Since agreeing to marry him she had imagined herself playing the role of sacrificial virgin, lying on the bed and letting him take what he wanted but giving nothing back. She had known that to remain passive would take the greatest self-control of her life, especially after the kiss they had shared, but it was only as his tongue danced into her mouth that she understood how futile a hope it had been. Her hunger for him...it was too much. With a sigh that could have been a moan, she swayed into the strength of his solid body and welcomed the heat of his hungry kisses.
Her movement set something off in him too. The hands securing her gently tightened and then she was on her toes, crushed against him, breasts against chest, pelvis against abdomen, her hands winding around his neck, her fingers digging into the nape of his neck, her tongue dancing against his. And it was his hands now sweeping over her back and up her sides, brushing the underside of her breasts, the ferocity of their kisses intensifying with every passing second. Every time he touched her bare skin she felt the mark of his skin against hers and her hunger grew.
She was so caught up in their kisses she only realised he’d pulled the zip of her dress down her back when his hand slid into the opened space and dipped down to clasp her bottom.
Her breaths shallow, she moved her face to stare at him, terror making its return.
She had to tell him, she thought wildly. If she didn’t...
‘Benjamin...’
But he’d taken the skinny straps of her dress and skimmed them down her arms. She had hardly spoken the last syllable of his name before gravity pulled her dress down, her lean body offering it no resistance so it fell into a pool at her feet leaving her naked bar her plain, cotton knickers.
Her arms flailed to cover her breasts, panic now clawing at her.
Nudity was no big deal to her, it couldn’t be. She danced without wearing underwear, as most dancers did. She had never been body-conscious, never been one to torment herself over her shape. She ate the best diet she could and worked hard to keep her body lean and supple so she had every tool she could to be the best dancer she could be.
But she had never been virtually naked in front of a man who wasn’t looking at her as a dancer but as a lover.
She hadn’t had an hour of meditation and yoga to calm her mind as she had when he’d walked into her quarters the other day.
Never, until that moment, had she felt truly naked.
Her breasts were tiny, she thought hopelessly. She didn’t have the curves other women had.
Benjamin had stepped back to look at her, and she cringed to see the frown on his face.
Then the frown softened and his hands rested on her arms that still desperately covered her breasts. Gripping them lightly, he slowly pulled them apart to expose her for his scrutiny.
Her mortification grew when he let go of her arms so they hung by her hips, her fingers twitching to cover her breasts again.
He stepped back again then slowly walked around her. She could feel the stare of his eyes penetrating her skin and could do nothing to stop the trembling of her legs.
She was exposing herself in a way she had spent years fighting to keep covered, not her external flesh but what lay beneath it, the sensuality that lay beneath her skin, the only part of herself that was hers alone, never to be given, never to be shared, the only part of herself she’d been able to keep for herself.
It was slipping through her fingers and the harder she tried to keep control of it, the more it pulled away from her and into Benjamin’s hands...
When he finally stood in front of her again he placed a finger on her lips and leaned in to nuzzle his lips against her ear. ‘Tu es belle, ma douce.’
She was stunned at the tenderness in his voice even if she didn’t understand the words, her breath leaving her again as he moved his finger from her lips to cover her cheeks with the whole of his hands and stare hard into her eyes.
‘You are beautiful, Freya.’
His lips brushed against hers before brushing over her jaw to burrow into her neck. Then he sank onto his knees so his face was level with her breasts.
He stared at them before covering them entirely with his hands. He gazed up at her. ‘They are perfect. You are perfect.’
She couldn’t breathe. Her throat had closed, fresh sensation bubbling inside her, the hunger in his eyes driving out the panic.
Then he slid his hands sensuously over her stomach to grip her hips and covered her breasts with his mouth.
At the first flick of his tongue over her nipple she gasped, her hands flailing to rest on his shoulders.
Sensation suffused her, intensifying as he took one breast into his mouth, his obvious delight in them and the thrills shooting through her veins driving the last of her embarrassment and fear clean out of her.
Benjamin felt Freya’s sharp nails dig through his shirt and into his skin, the most pleasurable pain of his life.
For two months he had dreamed of this moment; dreamed of Freya coming undone in his arms, imagined her naked and fantasised about all the things he wanted to do with her.
This was beyond anything his feeble imagination could have dreamt up, and they had barely begun.
Her breasts were the smallest he had ever seen but they were the most beautiful. He hadn’t been lying when he had called them perfect. Perfectly round, perfectly high and the perfect fit for his mouth.
They had the perfect taste too.
She had the perfect taste.
Slowly he trailed his mouth down her stomach, revelling in the smooth perfection of her skin, thrilling at the quiver of her belly when he licked it and the ragged movement of her chest as she struggled to breathe, knowing it was her response to him causing it.
His own breaths had become ragged too. The tightness in his groin was almost intolerable, his need for relief a burn that he willingly ignored, too intent on seducing this beautiful woman—his wife—to care for his own needs.
His time would come.
Lower down he went, raining soft kisses over her abdomen to the band of her underwear, the heat inside him rising as he got closer to her womanly heat.
Pinching the elastic of her knickers in his fingers, he gently tugged them down her hips to her supple yet shaking thighs.
He touched his nose to the soft hair between her legs and breathed deeply.
About to nuzzle lower, he became dimly aware that her fingers, which had been digging into his scalp, had stopped moving.
Looking up, he found her staring down at him with what could only be described as terror in her eyes.
It stopped him in his tracks.
‘Have you not done this before?’ he asked slowly.
She hesitated before giving a jerky shake of her head.
His brain racing, he pressed a tender kiss into the downy hair, inhaled her intoxicating scent one more time and tugged the underwear back up to cover her.
Freya had less experience than he had thought...
Getting back to his feet, he pressed himself close to her quivering body and gently kissed her, then lifted her into his arms.
There was no resistance. She wound her arms around his neck and gazed into his eyes as he carried her to the bed.
Laying her down, he kissed her again, more deeply, before dipping his face into the elegant arch of her neck and tenderly nipping the skin with his teeth.
‘I have too many clothes on,’ he said into her neck, then pressed a kiss against the pulse beating wildly at the base of her jawline and sat up.
The obsidian of her eyes seemed to glow with the weight of a thousand emotions. She raised a hand as if to reach out and touch him then swallowed. The hand fell back to her side.
He picked it up and razed a kiss across the knuckles. ‘Tu es belle.’
She was beautiful. Mesmerising.
Her lips quirked in the glimmer of a smile and her chest rose as she took a deep breath.
Not taking his gaze from her face, Benjamin proceeded to undress, first his shirt,
then getting to his feet to tug his trousers and underwear off until he was fully naked. He’d been so caught up in his seduction of Freya and the headiness of the moment that he hadn’t appreciated how constricting his clothes had been until he took them off and his arousal sprang free.
Resisting the urge to take it in his hand, he sat back on the bed. ‘Now you are the one with too many clothes on,’ he said with a lightness that belied the heavy thuds of his heart, tracing his finger in a line from the dip at the top of her neck, down between her breasts and over the flat plain of her stomach to rest on the band of her knickers.
Dieu, he could devour her whole.
Her hands clenched into fists, her breaths becoming ragged again. He took hold of both her wrists and slowly spread them up to rest either side of her head as he laid himself over her until he covered her, propping his weight up on his elbows to gaze into her pulsating eyes.
Then he kissed her.
As their mouths moved together, fused into one, the passion reigniting and deepening, he loosened his hold on her wrists and laced his fingers through hers. She squeezed in response then dragged them away to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him down so his weight was fully on her.
He groaned at the sensation of her breasts pressed so tightly against his chest and kissed her more deeply. His skin was alive with heat that seeped through his veins and deep into his bones, all thoughts leaving him except one; the one that needed to touch and taste every part of this beautiful woman who had been in his head for so long and now lay in his bed and in his blood.
With his mouth and hands he began his exploration, discovering the parts of her body that made her suck in a breath at his touch, the parts that made her moan, the parts that made her nails dig into his flesh, feeling her relax so much that when he pressed his mouth to her pelvis again, she sighed and her left leg writhed.
Encouraged, Benjamin slowly tugged her knickers down, making a trail with his tongue down her legs in its wake before kissing his way back up and inhaling the scent of her heat without any barrier at all.
She stilled.
For a long time he didn’t move, waiting to see what she would do.
Then he felt the whisper of her hand on his head, her fingers threading through his hair...
He traced his tongue between the damp folds and heard her gasp. Her fingers made twisting motions in his hair that pulled when he found her secret nub and her bottom lifted.
Dieu.
With all the languid care in the world, he made love to her with his mouth, relishing the taste of her sweet muskiness on his tongue, letting her responses, which were becoming more overt by the second, guide him as to what was giving her the greatest pleasure, intent only on her pleasure, Freya’s pleasure, Freya, this beautiful, beautiful woman he ached to make completely his.
Only when he was sure that she was nearing her peak and completely ready for him did he slide his tongue back up her stomach, nipping each of her breasts with his teeth as he went, to reclaim her mouth and gently part her thighs.
Guiding his erection to the warmth of her heat he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
This was a moment to savour.
Inhaling deeply through his nose, he covered her mouth with his then could hold on no longer. With one long thrust, he buried himself deep inside her...
Freya felt a momentary sharpness that she would probably have missed if she hadn’t been waiting for it, then there was nothing but sensation, every single nerve ending inside her sighing and delighting in the feel of Benjamin finally inside her, filling her completely.
She gazed into the green eyes that were staring at her with such hunger, and touched his face before lifting her head to kiss him.
How she loved his kisses. Loved his tongue taking such rough possession of hers. Loved his touch. Loved the feel of his broad chest covering hers, the dark hairs brushing against her breasts. Loved what he was doing to her right then...
Ohhhhh...
Her head fell back on the pillow as he began to move. He withdrew slowly only to plunge into her again. And then he did it again, and again, over and over, somehow knowing exactly what she wanted and what she needed, all the things about herself she hadn’t known.
The last of the fight had left her when he’d carried her to the bed and laid her down so tenderly, almost as if she were precious to him...
And then he had kissed and stroked all her defences and fears away until sanity had ceased to matter. Nothing mattered. Nothing apart from this; here, now, them, together.
She’d had no idea that she could feel such things.
And the sensations ravaging her were heightening.
As Benjamin’s movements grew wilder, his breath hot on her face, his groans soaking into her skin, the throbbing ache deep within her tightened and burned into a flame. Hotter and hotter it grew, blazing into a peak that came to a crescendo...
And then she was soaring, sparks exploding through her on a riptide of pleasure she had never, never, imagined possible.
Hazily she was aware that Benjamin had let go too, burying his face in her hair with a ragged, drawn-out moan.
She held him tightly as they rocked together, holding on to the pleasure for as long as they could until, finally, they both stilled and all that was left of the explosion were tiny glowing flickers that tingled and buzzed through and over every part of her.
CHAPTER TEN
FREYA LOST ALL semblance of time as she lay there with Benjamin’s weight so deliciously compressing on her. They could have lain there for minutes or hours.
She opened her eyes. She felt so profoundly different from when she had walked into this room that she half expected the room to look different too.
The dim lights were still on. The music Benjamin had put on still played, a different song now worming its way through her slowly de-fuzzing head.
‘Okay?’ His question came as a murmur yet cut through the silence as if he had shouted it.
Her throat closed and she had to breathe deeply to get air into her suddenly constricted lungs.
‘Fine,’ she managed.
He rolled off her and onto his back, though kept his head turned so he faced her. ‘You are sure?’
She wanted to offer a pithy comment, something that would negate the huge whirl of emotions filling her, to deny the wondrousness of what she had just experienced and which she knew, as pathetically inexperienced as she had been, that he had shared too.
But she couldn’t. Somehow this man who was still very much a stranger even if he was her husband... He had made her feel beautiful. He had recognised her fear and inexperience and made love to her as if she were someone to cherish.
She would not let fear demean or diminish it.
Slowly she turned her head to look into the eyes that always saw too much, and nodded.
He studied her for long moments before craning his neck to kiss her gently. ‘I’m going to turn the music off. Can I get you a drink?’
‘No, thank you.’
He kissed her again then turned over and climbed off the bed.
She watched him stride to the sound system, completely at ease in his skin.
And no wonder. Until that moment she hadn’t looked at him properly. She’d gazed at his broad chest and felt it crushed against her, seen his strong, muscular arms and felt them bunch in her hands, the rest of him only glimpsed at, even the long legs she’d wound her own around.
She’d thought of him as having the stalking grace of a panther but only now, seeing him unashamedly naked, all the components that made him Benjamin put together, did she fully appreciate his rugged masculine beauty. It made the breath catch in her throat...
‘You like what you see?’
She blinked, suddenly aware she had been staring at him.
Cheeks flaming, she then became aware that she had been staring at him naked, forgetting her own nakedness.
The hazy glow of their lovemaking had gone and with it her confidence
to be naked around this man.
He’d cast her in a spell. He must have done.
She had done more than bare herself to him, she had given the essence of herself. She had lost control.
He’d made her forget. Forget what he’d done. Forget who she was and all the reasons she needed to keep an emotional distance from him.
His lovemaking had been incredible...they had been incredible. Just as she had feared.
‘I like what I see,’ he murmured, seemingly unfazed by her silence.
She averted her eyes from his gleaming scrutiny and, keeping her thighs together to protect her modesty as best she could, grabbed the duvet, which their lovemaking had dislodged and managed to heap into a pile, and burrowed low into it.
He laughed lightly. ‘I have embarrassed you.’
She sensed him treading back to his side of the bed and wished she could escape to the solitude of her own quarters.
A breeze fluttered against her back, Benjamin lifting the duvet to climb back in beside her. As she waited for the bed to dip, holding the part of the duvet she was wrapped in tightly, she became aware of a silence.
Coldness crept up her spine that had nothing to do with her back being exposed as the silence drew out and she was on the verge of saying something to break it when he finally got into bed.
She held her breath, squeezed her eyes shut and waited for him to turn off the dim lights. If she kept her back to him and played dead he might leave her alone.
Don’t touch me, she silently begged. Your touch is too much. Please, don’t make me lose any more of myself than I already have.
But the question he posed into the silence made her wish he had touched her instead.
‘You were a virgin?’
What else explained the small, red stain marking the under-sheet of his bed? Benjamin wondered, his mind reeling. He’d seen it as he’d pulled the duvet back and his blood had run from languidly sated to ice cold in an instant.
Billionaire's Bride for Revenge (Billionaire?s Bride for Revenge) Page 10