“I know you can do this,” she whispered before clearing her throat and trying again. “I know it’s your right.”
“Shhh…” he pulled her down beside him. She went because she didn’t have a choice.
Before she hit the mattress, she was shaking her head. “I can’t shush, because I need to tell you something.”
“Mara,” Cougar began, but she cut him off.
“I’m sorry I led you on outside. I can’t do this. I’m scared. Scared to death to be your wife.”
Cougar reared up over her on one elbow. His hair fell forward, brushing her cheek in what was becoming a familiar caress. From this angle his chest was incredibly broad and the delineation of muscle was clear, leaving her in no doubt of his strength. Hating herself for her weakness, she closed her eyes tightly and forgot about breathing altogether.
He didn’t say a word. He just kept staring at her and with each passing second, the silence got more oppressive. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and bit down to keep from blurting out anything more. She wouldn’t beg, no matter what, she wouldn’t beg. Just when she thought she would scream from the tension clawing her apart, he spoke.
“Open your eyes, Mara.”
Mara shook her head. “I can’t. I promise not to fight, but please don’t ask me to do that.”
“I’m not as ornery as you think,” he said. He smoothed his finger across her lips, pulling the lower one free of her teeth. “I just thought it was time we started getting used to each other. Maybe letting our marriage take on some normal routines.”
“Like sex?” If her tone was a touch sarcastic, he had no one but himself to blame. A man didn’t climb naked into bed just to sleep.
Air hissed out between Cougar’s tightly clenched teeth.
“Not sex,” Mara corrected hastily.
“Eventually,” Cougar admitted. “But right now, I thought we’d try things like sleeping together.”
“Naked?” The arch of her brow left him in no doubt of her skepticism.
Cougar shrugged. “I always sleep this way.”
Mara’s cheeks burned as she kept her gaze locked on his. “I don’t.”
Cougar’s smile was almost tender, slipping under her defenses. “You do now.”
Mara gasped as she realized the hand that had been stroking her cheek was now unashamedly undoing the tiny buttons down the front of Dorothy’s borrowed nightgown. “Stop that.”
Not only did he ignore her order, he took full advantage of her supine position.
“Admit it,” Cougar laughed as she threatened to strike his wounded side. “You’re embarrassed as hell, but you’re not afraid.”
Mara glared at him as the button over her belly button sprang free despite her best efforts to keep it fastened. “What difference does that make?” she grunted as she lunged to save the next button. She should have saved her energy because Cougar paid her no mind. Instead, his hands skimmed up under the loose cotton to her shoulders before sweeping down her back and bringing the material with them. Twisting up the excess material in one hand, he very effectively trapped Mara’s arms in the heavy folds.
“All the difference in the world,” Cougar replied, his eyes heating to molten gold as his attention focused on her nipples stretched by the cold air to long points. If she could have, she would have covered them with her hands.
“Lord, you’re beautiful,” he complimented huskily.
He sounded like he meant it, and that hurt, because she knew it couldn’t possibly be true.
He lightly circled the left peak. “Do you think these beauties are up to satisfying me?”
“I don’t know,” Mara squeaked out, deathly afraid she knew what was coming, but on some level, wanting it. Wanting to be beautiful for once. Just once. To someone.
“I think it’s time we found out.”
She searched Cougar’s face for some sign of hesitation, but all she could find was a near violent passion that gave birth to a pathetic hope. As if someone like him, someone so uncompromisingly masculine, could find something to admire in her. She’d be a fool to let down her guard now, but she was going to. She knew she was going to because she’d waited forever for this moment. Her sob of dismay at the surge of pleasure that shook her when Cougar delicately tested the resiliency of one nipple brought his eyes up to hers. The heat there had her hands twisting to get free.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Cougar reassured her. “I’ll stop if you want me to, but,” he cut off her immediate protest, “if I promise to touch nothing but here,” he circled both breasts in a skating figure eight of his finger, “would you let me?”
She’d let him do anything he wanted tonight. She was that pathetic.
Mara slid her lower lip between her teeth, took a breath, and came to a decision. She could live in fear forever or she could trust Cougar and see where this would lead. “Can I touch you, too?”
His whole body froze a heartbeat before he answered, “Yes.”
Mara’s teeth sank deeper into her lip as she met his heavy-lidded stare. “Good.”
His smile was a sexy lift of one corner. “Very good.”
“Thank you.”
She thought he’d go immediately for her chest, but instead, he stroked her hair, her cheek, her neck, following the sweep of her collarbone out to the shoulder.
“Relax,” he ordered when he reached her elbow.
“I don’t think I can,” Mara managed between short panting breaths.
“I’m just planning on loving your breasts, Angel. Nothing scary about that.”
Somehow, the blunt statement was so much more intimate than the touch of his finger. But not his mouth, she realized on a start of surprise as his lips brushed each peak in turn. Nothing was more intimate than the touch of his mouth. His mouth was like a living brand on her sensitive flesh. Her whole upper body recoiled deeper into the mattress. To no avail, she discovered, because Cougar merely followed her down. And then she was pushing up, wanting more. A tiny moan escaped her control. His lips on her breasts felt so good. So very, very good.
Before the moan trailed off, he let that lightly flicking tongue sink against the other nipple. Very slowly, he drew it from base to tip, topping off the excursion with a quick lap at journey’s end.
Sparks of pure feeling shot through her chest to pool between her legs. If she could have moved her arms, she would have pulled him harder against her. Made him stop teasing her with those light touches. Since her arms weren’t free, all she could do was shake and arch her back higher. He chuckled and then he dragged the edge of his teeth over one sensitive point. She almost screamed out loud as the sensation shot like fire through her being. She didn’t know anyone could make her feel like this. She didn’t even know she was capable of such pure feeling.
Cougar leaned back and stared at the peak he’d made so hard and red.
“Better than apple pie.”
She didn’t believe it was possible, but a bubble of laughter squeezed past her lips. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Oh, you can believe it,” Cougar purred, his half-smile purely predatory. He pinched her right nipple. Again, that flare of excitement rushed through her body. The ache in her pussy intensified. His smile spread to the other side of his mouth, still predatory, and still as sexy as hell. He pinched her left nipple. Harder, holding it longer, until her legs scissored under the quilt and she couldn’t help but lift toward his hand.
“These are my favorite sweets.”
Mara slitted her eyes ever so slightly to see Cougar’s dark head bent to her chest. She could just make out the deep pink of his tongue as it stroked over her nipple in another random sampling. Shock made her jump when she saw Cougar watching her, watching him. Immediately, she closed her eyes up so tight, she saw red streaks behind the lids.
“I don’t mind if you watch.”
Mara couldn’t believe he could sound so calm when his mouth was on her breast and they were both naked. “I mind.”
“A pity.” On a grunted, “Hold tight”, he flipped them over, leaving her draped across his chest. It took her a minute to orient.
“Sit up,” he ordered, his hands lightly stroking over her back and down the flare of her hips.
“Why?”
“Because I told you to.”
She loved it when he talked to her like that. She probably shouldn’t, but she did. It made her all weak and shivery, but if she sat up, there’d be no shadows. He’d see everything. Everything there wasn’t. Sitting up was not an option.
As if he could read her mind, Cougar trailed his free hand down her spine until it found the crease of her buttocks. His fingers dipped between.
Mortified, Mara shot upright, too concerned with dislodging those exploring digits to worry about her lack of curves. With a total lack of grace, she struggled to wrap the sheet around her lower body and straddle his belly at the same time.
The edge of laughter made his smile no less appealing as he said, reaching for her breasts, “I do like a woman who knows when to listen.”
Mara slapped his hands aside when they would have claimed their spoils. Before covering her breasts with her hands, she warned, “I’m not very big.”
Cougar hummed a response that could have meant anything before he settled his hands over Mara’s. When she would have pulled hers free, he shook his head.
“No. Leave them there.” She looked down. Despite her efforts, her nipples managed to peek out from behind the barrier of her fingers. Resting a fingertip on the end of each, Cougar shook his head when Mara would have pulled her hands away.
“Very nice,” he murmured huskily, dropping his hands to her thighs. He stared so long she began to worry. Was he comparing her to other women he’d known? Did he find the size of her nipples—nipples that kept pulling up tighter under his gaze—absurd? She was on the point of asking when Cougar slid his hands up her thighs and around her back. Pressing her forward, he groaned as her hands dropped away to catch her weight.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Oh God. He was disappointed. Outside of her nipples, there wasn’t much to her breasts.
A little more pressure on Mara’s spine forced her down on her elbows. Just because she couldn’t see, didn’t mean she couldn’t feel. His skin was burning hot where the ridges on his abdomen pressed into her stomach. The hair on his chest tickled her ribs, and his breath, his breath was a moist caress on her chest. He smelled of earth, and leather and the faintest hint of tobacco. She wanted to rub on him like a cat. Instead, she crouched there, wanting to die from the embarrassment of one-sided desire.
At the first touch of Cougar’s mouth on her breast, Mara jumped. His fingers rubbed gently up and down her spine, tracing the ladder of her ribs while he pressed the softest kisses all around her areola. Though Cougar whispered for her to relax, she found it impossible. A low, keening cry of ecstasy escaped when he finally, finally took her whole breast into the hot, moist cavern of his mouth.
And then he began to suck. Another cry welled from her throat as each pulse of suction sent jolting waves of pleasure to her pussy. At her third involuntary outburst, Cougar backed off to nuzzle his way over the pale surface. “Steady,” he soothed. “It’s just your husband and you’re giving him tremendous pleasure.”
“I can’t,” she confessed in an unsteady whisper.
“Can’t what?”
Oh God, why did he make her say these things. “Stay quiet.”
“Who wants you to?”
“You do.”
“Not hardly.”
“But you said steady.”
“I thought you were uncomfortable with my mouth on your breast.”
“Oh.”
He sipped at her right nipple. “But you’re not?”
She wondered if he could feel her blush. She shook her head, “No.”
“Good.” His hand splayed across her back, pulling her into his mouth. He suckled her strongly, each tug drawing the tension coiled in her stomach tighter and tighter. Her nails dug into the sheets. Her toes curled into her feet. He released her nipple with a soft pop. She remembered to breathe.
“I didn’t think a grown man would want to do that,” she gasped.
Cougar laughed, each soft expulsion buffeting her nipple, which immediately pulled up tighter. “Trust me, Angel. Any man fortunate to be where I am right now would be drooling with the need to do this.”
Mara bit her lip to hold back the indelicate question, but it popped out anyway. “You don’t think I’m scrawny?”
“I think you’re perfect.”
“Really?”
He paused, his lips halfway to her breast. His black hair flowed in dark contrast against the white sheets as he stared at her, his right brow arched.
She wished she’d bitten her tongue rather than reveal her insecurity.
The hard lines of his face softened in a way she couldn’t define, and his fingers cupped her cheek. “Really.”
Something in the way he said it made her believe, so when he placed his hands on her shoulders, pressed and ordered her to lean back, she did.
The sheet had slipped and her throbbing pussy came into contact with his hard stomach. The heat and pressure had her squirming. The flesh between her legs swelled and pulsed out more moisture. She tried to rear up but her legs were spread too far.
“What’s wrong?”
She would not, absolutely would not answer his question. He reached up and slowly, ever so slowly, began to milk her breasts, starting out lightly, and increasing the pressure until her pelvis jerked on his stomach. With every jerk, her breath hissed and she became wetter, slid easier.
His fingers spread on either side of her ribs as he held her in place. She wanted to melt with embarrassment, melt with pleasure. Just plain melt, period. She threw back her head. Her hair cascaded down to tumble over his thighs. Her groan of frustration was no cover for his growl of pleasure.
“Do that again.”
She carefully turned her head and saw her hair wrapped around his cock in a silken embrace. As her head turned, strands slid up his cock, tugging and sliding as they went. Even stretched as she was, she could see it jerk with pleasure. She turned her head the other way and he jerked again. His fingers tightened almost convulsively on her nipples before he drew a breath that pushed his abdomen up into her greedy pussy.
“Damn, Angel, I don’t know what’s better. The feel of your hot pussy petting my stomach or your hair petting my cock.”
“You don’t mind that I’m getting you…wet.”
His laugh sent a particularly sharp thrill of sensation driving through her clit.
“No.”
She would not ask him why. Instead, she dropped her head back and lashed his cock with her hair.
“Ah, shit.”
He released her breast. She was so sensitized to his touch, the soft brush of his forearm as he reached around her, had her shuddering. And that too felt good. There was a tug on her scalp and then a release. Beneath her, Cougar stretched taut, his stomach bowing into her groin, lifting her off the bed until she sat suspended by her tender pussy on the rock-hard muscle of his abdomen. His hand on her right breast began the milking motion on her again, this time encompassing the turgid nipple. He ended on a pinch that coincided with his tug on her hair. The resulting firestorm of sensation had her shuddering from head to toe.
The next time he let her loose, she glanced over her shoulder and saw his cock tangled in her hair, and his fist. Slow and easy, he slid his hand along the huge shaft, driving it through the thick silk of her hair. Holding it still and high for a moment, letting her see the droplet of fluid that collected on the end before sliding back through his hand and rising to cover the tip only, to repeat the motion again.
She couldn’t take her eyes from the sight. The next time he drove through the silken fist of her curls, the bead of moisture on the top was larger, rounder. It looked impossibly delicate balanced there. It looked as if it were waiting
. For her. She licked her lips. Her eyes locked on the sight. Her pussy throbbed with the thought, the possibility, of tasting him.
His hand slid up her back, still meshed in her hair until it cupped her head. He pulled her forward. Her swollen clit scraped across the slash of coarse hair sprinkling his lower abdomen as he dragged her mouth within a breadth of his. Her whimper burst across his lips.
“You can taste me later,” he promised before he melded his mouth to hers, his easy manner belied by the urgency with which his mouth mated with hers, his tongue driving deep in a parody of what she knew he wanted.
He slowly, reluctantly, dragged his mouth from hers. “I’m not going to last too much longer here, Angel.”
“You’re not?”
He ran his finger down her back, barely touching her flesh. His smile was wolfish as he took in her shiver. “And neither are you.”
“You want to make love to me.”
His fingers dipped into the hollow of her back. “I’m already making love to you.”
“I mean really make love to me.”
His hand opened over her back and her right buttock was encompassed in the heat of his palm, the sheer size of him overpowering and yet somehow enticing.
His brow kicked up. “You don’t want me to?”
“No.”
His fingers dipped between her legs into the cream she couldn’t contain. “Your body says differently.” She bit her lips as he gathered that liquid and spread it forward.
“I know.”
“But?” his well-lubricated finger slid whisper-soft around her clit, barely touching, teasing hidden nerve endings into leaping excitement.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” she gasped.
“Why?”
He tapped her clit once, twice, three times. The first stole her breath. The second had her gasping and the third brought her grinding down on his hand.
“Because I don’t want to remember…” Another tap. Another gasp. And then she managed to finish, “…him…here with you.”
Promises Keep (The Promise Series) Page 22