“Tell me,” Raven urged, wanting him to share it with her so she would be more comfortable sharing her pain with him.
“Later,” he said. “Now is not the time to recall sorrows. I want this night to be memorable for the both of us.” He lifted her in his arms, her flesh cool against his warmth and he walked to the bed.
She slipped her arms around his neck just before they reached the bed. “Wolf.”
He rested his brow to hers. “I know, wife. You’ve never laid with a man.”
“You do believe me,” she said, startled.
“I do and I feel the fool for not realizing it sooner, since I’ve lost precious time in making love to you.”
That he actually admitted to feeling a fool stole a bit of her heart and brought her a strange sense of comfort, but that he regretted not making love, not simply coupling, but making love to her sooner stirred her passion.
“We begin anew?’ she asked with hope. Hope that they could share a decent life together regardless of the past.
“Aye, wife, we begin anew,” he agreed and she brought her lips to his.
“Let it be so,” she whispered before sealing their agreement with a kiss.
Wolf placed her on the bed and followed down to lie beside her. He ran his hand with a feather-like touch over her shoulder and down along her arm, and loved that her skin prickled with gooseflesh from his teasing touch. “I thought of this moment many times.” His hand roamed over one of her breasts, cupping it. It weighed firm in his hand and he ran his thumb over her hard nipple, sending a shiver through her. “I wondered if you would submit or refuse me, but never did I imagine I would favor you, want you with a raging passion that pains my shaft.”
Raven’s hand went to rest on his hand that squeezed her breast gently. “I don’t want to submit—I want to share this night with you.”
“And all the days and nights to come?” he asked as if it were a vow he asked of her.
“And all the days and nights to come,” she repeated, his intimate touches sending a flurry of tingles rushing through her.
How was it his touch could awaken passion so quickly in her? How was it that she actually ached for his touch and his kiss? And how was it that it felt so right and not at all like she surrendered?
Love!
No, she couldn’t love him. It wasn’t possible. It was a need she felt, like the need her men had spoken about. She had never felt a need before Wolf’s touch. She had never let a man near her, not after the fright she had suffered at the hands of a stranger. But this was different. She wanted Wolf to touch her.
Love strikes at the strangest times and in the strangest ways. That was what the old man had told her. Could love have sparked between them?
“Where do your thoughts go?” Wolf asked, seeing she had drifted away from him and thinking another man had come to haunt her thoughts and interfere with their night together.
She moved her hand off his to run her fingers over his cheek and down into his beard and along his strong jawline. She faintly rested her fingers along his lips, amazed at how perfectly they were shaped. They weren’t too full or too slim. They were perfect to kiss.
Her delicate touch played havoc with his passion. He ached to slip one of her fingers in his mouth to nip and suckle, but first he wanted a response from her, and he demanded, “Truth, wife.”
She turned a slightly confused look on him, having not believed where her own thoughts had drifted. “Love. I was thinking about love.”
“With another man?” he demanded again, though this time none too gently.
She shook her head, confusion still evident in the slight scrunch of her eyes. “No, I wondered if love would ever be possible between us.”
“Once again we think the same, wife,” he said, glad another man would not come between them tonight. And he couldn’t wait any longer to do what he’d ached to do. His mouth captured one of her fingers, drawing it into his mouth, nipping at it with his teeth and suckling at it with a teasing slowness.
He was pleased to feel an intense shudder rock her body and a soft moan spill from her lips, lips that were in desperate need of a kiss. He released her finger with one last nip and claimed her lips with his.
Wolf never imagined he’d be more than eager to kiss and intimately touch Raven, but he couldn’t deny the exquisite pleasure it brought him. Touching her silky soft skin was like tasting fine wine and not being able to get enough of it. He had to explore every inch of her, touch all of her, taste all of her, claim all of her.