“What comes next?” he asked dryly, as if to underscore her thought.
Give him a drink o’ brandy to turn him up sweet, Angel had said. She could at least do that much. Seeing the skeptical smile that hovered around the corners of Kyle’s mouth, Selena went to the table. She could feel his eyes following her, and when she had poured him a full measure of the peach brandy, she carried the glass to him, using both hands because they were so unsteady.
He accepted her offering silently and raised it to his lips, watching her all the while. Uncertain what to do next, Selena looked up at him, searching his rugged features. There was a maddening hint of amusement in his eyes, as if he found her efforts to please him humorous. Selena stiffened her spine.
Kyle held the glass to her lips and murmured, “Now your turn.” She stubbornly took a quick sip of the brandy, realizing he had expected her to refuse. The potent liquor burned a fiery trail all the way down to her stomach.
Kyle startled her then by cupping her throat with his long fingers, tracing the rippling path the brandy made as she swallowed. Selena closed her eyes and shuddered, partly because of the unaccustomed spirits, mostly because of the delicate massage Kyle’s fingers were giving the soft underside of her jaw.
“I think,” he murmured with a warmth that bathed her heightened senses, “I’d like to know how peaches taste on your lips.” He pushed away from the door, where he had been lounging, and bent his head.
Yet to Selena’s surprise and dismay, he didn’t kiss her. His mouth hovered just above hers, heating her lips, caressing them with his breath and the heady fumes of peach brandy, making her feel hot and shivery.
Use your instincts and Kyle will do the rest, she remembered. And her instincts told her he was too far away. Impatiently, she strained toward him. She was bewildered when Kyle drew back, just out of reach. Opening her eyes, Selena stared at him.
But he wasn’t even looking at her. Or rather, he was, but it was her bosom he was scrutinizing so intently as he slowly reached up and curved his fingers around the top edge of her corset. Gently he tugged, gliding his hand from left to right as he drew the stiffened buckram of the bodice downward.
Selena caught her breath, her entire body tensing. The tips of her breasts were hard and aching under Kyle’s warm fingers, and she realized that she quite desperately wanted him to continue touching her there. She remained perfectly immobile as he drew down the lacy edge of her chemise, exposing the erect peaks.
She saw his reaction in his gaze. His eyes changed, the teasing glint darkening, turning into something both primitive and powerful. Without a word, he dipped a forefinger in the brandy and slowly lifted it to touch a taut nipple.
Selena gasped at the ice-hot sensation, her hands clenching involuntarily.
“Do you like that, Moonwitch?”
His voice seemed to come from far away, penetrating her dazed mind. But she couldn’t find the breath to speak. His brandy-drenched finger moved to the other nipple, just barely touching, slowly circling the rosy aureole. “Come now, lovely lady. You’ll have to tell me what you like.”
“Yes,” Selena said mindlessly, this time clenching her jaw against the powerful ripples of heat that were streaking from the aching tips of her breasts to gather lower, between her thighs.
Any minute now she will pull away, Kyle thought distractedly, and found himself praying he could hold out till then. His blood was racing with sexual frustration, the tension in his body making his pulse pound. It was pure torture to have Selena standing half-naked before him. He ought to end this, Kyle knew, before she did—if he wanted to retain any vestige of male pride. Yet he couldn’t resist the lure of her pale breasts, the tight buds that were alert and beckoning. Lifting a softly swelling weight in his hand, he bent against his will. His tongue flicked the brandy-wet nipple, tasting peaches and warm woman.
He intended to draw the taut peak gently into his mouth but found himself urgently suckling, instead, rolling his tongue around the bud, biting it softly. He felt a fierce satisfaction in Selena’s muted gasp of pleasure but knew that if he kept it up, he would soon be groveling at her feet.
Keeping himself in check with superhuman effort, Kyle drew away. “Give me your mouth,” he said almost harshly.
She looked startled, but she complied, raising her lips for his kiss. With a grim determination, Kyle took her tantalizing mouth with his, forcing himself to divorce his thoughts from Selena’s luscious body and what it was doing to his. He was determined to keep control of the situation—if it killed him. She couldn’t really—after so many cold days—be offering her body to him like this.
His kiss was hard and hot and slow, almost lazy, and Selena melted under the heat of it. Her body, of its own accord, pressed against Kyle shamelessly, seeking the intimate contact, quivering as the fabric of his shirt rasped against her unrestrained breasts, as his vital hardness caressed her belly. She found herself longing to feel his skin.
She was supposed to remove his clothes, Selena remembered vaguely. She drew back slightly, and with trembling fingers she loosened the buttons of his shirt one by one and parted the edges of the fine cambric. Then she slowly reached up to touch a taut cord in his neck. He flinched as if burned but didn’t move away.
Determined now, she trailed elegantly tapered fingers down Kyle’s chest. The muscles covering his ribs felt hard and sleek, the slight matting of hair, soft yet springy. She felt his muscles contract harshly with tension as she drew her fingers over the hard ridges of his stomach. Looking up, she met his heated gaze. And then her fingers boldly moved lower.
His sharp intake of breath was audible, and so was the sound of her heartbeat as she attended to the buttons in the front of his trousers.
“Selena,” Kyle breathed, the word a warning and a plea for mercy, neither of which she acknowledged.
He was full and hot, throbbing beneath her touch, and the silken feel of him roused a desire in her that was incredible for its acute intensity. Angel hadn’t mentioned that, Selena reflected. Nor had she mentioned what Kyle’s reaction would be—only that he would like it. So why was Kyle closing his eyes, as if he were in pain? Perhaps she wasn’t doing it right.
Trying to recall the brief lesson she had been given in the art of pleasing a man, Selena dipped a finger in the brandy and repeated what Kyle had done to her: touching him with the slightest of pressures, drawing the tip of her finger slowly along the full length of his heated shaft.
Kyle shuddered and made a grab for her ministering hand, holding it away.
“Don’t you like that?” She looked up at him, a question in her blue eyes.
“Of course,” he said in a strangled voice. “But I’m warning you, if you keep it up, you won’t be going home tonight.”
As a threat it lacked substance, since it was precisely what Selena had hoped for. Taking courage from his reply, she did what she never thought she would find the nerve to do: slowly she knelt before him.
“Lord,” Kyle rasped when he realized her intent.
Selena was more than a little shocked by her own brazenness, but she reminded herself that this was Kyle, her husband. Cheeks aflame, she leaned forward to taste his pulsing erection with her tongue.
“Lord,” Kyle said again in a breathless whisper, his hand coming up to ride her head. But then he became completely still as he submitted to the shy explorations of her mouth, afraid to breathe, afraid he would frighten her away. Her touch was unpracticed and tentative but all the more tantalizing because of it. And it was driving him over the edge.
Unable to bear the throbbing tension any longer, Kyle grasped Selena by the arm and drew her to her feet. His fingers tightened as he stared at her incredulously. She didn’t seem about to turn modest on him. Her flesh was soft and pliant beneath his fingers, her eyes warm and liquid with desire. Kyle shook his head. Every time he thought he knew how Selena would behave, she startled him afresh with some new action. But he was going to quit trying to figure her out. And he
was going to quit fighting her seductive advances. For days he had suppressed his intense desire for her, and he was going to accept what she seemed to be willingly offering.
Without a word he strode over to the table, pulling Selena behind him. When he had set down the glass, freeing his hands, he proceeded to undress her, first loosing the laces of her corset, then helping her out of the thin chemise. He discovered he had trouble breathing as he surveyed her then. It was erotic: the slim nude body garbed only in stockings and slippers. The sight added inches to his arousal.
When she bent to untie her garters, he stayed her with a touch of his hand. “No, leave it. I want you just the way you are.”
Selena caught the flare of undisguised lust in his eyes and abandoned the dictates of her well-bred conscience. “Shouldn’t you take off your clothes?” she asked.
Kyle’s glance slanted sideways, flickering over the table. He hesitated, struggling with his inclination to lay her there and bury himself quickly in her body. But she wasn’t a tavern wench or any of the countless doxies he knew who would have enjoyed such a lusty coupling. She was his wife, a lovely, totally feminine lady. Clamping down fiercely on his urges, he strode over to the bed and sat down on the edge to remove his boots. Then came his shirt and finally his trousers.
Selena, much to her shame, found herself watching Kyle’s every movement as he shed his clothing, drinking in the way the candle flame cast a golden luster over the smooth expanse of flesh and sinew. His coppery body was breathtaking, powerful and sleekly muscled. And his straining magnificence held a fascination for her that was almost hypnotic. She couldn’t look away.
He settled himself on the bed again and met her gaze across the room. His amber eyes reflected the light of the candle, glowing with the same warmth. “Come here,” he said softly.
She couldn’t have disobeyed if she tried. She went to him at once, quivering as he lightly grasped her hips to draw her between his powerful thighs. His hands were warm against her cool flesh, the gleam in his eyes hot and smoldering.
He had wonderful hands, Selena thought dazedly as he began to caress her. All bronzed sinews and rough calluses. They moved slowly over her slim waist and flat stomach, stimulating, arousing, making her breath come too rapidly. Then he cupped her breasts in his palms, running his thumbs lightly over the nipples, and she stopped breathing entirely. He tugged gently on the peaks till they were distended and hard and Selena was ready to plead with him for release.
Desperately, her hands came up, her fingers tangling in the soft thickness of his hair. “Kyle…please.” She wanted him to take her nipples into his mouth, as he had done before, but he wouldn’t oblige. Instead, he splayed his fingers and ran his hand down her body, sliding it intimately between her legs.
He caressed the heavy satin of her inner thighs with the subtle eroticism of an experienced lover, discovering all her tender, most responsive places, while his lips danced moist kisses over her breasts. In only a moment Selena was quivering and throbbing with aching need.
But then Kyle slid from the bed to his knees, letting his tongue swirl over the taut skin of her abdomen. When his lips moved lower, she gasped.
“Kyle…”
“Hush, I want to taste you.”
She knew she should have protested, but reason fled as he buried his tongue in the curls between her thighs. Letting her hands fall to his shoulders, she braced herself for his tender assault. In this room there were no barriers, no inhibitions. Just Kyle and herself, naked and wanting. He was her lover, rugged and untamed, and she was his woman, her body straining toward him with a woman’s longing.
She could feel him reveling in her body’s heated response, and she abandoned herself to his touch, glorying in the strength of his muscles bunching beneath her hands. And then his mouth opened more, pressing harder against her. She whimpered when she felt the soft probing of his tongue, stunned that she could be so aroused by such a caress. Then a tremulous wave of desire racked her body so fiercely that she sagged against him, her quivering legs unable to support her weight.
Kyle caught her as she fell, and turning, lifted her onto the mattress. Tenderly, he gazed down at the trembling, sexually aroused woman on the bed. He had never seen a woman more ready to be loved. Her delicate skin gleamed pale and rich in the candlelight, a striking contrast to the lush red brocade counterpane and the dark stockings that ran halfway up her thighs. And the contrast was no less erotic than her unconscious pose. Her thighs were slightly parted, and she lay bare and open to his gaze.
Sweat broke out on Kyle’s body in anticipation, despite the breeze coming through the open window. He had been denying himself, making the pleasure last, but the waiting was over.
Excitement flared through his senses as he stretched out beside her. His lips came down on Selena’s, insistent and urgent, his tongue sinking roughly into the depths of her mouth. And while his mouth ate hers greedily, he shifted his weight and settled himself between her legs, thrusting with one long, continuous motion into her pulsing, silky sweetness.
Selena felt the hard pressure of his hips on her inner thighs and gasped at the bright flare of sensation that shot through her as he filled her. He was enormous and hard and fiery hot, and she wanted him with a fierceness that shocked her. She arched against him, clasping him with her long legs, drawing him deeper as she clutched at the flexing muscles of his back. She held his powerful body so tightly that she felt the thud of his heart against her breast.
Kyle’s searing flesh branded her as he took her almost violently. She felt the passion building like a raging inferno, hot and wild, until at last her world erupted in a white-hot blaze that was too bright to bear. At the crest of her rapture, she cried out his name in ecstasy and heard Kyle’s groan of pleasure as his body shuddered with the same fierce delight.
It was some time before she regained her senses and became aware of the heaviness of Kyle’s weight and his harsh breathing in her ear. Not that she cared. The sharp edge of pleasure was receding slightly, leaving her languid and dazed.
Kyle recovered even more slowly. Eventually, he rolled onto his side to relieve Selena of most of his weight and pulled her with him, holding her close against his hard muscles, one of his sinewy legs still draped across her. A sheen of perspiration covered their bodies, and the night breeze was cool against their damp flesh.
Closing her eyes, Selena lay cradled against Kyle’s chest, listening contentedly to the steady rhythm of his heart, which mated with his languorous breathing. She liked feeling the naked heat and strength of him, liked breathing the clean male scent of him, which mingled with the musk of their lovemaking.
Kyle lay sated and unmoving, his thoughts scattered and fleeting yet centered around the woman in his arms. It was incredible the way she could torment and satisfy his senses at the same time. Even now, exhausted from the gratifying climax, he wasn’t immune to her tantalizing attractions. Her lips were parted slightly and her breath rippled across his skin, arousing his desire with a speed he hadn’t thought physically possible.
Still weak from the violence of his first brutal release, Kyle eased his shoulder from beneath her cheek and pushed himself up, resting his weight on one elbow to gaze down at Selena. Her silver hair was splayed in disarray over the red counterpane, her exquisite face flushed. Her lips were swollen and glistening from his kisses, her nipples still puckered and aroused.
A heartbeat later, she opened her eyes drowsily. Seeing where his gaze was focused, Selena pulled away in embarrassment, bringing one arm up to cover her naked breasts. Kyle caught her hand gently and held it away. “No, let me look at you.”
His eyes roved over her slim body, lingering at the juncture of her thighs, where he had found such a haven of pleasure.
Selena’s hips shifted slightly in involuntary reaction as she fought the urge to squirm under the heat of his gaze. “Kyle… should you? I’m not sure it’s right.”
His mouth curved in an intimate smile. “Yes, it is ri
ght, Moonwitch. You’re my wife. And I don’t want a prim and proper lady in my bed.” When a blush tinged her cheeks, Kyle chuckled. “Don’t be upset, sweetheart. You weren’t acting the lady a minute ago. I distinctly remember you screaming with pleasure.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “I didn’t scream.”
“Liar.” He said the word softly, with a secret light of laughter in his eyes.
Selena’s blush deepened and he reached up to trace the outline of her ear with one finger. “It makes a man,” he added with gentle amusement, “feel powerful to hear his woman scream.”
“Kyle…please.” He was teasing her, she knew, but still she couldn’t quite feel comfortable with it.
He stopped, his gaze gentling as his fingers played in the wisps of her hair. “You enjoyed our lovemaking, Selena, admit it.”
She hesitated. “Well… yes.” But she said it in such a shy voice that it made Kyle all the more determined to overcome her reticence. Her reserve, her shyness challenged him.
Deliberately, he trailed his fingers down her lustrous, bare skin to the pale triangle of down and watched her eyes flutter shut, her lips part in anticipation. The pattern of her breath changed as her hips rose slightly to strain against his hand.
Kyle smiled softly, delighting in her unconscious sensuality.
He bent his head, pressing his lips against the quickening pulse at her throat. He would make her lose her inhibitions, he vowed. He would lead her to discover the depths of her own passion.
It would be a fair exchange, he thought as he nuzzled his face deep into the satiny skin between her breasts. She was teaching him to manage a cotton plantation. He would teach her the meaning of pleasure.
Chapter Fourteen
Moonwitch Page 25