CHAPTER ELEVEN

" O oh." Blair sighed with a sensual moan. She stretched, naked, rejoicing in the warmth of Cam's body beside her and the cool cotton covering them both. "How can crisp, clean sheets feel so incredibly wonderful?"

"Happy?" Cam leaned up on an elbow, resting her head on her hand as she drew her fingertips along the edge of Blair's jaw. She marveled at the beauty of Blair's face in the moonlight. Being with her like this, alone in the middle of the night, was a rare occurrence, but one that she knew would never cease to thrill her, no matter how many times she experienced it. Blair was so many things she loved—intelligent, strong, vital, and passionate. She was also very beautiful. And Cam loved to look at her.

"Mmm." Blair started to shift onto her side to see Cam better, but Cam's hand on her shoulder restrained her.

"No," Cam murmured, drawing her fingertips back and forth in the valley between Blair's breasts. "Stay like that. I want to look at you."

The low heavy beat in Cam's voice settled in the pit of Blair's stomach, and her heartbeat quickened. "Just look?"

The corner of her mouth lifted in a grin, and Cam nodded. "For now."

"You've been playing with me quite a lot this evening, Commander," Blair chided just a bit breathlessly. Cam's fingers had shifted onto her breast, although they lay motionless just below her nipple. Even the promise of a touch from those strong, sensitive fingers made her breasts ache and the nipples tighten into hard knots of desire.

"Not nearly as much as I intend to." Cam brushed the sheet down Blair's abdomen with the edge of her hand until it angled across Blair's hips, white and sharp in the moonlight. Cam traced a finger beneath the edge of the cotton, lingering for an instant over the swell of flesh between Blair's thighs.

Involuntarily, Blair raised her hips, but the tantalizing touch was already gone. "What if I told you I'm too tired?"

Cam dipped her head and brushed her lips over the hollow at the base of Blair's throat. With her mouth against the racing pulse, she murmured, "Are you?"

The heat in the pit of Blair's stomach flared, searing her blood. Fighting to keep her voice even, she replied, "I asked you first."

Chuckling as she kissed a spot between Blair's breasts, Cam reached down and pushed the sheet away completely. She trailed her fingers back up the length of Blair's thigh and smoothed her hand along the curve of Blair's hipbone. Then she rested her cheek against the firm rise of Blair's breast and watched the muscles flicker in her lover's abdomen as she walked her fingers along the inside of the arched prominence, over her belly, and up to her navel. She flicked at the gold ring piercing the skin there. Then she caught it between thumb and forefinger and tugged.

Blair gasped, her legs twisting restlessly on the bed as she gripped Cam's shoulder hard.

"If you're tired..." Cam tugged again. "Then I'll just have to put you to sleep."

"How?" Blair's throat was tight with urgency. Patience in bed was not her usual fare. She liked Cam to take her hard and fast, especially the first time—or she liked to have Cam the same way. Perhaps it was because they rarely had the luxury of time on their side; more likely it was due to her relentless hunger for Cam, like an ache in her bones. Whenever she touched Cam, the need to be close to her, to be inside her, to take her inside, obliterated all restraint. But tonight, after all that Cam had given her, she wanted Cam to have exactly what she desired. She would let Cam take her, and she would rejoice in the giving. "Tell me how you'll put me to sleep."

Still toying with the gold ring, Cam flicked her tongue over Blair's nipple. "With my mouth."

"God, I love your mouth on me." Blair couldn't help herself. She was burning from the inside out. Moaning softly, she drove her fingers into Cam's thick hair and pressed her lover's face more firmly to her breast. Still, she went no further, even though she ached for Cam to fill her.

"I know." Cam shifted lower, capturing Blair's leg between her own. She pressed against Blair's firm thigh, knowing that her lover would feel the evidence of her arousal, slick and hot and hard. "And I'm going to kiss you, everywhere, until you come."

"Oh, yes," Blair whispered, pushing up on her elbows to watch Cam suck her nipples, one then the other. Seeing Cam's lips caressing her throbbing flesh and feeling the electric shocks of pleasure at the same time made her shudder and twitch. Watching Cam's hips thrust indolently against her thigh, feeling her lover's passion coat her skin, made her stomach convulse. "I need you to touch me so much. Don't make me wait too long."

"I'm going to make us both wait." Cam eased her hips away a fraction, relieving the exquisite pressure against her screaming nerve endings. She was in danger of climaxing just from the thrill of exciting Blair. "I'm going to touch you everywhere." She danced her fingers down Blair's abdomen, brushed tantalizingly over the heat between Blair's legs, then skimmed lower, stroking the soft skin of her inner thighs. "I need to touch you everywhere."

Strength failing, Blair surrendered, falling back against the pillows with a low whimper. "God, I don't care...do anything... everything. Just don't stop."

The surface of Blair's skin sang. Cam's fingertips painted images of moonlit glades and sun-drenched valleys on the canvas of her mind. Her heart thundered with the joy of loving and being loved. Carried on the inexorable tide of her lover's devotions, she was unaware of the lips caressing her turgid flesh or the mouth that drew her passion forth on a sea of desire. All she knew—in her body, in her soul, in the deepest reaches of her heart—was the woman who claimed her, and freed her, with the power of this love. Cam. Cam.

Her orgasm rose slowly, gathering force from some place far, far beyond her fragile body. Only when the fist of need in her depths opened and pleasure flooded her thighs did she become aware of the relentless joy of Cam's mouth driving her to climax. Panting, she pushed herself up, forced her eyes open, and clenched a hand in Cam's hair. "I want...to watch...you...make me come."

Then the sharp edge of pleasure verged on pain, the muscles shredded from her bones, and her soul soared on the sweet ache of fulfillment. Bent nearly double, she clutched Cam's shoulder as she shuddered and moaned. When the wracking spasms released her, she collapsed onto her side, her fingers still tangled in her lover's hair.

Cam rolled with her, gathering her close and pressing Blair's face to her chest. "I love you. I love you so much."

Blair couldn't speak. She could barely breathe. It wasn't the exquisite orgasm that had stolen her control but the overwhelming emotion that she was unable to contain when Cam touched her. Not just when she touches me. When she looks at me. When she's anywhere near me.

"Baby," Cam murmured tenderly, her cheek resting gently against the top of Blair's head. "We need to get under the covers. You're going to get chilled."

"In a minute," Blair mumbled, wrapping her arms around Cam's waist and burrowing closer. "I feel so good. You feel so good."

Cam laughed and fumbled the sheet partway over Blair's body. "Yeah. I feel pretty terrific."

Blair's head lolled back on Cam's shoulder and she regarded her through heavy eyelids. "Pretty pleased with yourself, aren't you?"

"Pretty much." Cam kissed Blair's nose lightly. "I've been thinking about doing that all night."

"Really." Blair chuckled weakly. "You have remarkable powers of restraint, Commander."

"Not really." Softly, Cam kissed Blair's mouth, tracing her tongue over the full curve of Blair's lower lip. "I came just now— all it took was feeling you let go."

Blair groaned. "Cameron Roberts, you are the sexiest woman I've ever known. If I weren't completely wasted, I would throw you down this moment and ravish you."

Laughing, Cam eased back against the pillows, drawing Blair with her. As she went, she pulled the covers after them until they were cocooned in each other's arms. "There's always the morning."

"Yes," Blair whispered drowsily. Although she knew that wasn't necessarily true, that it might be years before she could go to sleep in her lover's arms and count on awakening with her, she refused to allow anything to dispel her happiness. That, too, was a new sensation—the willingness to accept joy, however fleeting, as the gift it was. "Loving you is the best thing that ever happened to me,"

"Blair," Cam breathed, softly stroking the blond head resting against her shoulder. "You can't know how much that means to me."

"I do know." Blair reached out, found Cam's hand, and entwined their fingers. She drew their joined hands between her breasts, held them against her heart. "I feel it in here. I feel you inside me, loving me. Loving you has made me whole."

"I never intend to stop."

Promise? Blair didn't dare ask.

Cam moved their joined hands to her chest and pressed them to the spot above her heart, unmindful of the scar that marked it. "I promise."

There were two levels at the top of the monument, one inside and one outside, offering a 360-degree panoramic view of Paris and its environs for 80 kilometers in every direction. The night was clear, and although it was summer, at 280 meters above ground level, the air was cool. It was also nearly midnight, and there were very few visitors on the outside observation deck. Below them the city sparkled, lights blazing like fiery jewels. The wind ruffled Stark's hair as she leaned forward to capture as much of the view as possible. She held Renee's hand, grateful for the contact, needing to feel grounded as the diz2ying heights left her disoriented.