Free Intimate Strangers by Denise Mathews Page B

so long since I've held you," he murmured as he swept her into his arms and carried her over to the bed and lay her down. "Your body is still the silky softness I remember." His fingers tickled over her skin. "Its perfection has haunted me and has made me want you again and again." The tenderness of his touch and his husky voice, filled with desire, held Sara spellbound.
    She closed her eyes. She wanted to imprint every word, every sensation into her mind. She needed him, his love, his body, the body that hers remembered. Her need was so strong, it made her tremble. Her body moved sinuously under his touch, rising and falling to the concerto that was being played on her nerves. She felt the warmth of his fingers trace her jawline and earlobes and twine themselves in her long hair. The skin on her body tensed and relaxed, pulsating as the knowing hands and fingers probed and stroked. Slowly she opened her eyes when the sensations that had been bombarding her senses suddenly stopped. Roarke was standing beside the bed removing his clothes and she watched, 'entranced as his smooth muscular body, a deep bronze in the low lamplight, was revealed.
    "Roarke," Sara whispered impatiently through passion-swollen lips. "Touch me, caress me, love me!"
    He gazed into her half-closed eyes as he leaned over her, moving closer and closer. Then his mouth sought hers again and his embrace crushed her against him, holding her in a viselike grip. "Sara," he moaned, his lips moving on her lips as he gasped the words, his breath softly mingling with hers. "You're the only woman who could ever make me feel this way. You drive me crazy with desire. I need you so badly." Bare flesh pressed bare flesh, and Sara could feel his burgeoning desire.
    As he ran his hands over her, her flesh ignited and inflamed her consciousness. His lips and tongue ran down across her breasts, circling the tip of each and then moved downward across her stomach.
    Sara was enthralled, her senses drugged. She was no longer a rational human being. She was nothing but total sensation, a heat that had no fire, a throbbing body with no mind, no reason, just uncontrollable passion. Moaning, and grasping his wavy hair with her hands, the waves of heat rushed through her and her stomach tightened under the force of her tension. Cradling his face with her hands and curving her body, she drew his lips to meet hers. Her voice, guttural with ecstasy, begged, "Roarke, I want you… now!"
    She clenched her arms around his strong torso and, in her urgency, controlled their tempo. She ascended the fiery peak and, meeting him there, they spiraled down the other side together.
    Roarke held her close for a long time and Sara curled languidly against him. For the first time in weeks she felt at peace. Finally she had a sense of belonging. Right now her dark corners held no fear. He kissed the top of her head and lifted her chin, and their eyes met.
    If only they could hold on to this afterglow and stay this close. She wondered if these shared emotions could be nurtured and transplanted into their relationship outside the bedroom. If they could, maybe she could find her way to the past and Roarke could trust her again.
    Tentatively she reached over and ran her fingertips over his chest, tracing the muscles that glowed in the candlelight, and she played with the dark hairs that covered the sensitive skin.
How could I have forgotten him
?
    Roarke leaned over and kissed her forehead then sat up against the headboard. He fumbled around for a cigarette on the tabletop, and when he couldn't find one, got out of bed. He picked up his trousers from the floor where they had been dropped in his earlier haste. Searching in the pockets, he found the pack, lit a cigarette, then sat back down beside her..
    Sara sat up, pulling the sheet across her body. "Roarke, was it always this good between us?" she whispered.
    The muscled body swung around and Roarke stared at her, his brows meshed together. Taking a deep