With Crayons and Love (Romantic Suspense) [COMPLETED]

Chapter 21 - Take

I had not noticed how cold I was, nor how chilled the night, until I stood in the corner of his bedroom by the window. Outside there was nothing in view, for there were no lights to bring much needed shape to objects. It was simply a black canvas of the beach and countryside, and after a moment, I looked away.

Stella was soundly asleep in the guest-room, and Grant and I had come inside the house from the beach after we walked by the shoreline, talking and laughing. He had gone off to make certain no excess lights were left on in the house and that all the doors were locked. Normally, he said his family did not bother much with the locks unless they were leaving town, but none of us were taking chances with Stella, who could curiously slip out to wander by the fields and shores.

I waited for him, holding my arms to my body to gather warmth.

He would come to me. I wanted him to. There was no question in my mind that he would come. First off he would enter by the room Stella was sleeping in, expecting to find me there, and then he would come to where he knew, in his heart, that I was waiting.

I heard the sign of his entrance in the distance, felt the stop in time. I looked to the window and knew he had entered when the heat of his presence took shape in the room.

How I could tell was beyond me, but I knew when Grant was near. I was a woman, and the fact became painfully potent when he was with me.

"I didn't expect to find you here," he murmured, stopping by the entrance.

I carefully turned around and leaned against the window sill, looking at him, and spoke, "Silly of you."

He grinned, the look both heady and charming.

"Silly of me," he agreed, refusing to take his eyes away from my form.

I walked to him with my heart pounding steadily at the very brim of my chest, and wrapped my arms around him. "I'm cold," I whispered. "Make me warm?"

He looked down into my eyes, and I noticed that the clear blue became as dark as sapphire, like pulsating gems of blue fire. "Tessa, love..."

"Be quiet," I mumbled, going to the very first button at the top of his white shirt. I unbuttoned it, feeling the first inch of smooth skin underneath curious fingers. I kissed his mouth gently, tasting him, and suckled on the perfect swell of his bottom lip.

He growled and cursed. "That's it. You've done it." His hands clenched themselves into the dress-covered skin of my thighs. "Jesus Christ, woman. I need to have you."

His mouth traced lines of wet kisses down my throat, hot then cold, and I shivered and ached throughout myself with the plenitude of sensation.

"Have me. Take all of me you want. Nothing else matters," I urged.

One last look of dark blue and he spun me around with a rapid motion, caging me against his body with the strength of his arms. His hands slid to my back and curved over my sides, feeling me, and he tugged the zipper down my dress with utmost ease. I moved to slip my arms out of the clothing, but he caught my hands and held them tightly in his large ones, restraining me.

I had been restrained before. My arms had been tied and my skin had been purple with the marks of another man's hands. Oxygen had been taken away from me then as hands gripped and pressed into my throat, and my body had shivered from fear. From pain. But now this was Grant, and he was taking my breath away with the strength of his mouth. He was holding me wordlessly still so he could make my body shiver from the heat, the pleasure, that came from his touch. His control over my body was a haven, never a hell.

"No, Red. I get to undress you." I whimpered when he nibbled on the tender flesh beneath my ear, his hands slowly bringing my dress down and downer still as I ached... Burned.