library discussing the relative merits of Keats and Shelley!»
As soon as Wolfe untangled the torrent of words, he smiled and kissed the hands that shielded her hot cheeks.
«You felt unbelievably soft to me, both in the bath and in the bed,» Wolfe said. «Touching you made me shiver and turned my heart upside down and I couldn’t breathe.»
Slowly Jessica lowered her hands. «Feeling like that doesn’t unnerve you?»
«It should,» he admitted ruefully, «but all I can think of is what a sweet delight you are to touch, and how brave you are to trust me despite your fears.»
«I suspect you’re saying I have no more sense than a spring rosebud.»
«I suspect I’m saying I have no more brains than the sun that unwraps the rose.» Wolfe bent down to Jessica’s mouth, stopping only when he was so close he could feel her breath flowing over his lips. «Will you let me touch you the way sunlight touches a spring bud?»
Jessica’s breath caught. «How does sunlight touch a bud?»
«Gently. Completely. Everywhere.»
Her breath came out in a soft rush that Wolfe tasted, for his mouth was covering hers. When his tongue drew a warm line over the sensitive edge of her mouth, she opened it in surprise. His tongue slid inside. Unexpected pleasure shivered through Jessica.
«I didn’t mean to shock you,» Wolfe said against Jessica’s lips. «I warned you it would be…intimate.»
«You didn’t shock me. The butterflies did.»
«Butterflies?»
«Don’t look behind you, but the parrot is back.»
«Hammer the parrot.» Wolfe caught her lower lip tenderly between his teeth. «Tell me about the butterflies.»
«I think they’re made of fire, not velvet.»
«Do you want to find out?»
«Yes, but please don’t misunderstand if I’m startled and draw back,» Jessica said softly. «You don’t repulse me, Wolfe. You’re the most beautifully made man I’ve ever seen.»
«Sweet little liar. Either of Willow’s brothers is more handsome than I am.»
«Tree That Stands Alone, you are blind. When you walk into a room, all men are in your shade. You alone catch the light.»
Jessica felt the tiny shuddering that went through Wolfe and knew that her words had moved him.
«Does that mean you’ll let me kiss you intimately again?» he asked when he could trust himself to speak.
«Yes,» she whispered. «Please.»
The gliding heat of Wolfe’s kiss sent glittering sensations from Jessica’s tongue to her knees. She pressed her fingers deeply into his hair, wanting to touch more of him, wanting to be closer, wanting to feel more of the intriguing, shimmering pleasure.
The kiss deepened, strengthened. Wolfe consumed the soft warmth of Jessica’s mouth until the world shrank and began to spin slowly around her. The feeling was new but not frightening, for he was still with her, as close as her breath, closer.
He was her breath.
She wound her arms tightly around Wolfe’s neck, knowing he was strong enough to keep her safe in the world he had created with his kiss, a world of languid heat and butterfly wings brushed with fire. When he tried to lift his head, she protested and searched out his tongue with her own, wanting the kiss never to end.
Strong arms slid beneath Jessica as Wolfe lifted her from between the sheets. The flexing and shifting of his powerful body was another kind of fire caressing her. The bare skin of his chest and arms and back felt better to her palms than the soft fur on which she now lay. She tested the power of his torso, sinking her fingertips into resilient muscles, scoring him softly with her nails.
A deep sound vibrated through Wolfe as hunger knotted fiercely in his body, making his muscles cord up beneath Jessica’s exploring hands.
«Wolfe?» Jessica whispered. «Is something wrong?»
«No. I just learned that elves have tiny golden claws, that’s all.»
«What?»
He laughed deep in his throat as he looked at her dazed, sultry eyes and flushed lips. «You taste of brandy,» he said.
«So do you.»
«I taste of you. Lick my lips, Jessi. Let me feel that soft little tongue in my mouth again.»
Surprise shivered through her. «I didn’t realize…»
Wolfe made a questioning sound that was also a purr of anticipation.
«The kiss,» she whispered. «I didn’t know how intimate it had become until I heard your words.Itasted you.»
«The brandy was all you.»
«The rest of it wasn’t. You’re so warm and almost salty and almost sweet.» Jessica shivered. «Like wine, your taste keeps changing. And like wine, you make me dizzy.»
«Jessi,» Wolfe said thickly, «you’re going to burn me alive.»
When Wolfe’s arms tightened, lifting Jessica to his mouth, she went eagerly. He teased her by holding back, kissing her chastely until her arms locked around his neck in an attempt to hold him close for the kind of deep kiss he had taught her to enjoy.
But Wolfe was much too strong to be held. The tiny maddening kisses continued.
«Wolfe?»
He made a purring, questioning sound that ruffled her nerves, but there was nothing lazy about his eyes watching her. They smoldered behind his thick lashes.
«Kiss me the way it was before,» Jessica whispered. «Kiss me so that I can taste you on my tongue.»
Wolfe groaned and took her mouth in a seamless, hot kiss that was more arousing and yet more satisfying than any he had ever known with a woman. His hands kneaded from her scalp to her nape to her hips, shaping her to his body. The silk of her nightgown was more of an enticement than a barrier to his fingers, for the cloth was so sheer that the heat and textures of her body weren’t concealed. She was as sleek and supple as a cat beneath the silk, and like a cat she arched in response to the stroking of his hands over her back. When he finally ended the kiss, she was shivering against him as though cold; yet her skin was hot, flushed with passion.
Slowly Wolfe’s intent, dark glance went from Jessica’s mouth to the pulse beating quickly in her neck and then to her breasts. Her nightgown was a translucent veil too sheer to conceal her body. Her nipples were deep pink, tempting him.
«Remember the bud and the sunlight?» Wolfe asked in a husky voice. «Remember how I warned you that passion is an intimate thing?»
«I find I like that. With you.»
«Good, because it begins to get intimate now.»
«Begins?» Jessica’s eyeswidened. «Begins?»
«Sweet little red-headed parrot,» he murmured. «Yes, it begins. Soon. It will feel good, Jessi. Even better than when I stroked your tongue with mine.»
Wolfe’s hand went from her neck to the fine-grained skin just below her collarbone. Her breath broke as she suddenly became aware of the sensuous weight of her own breasts. He kissed her lips slowly, deeply, until she gave her mouth to him and demanded his own in return. Only then did his hand shift, covering and cupping and caressing her breasts in the same slow rhythms of his tongue sliding over hers.
«You feel like a captive bird in my hand,» Wolfe said. «Your heart is beating so violently. Do I frighten you?»
Jessica tried to speak, but all that came from her lips was a stifled sound. Nerve endings she had never known she had were responding to the slow movement of Wolfe’s fingers. A net of fire licked from her breasts to her knees, making it impossible to breathe.
«Help me, Jessi. Let me hear your words. Let me hear your breath breaking if I please you.»
