fiercely tangled. His strategy of keeping away from Lily seemed to have succeeded; she had come to
Lily would share his bed one day, it was inevitable. Even though she hadn’t yet agreed to wed him, she would soon. And claiming her body now would only hasten the day when he could make her his wife.
With that calming reflection, Heath forced himself to slow down. Although he was still breathing hard, he broke off their kiss and divested Lily of her chemise. Then he stepped back a short distance, the better to see all of her.
In the soft glow of lamplight, she looked like a cherished fantasy. A cloud of vibrant chestnut tresses framed her face and drifted about her shoulders, while her skin gleamed pale gold. Her disheveled look entranced him, but it was the sight of her luscious body that made his blood pound. Her high, ripe breasts. Her narrow waist. Her sweetly curving hips. Her slender legs. He wanted to explore the silken mass of her hair with his hands while he tasted every inch of her creamy skin. Yet he held back his impatience as he let Lily undress him.
When he was completely naked, she moved closer, into his arms. All her amusement seemed to have faded. Instead, she held his gaze solemnly, her hands roaming over his body as if she was hungry to touch him-which only made Heath hungrier.
In turn, he skimmed the undersides of her breasts, cupping her fullness. Lily made a breathy sound as he palmed the soft mounds in his hands, a sound that became a whimper when he thumbed her taut nipples. He was mesmerized by the lure of her bare skin, yet he wanted more. Much more.
“Come,” Heath said hoarsely, taking her hand.
He drew her to the bed and lay back upon the sheets, pulling Lily down on top of him. But then he let her take the lead again. Her dark, fragrant hair fell in a silky curtain around their heads, then teased his skin as she bent and pressed passionate kisses over his jaw, his throat, his chest.
Heath welcomed her eagerness, reveled in the erotic friction between their bodies as she rubbed herself against the hardness of his erection. But then suddenly she stilled and raised her head, her expression uncertain for the first time this evening.
“Heath…I know I haven’t the experience of your other women,” she began before he abruptly cut her off.
“Hush,” he ordered, softly smiling. “You have all the experience either of us needs.”
And there were no other women any longer, Heath added silently. Not since their first kiss in the barn loft. There was only Lily. She was lush and alive and more desirable than any woman he had ever known.
With one deft and powerful twist of his body, he rolled her under him. He was utterly captivated by her, he thought, gazing down at her. He was enchanted by her fire and softness, her glowing eyes, her marvelous mouth… God, how he wanted her. Yet he had to remember her virginal state.
His fingers trailed down her body to the apex of her thighs, gliding through the curls to find her feminine cleft. She was already hot and swollen for him, even before he brushed the sensitive bud that was the center of her pleasure and began stroking with exquisite tenderness.
He made her arch and shiver against his hand, but when he lowered his head to kiss her, this time it was Lily who stopped him.
“Heath, the sponges…on the bedside table.”
Her breathless reminder brought some semblance of sanity to his mad rush to take her.
Nodding, he sat up and reached for the pouch on the table, which contained several small sponges with strings attached. Wetting one from the vial of liquid, he probed her warm, silky folds with his fingers and pressed the sponge slowly, carefully inside her woman’s passage.
Lily gasped and tensed her muscles, but Heath murmured a quiet reassurance, so that when he stretched out to cover her again, she was gazing up at him trustingly.
Bracing his weight on his forearms, he nestled his body in the cradle of her thighs and parted her swollen sex with his phallus.
“I may hurt you,” he warned, his tone regretful.
She smiled faintly and reached up to touch his face. “It’s all right,” she whispered.
The tenderness he felt for her deepening, he stared down into her lovely face and gently, very gently, eased the head of his cock into her quivering flesh.
Lily held her breath but made no sound. With exquisite care, Heath pressed forward again, pushing inside her a fraction of an inch.
When a wince flashed across her features, he halted and feathered light kisses over her forehead, her cheekbones, her lips, wanting to kiss away the pain. After a moment he could feel her body begin to relax again, so he slowly slid in further, his long, thick arousal stretching her flesh, filling her. When at last he sank in the entire way, he held completely still so Lily could grow accustomed to his throbbing fullness.
She was tight, wet, fitting him like a glove, enveloping him in glorious heat…blissful for him but not for her yet, Heath knew. Impaled on his hardness, Lily remained rigid beneath him, her breath coming in shallow pants.
After another long moment, however, her body softened as if the discomfort had faded. And when several more heartbeats passed, she stirred her hips, tentatively, testing.
“Better?” Heath asked.
The hint of a smile that wreathed her lips told him what he wanted to know, even before she whispered, “Much better, thank you.”
He began to move then, withdrawing the slightest measure, then carefully gliding upward once more. It wasn’t long before he felt her shiver of aroused excitement and her hips began to move of their own accord.
Hot, urgent longing clamored inside Heath at her instinctive motion. He wanted to bury himself inside her fiercely, again and again, but he held back. Instead he kept up the careful, deliberate rhythm, coaxing her, pleasuring her slowly and sweetly, claiming her with endless tenderness.
And Lily responded. Her skin was flushed with passion now; her breath was ragged, but not from pain as he thrust gently into her melting flesh. In another few moments she was whimpering feverishly, her nails digging into his shoulders as she matched his rhythm.
Clenching his teeth, Heath struggled to maintain control, his own breathing rough as he moved inside her. But only when she was on the brink of climax did he hasten the pace, sliding free only to plunge again. Lowering his head, he captured her wild moans with his mouth but never stopped moving as she writhed and strained beneath him.
Then suddenly she jolted against him, arching her spine helplessly, her harsh cries muffled by his lips as the tumult broke within her. Trying desperately to keep his savage need in check, Heath used all his skill to prolong her ecstasy as wave after wave of rapture convulsed her slender body.
But her fierce abandon was his undoing. A great shudder surged through his frame as at last he surrendered to his need for her. With a hoarse moan of his own, he let himself fill Lily with the desire that he’d felt from the first moment of meeting her.
His body clenched and spasmed with the same blazing heat she was feeling as he plunged into pleasure so intense and raw, it seared.
As the firestorm receded, they lay there together, weak with the aftershocks. Finally easing his weight to the side, Heath drew Lily into his arms, wrapping his body around her trembling one, soothing her shivers, calming her.
When she exhaled a ragged sigh, he brushed her temple with his lips and breathed a sigh of his own.
The contentment he felt was indescribable. He had marked Lily for his own. She belonged to him now. They had fully consummated their union, and there was no going back. In truth, he thought of her as his bride.
Elation flooded through Heath, along with a primal possessiveness.
What surprised him, however, was how powerful his response to her had been. He’d never experienced lovemaking quite like that before. Never felt that liquid fire pouring through him.
Lily had felt it, too, he was certain. She had met him fiercely, giving as passionately as she did everything else. Her vibrancy made him feel intensely alive, filling him with exhilaration and something very much like joy…
“Now perhaps you will believe me,” he murmured against the crown of her head, “when I say you are a
