“I see it!” She let out a breath, enjoying the sheen of gold vibrating in the sky. She feasted on the vision, then motioned him over. “Come look.”
They switched places and took turns studying the night sky, diving into astronomical talk she hadn’t enjoyed since her father first taught her. Suddenly the air between them crackled to life, buzzing like an electrical charge that got hit by drops of water. She sucked in her breath, still overwhelmed by the connection that seemed to belt them both with its fierceness.
“You feel that?” he asked softly. He took her hand, raised it to his mouth, and kissed her palm. Bit gently. Placed her thumb between his lips and sucked hard, his tongue swirling around until her vision fogged and her body ached. “It’s always there between us, ready to flare up. Like the universe is trying to tell us something.”
She tried to protect her final barrier, flinging out the words in desperation. “Yeah, it wants us to fuck.”
His eyes darkened with anger. He jerked her toward him, tangling his fingers in her hair. “It’s more than that, and you know it. You don’t get to lie about this. About us.”
“What are we doing?” she asked softly. “What do you want?”
“You. I want you. I want to hear you say you’re just as freaked out as I am because it’s more than fucking. Isn’t it?”
She fought back the tears and gave him the truth. “Yes. It is.”
“Good.”
His mouth slammed down on hers, demanding she give him more than the words. Demanding her body surrender to him completely. And she did, kissing him back, her fingers dragging off his clothes as they backed up toward the bed, desperate for each other. She pushed him down and climbed on top of him, her hands stroking his erection, loving the moans she pulled from his lips as he grew harder and longer under her fingers. Lowering down, she took him in her mouth, mad for the taste of him on her tongue. He fisted her hair and chanted her name as she sucked and licked, taking him deep until he cursed and grabbed her hard, flipping her back on the mattress and surging between her thighs.
She cried out. He cupped her face, stared into her eyes, and pressed his forehead to hers.
He moved.
The dance was graceful, shattering, pure. He loved her with his body, his eyes, his touch, taking her higher until she broke apart, held tight in his embrace by a promise to never let her go.
The energy swirled between them, growing stronger and fiercer, but he never took his gaze from hers, giving her the gift of his own release, his naked face twisting in ecstasy, and she drank in every expression with a greediness that shocked her.
Never had lovemaking been this personal, this intimate. Skin to skin, his cock deep within her, his mouth pressed to hers, they let go and joined together.
The drift back to earth was slow, like a mystical flight from another world. She lay in his arms, knowing her life had completely changed and her path was unknown.
“I think I love you,” she whispered.
“I think I love you, too.”
She smiled, blinking back the sting of tears. “I have to tell you something, Dalton. Something I’ve kept from you but don’t want to hide anymore.”
His arms tightened around her. He propped himself up on his elbow to look into her face. “You can tell me anything.”
She took a deep breath. “There’s something you don’t know about me. About who I am. My father’s name was Matthew Hawthorne.”
He blinked. She watched a variety of expressions flicker over his face as the name jogged his memory. “Did I know your father? I know that name, why can’t I—”
“My full name is Raven Bella Hawthorne. I was only nineteen when he died in a car crash.”
Slowly, recognition seeped into his eyes. Heart pounding, she remained calm as he jerked back, shock slowly replacing the warm love she’d seen a few moments ago. “Wait a minute. The car crash. The name. Your father.”
She swallowed and told the rest. “Yes. My father was with your mother when they died in the crash. They were running away together.”
It took him a while to process. She waited, naked, in his bed, and hoped he’d let her explain. “Wait a minute. How long have you known about this?”
His voice was so cold, as if he were speaking with a stranger and not someone he’d just held like a precious gift. She pressed the sheet to her bare breasts and sat up. Oh, how she wanted to lie.
But she couldn’t.
“I’ve known for the last year. Since the first time you came into my bar with your brothers.”