“Very well. I’m tired, too.” Slowly, he eased the buttons open on his shirt. She watched him, swaying slowly in his direction before she yanked herself back.
“Uh, you’re going to take off your clothes?” she asked.
He gave her a grin. “Well, I normally don’t sleep in my full regalia.”
“What do you sleep in?”
He couldn’t resist. “Nothing.”
A little strangled groan escaped her lips before she controlled it. His smile broadened. “But for you, I’ll keep my trousers on tonight.”
Relief lightened her face. “Very good.”
She dove into the bed and under the covers as if she could hide from him there. She was so very wrong. When he pulled back the blankets on the opposite side of the bed, she stiffened again.
“You’re going to sleep under the coverlet?”
He laughed. “Kat, it’s the middle of winter. Surely you don’t want me to freeze.”
Her pause was just long enough that he knew she was considering the merits of letting him do just that. “No, of course not.” She turned her back to him. “Good night, Dominic.”
He didn’t answer but edged himself into the middle of the bed. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his stomach.
“You said you wouldn’t force me to—” she yelped.
“I’m not forcing anything,” he drawled close to her ear. “But is there any harm in holding you? Not anything else. Just holding you.”
A tremor quaked through her. “No, I suppose not.”
She settled back, but there was tension in every muscle in her body. Every part of her that touched him. And he ached to ease those tensions in the most pleasurable way imaginable.
“What about a good-night kiss?” he asked softly, amazed he was keeping any semblance of control in either his voice or touch. All he wanted to do was flip his wife over onto her back and taste her, touch her, plunge deep within her until they had become one body. Until he had purged all memory of any other man.
There was a long pause. “Dominic…”
“Just one.”
Slowly, she rolled over to stare up into his eyes. “O-One.”
He delved his hands into her hair and splayed his fingers out as he lifted her head to meet his lips. She let out a gasp at his ardor, but her surprise didn’t keep her from returning his kiss with the same passion she exhibited in the carriage earlier.
Cupping one breast, he rubbed his thumb over the peak of her nipple as he continued to devour her mouth. The nub hardened beneath his touch as she arched with a moan that broke the contact of their lips.
True to his word, he released her. She stared up at him with eyes that flickered in the dying firelight.
“You…”
He shrugged as he propped himself up on his elbow to stare down at her. “You said only one.”
Surprise flashed over her face. Then she swallowed hard. “Was—was that a whole kiss?” She blushed and her stare dropped from his. “I don’t think that was a complete kiss.”
His smile widened as he slipped an arm beneath her head. She let out a little sigh as he gathered her against him. “The more I kiss you, the harder it’s going to be for me to stop.”
Her eyes fluttered shut and with a small sigh she whispered, “That is a risk I’m willing to take.”
What was wrong with her? Was she crazy? Had she really just said making love to her husband was a risk she was willing to take? She couldn’t. She shouldn’t. And yet…
His mouth came down on hers to claim a second time and all her thoughts faded away on an explosion of desire and pleasure. There was no way she could resist his touch or the promise of all there was to come.
More to the point, she didn’t want to. From the moment they stepped from the carriage into the inn, she had anticipated this very moment with as much eagerness as anxiety. And now that she was here, with Dominic’s breath mingling with hers and his hands holding her steady while he kissed her, she forgot her fear.
Tomorrow she could remember.
She wrapped her arms around the strong curve of his shoulders and kissed him back. He was like granite beneath her hands, hard and smooth and so very male. And for that moment, so very hers.
His hand slipped to her breast and another burst of sensation rolled through her. Her thin shift didn’t protect her like the woolen gown had in the carriage. His touch pierced through it like the cloth wasn’t there at all. New feelings, ones she hadn’t even imagined, followed in his hand’s wake. Flames shot through her and any residual resistance melted away.
“Dominic,” she whispered as her lips settled against the throbbing pulse point at the base of his throat. As she darted the tip of her tongue out to taste his skin, he let out a low groan that reverberated against her lips.
Shoving the covers off both of them, Dominic glided her shift up her legs. Every inch revealed more creamy skin, and guided him ever closer to the heaven he had longed to experience from the first moment he laid eyes on her on the terrace. He thought she looked like a Snow Queen then, but it wasn’t true. If anything, she was a goddess of fire. The hidden heat below her surface could easily rage out of control if he touched her just right.
At present, each and every touch was the right one. When he cupped her kneecap, she shivered. When he stroked from the outside line of her thigh to the inside curve, she gasped with pleasure. Her fingers kneaded his shoulders as her eyes fluttered shut, her lips trembled.
Katherine arched under him as he settled his hand between her thighs. It took every part of him to remember this would be the first time she made love, that he couldn’t take her with the animal intensity he craved. At least, not yet. Not until she would feel no pain when he entered her. After that, well, it was too much to imagine just how many ways he wanted to be with her.
And until he could, there was only one way to ease his own frustration: Make her writhe.
Slowly, he eased one finger inside her hot sheath to find her already wet and ready. But from the dazed look in her eyes, she was still as uneasy as she was aroused.
“Does that feel good?” he whispered as he leaned down to press a kiss on the flat of her stomach, just along the edge of the nightgown he’d pushed up.
“Y-Yes,” she stammered, even as she grasped a section of the sheet and balled it in her fist.
“Tonight, I want everything to feel this good for you.” He looked down to meet her gaze and was lost in a sea of green. “I want you to be ready for me. There are things I want to do to make you ready.”
Those eyes widened until it seemed that everything that mattered was tinged with misty emerald. “What do you want to do?”
He withdrew his hand to glide the shift over her head, baring her to him and giving him the first glimpse of her nakedness that wasn’t in the form of a fantasy. Her cheeks flushed red as she maneuvered to cover herself, but he gently pinned her arms to her sides.
“You’re perfect. Never hide from me”—he cupped her chin to place a light kiss on her lips—“ever.”
Katherine was surprised that her eyes tingled with tears when he said those words. All she could do to protect herself was hide from him. Yet he made it sound like it would be so easy to open herself and allow him in. Despite everything, in this blissful moment, he made it seem simple…and perfect.
Then his mouth was gone from hers, instead blazing a hot trail down her throat, over her collar bone and finally, shockingly, over her breast. He caught one hard nipple in his lips and sucked ever so gently. Awareness ripped through her and she let out a cry of pleasure. It was like she hadn’t really been alive until his touch, because she never imagined such intense feelings were possible.
But they were. Pleasure so focused it was almost pain. It was new and powerful. She craved more of it.
She clasped her hands around the back of his head and urged him to continue as she wound her fingers through his hair. And he didn’t disappoint, only shifted to h
er opposite breast to suckle there.
Her body sang with need and she found herself not only enjoying his touch but returning it with fervor. Her hands smoothed over the taut muscles of his back, his arms, exploring every contour as if she could memorize them. Her palms glided around to his chest, then down to his stomach. Was there nothing about the man that wasn’t perfectly formed?
“You should take off your clothes,” she whispered, then placed a soft kiss on his shoulder. He even tasted good.
“Oh, yes?” he asked with a half-smile, though each time her mouth dragged across his skin, his gray eyes fluttered shut, proof that he didn’t possess as much control as he wanted her to believe. It gave her an enormous sense of power.
“Why?”
She blushed. “Because if you’re naked, too, perhaps I won’t feel so shy.”
Truth be told, she no longer felt shy, only curious. She wanted to know every part of her new husband’s body. She wanted to look at him as intimately as he looked at her.
Before he acquiesced, he dipped his head and caught her lips. But this kiss wasn’t gentle, it was completely passionate. He delved his tongue between her lips, tasting her, branding her. Just as she melted, he pulled back and rose to his feet. In a few swift motions, he shrugged out of his remaining clothes. In the dwindling fire and candlelight, nothing was left to Katherine’s imagination. And now she knew just what all the fuss was about.
The man was like a god. From the broad shoulders to the tapered waist, the strong arms and legs, to the hard thrust of an erection that jutted proudly between his legs, he was what a higher power had imagined when He created Man.
As her husband climbed back into their marriage bed, she felt shyer than she had a moment before. Because now the full reality of this moment hit her. This man, Dominic Mallory, of the flashing gray eyes and perfect body, was hers. And she was his. Forever.
Dominic brought his mouth down on hers, coaxing a hot kiss from her with insistence and teasing gentleness. As she rose up beneath him to wrap her hands around his shoulders, he maneuvered to lie on top of her. The entire length of him pressed against her, not one inch of her lush curves was secret to him. But still, it wasn’t enough. He wanted to be completely joined with her, one body.
“Dominic,” came her soft voice between kisses.
“Hmm?” He was far beyond the ability to form coherent words now. All that existed for him was sensation. Anticipation.
“I’m ready.” Her eyes sparkled with desire. “You said you wanted me to be ready, and I am.”
His body actually twitched at the innocence of her words. She had no idea what would happen when he entered her. No idea that a shock of pain would welcome her into the realm of physical joining, no matter what he did to make her more comfortable. But he could hardly wait any longer, and he knew he could make up that one moment of pain with a thousand more of pleasure.
“Very well,” he whispered while he massaged her thighs a bit wider. Slowly, he took a position there, just nudging the tip of himself against the cleft of her womanhood.
Katherine’s breath hitched as he brought his weight down on her. Then he was moving and she forgot to breathe at all while he filled her inch by marvelous inch. Her body was made to stretch around him, to accept him as if he were meant to be a part of her. She shut her eyes and allowed herself to believe that perhaps he had been.
He paused. “I’m so sorry, Kat. This is going to hurt for a moment.”
Before she could nod or stiffen in preparation, he grasped her hips and entered her fully. A shock of pain made her shut her eyes with a sharp intake of breath, but it passed nearly as quickly.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated as he kissed her damp neck and brushed dark hair from her eyes.
“No,” she answered as she tilted her head and pressed her lips to his. “It doesn’t hurt now.”
His tongue swept lazily along her teeth, her lips, until any pain was forgotten, replaced by a wondrous sensation of belonging to him.
“I am going to make up for it,” he whispered, low and close to her ear. “More than make up for it.”
Then he moved, rotating his hips in slow, smooth circles. Katherine shut her eyes with a low groan at this new experience. How could something so simple feel so devilishly good? Yet it did. And it was feeling better by the second. He circled and thrust, fast and slow until she found her hips rising to meet him.
She clenched her hands into fists against the solid planes of muscle across his back. Her breathing came heavier, but so did his, rasping like music to her ears as she realized he was fighting for control as much as she was. As he thrust faster, the pleasure rose again. Her muscles trembled, her hips lifted uncontrollably and moans she couldn’t hold back were ripped from her lips.
They built ever closer and closer to a moment. She knew it was coming, but didn’t know what it was. Only that she wanted it more than she could remember wanting anything in her life. She craved release, but also that he wouldn’t stop.
And then she couldn’t think at all as the bubble of pleasure that had been building inside her burst free. She wailed low and loud as she collapsed back on the pillows.
Dominic gripped Katherine’s shoulders as she thrashed out a release so powerful he felt it coursing through his own body. Somehow he managed to keep his rhythm, bringing her along as far as he could before he lost all control and joined her, pouring into her with a hoarse cry that echoed in the room around them.
For a long moment, neither moved. Katherine continued to hold him close with no indication she wished for him to leave her body. And he wasn’t sure he could. He was lazy with sated warmth, and the idea of staying inside her for a few moments longer brought him a new level of pleasure he’d never felt before.
Normally, he couldn’t wait to disentangle himself from his lover’s arms after he spent. He’d never been much for the false words of love whispered in the dark, or the empty caresses that spoke of more emotion than he felt.
But with Katherine, these moments were somehow…different.
“Am I hurting you?” he whispered as he placed a soft kiss behind her ear.
She was silent for a long moment, then she sighed. “Not yet.”
With reluctance, Dominic rolled away from her, but only to pull her to his side. As she rested a soft cheek against his chest, he breathed in her scent. Now she was his. No other man could say he had a greater claim on her than Dominic did. Not even his brother.
“I’m sorry if it stung,” he whispered in the darkness as she pulled the covers up around them. “It only hurts the first time.”
“It wasn’t anything,” she said after a long pause. “And the end more than made up for the beginning.”
He shifted until she was fully pressed against him. “I promise you, it will only get better each time. I’ll learn your body and you’ll learn mine.”
“Eventually you’ll tire of me,” she said in a brittle voice that cut the darkness. “All men tire of their women eventually.”
The words hung in the air between them. Bitter and cold. Quickly he sought to erase them, even though he knew them to be true, at least in his experience.
“I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. Judging from what just happened, I predict we’ll be completely enamored of each other for some time to come. Completely…”
“Obsessed,” she whispered, though it seemed more to herself than to him. Her tone troubled him, for it was distant and pained.
With a gentle tug, he rolled her over to face him. Her green eyes were wide and full of tangled emotions. Fear and worry and even the glimmer of remaining lust. He bent to place a gentle kiss on her lips.
“Only if we’re lucky.” Then gentle turned more possessive and the stiffness in her body relaxed as he drew her closer.
Yes, he could very easily become obsessed with his wife. And he intended to have her just as addicted to him.
Before Katherine opened her eyes, she knew she was alone. Dominic’s presence
didn’t overwhelm her as it did when he was nearby. Carefully, she opened one eye to scan the room. The rumpled bed contained only her and a carefully folded note on the pillow beside her head.
Pulling the sheet around her breasts, she rose to a sitting position and was greeted by aching muscles. Well, what else could be expected? She had spent a night making love to her husband, she’d earned being sore. Of course, he was right that each and every time grew better and better. He’d proven that so many times during the night, she’d lost track.
She was slipping further and further under his seductive spell.
With a groan, she read his note.
You looked too beautiful to wake. I will be down checking on the horses and ordering our breakfast.
Dominic
Why did her body tingle when she read his words? Why did she blush with pleasure that he’d written she was beautiful? And why was she examining every swirl and curve of his handwriting as if it mattered to her?
With a quiet curse, she balled the missive up and tossed it toward the fire. So much for self-control and careful detachment. Those things deserted her the moment Dominic pulled her against his chest and offered her heaven in his arms. A heaven she’d taken despite knowing how dangerous it could be.
True to her fears and the memories of her parents’ marriage, she had all but forgotten her doubts the night before. Her suspicions about Dominic’s other women were lost the moment he pulled her shift over her head. Her fears of growing too close to him were gone when he filled and claimed her.
Even when it was over and her doubts returned, she hadn’t pushed him away. When he’d said he couldn’t see them tiring of each other for “some time to come,” it had proven to her that he wasn’t the kind of man to make lifelong commitments. But had she put her night rail back over her head and gone to sleep? No, it had only taken a few brief moments for him to smooth her fears away with skilled hands and tongue.
She flopped back on the bed. Did he know the power he held over her? A man like him, a man who had doubtlessly been with many women, would surely know the power passion and desire could hold. He had talked of surrender the night before. Of obsession. Those were things she never wanted to feel.
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