Raven's Prey

herself thrill to the power he had over her body. She clutched at the thrusting line of his back as he slowly worked the nightgown up over her hips.
    “Oh, Judd!”
    He flattened his palm on her thigh, smoothing her skin as if it were priceless silk. Then he lifted her slightly and pulled the nightgown off completely. “Sweetheart,..!” he breathed as he tossed the light cotton garment heedlessly down onto the floor. He lowered his head to taste the budding nipple of her breast and she trembled with pleasure as he made her softness swell.
    When her legs moved, seeking his, Judd trailed his palm down the curve of her stomach and boldly found the soft mound below. Honor moaned his name aloud and clung more tightly than ever, arching her lower body into the warmth of his hand.
    Slowly, with infinite sensitivity, Judd traced an erotic path to the hot, damp warmth between her legs. With his knee he opened her thighs to his touch and when she shivered he soothed her with dark, persuasive words that urged her to relax and let him fly away with her. Or at least that was how her enthralled mind interpreted the words.
    Her nails began to sink tantalizingly into his shoulders and Judd’s response was a low, aching groan that spoke clearly of his barely restrained need. The part of her that always seemed inclined to tease and taunt him drove her to seek a further reaction. She loved getting a reaction, any kind of reaction, from him, Honor realized vaguely. Something in her seized on such slim evidence and pretended it was meaningful communication.
    “Love me, Judd,” she whispered, making no attempt to hide the arousal in her voice. It would have been pointless. He must know the effect he was having on her body. “Make love to me, darling.”
    She knew even as she spoke that love was not a word in his vocabulary but she used it anyway, as if daring him to deny that he wasn’t making love to her. He wouldn’t, she told herself. He wanted her too badly now to jeopardize her willing surrender with an argument; over the word she was using to describe it.
    And she was right. He didn’t correct her, he simply ignored the word “love” altogether. Instead he asked her for the words he wanted. “Tell me you need me, sweetheart,” he coaxed roughly as he dropped tiny, stinging kisses into the pit of her stomach. “Tell me how much you want me.”
    “I want you, Judd. Oh, God, how I want you.” She slipped her hands along his back down to the hard, muscular male buttocks. His savagely indrawn breath was music to her.
    “Yes,” he muttered huskily. “Oh, yes, sweetheart. Touch me. Pull me into you. Show me you want me.”
    Sensuously he stroked the inside of her leg down to her knee and back until she flexed it in an agony of desire. “Now, Judd. Please, now!”
    He didn’t answer, moving aggressively over her instead until he lay along the length of her slender body. Honor felt gloriously crushed and reveled in the sensual weight. of him. When he inserted his legs between hers she obeyed the silent command and opened herself to him.
    It was as he hesitated a moment longer, seeking to arouse her to a fever pitch of wanting, that she was assailed by a lingering sense of vulnerability. She could feel the waiting heat of his manhood pressing close and all at once a vision of the future infiltrated her mind. For just an instant she saw herself as she had been that last morning in Mexico, hurt, angry and weak.
    As if he could, read her mind, Judd was suddenly grating harsh words against her lips. “No,” he ordered fiercely. “No, don’t go cold on me now. It’s too late. You’ve already given yourself tonight!” Then he moved against her softness, filling her completely in a hard, incredibly exciting way that literally deprived her of breath.
    By the time she regained the air in her lungs Honor was already caught up in the dizzying spiral of Judd’s passion. He reached down to hold her hips more firmly to him, forcing her into the thrilling pattern of the rhythm he was creating. Helplessly, heedlessly, she clung to him as if to a huge, soaring bird. There amid the dangerous peaks at the top of the world he was her only source of safety.
    Relentlessly he carried them higher until at last Honor could go no further. She felt the sweeping tremors pour through her body and knew that Judd was as violently aware of her response as she herself was. She heard him say her name over and over again as she collapsed