fingers. Then her mouth.
Exquisite and agonizing, each caress burned a little hotter, a little deeper. Clenching his fists, he indulged her curiosity, welcomed the satin sweep of skin across skin. As though he hadn’t fully healed, she used only the barest pressure to explore him.
Her dark head bent with every pass, her palms heating up his already feverish skin.
The girl he’d teased, intrigued by in ways he hadn’t understood then, was now a remarkable woman with a spirit he wanted to chain himself to in hopes of forever holding onto some small part of her. Love was impossible for him—almost as impossible as being so taken with a woman he hadn’t seen in years—but the knotting ache under his heart said otherwise.
Unable to take any more of the blissful tenderness that could throw a stronger man off balance, Lucan tipped her head up, taking her lips with his.
Her tongue, greedy and increasingly demanding, pushed into his mouth. With as much care as he could manage, he pulled her down, her gown half covering the mossy ground beneath them as he came down on top of her.
Lips shiny, eyes sparking with an inner fire that ensnared him completely, she stared up at him waiting. He closed his eyes, lulled by the glide of her fingertips up his spine, and aroused by the squeeze of her thighs around his hips.
So fucking aroused.
She arched her hips, rubbing against his cock in slow, needy circles. Through the thin material of his pants, he could feel how warm and wet she was.
For him.
Sliding down her body, he palmed her breast. The tips—already hard—beckoned him, and he lowered his head. She gripped the back of his head, her claws lightly raking when he pulled her into his mouth. Rolling his tongue across her nipple, he released her only to draw her back in with a slow, greedy suck.
He couldn’t stop from grinding against her, the length of him throbbing, wanting inside her.
“Luc.” She licked her lips, and he rose up to conquer the lush mouth that was meant for him—just like the rest of her. Every sigh, every freckle, every strand of hair the color of the darkest ale.
Gripping her hips, he lifted her, sliding a palm beneath. There he could rub her ass, changing the angle as he pressed against her. Her whimper of pleasure filled his mouth, and he teased with his tongue, drawing another soft cry from her.
“I need…” Her breath caught, and he deepened the kiss, letting it spin out of control. Reveling in it. In her.
“Tell me,” he managed when he could speak.
She shook her head, but captured his hand and brought it to her thigh.
Watching the pleasure drift across her face, he dragged his fingers upward. Already damp for him, she parted her legs, letting him slide higher, through the slick moisture waiting for him at her core.
She never once looked away from him, not even when he raised his fingertips to his mouth. She bit her lip as he sampled her, letting her scent and taste fill his senses. Starved for her, his cock pulsed, the need to be inside her stealing over every inch of his body.
She wasn’t ready yet, but he’d get her there, to a place where she would writhe beneath him, her cries echoing against his ear.
Finding the slick knot between her folds, he circled in lazy strokes.
“Luc,” she hissed, her hands digging into his shoulders.
Resting on one elbow, he trapped each shuddering whimper between his lips, stretched every sensitized cry into a wild kiss nearly as untamed as the woman in his arms.
Back and forth, he drew his fingers through her wet folds, felt her become even wetter. She just might melt in his hand, he thought, her body trembling as he pushed her closer to release. Her hips lifted, rocking to every thrum across her clit.
So very close.
Panting, her chest rose and fell, her breasts rubbing against him. The hunger to move inside her, thrusting hard, raced across his skin, pulling tight. With his mouth on hers, his tongue sliding fast and deep, he traced her damp seam, flicking over and around her clit.
She moaned low and deep, her body tightening, trembling so perfectly. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, the flush of color across her cheeks so striking it was impossible to look away, giving him the most amazing view as she finally shattered in his arms.
Desperate and needing her in a way he couldn’t remember ever needing anything, he shoved his pants out of the way. The head of his cock slid through her wetness, and forgetting to breathe, he pushed inside her.
Briana cried out, and he froze, staring down at her. He should stop, he knew it, but the moment the decision to pull away penetrated his sex-drenched haze, Briana wrapped her arms around him, holding him to her.
He didn’t deserve the gift she offered him, wasn’t sure he even deserved the tentative smile that wedged under his ribs.
“Please,” she murmured, the ragged plea almost destroying him.
Sliding a hand beneath her head, he lifted her to meet his mouth. Deliberately soft, he licked and stroked with his tongue, nipped and raked with his teeth.
Coiled so damn tight, the merest bump of her hips capable of snapping him in two, Lucan surrendered to the deepest parts she touched within him. He couldn’t allow himself to fall in love with her, but he could make sure every kiss, every lingering touch, every slow thrust left her quaking inside as hard as he was.
When her nails raked his back, her hips rocking again, he pressed deeper inside her.
They both groaned, the sounds raw and breathless and like they both might be losing their minds.
Every pump of his hips—slow, so achingly slow—heightened the sensations pummeling him. But he didn’t thrust any faster, didn’t bury every inch in hard, furious strokes. If he did, the pleasure just might kill him. The brutal heat of it thumped through him, sweet and scorching.
Her soft cries bled into each other, her hips lifting to fit so snuggly against him he grit his teeth as if it would hold off the tide rising swift and sharp.
“Briana,” he choked out, locking their fingers and burying his face against her throat.
Riding the fine edge of release, he drove into her, felt the silken heat spasm around him, tugging him deeper. Caught in a savage free-fall, like someone had shoved him from the highest tower in Camelot, he held on to her.
One last wild thrust and he burst apart, pumping hard and fast and knowing somehow she would catch him, hold him just as tight.
A sharp tug on his hair, and she dragged him back to her mouth, the feral possession in her kiss a blow to the heart that pounded in time with hers.
He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, the languid strokes of her fingers down his back finally returning him to awareness. Rising up on his elbows, he couldn’t stop from crushing his mouth on hers once more, willing her to understand that tonight meant more than he would ever be able to tell her.
All too soon she would turn from him, but right in this moment, she was his. Smart and beautiful and holding a piece of him that he hadn’t planned on giving anyone.
Savaged by the depth of his feelings, he lifted himself away from her, but wasn’t ready to let her go. He pulled her across his chest, letting his eyes close as her cheek settled over his heart.
“My family will be retiring soon, if they haven’t already,” she said long minutes later. “I need to go back.”
The refusal perched on his lips, but he clenched his jaw, silencing it. Dropping a kiss to his chest, she stood and picked up her dress. She slipped it up her body, drawing her hair to one side as she smiled at him over her shoulder.
Waiting for him to fix the laces?
He stood and gripped her hips, tugging her against his chest. He let her scent wash over and through him, memorizing it, then took a step back to fix her gown. Her smile was infectious, and he caught himself returning it many times as he readied himself to leave.
They walked back through the forest, reaching the meadow much too quickly.
