There was a highly amused sound from beside her. “If you got on top, Nat, I’d still have to hold you there, and after the first few seconds, I wouldn’t be gentle. We’d reopen that wound and the pain would be vicious.”
She swallowed. “Just a thought. Forget I mentioned it.”
He laughed tenderly, bending to kiss her briefly. “I’ll try,” he said softly. “Thanks for the thought, anyway. But this isn’t the time or the place. First we get married,” he continued. “And then we can make all sorts of discoveries about each other.”
Her heart was still racing. “It’s exciting to think about that.”
“For both of us,” he admitted. “But we’d better quit right now, while we’re ahead.” He bent and brushed his mouth softly over a hard nipple, lingering to taste it with his tongue.
She caught her breath and he lifted his head to look at her in the soft glow of the small night-light.
“I like that,” she whispered.
“Me, too.” He was hesitating. This was a bad idea. One of the worst he’d ever had. But he was bending to her body while he was thinking it. His mouth covered her breast again, very gently, and one lean hand smoothed down her body to ease her gown up. He traced her upper thigh with slow, expert movements, making lazy and exciting forays inside it under the gown.
She started trembling. Her hands hesitated on his shoulders while she let her mind go blank except for the pleasure he was giving her. It had been so long. While she was thinking it, she said it.
“So long,” he breathed urgently. “Yes, Nat. Too long!”
Her hands went between them to his broad chest and caressed him with delight, enjoying the thickness of hair and the warm muscles under it.
She felt his body tense and his hand move to a much more intimate exploration. She tried to catch his wrist, but it was too sweet to deny. She gave in, moaning as she felt the most exquisite sensations pulse through her.
She was drowning in pleasure. It was so intense that she barely felt him take her hand and guide it down his body. He’d unsnapped his pajamas and she was inside them, discovering the major difference between men and women with a fascination that was going to make her die of embarrassment sooner or later. For the moment, though, it was exciting to touch him that way. She couldn’t have dreamed of doing that with anyone else.
He shifted restlessly, enticing her slow tracing to grow in confidence as he groaned aloud at her breast.
“It won’t hurt you, will it?” she whispered shakily.
“What you’re doing?” He shivered and his mouth grew hungry at her breast, making her moan, as well. “I’m in agony. No, don’t stop!” he said quickly, catching her hand before it withdrew. “Don’t stop, baby,” he whispered, moving to cover her mouth with his. “I love feeling you touch me! I love it!”
She opened her lips to speak, and he invaded them as his hand moved into a more intimate exploration, one that caused her whole body to spin off into a realm she’d never known existed.
She was moving in a helpless rhythm, helping him, enticing him to continue. Her eyes opened and his was there, seeing her pleasure, watching.
“This is how it feels when a man and a woman go all the way,” he whispered huskily, and before she could question the blunt statement, his touch became urgent and invasive, and she seemed to explode into a thousand pulsating, white-hot fragments under his fascinated scrutiny.
She clutched his shoulders, shivering in the aftermath, her open mouth against his bare shoulder. Seconds later, she was crying. Her chest hurt again, but her whole body felt as if it had been caressed to heaven.
“Mack,” she whimpered. “Oh, Mack!”
He was kissing her, soft, undemanding caresses all over her face and throat, down to her still taut breasts and back up again. She could feel his body against her without a stitch of clothing in the way. And only then did she realize that her gown was lying on the floor somewhere.
She didn’t remember the clothes being removed. She only remembered the throbbing pleasure that even in memory made her tremble.
“When we have each other, we’re going to set fires,” he whispered into her ear.
“I want to,” she breathed into his lips. Her hands smoothed his cheeks as she looked at him with caressing eyes. “I want to right now.” Her hips moved against his, feeling the hard thrust of him that he made no effort to hide.
“So do I. More than you realize,” he replied tersely. “But we’re not going one step further than this until you’re completely healed and we’re married.”
“Mack!” she groaned.
“You can’t take my weight,” he said. “Even if you lie over me, it would be more violent than this when I went into you. And once I started, I’d lose control.”
Her gasp was audible. Word pictures formed in her mind and made her flush in the dim light.
“You’re still a virgin,” he continued huskily. “No matter how much I arouse you, it’s probably going to be uncomfortable. But I want you to know what it’s going to feel like when you adjust to me. I don’t want you afraid of me on our wedding night.”
“As if I could be...after that,” she whispered, pushing her face into his throat. “Oh, it was...glorious!”
“Watching you was glorious,” he said roughly. “But we have to stop. I won’t take my pleasure at the expense of your pain.”
He got up abruptly, pausing to help her into her gown before he picked up his pajama trousers. He turned toward her deliberately, watching her avert her eyes.
“Are you afraid to look at me?” he asked gently.
She grimaced. “I’m sorry. It’s...difficult.”
He laughed, but it wasn’t mocking laughter. “All right, chicken.” She heard his pajama trousers snap, unusually loud in the room, before he climbed into bed beside her and drew her demurely to his
