His lips against hers sent a jolt through her body, and when she opened her mouth in surprise, his tongue licked forward to trace a soft sweet line over her lower lip. The sensation, the sudden intimacy of it, made her knees tremble, and Harper clung to Morgan, suddenly afraid that he might leave.
She couldn't tell whether he was the one who deepened the kiss or if it was her, but a moment later, she was nuzzling his mouth open in return, encouraged by the soft pleased sounds he made. It felt so good to have his arms around her, to have his mouth on hers. It felt right in a way that nothing ever had
It took her breath away, how he carefully devoured her mouth, how she could feel just the hint of teeth behind it as well as his desperate need not to hurt her.
“It's all right,” she found herself saying. “I'm not fragile, I promise.”
He raised her to her feet, and still kissing, hands still learning each other, they made their way to her bedroom. It was her bedroom, the place she had slept every night for years, but as she slapped at the light switch on the wall, she remembered how it would look to strangers.
“I thought your living room was beautiful...” he murmured in surprise, and she grinned a little, knowing what he saw.
Her bedroom was swathed in fabric like some fantasy princess's room. Her four-poster bed, complete with canopy, had been picked up on Craigslist. She'd made the silk and velvet curtains herself with fabric bought wholesale.
“Don't laugh. I live alone, and I've gotten used to doing what I like.”
“I would never laugh,” Morgan said gravely, guiding her to lie down on the bed. “Not when you make such a beautiful princess.”
She wasn't a princess. She was a tailor, a small business owner and tough as nails on top of it. She wasn't anyone's idea of a delicate princess, but something about the reverent tone in Morgan's voice made her smile.
“And if you're a dragon, does that mean that you're going to eat me up?”
“We never did,” he said, coming to rest beside her on the mattress.
His hand came up to tilt her chin to one side, nuzzling her throat before planting a line of kisses from the point of her jaw down to the crook of her neck.
“No?” Harper asked, the words coming out with a little quiver. “What did you do with princesses?”
“Well, as family legend goes, adore them,” Morgan murmured, his breath warm against her skin.
Harper's breath caught as he eased down the straps of her tank top and her bra, baring her shoulder to his lips. The tingle of pleasure that it sent across her skin made her sigh, and that was before he placed his hand on the gentle rise of her belly, stroking first over her clothes and the slipping under her top.
His hand on her skin was warm, almost hot, making her think of fevers and forges, and then he slid his hand up to cup her breast, his touch gentle, and yes, reverent.
Adored. Maybe being a princess wouldn't be so bad.
“I want you naked,” Morgan whispered, propping himself up on his elbow to kiss his way down her breastbone. “Will you let me undress you, princess?”
“Only if you strip first.”
She felt the hesitation. It was so slight that she doubted that she would have seen it if she hadn't been looking, but there was just a moment's pause, a moment where he was uncertain. Before she could tell him that he could simply keep kissing her if that was all he wanted to do, Morgan rose gracefully from the bed, pulling his T-shirt over his head and letting it drop to the floor.
Harper couldn't take her eyes off of him. She could see it, a little, how there was a gauntness to him that looked wrong. He was meant to be at least a little bulkier, but there was no doubt as to the strength that he possessed, his body lithe and muscular.
“You're beautiful,” she whispered, and she was rewarded with a brief smile, bright as a comet, before he leaned down to untie his shoes and undo his jeans.
She followed the elegant line of his arm, slightly surprised to see it entirely unmarked. Given the way he had reacted while unconscious and the way he had flinched upon waking up, she would have thought to see some scarring, perhaps some very extensive scarring. Instead his skin was smooth and beautiful, and she stopped thinking of scars at all as he came back to bed.
This time, he didn't ask permission as he stripped her tank top over her head. She was soft everywhere he was hard, and for a moment, she wanted to cross her arms over her small breasts or maybe her belly. She was given no time to do so, and instead, Morgan dropped his mouth to the swell of her breasts as as he pulled her partially up to undo her bra. The pleasure of his mouth made her whimper, but when she felt him rubbing the light marks that her bra left on her back and shoulders, she laughed.
“You know your way around a bra,” she teased. He gave her a brilliant smile, but did not respond.
She could have made a comment that he knew his way around what was under a bra as well, but that would probably be ungrateful given how good he was making her feel. His lips caressed the curves of her breasts, his mouth closing over a nipple with such aching care that she gasped with pleasure.
A few times, Harper tried to reach for Morgan, to give him some of the pleasure that he was offering her, but he only returned
