palms flat against him, she rubbed down his torso over rigid indentations and swells. His firm, smooth skin... the crisp hair in a trail just below his navel—heavenly.
His hand worked higher, hers drifting lower. He shot upright, standing fully when she clasped his erection outside his pants. The first woman to touch him there.
As she began fondling his shaft, his lids grew heavy, his jaw slackening. He bit out what sounded like an oath, then hooked his finger under the edge of her panties, pulling the silk aside.
At his first tentative foray of her sex, she quivered, and a harsh groan burst from his chest. 'Ah, Néomi, you're so wet.... '
She moaned as he caressed her, spreading the moisture as if he was fascinated by her body's reaction. Stroking him, she murmured, 'And you're so hard.'
His hand stilled. Their gazes met. They both knew what came next.
'Can't even think about taking your neck... hanging on by a thread... '
'Then take me to bed.'
Clasping her up into his arms, he carried her there and set her down.
She worked free his belt as he yanked off her boots, then his own. With a hissed-in breath, he eased his pants past his straining erection.
Oh, my. Her first sight of him aroused. His thick shaft jutted, pulsing in tandem with each new beat of his heart. The sleek skin of the crown was stretched taut, visibly slick. Even as part of her felt as if she'd just unwrapped a tantalizing present, another part of her felt a flare of alarm over his size.
But she shook away her fear. I'm the old Néomi once more, she reminded herself. She'd make sure they were both ready when he entered her. Confident, she lay back and opened her arms for him.
His brows drew together in an anguished expression as he followed her down. 'Christ, I hope this is real.'
29
'This is real,' she murmured between kisses. 'I'm really here.'
'How?'
'I wanted to be with you like this so badly. And now I can.' She placed his hand on her breast.
With a groan, he palmed one, then the other, his breaths growing ragged.
Néomi was aroused for him but overwhelmed, attracted yet anxious. His erection prodded against her hip, the wide head so hot and slick, seeming to scald her skin.
'Conrad.' She wriggled her chest when he grew a fraction too rough. 'A little lighter.'
He froze. When he eased his grip, and she stilled, he said, 'I can be gentle with you.'
Releasing her, he softly rasped her nipple with the back of his fingernail, then dragged the pad of his finger over it. She moaned sharply when he did it again. 'Better?'
She found herself nodding against his shoulder. Somehow the assassin was gentling his callused hands on her—such a contrast to his ruthless fighting tonight.
Back and forth came the rasp of his nail and the maddening drag of his finger, over and over, until her nipples ached so badly they pained her.
'Tell me—say you like it.'
'Uh-hmm, I like it.'
In a husky voice, he said, 'I can feel them throbbing, koeri.'
She moaned again, arching her back. He responded by leaning down, his hot mouth suckling her, those firm, cruel lips pulling on one peak, then the other. As he inched his hand up her leg, he began slowly grinding against her hip.
Nuzzling her damp nipple, he said, 'Spread your legs, Néomi. I want to touch you inside... learn you.' Even as she ached for his touch, she grew nervous. Though she wasn't a virgin, he could still accidentally hurt her.
He tugged on her knee with a wildly quaking hand.
'Part your thighs for me.' After hesitating, she... did. 'Ah, that's it. Let me see you there.' With a last lick over one of her stiff nipples, he relinquished her breasts to sit up above her. When he stared at her between her legs, he exhaled in a rush, and his shaft jerked in his excitement.
This aroused her even more. As she reached her arm around him to smooth her hand over the glorious muscles of his back, he ran his forefinger along her sex.
She needed to kiss him, to lick his body, to get her legs wider for him—
His big finger entered her.
She squirmed and moaned from the filling sensation, as he delved deeper, inch by inch. When he could go no farther, she cried out.
He stilled. 'Have I hurt you?'
'No, oh, God! N'arrête pas!'
He began thrusting his finger inside her, grating, 'Tight. So tight.' She'd never felt or imagined any man so hard, yet he took his time learning her body. But in the back of her mind, she wondered if his claiming her as fiercely as the others had predicted might be better than this seething need, barely contained—and building.
Slow build, she'd told him. But where did it end?
'Conrad, please... '
'Will you come like this?'
'Yes, and soon.'
With his lips parted around ragged breaths, he watched his finger slipping in and out of her glistening sheath.
'Conrad, yes, yes... ' she whimpered, seeming mindless with lust. She leaned up to lick his chest.
He was stunned by how slick she was getting for him, how hungrily her flesh milked his finger. 'It's perfect,' he bit out, his tone sounding awed even to him.
He'd never known a woman could become this abandoned.
Not just a woman. My woman.
Unfamiliar urges racked him. He had the strongest need to pin her to the bed, so she couldn't get away from him. He had the need to tell her how much she was pleasing him. He bent to murmur at her ear, but his words turned to an agonized hiss when she rocked her hips on his finger.
'Higher... with your thumb,' she panted.
Groaning at how swollen her little clitoris had gotten, he circled it with his thumb.
She moaned, 'Yes, Conrad... '
With the finger inside her, he could tell when her sex tensed, readying to come. He wanted to make her come, needed to so badly. Just from his fingers.
The idea of giving her his cock to glove like that made him wild, but he wanted to feel what it would be like when she orgasmed.
She was shuddering, quivering, so close. Then, with her nipples tight and pointing, she stiffened, her eyelids sliding shut on a wordless cry. Her legs fell open wide. It was everything he could do not to spill against her hip as she clenched his finger, coming wetly around it, again and again. Amazing... .
Now he was dying for her to do that around his shaft. As soon as the tension left her body, he knelt between her legs.
Her expression was partly dazed, but still hungry, and her hips undulated as if she ached for him to fill her sheath. Seeing her open to him like this...
He laid his hips to hers. Leaning over her on straightened arms, he thrust to enter her, but she rocked down at the same time. He yelled out when the head slipped along her damp folds. She went wild, head thrashing on the pillow.
Sweating, gritting his teeth for control, he tried again, but she rolled her hips once more. He gripped her hips to mount her, but pinning her to the mattress only made her arch her back, rubbing her stiff nipples against his
