He gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “I’ve waited a long time to hear you say that and to know that you mean it.”
“Of course I mean it. The past is behind us.”
“Then let’s make up for lost time.”
Tenderly, he began using his hands to touch and to tease, his movements deliberate but passionate. He added his mouth, nipping and sucking to the tune of her sighs. His heart swelled in gladness at her sounds and the way her body writhed from side to side under his touch.
When her hands moved up and down his back urgently, finally coming to rest on his backside, he spread himself atop her, bringing their bodies into perfect alignment.
Staring down at her, he whispered, “Behold, thou art fair, my love; thine eyes are as doves…Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy mouth is comely.”
Julia reached up to press their lips together before she responded. “Don’t make me wait.”
“Are you inviting me inside?”
Julia nodded as a flash of heat raced across the surface of her skin. “My husband.”
“My brown-eyed angel.”
His tongue played with her mouth as their bodies melted into one another, and soon they were one, their collective sighs muffled by teeth and tongues.
Gabriel’s rhythm was slow at first, like the patient lapping of waves upon a beach. He wanted this experience to last forever, for in that moment, as he gazed into the wide and loving eyes of his wife, he realized that their previous experiences, exciting as they were, paled in comparison with the sublimity of their current connection.
She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. She was his soul mate and his wife, and all he wanted was to bring her joy. He was consumed by his adoration of her.
Julia traced his brows, wrinkled as they were in concentration, his eyes now shut tightly.
“I love that look,” she murmured.
“What look?”
“Your eyes closed, your eyebrows furrowed, your lips pressed together—you only look like that when you—come.”
He opened his eyes, and she saws sparks in their sapphire depths. “Oh, really, Mrs. Emerson?”
“I’ve missed that look. It’s sexy.”
“You flatter me.” Gabriel sounded embarrassed.
“I want to have a painting or a photograph of that face.”
He frowned playfully. “A picture like that might be too much.”
Julia laughed. “This is coming from a man who decorated his bedroom with naked photographs of himself.”
“The only naked photographs in my bedroom will be of you, my exquisite wife.”
His rhythm increased, catching Julia by surprise.
As she panted out her pleasure, Gabriel buried his face in her neck. “You’re so enticing. Your hair, your skin.”
“Your love makes me beautiful.”
“Then let me love you forever.”
She arched her back. “Yes, forever. Please.”
Gabriel moved apace, his lips playing across her neck, sucking and drawing the skin lightly into his mouth.
In response, her hands grasped his hips, pushing and pulling until she was close, very close.
“Open your eyes,” he gasped, moving more quickly.
Julia gazed up into the dark but tender eyes of her husband, so alive with passion and true affection.
“I love you,” she said, eyes widening and closing as the sensations overtook her.
This time, Gabriel didn’t close his eyes as his brows furrowed in concentration.
“I love you,” he breathed with every movement, every glide of skin against naked skin, until they were both sated and still.
Chapter 58
Just before sunrise, Julia awoke with a start.
Her handsome husband was by her side, his face boyish in sleep. It was the face of the young man she met on Grace’s back porch. She traced his eyebrows and the stubble on his chin, a tremendous feeling of love flowing through her. A tremendous feeling of contentment and joy.
Not wanting to disturb him, she crept from their bed. She picked up his discarded shirt from the floor and put it on before tiptoeing out to the balcony.
The faintest hint of light shimmered from the horizon, over the gently rolling hills of the Umbrian landscape. The air was chilly, far too cold to be outside in anything other than a hot tub, but the view was unspeakably lovely, and she felt the need to drink in its beauty. Alone.
Growing up, she felt so unworthy of having her deepest desires satisfied, of being loved absolutely. She didn’t feel that way anymore. This morning, expressions of gratitude bubbled up from her soul, wafting Heavenward.
Gabriel stretched out his hand to Julia’s side of the bed, but found only her pillow. It took a moment for him to awake, exhausted as he was with the previous evening and early morning’s activities. They’d made love several times and taken turns worshipping one another’s bodies with mouths and hands.