enough to think-he wouldn’t allow it. And then, quite abruptly, she was drowning, being dragged inexorably down into a sensual sea.
Above her, angled over her, his legs tangled with hers, his hands spread over her skin, fingers flexing, he held her senses captive, ruthlessly submerged them, held them down until all thought of resistance faded.
Until her mind was filled, not with pleasure, but with anticipation, with yearning. He didn’t let her resurface, but kissed her even more deeply, ravaging her mouth with not even the thinnest veil to screen his intent, his possession. On a gasp, she yielded, not just her mouth, but to the welling need to assuage, to give, to surrender. To appease by offering her body, her self.
And he took. She hadn’t before realized how much he had wanted-quite what he wanted of her. As she glimpsed the reality, a long shudder shook her.
His possession of her mouth eased, but didn’t cease.
He turned his mind to other conquests.
To her breasts. Heated and aching, they swelled beneath his hand. Artful as ever, his fingers teased, kneaded, stroked, caressed. Squeezed.
Heat lanced through her, spread beneath her skin. She moaned, the sound trapped in their kiss; he didn’t stop, didn’t cease his excruciating play.
Only when she arched beneath him and cried out did he release her lips. His hand left her breast; he tugged up her chemise.
“Raise your arms.”
She did, dragging in a huge breath as he drew the chemise up and off. Before she could lower her arms, he caught first one wrist, then the other, shackling them in one fist, anchoring them in the pillows behind her head, lightly bowing her spine.
His chest met her sensitized breasts; she gasped. Fiery delight sliced through her. He bent and took her mouth again, ravenously, then slowly moved his shoulders, back and forth across her, the raspy crinkly hair abrading her breasts, teasing the tight peaks, creating a pleasure that was close to pain.
She was beyond gasping when he finally released her lips to trail hot, openmouthed kisses down the curve of her throat, over the thudding pulse at its base, possessively tracing one collarbone before bending his head and feasting. Trapped as she was, hands above her head, her body bowed, displayed for his delectation, she couldn’t avoid, couldn’t duck the towering wave of awareness that crashed through her-that he ruthlessly sent rushing through her.
It caught her, lifted her up, opened her senses wide. So the reality poured in-the hot wetness of his mouth as he suckled her, the hard heaviness of muscle and bone holding her down, the rampant ridge of his erection pressed to her hip, ready to claim her.
The promise-the certainty-of what was to come overwhelmed her-and she let it.
Stopped fighting. Let him teach her. Show her.
Simon knew when she acquiesced, when she stopped trying to judge-to think. To manage. Her body, nowhere near as strong as his yet with its own supple strength, eased beneath him. A sign he was too much a conqueror not to recognize and relish; he lifted his head, took her lips, her mouth-now his to savor as he wished-and shifted over her.
Let her feel his weight, let her know and learn, as she assuredly needed to. When she tugged, he released her hands, lowered his to her breasts, then slid them lower, tracing her curves, pushing between the sheets and her silken skin to close his hands over the globes of her bottom and angle her hips against him.
She murmured, deep in her throat; inwardly gloating, he caught her senses, dragged them deeper yet into the kiss.
When he released her lips and trailed his down her body, licking, laving, kissing his way to her breasts, she didn’t try to stop him. Her hands lay on his shoulders, fingers clenching then easing as he sampled her bounty; her breathing was ragged, her eyes, when he glanced at her face, were closed. A fine line of concentration lay between her brows.
He licked one tight nipple, curled his tongue about it and drew it into his mouth, then suckled, deep, deeper- until her concentration fractured and she gasped.
Shifting lower, he let his reins slide-knew better than to imagine he could control his baser instincts, not tonight, not with her. He’d wanted her-not just, he could now admit, for the days they’d spent here, but for much, much longer. Her body was a prize his rakish soul had long coveted, even if he hadn’t admitted it.
Tonight she would be his. More-tonight, she would give herself to him completely, without reservation. If they were to have a future, there was no point pretending he was not what he was, that he wouldn’t demand, and command that of her.
How she would react-that was something else, but he’d never known her courage to falter.
Deep in his heart, he knew he could ask of her everything, and she would-knowing and knowingly-give. It was, ultimately, impossible for him to hurt her. She knew that as well as he.
He sent his lips cruising the taut skin of her stomach, and she caught her breath, restlessly shifted. His hands closed, locking about her hips; he shifted lower, spreading her thighs, with his shoulders wedging them wide.
She guessed. Her fingers clenched in his hair. He felt her haul in a breath as he bent his head, and set his lips to her softness.
She uttered his name on a fractured scream; the sound seared him to his very soul. He licked, probed, then settled to savor her, sucking lightly, then more explicitly tracing the swollen folds. Her slick honey flowed as he feasted; she tasted of pippins, tart yet sweet. He found the tight nubbin erect and swollen beneath its hood, and lightly sucked, his every sense locked on her, on her reactions.
Step by step, he pushed her on, until her fingers curled to claws, until her head pressed back and her hips tilted, wordlessly surrendering. He opened her, tauntingly probed her entrance, then slowly, deliberately, penetrated her with his tongue.
She fractured, broke apart; he gloried in her soft cry, savored her contractions, but the instant they eased, he rose over her. Spread her thighs even wider, sank his hands into the bed on either side of her, set his erection to her slick, swollen folds.
Found her entrance. Nudged in.
Then drove home.
She cried out, arching wildly beneath him. He didn’t stop, but drove deeper yet, fighting to absorb the sensations-of her heated sheath yielding, then encasing him, so tightly, of the firmness of her body, the cushioning feminine flesh, the succulent heat clamping about him. Battling desperately to savor all that, yet not let the moment sweep him away, not let his most primitive instincts have their way. He could-and would-plunder later, once she’d agreed, once she understood.
Trapped beneath him, she’d stilled. Head bowed, he could feel her panting breath close by his ear. Could feel, where they joined, where she’d clamped tight about him, the thudding tempo of her racing heart. Every muscle locked against the almost overpowering urge to ride her, he lifted his head and looked into her face.
From beneath heavy lids, from behind the black lace of her lashes, her eyes glinted-glittered-into his. Her lips, swollen, slightly parted, seemed to firm. He felt her draw breath.
“I thought you promised never to hurt me.”
Not quite an accusation-her lips twisted briefly in the lightest grimace; to his immense relief, her body was already easing beneath his, the defensive tension slowly seeping away.
He bent his head, brushed her lips with his, made them cling for an instant. “I think,” he murmured, shifting very slightly within her, “that you’ll find it’s not a lasting hurt.”
He lifted over her again; eyes locked with hers, he withdrew a fraction, then slid home once more.
She blinked. “Do that again.”
He would have grinned, but couldn’t; his features were locked, passion set. He did as she asked, letting out a little of the air locked in his lungs when neither her expression nor her body retensed.
Looking into his face, Portia struggled to assimilate the feeling of fullness, of being so full of him. Not in her wildest dreams… the sensations of intimacy, of having given herself to him, of having taken him into her body, were not only more powerful than she’d foreseen, but powerful in a different way.
A more fundamental, earth-shattering, soul-shaking way.
