Micah moved, slid off his chair, and rounded the table. She turned to him as he gathered her into a hug. The gentle caress of his hands up and down her back had the stiffness she hadn’t even registered about her body wash away. “It scares me, but I want to know more. Will you give me another go?”

  His laugh was a bark of sheer joy that wobbled again her, as her face nestled against his stomach.

  “I’ll do more than give you another go. I’ll take you home with me, if you’ll let me.”

  Oh, man! He was hurrying, and the constant fear of relying on him enveloped her. “Well, maybe not today, but I’d like that. In the future.”

  He stepped away with a wink. “Of course. In the future.”

  Chapter

  Thirteen

  Micah put the finishing touches on the table, knowing she’d be here soon. He’d cleaned up the area he’d kept for his meditation room, changed the sheets on the bed, and even cleaned the bathroom.

  The chicken taco chilli was cooking in the slow cooker his sister had given him last Christmas. He had strawberry mousse on ice and champagne in the fridge. The table he’d draped in white linen and added tulips, the black plate set balancing it all with the silverware shining. His mother would be proud of him, he thought with a grin.

  Sliding over to the small stereo, he chose a piece subtle enough to be romantic, but not so much that she’d take fright.

  The phone trilled in his pocket. His sister. “Hello?”

  “How’s the dinner going? Turned it down yet?”

  Rolling his eyes, he checked the pot. “Yes.”

  “Good. Did you put clean towels in the bathroom?”

  That stopped him dead. “No.”

  “Honestly Micah, do it now. If you’re going all out to impress her, don’t forget the minor stuff. Dessert?”

  “Cooling.”

  “What about—”

  “I gotta go, Sis. She’ll be here any moment and I need to fix the towels.” With that, he cut the line and headed to the bathroom. Change the towels and stop over thinking everything.

  Once more back in the lounge he waited, nervous that she’d not turn up, even though she’d promised. He understood her fears now, not that he expected her to not turn up, but still…

  In the newly decked out meditation retreat, he’d placed cushions, deep and mounded for comfort, laid in supplies of incense and a music tower to play suitable tunes. He’d set up a bookstand with titles that would enhance their practices. The lights were set to dim. It was all in readiness.

  At the peal of the doorbell, his stomach lurched. He was at the door in several strides, swinging it open.

  There she stood, hair in a plait over her shoulder. Her eyes glinted in the early evening light. She’d dressed in simple black yoga pants with a close-fitting crop top. “I brought some wine,” she muttered as he leaned in for a kiss.

  “In a moment.” Their lips met, clung, and the balloon of worry in his chest melted away. “Come inside.”

  “Oh, whatever you’ve got cooking smells divine.”

  He laughed. “It’s usually the woman cooking, but it’s a simple Chicken Taco Chilli. I thought something easy would be best. Then we can focus on the meditation.”

  “You’re right. I brought my bag like you said.” She indicated to the duffle on the stoop beside her and he ushered her in, reaching for the bag and swinging it up.

  “I’ll pop it in the bedroom.” They’d both decided that they were adult enough to share a bed, even if there was no sex.

  She followed him. “I didn’t really check this room out last time.”

  Micah waited, let her take in the dark room, the heavy furnishings and carvings of his bed head. “It’s very, ah, erotic. Sensual. I should have guessed. You’re a sensual man.”

  He wasn’t totally sure if that was a compliment, which must have shown on his face.

  “I mean, you’re a pastellist, and you’ve got this kind of loose way of moving. You’re an amazing lover and—”

  He couldn’t help the action that followed. Swooping in and catching her close for a deep and not-quite-satisfying kiss. Lips and teeth moved in concert with his hands, roaming over the planes of her body.

  He trembled with pent up desire when they finally tugged away.

  “Well, that was fun.” Her face flushed and voice husky affected regions of erogenous zones he desperately tried to ignore, yet the twitch of his cock told him he failed.

  Instead of giving in to the hunger, he twined his fingers around hers. “Come, let me feed your body then feed your soul.”

  She followed, and he urged her to sit while he scooped up the bowls. “I’ll serve and be out in a moment.”

  “Something I can help with?” she called to his retreating back.

  “Yeah, stay where you are.”

  She laughed, and he realised it was the first time he’d heard her laugh freely.

  Micah took a moment, gripping onto the bench to relax muscles and regain his senses. If he didn’t, he’d make a move too stupid to be borne. She needed to be treated carefully, like fragile china, not ploughed without thought, he reminded himself.

  Once again in control of himself, he ladled the chilli into bowls, reached for the thick hunks of bread he’d prepared earlier and carried them to the table on a tray. He’d also included small bowls with grated cheese and sour cream.

  “Garnishes, bread and chilli.”

  “This looks fantastic.” Davina’s eyes settled on the cream. “I think I’ll just add a bit of this.” She scooped it up and placed it atop her bowl.

  He grabbed the same, and they settled in to eat wordlessly.

  Once her bowl was empty, she leaned into the back of her seat. “You’re an amazingly wonderful cook. I’m okay with the basics, thanks to Home Economics but this is way out of my comfort zone.”

  He cleared the bowls and utensils away. “It’s rather simple actually. But now for a tough question. Dessert now or later?”

  Davina rubbed her stomach. “Later, I think. We should probably talk about tonight’s practice. What do you have in mind?”

  “Let me get this lot in the dishwasher and I’ll show you what I’ve found.”

  He disappeared into the kitchen and rinsed, then loaded the machine. Tonight, he hoped she’d be willing to try something different. To delve deeper into their tantric practices.

  The book he’d planned to show her waiting just inside the meditation room.

  He’d bought a pillow book, and the Kama Sutra in all seven volumes, but the latter he might hold off until later, he thought.

  When he headed back to the lounge, she was at the door of his meditation room.

  He gulped, for the first time unsure how she’d take what else awaited inside.

  “I should warn you, I, uh, may have taken a liberty.”

  “It’s okay. Show me.”

  He pushed the door open and waited for her gaze to settle on the artwork he’d hung.

  Davina. Her skin glowing in the lamplight, breasts full and high. Her dark hair pooling over a pillow.

  “You… Oh my God, you painted me.” She advanced slowly towards the image, and he waited, not sure what her reaction would be. “I’m uh, naked. Well, waist up anyway, but the way you painted it…”

  It was almost too much to wait, to let her pass judgement, but the need to hear her, to seek her approval, rode him hard.

  “It’s amazing.”

  He released the breath he held. “You like it?”

  She whirled, launched herself at him. “Like it? It’s bloody amazing. But why? I mean, I don’t look that way—”

  “You do. When you orgasm, you almost shine. Your eyes close and you push back, hard. Your hair cascades over the pillows like liquid silk and your breasts are firm and supple while your body milks mine. You’re like some ancient goddess and I… This is the you I see when you come apart for me.”

  Davina’s eyes shone. “Just one request. This is only for you and me, right?” Her laugh sounded shaky, and he understood. It was intimate and personal.

  Micah cupped her face, his hands unsteady. “For our eyes only.”

  “Okay. Even so, wow.”

  Davina knew the moment something changed deep inside her. Coming face-to-face with the painting he’d done of her, from memory invoked a response that left her amazed and humbled.

  Even now, after the first surprising flash of amazement passed, she had to keep looking, to remind herself that was her!

  They each took a moment, shaking their bodies to prepare for the meditative practices that lay ahead. In her mind, she heard the admonition to breathe, to fill her lungs fully, then empty them. To find that centred inner space.

  Relaxed and ready to begin, Davina turned toward Micah, aware he’d also found his balance.

  Micah reached for a book he’d placed on the cupboard by the door, several colourful tags noting pages he’d planned to return to. “I know I said this wasn’t about sex, but we’ve been back together practicing for a couple of weeks. It’s why I asked you to stay over, especially given you’re now on leave. I’d like to take things a little further?”

  He reached for the loose shirt he wore and shucked it. “The books I was reading before talked about the importance of trust. I need to ask you, do you trust me, Davina?”

  The words speared her. “Yes, Micah I do. You’re meaning to go to the next level, right?”

  Her gaze wavered, just for an instant. He was asking her to show her trust. With a firm movement, she removed the crop top, well-aware that this time they’d move deeper into the web.

  Her breasts, released from their confinement, sagged.

  He smiled. “More?”

  In concert they finished disrobing until they stood naked, bodies limned by the candlelight. Micah pressed the button and music they moved in close, body to body. “Feel my breath, the way it shares my spirit,” he whispered against her lips, and she revelled in the way she responded.

  * * *

  “Feel my breath against your skin. The way it energises me.”

  Their gazes meshed as her belly quivered in response. Long moments of intensity passed, her body a mass of quivering nerve endings that jumped and flared with each successive movement of her diaphragm.

  Now he sank to the floor, and she followed, settling herself in his lap. The intimacy deeper than previously experienced as skin lay naked against skin.

  Her breath caught again, and it took every ounce of willpower to push past the inherent arousal as his their bodies nestled intimately together.

  She dug deep, looking for her balance, until finally it flared. Breathe… Hold it in, let it go. Just be.

  The rhythm soothed her.

  Sooner than she would have liked. They pulled away from the sacred position and stood. He held her close, so their bodies meshed again, nipples scraping against his hard chest.

  Closing her eyes only increased the awareness of their joint nakedness. “Look at me,” Micah requested.

  “That’s the woman I painted,” he whispered against her ear, and she slowly turned her head toward him. “Relaxed and sated. Heavy, somnolent eyes with sheened skin.”

  This time, when his hands slid over her skin, it was totally sexual, though leaving her with the wordless understanding that she could pull away. Refuse his advances.

  “It’s so amazing.”

  “So, let me paint all of you. For me and no one else.”

  The request ricocheted through her mind. It would demand that she totally strip herself bare for him, in a way she hadn’t yet done. And yet, the thought tugged deeply at her psyche.

  “I…” God, for the first time, I want to say yes. To be totally bare for him. “Yes.”

  He grinned. “Thank you.”

  Now he moved in, the kiss light and testing. She increased it with lips, eager to open for him. His tongue glanced against hers, redolent with his own taste, deep and musky.

  Davina’s hands curved over his shoulders, glorying in the strength sheathed in his silky skin, while his own curved around her waist.

  The length of his cock, now upwardly thrusting, jutted against her belly, and the lips of her sex quivered in a surge of sudden and powerful need.

  “Fuck me, Micah. Fuck me now. Hard and fast.”

  Her heartbeat raced, but he lifted her into his arms.

  “Bed. I want to lavish everything on you. I want to feast on you until you scream in my arms.” Micah carried her to the bedroom, nudging at the door with his hip before reverentially laying her on the counterpane. Her gaze followed his movements as he reached for the top draw and the foil packet which he tore open.

  He handed the tiny latex item in her hand. “Please.”

  In that moment, she welcomed everything and anything he gave her. Placing the item at the tip of his engorged penis, she rolled it over, but before she could lie back, he lifted her again onto his steely cock, settled on the bed with her clinging with arms and legs.

  “You want me to fuck you?” The rough words excited her as much as their meditation had both soothed and aroused.

  “Please.” She knew her body was ready, already moist and hungry for his invasion.

  He shoved hard, deep inside her, in a sudden movement.

  Davina keened with pleasure at the sudden sensation of fullness. Unable to stop, she threw herself against his arm, arching and demanding more, lost in the throes of impossible desire.

  With hands gripping tight, she met his thrusts, the damp friction deep inside her body, the movement of breast to chest igniting a primal chain reaction.

  “So beautiful,” he muttered as she writhed in his grasp.

  “More, Micah, more,” she chanted, urging him to go faster, wilder movements as the bed groaned under the sudden frenzied action.

  Between her legs, what started as an ache became a hollowness that only he could fill.

  Lost in the maelstrom of excitement, Davina hit the first peak, nerves wound tight as her fingers dug deep.

  “More,” he grunted, and continued the friction as she ratcheted into a shocking secondary spike of hunger.

  His hands gripped her hips now, tugging her closer to the cataclysmic end.

  “Micah,” she screamed, aware that she was only seconds from orgasm, her body tighter than wire at breaking point.

  “Now,” he demanded, the final plunge brutal.

  It wasn’t just the fullness, the tight band of arms around her that pushed her senses to explode. Her chest full of emotions, wild and churning.

  Starburst. Everything splintered, eyes unseeing, as the final crest breached. Crashing down, causing reality to spin away.

  Together, they clung together. The instant of stillness that followed the wildness.

  The sensation of his jetting soothing the edges as her mind whirled, and her chest heaved, seeking oxygen for starving lungs.

  On wobbling legs, Micah stood and disengaged their bodies so she too could slide to the floor.

  With a lurch, she dropped to sit on the end of the bed.

  “I…” It didn’t seem there could be any words to describe what they’d shared. “Wow.”

  He disappeared into the bathroom, returning only a moment or two later, minus condom but with a warm damp facecloth. “I thought you might appreciate some attention.”

  Micah placed a hand against her shoulder, and she lay back, intrigued at first, then touched as he gently wiped the dampness from between her legs.

  “Thank you,” she managed with a strangled voice, suddenly shy after the intimacies they’d shared.

  Once he’d discarded the cloth, he settled down onto the bed beside her. She snuggled in, feeling the strength of the man as he carefully enfolded her in his embrace.

  Chapter

  Fourteen

  Micah studied the scene before him. Davina, lying on the divan in his workroom, artfully draped, her lush hair brushed back like a waterfall. Everything about this piece of work was right, and the inspiration was flowing.

  The intimacy of the moment wasn’t lost on him as he gazed at the woman lying on the chaise. “Can I see it yet?”

  It wasn’t the first time she’d enquired, but he wasn’t ready to share the piece. It had to be finished and perfect.

  He gave his attention back to the painting. “Soon, when it’s done.”

  Her sigh echoed, and he couldn’t control the snicker that rose. He lifted the chalk in his grip back to the canvas, considered where the next stroke should be as a peal broke the air.

  “Oh Lord! Sorry, that’s mine.” Davina shifted so her breasts bobbed while she hunted beneath the seat where she’d stashed the robe and her phone and dragged it out. “Just a moment.”

  She grimaced as she inspected the caller ID. “It’s my mother.”

  Setting down the utensil, he dropped to the stool as she answered.

  “Hello, Mother.”

  “Davina. I’ve just rung your office, and they informed me you were taking some time off. I don’t suppose that means you’ll be coming to dinner with myself and my husband?” The waspish query had his brows drawing together in a painful frown.

  “I’m uh, not sure. You said you were busy since returning from Bali and I know you like your space, so I planned nothing. Besides, why are you ringing? You usually only call at Christmas and when you’re getting married or divorced.”

  “Davina Ann! What a terrible thing to say to your mother.”

  Now Davina straightened on the seat, tugging on the short robe and belting it tightly, her knuckles white against her already pale skin. “Because it’s true. Look, tell me what you need me to do so I can sort it out.”

  “I just… Well, your father and that bitch he married are breeding again, and I realised I’ve not heard from you in a while…”