tensing cramp as she  tried to fight against her feelings.

Do you like this?' Blake slid the nightdress free of her breast cupping  it with his palm and stroking his tongue along the valley between it  and its twin, his thumb making erotic patterns around its rosy peak.

No.' Her denial was a choked, strangled lie.

I think you mean yes.' Blake was so lazily self-assured that Sapphire  started to tremble. Well, Sapphire,' he pressed, did you mean yes?'  All the time he spoke to her he was teasing, nibbling little kisses  closer and closer to her nipple. Heat coursed through her veins. Part of  her wanted to flee; to get as far away from him as she could, and the  other part wanted to be so close to him that not even the fragile  thinness of her nightdress was between them. She ached for the feel of  Blake's mouth against her breast; his hands on her body, but as though  to punish her for her fib, his kisses stopped tantalisingly short of  their goal, and with memories of past rejections to the forefront of her  mind Sapphire could not, would not guide his mouth to the place she  most wanted it to be.

Well, then, perhaps you prefer this?'    

 



 

She was eased out of her nightdress before she had time to object, the  embarrassment of Blake's thorough scrutiny of her nude body outweighing  all other considerations as she struggled to tug the bedclothes up over  her, and Blake effortlessly restrained her. A mocking smile curved his  mouth, but it was the showers of gold lightening glittering in his eyes  that made Sapphire tense on a sudden spiral of excitement.

His fingertips stroking her hip and then following the line of her body  downwards sparked off a showerburst of heady pleasure that she fought to  conceal, swallowing the small gasp of delight that threatened to betray  how she felt. She badly wanted to touch Blake as freely as he was  touching her, to taste the warm maleness of his skin and feel his body  come alive beneath her hands.

You have the loveliest skin.' Blake was still touching her, drawing  spiralling patterns against her thigh which transmitted an intensity of  heat totally at odds with the lightness of his touch. His voice had a  velvet, mesmeric quality that lulled her tense muscles into languorous  relaxation. She wanted to purr almost, like a small satisfied cat,  Sapphire realised on a stunned wave of surprise; she wanted to stretch  and arch beneath those teasing fingers; to prolong the tormenting love  play and instigate some of her own.

Sapphire?'

The sound of her name made her turn her head to look at Blake, her eyes unknowingly a deep, dense purple blue.

Open your mouth,' Blake commanded softly, I want to kiss you.'

It was heaven and hell, the zenith of pleasure and the nadir of despair.  It was life and death; light and dark, and she was no more capable of  resisting him than she was of denying that she loved him.

She clung to him, obeying the wordless commands of his mouth, responding  with deep, driven intensity of emotion she had not known she could  feel, abandoning every last vestige of pride and self-defence as her  fingers locked in his hair and she clung with unashamed need to the  greater strength of his body.

When at least he released her mouth, he studied its bruised softness for  several seconds, his eyes eventually lifting to her bemused eyes,  before he kissed her again, this time letting the moist warmth of his  lips soothe the sensitive stinging skin of hers.

You liked that.' It was a statement, not a question, rich with  self-satisfaction, the long, lingering look he gave her body that of a  man who knows exactly what effect he has had on the woman in his arms.  His fingers traced a lazy pattern around and between her breasts,  trailing downwards to her waist.

Excitement and urgency arched her body upwards, mutely seeking closer contact with his.

I think you were right after all. It is time we got dressed.' His words  were like snow being trickled down her spine. Sapphire couldn't believe  she had heard them. She wanted to protest, to demand to know why he had  aroused her so deliberately and turned away from her, but her pride  would not allow her to. If Blake could behave as though what had just  happened between them meant nothing to him; if he was completely  unaffected by the explosion of love and need which had gripped her, then  so was she.





CHAPTER EIGHT


SAPPHIRE DELIBERATELY dawdled getting dressed, not wanting to face  Blake. As she had hoped, when she walked into the kitchen half an hour  later there was no sign of him, but the sight of Alan sitting morosely  at the table, a mug of coffee in front of him brought her to an abrupt  halt.

So you "hate" him do you?' he sneered bitterly. Some way you have of  showing it! And to think I held off taking you to bed because I didn't  want to stampede you! Oh, it's all right, Sapphire,' he grimaced, the  anger deserting him, as he raked tired fingers through his hair. He's  told me all about it; how the two of you decided to give your marriage  another try. I just wish I heard it first from you that's all.'

I'm sorry, Alan.' Shakily Sapphire sat down, knowing that Alan had  every right to feel angry and resentful. I didn't tell you over the  phone because  …  because I didn't think it was the right thing to do. I  didn't realise that Blake intended us to be re-married quite so soon.'

You're happy with him?' His voice was abrupt, tight with a pain that made Sapphire's heart ache in sympathy.