encompassed the tent. Not even the sound of their breathing could be heard. Perhaps they both waited, breath bated, for his next move.
His blood sparked with electricity as his fingers played at her waist again. Her skin was so soft. So perfect. She was silk and roses. 'I don't want to scare you,' he whispered huskily, already knowing she was far from afraid. 'Tell me if I do something you don't like.'
'I'm not—'
'I'll explain everything I'm doing to you,' he added, neatly cutting off her protest. 'Right now, I'm simply going to explore you. Your legs, your stomach, your every curve and hollow, every sensitive place that makes you gasp for more.'
'Yes. All right.'
'We'll learn what you like together.'
'Every time you touch me, I feel flames licking me, burning me. I like that.'
He uttered a strained chuckle. More sweat trickled down his temples. 'If you didn't feel that way, that would mean I was doing something wrong. It's my job—no, my privilege—to make the fire become an inferno.' As he spoke, he traced his name on her thigh.
She was his, that's all there was to it. Only his.
'Oh, yes.' Her low, needy moan blended with a sigh of pleasure. The sounds combined, emerging more like a purr.
A man true to his word, Gray introduced himself properly to her body. 'I'm going to touch your breasts.' 'Like before?'
'Like before.' He lingered there, kneading and rolling her nipples between his finger and thumb.
Her hips arched, her body bowed. Her head fell back, long lengths of her silky hair tickling his chest. Thunder boomed and the rain increased in pressure, pounding against the shelter. He'd never again see another moonlit, stormy night without thinking of Jewel.
She was passion incarnate.
He'd only had a mere glimpse of her passion, but he was eager for more. When he'd kissed her, she'd erupted. Just like that. Her hands had moved over him, her lower body had arched into him. When he touched her...
'I'm going to make a mental note that we both enjoy this area.' His voice was strained, so strained he barely managed to get the words out. Had he ever been this on-edge before? He didn't think so; he couldn't remember a time when a woman had ever invaded his mind so thoroughly.
Jewel's stomach quivered when he stopped to dabble at her belly button. So soft, so sexy. He could have spent the rest of the night there, but continued his exploration. 'I'm going to touch your bottom.'
'Yes. Please.' She gasped out the words, her voice heavy with anticipation. When he reached the rounded curves, she arched her hips. He massaged.
He called himself a million kinds of fool as his gaze fastened on her neck, watching the pulse there.
Growling, he delved his hand between her legs. When he began working his fingers up the inside of her thigh, she cried out.
'Gray, I need—I don't know! I watched you a hundred times but I don't know what I need.'
He chuckled, the sound more a choked gasp than anything. She was writhing against him, silently pleading. 'You need a more intimate touch, baby. Like this.' He tunneled his hand through the tuft of silky hair guarding her wet folds, then sank one finger inside her tight sheath.
Her hips instantly shot toward the sky. 'Oh, gods.'
'Do you love me?' He pulled his finger out and spread her moisture with circling strokes. The final vestiges of his control were slipping. A sense of urgency was overtaking him.
'Gray. Gray! Do that again!' she commanded, ignoring his question.
His mouth stretched tight with the strain of his own arousal, his need for blood. Sweat no longer trickled; it dripped from his temples. God, he loved hearing his name on her lips.
'Did you touch yourself like this often?' he asked her. So easily he pictured her splayed out on a bed of
silk and satin, blue like her eyes, pleasuring herself, bringing herself to climax while she pictured his face.
The image alone was enough to make him spill, so he blanked his mind.
She hesitated. 'Only that once. In the tub. My skin had grown so hot and tight. And I wanted to experience your possession so badly.'
Using his thumb on her clitoris, he sank two fingers into her. 'Do you love me?'
'Ohh,' she moaned, another purr. Ignoring the question again. She threw her head back, her pelvis arching and caressing his groin.
He stilled at the consuming pleasure, the sheer bliss of that one touch. He was as hard as a rock, his breathing ragged. When he worked a third finger inside her, she cried out his name, the sound a broken sob. Her body spasmed and tightened around his fingers. Heat radiated off her, surrounding him with her luscious scent.
Slowly he removed his fingers. He ripped at his boots and pants and kicked them off, his cock finally freed. He would be her first. Her first man, her first lover. His possessive instincts roared to life, a powerful avalanche tumbling through him.
He couldn't fight her allure, and he'd been foolish to even try, whatever his reasons had been. They were from different lands? So what. She'd read his mind? Who cared. He might make her pregnant? God, yes. He wanted her to have his baby. He wanted to fill her with his seed. He might bite her? Mmm...
'Do you love me?' Gray fit himself at her entrance, and her legs locked around him. His gaze moved to her neck, his mouth watering. 'You're mine, you're mine, you're mine. Tell me you're ready for me.'
'Now. Please now.'
Rocking forward, he worked himself inside her inch by tormenting inch. 'Take it all.' 'Yes—yes—'
'All of it.' Finally her hymen gave way, and he shoved the rest of the way in, seating himself to the hilt. He roared at the pleasure, somehow managing to hold himself still. 'You're mine, you're mine, you're mine. Are you hurt? Did I hurt you?'
'More, I want more.'
Another roar of satisfaction burst from him, and he began moving in and out. Quickening his pace, he increased the exquisite sensations. She was arching and moving with him, against him. She kneaded and squeezed his back. She clawed. She bit the cord of his neck.
She was wild with her need.
He could barely see her in the darkness, but what little he could make out filled his mind. Her lids were at half-mast, her color high, her teeth chewed on her bottom lip. Raven locks of hair spilled around her shoulders. She was the very picture of eroticism.
She was his.
His orgasm rocked him, and he shouted her name, pounding into her as deeply as possible. He hit her in exactly the right spot because she cried out, too, her second climax springing to instant life, her inner walls tightening around him. All the while, he fought the urge to bite her and won. The need was there, but his need to protect her was greater.
He stayed where he was until the last tremor abandoned him, then finally collapsed beside her, more sated than he'd ever been in his life. A long time later, she peeked at him through the thick shield of her lashes. Something in his chest tightened, seeing her like this. So satisfied. So lovely.
He couldn't give her up, he thought then. Ever.
'Well, shit,' he said. He worried one hand over his face, and pulled Jewel atop his chest with the other. She hadn't told him she loved him. Did she still? Had he misread her?
'Is something wrong?' she asked shyly.
'Go to sleep, baby. We'll talk in the morning.' His body was already on fire for her, ready for round two.
He loved her. He did. She was the one for him, the only one. His soul mate. Here in the darkness of the night, there was no denying it. No dressing it up with 'maybe' and 'probably,' or even the standard 'I care about her.' He had never felt more replete, more sated, than he did at that moment. Just what he needed, too. Another
