Dream of Me/Believe in Me

gown, drawing it down first one arm and then the other. Driven by desperate needs—to banish his concern, to celebrate his life, to give thanks for all they had—she gathered her courage.
    For a moment she held the fabric so that it continued to conceal her before letting it drop. It made a soft, slithering sound as it slipped over her breasts with their high, peaked nipples, past the indentation of her narrow waist, and down her sleek flanks. When it pooled at her feet, she stepped out of it and shook her hair so that the silken mass tumbled around her like a veil.
    She saw his unmistakable response and was emboldened by it. He followed the direction of her gaze and grinned. The gesture stole years from him and made it seem as though the barbarian warrior of so short a time before was little more than illusion. Even as Cymbra knew he was not, she couldn't help but laugh when her husband said wryly, “Men are so subtle.”
    Gracefully, she knelt before him and ran her hands over his calves and thighs bulging with muscle, the palms of her hands tingling with the teasing sensation of fine, dark hairs and warm, taut skin. Her body stirred hotly. Gently, she urged his legs apart and moved between them.
    Caressing him with her eyes, she murmured, “The last thing I'd call you is … subtle.” Magnificent, fascinating,thrilling, she could think of a good many ways to describe him but just then she didn't want to think at all.
    She lowered her head, the fall of her hair drifting over them both. Scant moments passed before Wolf moaned. He tried to draw her to him again but she resisted. “Let me,” she murmured, half demand, half plea.
    He hesitated only briefly before falling back across the bed. His arms stretched above his head, his big hands grasped the wooden posts as he fought the nearly overwhelming urge to halt her love play and take her at once. Three days of feasting and before that four days at the hunt, a week in all since he had lain with her. His need was immense, his body ravenous. He wanted to bury himself deep within her silken heat, to feel the pulsating ripples of her pleasure that drew from him his own.
    Yet, too, he wanted her to continue exactly what she was doing even if it damn well killed him. Her boldness delighted him, filled him with immense relief and passion that knew no bounds. Sweat shone on his burnished skin, his breath came harshly, muscles leaped in his arms, down his rock-hard chest, and along the ridged expanse of his abdomen.
    When her tongue swirled around the tip of him, he moaned again, his control teetering. When she took him fully into her mouth, he all but came up off the bed, only to fall back with a sound of pure rapture. She brought him to the very brink before slowly drawing away. With a last, lingering stroke of her tongue, she slipped up his body to join him on the bed.
    “I love being able to touch you,” she said huskily. “You're so strong, it amazes me that you have never hurt me. I love the way you can make me feel so helpless yet so protected, too.” She dropped light kisses around his navel, up over his chest, and along the hard curve of his jaw. Lying draped half over him, she slipped a hand down to caress what she had just savored. “I love being under you,feeling all the power you command as you thrust into me, but I love being like this, too.”
    She smiled down into his taut features. “I wonder if I'll ever be able to make up my mind which I enjoy more.”
    “Feel free,” he rasped, “to take your time deciding.”
    M UCH, MUCH LATER, CYMBRA MANAGED TO LIFT her head off the pillow and gaze at her husband. He appeared to be asleep—finally The man was astounding; he had more stamina than she would ever have believed possible and the devil's own determination. Deep within her, she still felt the echoing pulsations of the wild pleasure he had driven her to again and again.
    She turned onto her side, lightly tracing the contours of his mouth with one finger. He was such a beautiful man, so perfectly formed in body and spirit. She gloried in their intimacy, felt reborn through their love. Never would she have thought it possible to be so blissfully happy.
    On such exaltant thought, she was drifting into sleep when a rumbling sound startled her. She stared at her stomach and suddenly recalled how very little she had eaten in the past few days. And realized at the same instant how very hungry she was right then.
    Right then.
If she didn't eat soon, she