next.
He bent his head to hers and whispered against her cheek. “Will you?”
She meant to shake her head back and forth, but found herself nodding instead.
He didn’t move for a moment, and she nearly bolted. But then his thumb lingering on her jaw moved up to trace the outline of her lower lip, the corner of her mouth.
The urge to flee grew stronger. She began to turn her head away, but he spread his hand around the back of her neck and brought his lips to hers.
This time it wasn’t forceful, it wasn’t demanding. It was the slightest brush of skin over skin, a caress so light it was merely a breath of air. His tongue traced the curve of her lower lip. She shivered, frozen to the ground. He sucked on her lip and gently drew it into his mouth.
He began to massage the tension in the back of her neck with his hand, making the tightness in her muscles slip away. Caution began to crumble, a little piece at a time, like tiny butterflies alighting from a flower to scatter into space.
Her lips parted and she began—tentatively—to kiss him back.
He pushed one strong hand into her hair and wound another around her waist, gently, slowly pulling her closer. Her fingers were still clenched around the collar of the coat, her forearms pressed against his bare chest, but the coat had slipped open and she felt his skin branding hers, the warmth of one naked hip and muscled thigh and only the merest strip of fabric between the rest of his body and hers.
His kisses grew deeper, longer, more demanding. His free hand ranged over the outline of her body over the thin barrier of the coat, learning the curve of her waist, the shape of her bottom.
Leander slipped his hand inside her coat and put his hand against the small of her back, urging her nearer.
Her blood began to rise.
She’d dreamed of this, over and over, caresses and stroking that she wanted so badly—even as she fought to push every thought of him from her mind. For four long days she hadn’t seen his face, for four interminable nights she’d been tortured with an awareness of his proximity in the manor like a beacon that shone through the darkest night. Away from his presence, she’d nearly been able to convince herself the molten, tangible desire that existed between them was a figment of her imagination.
But for those erotic, tormented dreams.
But for that heartbeat.
Like the call of a siren, it always beckoned to her, every minute through the long days and nights, a thump and echo so compelling it seemed to meld into her blood, driving her insane with want, calling her to the edge of oblivion, where she teetered, looking down.
It was only through hours of practice with Morgan that she learned to block it at will, that and the cascade of thoughts that would crowd out her own at his touch. But every time she closed her eyes she could still see him, a red star on the dark horizon, strong and close and burning with heat.
And now that he was here, with his hands and mouth and heat burning every inch of her skin, she knew she’d only been fooling herself. She was drawn into the circle of his warmth, his arms, the feel of him so right it clashed with what her mind wanted, which was for her to run.
“Don’t put yourself in danger like that again. Please. I can’t take it. It’s important to me that you’re safe, Jenna.” His arms tightened around her, hard, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s more than important. It’s
“
He dragged his lips over her neck, down to her collarbone. His teeth pressed against the tender flesh there so hard it stung.
“I can’t deny I want to keep you with me. And I want you to
Though his voice was hushed, muffled against her skin, she recognized the truth in it, the raw emotion, and she started with the abrupt realization that he would put himself in danger for her.
He was willing to release her, protect her, and take the consequences, with nothing in it for himself except pleasing her and inciting the rage of all those snarling dark beasts.
It pierced her in the center of her chest, an unfamiliar sweetness that brought a prick of tears to her eyes. She had forgotten sweetness, had forgotten what it was like to be touched and held and cherished, and it opened something in her, it melted her like sunlight on snow. When she next exhaled, all her fears and hesitation sifted away with her breath, leaving only warmth and certainty behind.
She loosened her grip on the collar of the coat and slid her arms up around the hard strength of Leander’s shoulders. On their own, her fingers twined into the thick, silken strands of his hair.
He made a low sound in his throat as their bodies met. The coat slipped open to let skin meet heated skin. Her breasts pressed against his chest, his erection pressed hot and throbbing stiff against the slope of her hip.
“Don’t let me go,” she whispered, dizzy, delirious. “Not yet. Not tonight.”
He kissed her then, fiercely. His hands held both sides of her face, the friction of his tongue and lips against hers was so sweet and erotic she thought she would die with the sheer bliss of it. “Love,” he whispered, and kissed her again.
Just as she was convinced her knees would give out, he broke the kiss and bent in a half-crouch to nuzzle her chest. His hand rose to cup her breast, his thumb grazed her nipple. It hardened instantly under his touch. Jenna gasped as he pulled it into his mouth and suckled, a pull of teeth, a lap of tongue, a delicious, aching pleasure that spread through her body like a wash of sunlit honey.
His hand moved down over her belly, stroking its rounded softness, dropped lower to trace over her hipbone, then down to the flesh between her thighs.
He kneaded and pinched and stroked her skin, his fingers brushing against her mound, teasing lightly around it. She whimpered in her throat as he knelt down in front of her, his mouth against her stomach. His hands lifted up to cup her breasts.
He dipped his tongue into her belly button, pressed his teeth into the flesh of her hip, slid one hand slowly down her body and found her center, damp and hot. She gasped and sunk her fingers into his shoulders as he pushed a finger inside her. He touched her and stroked her until his fingers were slick, until she moaned and slid her fingers into his hair.
Her eyes blinked open at the sound of something heavy slithering onto the floor with a muted rustle. Leander straightened, then captured her lips again as he pulled another plush overcoat from its hanger to fall at their feet, then another.
After four more, he gently pushed her down to the floor by her shoulders and watched as she lay back into the bed he’d made, a deep pool of wool and cashmere and silk to cushion her body.
He knelt beside her and pushed the wool overcoat away, leaving her naked and exposed on the floor before him, only her outflung arms still hidden by fabric. The light was nothing but indigo shadows and pale glimmering grays that melted to velvet black, yet she clearly saw his fevered gaze drinking her in, devouring her.
He brought his gaze back to her face and she saw the hunger raging through him, the same hunger that made it feel as if she was conducting fire through her veins.
“All I think about is you,” he said, husky, staring straight into her eyes. “All I’ve wanted is you, since the first second I saw you. I’ve never wanted anything else so much in my life.”
Jenna knew he saw the blood rise in her cheeks even in the spare, silvered light of the room. But now she didn’t care. Now she wanted him to see everything.
She sat up and shrugged out of his coat, letting it fall behind her, another warm blanket to pillow her body, to cushion his weight above her. She lay back again against the floor, spread her hair out in a fan behind her head, her body cocooned in luxury and filled with an aching that bit down deep into her core.
“Leander.” Her gaze never left his. She held her arms out. “Come here.”
