Then his lips found hers again, and he swallowed her abrupt cry as he sank deeper than before.
“Give me your pleasure,” he said against her mouth. “Only to me.”
She arched against him, her body tightening as the first stirrings of her release began deep and rushed in a thousand different directions. Her soft cry split the night, and he gathered her tightly to him. His hand smoothed down her side to her hip and then to the curve of her belly.
“I can never get enough of you,” he admitted in a voice that sounded strangely vulnerable.
She opened her eyes to see him staring down at her, his expression fierce and haunted. And then he began to move harder, more demanding. Wordlessly he took her to indescribable heights. She floated freely, her body cocooned in bliss.
So began the night. She’d barely come down from the peaks he’d driven her to when he began making love to her all over again. He possessed her tirelessly, commanding her body with a practiced ease that left her gasping. Throughout the night he was insatiable, and just before dawn, they both fell into an exhausted sleep.
Even as Marley hovered in the euphoric aftermath, her sleep was troubled. There was a familiarity to Chrysander’s demanding lovemaking, as if for the first time he’d shown her part of her past life with him.
In her dreams, she struggled to open a firmly shut door, knowing that on the other side lay her life, her memories, everything that had happened to her in her lifetime. She pulled at it then beat on it, sobbing for it to open and show her.
She clawed at it, and finally, she managed to pry it open the barest amount. Light poured from the crack, and then, as suddenly as it had shone, brilliant and white, it was doused by an overwhelming feeling of fear and despair. She knew without a doubt that she didn’t want to see what was on the other side.
In her shock, she loosened her grip and the door slammed shut, leaving her kneeling and shaking against the cold wood. No! She needed to know. She had to know. Who was she and what had happened to her?
“Marley. Marley!” Chrysander’s urgent tones intruded on her dream. “You must wake up, pedhaki mou. It’s just a dream. You’re safe. You’re here with me.”
She opened her eyes to see Chrysander over her, his eyes bright with concern. He’d turned the lamp on beside the bed, and for that she was grateful. She felt suffocated by the darkness of her dream.
She felt wetness on her cheeks and realized she’d been crying in her sleep. Her heart still raced with panic, and she couldn’t dispel the awful feeling of foreboding that had gripped her.
She tried to speak, to tell Chrysander she was all right, but a cry wrenched from her throat. He gathered her tightly in his arms and held her close as her body shook with sobs.
“You’re going to make yourself ill, Marley. You must stop.”
For a long time she gripped his arms, not wanting him to pull away from her. When she finally managed to regain control of herself, he gently eased her back onto the pillows.
“What has frightened you so badly, agape mou?”
The images from her dream came roaring back, but she was hard-pressed to make sense of them. Thankfully, the awful panic had receded so that she could breathe normally again.
“I was at a door,” she said, her speech faltering. “And I knew that on the other side of the door were my memories. But I couldn’t open it no matter how hard I tried. Finally, I managed to crack it but then…”
“Then what?” he asked gently.
“Fear,” she whispered. “So much fear. I was afraid. I let go of the door, and it slammed shut.”
He lay back down beside her and curled his arms around her. “It was just a dream, pedhaki mou. Just a dream. It can’t hurt you. You fear the unknown. This is natural.”
She slowly began to relax against him. He stroked her back, his palm gliding up and down her spine.
“Are you all right now? Do you want me to call for Dr. Karounis?”
She shook her head against his chest. “No. I’m fine. Really. I feel so silly now.”
“You’re not silly. Try and go back to sleep. I fear I kept you awake far too long tonight.”
His voice had deepened to a husky timbre, and her body tightened all over as she remembered the ways he’d kept her up.
With a yawn, she burrowed as tightly as she could against his hard body and let herself fall into what was this time a dreamless sleep.
Chrysander rose at dawn the next morning. He hadn’t slept since Marley had awakened with her nightmare. After he’d soothed her, and she had fallen into a more peaceful rest, he’d lain awake, staring at the ceiling as he realized the impossibility of their situation.Careful not to wake Marley, he showered and dressed. After checking to make sure she hadn’t been disturbed, he went quietly down the stairs. He bypassed his office, though it was his custom to begin the day with business matters.