Lessons Learned

separated them. As years passed, and their lives flowed and altered, she’d remember a handful of days when she’d had something special.
    No time to waste, he’d said. Catching her tongue in her teeth Juliet decided she couldn’t agree more. Reaching up, she began to unbutton her blouse. As a matter of habit, she draped it carefully over the back of a chair before she unhooked her skirt. When that fell, she lifted it, smoothed it out and folded it. The pins were drawn out of her hair, one by one, then set aside.
    Dressed in a very impractical lace camisole and string bikini she moved closer.
    Carlo awoke with his blood pumping and his head whirling. He could smell her scent lightly in her hair, more heady on her skin as her mouth took command of his. Her body was already heated as she lay full length on him. Before he could draw his first thoughts together, his own body followed suit.
    She was all lace and flesh and passion. There wasn’t time to steady his control or polish his style. Urgent and desperate, he reached for her and found silk and delicacy, strength and demand wherever he touched.
    She unbuttoned his shirt and drew it aside so that their skin could meet and arouse. Beneath hers, she felt his heartbeat race and pound until power made her dizzy. Capturing his lips once again, she thought only of driving him to madness. She could feel it spread through him, growing, building, so that it would dominate both of them.
    When he rolled so that she was trapped between the back of the sofa and his body, she was ready to relinquish control. With a moan, dark and liquid, she let herself enjoy what she’d begun.
    No woman had ever done this to him. He understood thatas his only thoughts were to devour everything she had. His fingers, so clever, so skilled, so gentle, pulled at the lace until the thin strap tore with hardly a sound.
    He found her—small soft breasts that fit so perfectly in his hands, the strong narrow rib cage and slender waist. His. The word nearly drove him mad. She was his now, as she’d been in the dream she’d woken him from. Perhaps he was still dreaming.
    She smelled of secrets, small, feminine secrets no man ever fully understood. She tasted of passion, ripe, shivering passion every man craved. With his tongue he tasted that sweet subtle valley between her breasts and felt her tremble. She was strong; he’d never doubted it. In her strength, she was surrendering completely to him, for the pleasure of each.
    The lace smelled of her. He could have wallowed in it, but her skin was irresistible. He drew the camisole down to her waist and feasted on her.
    With her hands tangled in his hair, her body on fire, she thought only of him. No tomorrows, no yesterdays. However much she might deny it in an hour, they’d become a single unit. One depended on the other for pleasure, for comfort, for excitement. For so much more she didn’t dare think of it. She yearned for him; nothing would ever stop it. But now, he was taking her, fast and furious, through doors they’d opened together. Neither of them had gone there before with another, nor would again.
    Juliet gave herself over to the dark, the heat, and to Carlo.
    He drew the thin strings riding on her hips, craving the essence of her. When he’d driven her over the first peak, heknew and reveled in it. With endless waves of desire, he whipped her up again, and yet again, until they were both trembling. She called out his name as he ran his lips down her leg. All of her was the thought paramount in his mind. He’d have all of her until she was willing, ready to have all of him.
    “Juliet, I want you.” His face was above hers again, his breath straining. “Look at me.”
    She was staggering on that razor’s edge between reason and madness. When she opened her eyes, his face filled her vision. It was all she wanted.
    “I want you,” he repeated while the blood raged in his head. “Only you.”
    She was wrapped around him, her head arched back. For an instant, their eyes met and held. What coursed through them wasn’t something they could try to explain. It was both danger and security.
    “Only,” she murmured and took him into her.
     
    They were both stunned, both shaken, both content. Naked, damp and warm, they lay tangled together in silence. Words had been spoken, Juliet thought. Words that were part of the madness of the moment. She would have to take care not to repeat them when passion was spent. They didn’t need