Free All Through the Night by Shannon McKenna, Lori Foster, Suzanne Forster, Thea Devine

hand.”
She was self-conscious, but with his encouragement, she caressed the curve of her own throat, including the sensitive little pocket just beneath her chin—and decided it must be the softest part of her body. Of course, that was before she got to the insides of her elbows and wrists. Hundreds of receptors? She had thousands. Her thighs were like water and her fingertips, sunlight. They left diamonds everywhere they traced.
God, how she ached, how wonderfully she ached for him.
There wasn’t anywhere she didn’t want to be touched.
He guided her hand to where his had been, and she had barely brushed the silky curls before the voltage started. A shaking breath slipped from her throat. Her whole body throbbed. For a moment she was swept by the intensity, and all she could do was rock forward. When she opened her eyes, he was picking her up in his arms.
He laid her on the bed, and then he began to undress. Candlelight flickered over him as he pulled off his shirt, and Kerry was dazed by how powerful he looked. His shoulders were wide and muscular, his arms dark with hair. He unbuttoned his pants, but left them on as he moved over her.
His weight pressed her deeply into the mattress, and she gave out a little cry. They really were going to make love, and she was stunned by that possibility. She had to stop him.
“Can you feel that, Jean? Are you shuddering like I am?”
“God, yes, I can feel it.” He pulled her into his arms. “It’s beautiful, even my breath is shaking.”
“Then you’re free? You must be free.”
Something compelled her to search his face, even though her body ached for his attention. She was quivering for completion, for the journey she’d never taken. But she had to know if he felt the way she did.
“Is this it? Is this the shuddering you were talking about?”
He touched her face, her mouth, but he didn’t answer her right away. He looked a little shell-shocked too.
“Kerry, I’m not sure,” he said. “It has to come from the soul. This is incredible. I’ve never felt anything like it, but I just don’t know.”
Kerry was hurt and bewildered. She couldn’t hide it. “How can you not know? You said that you would know. I remember.”
He studied her searchingly. “This isn’t about me. It’s about you, your feelings. It’s about the rainbow. Let me give you that—”
Her shuddering did come from the soul. He didn’t feel that way?
“No,” she insisted, “this has never been about me. It’s about freeing you from the curse. Why else are we doing this?”
“Because we want to. I can’t imagine any greater pleasure than making you happy, than making you shudder.”
He didn’t feel the tremors she felt, this ecstasy? She had failed utterly in her attempts to reach him? That destroyed her. It simply did.
“I can’t do this,” she said. “I can’t go on with it.”
“Kerry, don’t—”
“I’m sorry, I can’t.”
She covered herself with her arms and refused to look at him.
“Kerry, for God’s sake, don’t,” he whispered. “There is no curse on me except you. If I can’t have you, I don’t want anything else. To live like a normal man would be hell.”
His rough voice sent a thrill through her. It didn’t sound like Jean at all. He sounded desperate, and Kerry was torn. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t let him do these things to her. The feelings were too intimate. They had to be mutual. She couldn’t be the only one falling in love.
She looked up to tell him that… but he was gone.
This time Kerry got traction on the doorknob the first time she tried. It was even more amazing that she’d been able to walk to her front door, turn the knob, and open it without an internal earthquake. The floor didn’t ripple and warp, the lights didn’t dance, but her pulse was kicking painfully. And now that she had the door open, she couldn’t seem to move.
He was gone, and she had to find out if he’d ever existed. Could she have dreamed him? Was she