Page 80 of Somewhere I'll Find You
“No.” He took the cloth from her. “You can stop playing the ministering angel. I don't need you.”
Julia shook her head slowly, feeling an overwhelming rush of love for him…the obstinate, arrogant, foul-tempered man. She pushed back the skeins of hair that had fallen across her face, and sat beside him. Gently she slid her hand over his smooth-shaven cheek and urged him to look at her. His face was like granite.
“I needyou,” she said softly.
Damon didn't move, but she felt the hardening of his cheek beneath her hand. “You were right,” she continued. “I am afraid to trust you. But if I don't, then I'll never be able to trust anyone. It scares me to death to think that you'll want more than I can give. However, if you're willing to accept what I'm able to offer…”
Damon battled silently with the remnants of his jealous rage. The madness that had possessed him ever since he had discovered that she intended to become Logan Scott's wife began to ebb a little. As he looked at Julia, he saw the signs of strain about her face.
Her hand was soft on his cheek, and her blue-green eyes were filled with an emotion that made his heart constrict painfully. He wanted her so badly he was suffocated with it, wanted her any way he could have her. There were still too many words left unsaid, sorely needed explanations, issues to resolve…but he ignored them all and reached for Julia in a move that took her by surprise.
She didn't protest as he covered her mouth with his, kissing her hungrily. Her lips parted, and her arms slid beneath his open shirt, her hands coming to rest on his back. How many nights had he dreamed of Julia this way, soft and willing in his arms, pressing close against him.
He turned her, pushed her back onto the mattress until her hair spilled behind her head in a golden torrent. Bending over her, he kissed her throat and chest, moving down to her breasts. The tips hardened and rose against the fabric of her costume, and she made a soft sound in her throat as Damon bit gently through the bodice.
It seemed miraculous, Julia's lack of resistance, the way she accepted his touch…he realized that tonight she would allow whatever he wanted, and his heart hammered in a furious rhythm of need. With unsteady fingers he unlaced her bodice and pulled the dress from her shoulders and down to her waist. She lifted her hips and helped him strip away the costume completely, leaving only her linen undergarments. In a lithe movement she rose to her knees and pulled the chemise over her head, revealing the enticing curves and shadows of her body. Damon touched the delicate roundness of one breast, brushing his knuckles over the taut crest. Raising his gaze to Julia's luminous face, he saw a tenderness that devastated him.
“Do as you promised,” she said, her voice hushed. “Make love to me tonight…and let me tell you how much I love you.”
“And in the morning?” he couldn't help asking.
She smiled as if the question were foolish, and leaned forward to kiss his mouth. “Turn down the lights,” she whispered.
Damon went to extinguish the lamps, leaving only a small flame burning in one of them, and returned to the bed. Julia's body was almost ghostly in the dimness, sleek and silvery as she stretched across the bed. The silken sheen of her stockings and the ridges of her garters were all that remained to cover her. Damon removed his clothes and lowered, himself onto the mattress, his senses reeling as he pulled her naked body against his, fire igniting everywhere their skin touched.
Julia's teasing hands moved over his back and hips, traveling down to his taut buttocks. She was bolder than she had ever been before, her mouth and fingers maddeningly inventive as she explored him, a playful nymph bent on torture.
Damon fought to keep from taking her immediately, wanting to make the pleasure last. He removed one of her garters and unrolled her stocking, kissing each inch of newly revealed skin until he had worked his way from her inner thigh to the arch of her foot. Julia purred in response and offered him her other leg, wantonly drawing her silk-covered toes across his midriff. He removed that stocking as well, making her squirm at the tickling sensation of his mouth behind her knee. When the task was completed, he rolled her beneath him.
“Tell me,” he commanded, nuzzling the curve of her jaw.
Julia's eyes opened, and he saw the coquettish gleam that betrayed her utter enjoyment. “Tell you what?”
“What you promised to say to me.”
“Later,” she said, and clasped his stiff erection in her hand, guiding him between her thighs. Damon resisted and frowned down at her, wanting the words she withheld. Artfully Julia tried to coax him closer, murmuring erotic promises, clasping her slender thighs around him. An unwilling laugh was torn from his throat. He stroked and kissed her, savoring her response…the rush of her breathing, the trembling that took hold of her. “Take me now,” she said breathlessly. “Now, now…”
“Do you love me?” he asked, smoothing his hand over her stomach, dipping his finger into her navel.
“Yes,” Julia finally gasped, opening her thighs. “Don't make me wait any longer.” She scalded his ears with a litany of love and threats and pleading, until at last he relented and slipped his fingers inside her, sliding them in a rhythmic motion that brought her quickly to release. She arched upward, pressing the thatch of soft curls into his hand, and climaxed with a groan and an endless shiver.
A long time later her lashes stirred, and she responded to his kiss, her tongue twining with his. He brought his hips to hers and fused their bodies in a thrust that made her whimper in pleasure. He pushed inside her, his movements long and unhurried, and she clutched at his back and hips to draw him even deeper. Catching her wrists in his hand, he pulled them over her head, pinning her heavily against the mattress.
Julia felt his mouth at her throat, lips moving with unspoken words. His hands slid from her breasts to the place of their joining, softly tormenting until she could no longer breathe. Just as she thought she would faint, the sensations flowed over her, inundating every nerve. She trembled violently, her hips tilting upward to receive him as he released a flood of lust and longing inside her body.
When they could both move, they turned to their sides. Julia smiled drowsily as she felt his long legs tuck up beneath hers, his chest pressed against her back. “I like being abducted,” she murmured, drawing his hand over her waist and up to her breast.
“I didn't know what else to do. I've been insane ever since this morning.” His fingers traced her nipple in gentle circles. “Julia…are you going to marry Scott tomorrow?”
“Are you offering an alternative?”
Damon's hand cupped her breast until he could feel the rapid beating of her heart. He was silent for a long time, until she thought he wasn't going to reply. “Marry me,” he said gruffly. “This time for real.”
Julia closed her eyes and took an unsteady breath. “And your conditions?”
“No conditions. I won't ask you to leave the theater.”
“What if people mock you for marrying a notorious actress?” she asked softly.
