And a tantalizing mystery indeed were the secrets between her thighs. “Part your legs for me, Maggie,” he murmured.
She obeyed unquestioningly. Her trust sliced through him like a sword.
He leaned back on his elbow to watch her. His eyes had adjusted to the low light, so he made out her features and the sumptuous spill of her spectacular hair across the pillows.
Slowly, using the delay to build his anticipation, he slid his hand down until he touched her cleft. She made a faint, startled sound as he stroked her sleekness. His thumb brushed the center of her pleasure, and she made another sound deep in her throat. She reached to catch his arm.
“Don’t you like it?”
“It’s…odd,” she said in a choked voice. “Do you like it?”
Testing her arousal and finding her ready for him? Luring her along the path to pleasure? “Oh, yes,” he sighed, tracing a small circle around the pearl of flesh. “Trust me.”
“I do,” she said shakily. If her actions hadn’t proven beyond question that she did, he might doubt her. “This is…more than I expected.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
The inhibiting hand still encircled his arm. “I suppose so.”
“You don’t sound very sure.”
“I’m not.”
A disagreeable thought struck him, and he wondered if he went too fast after all. “You know what’s going to happen?”
“In theory,” she muttered, kneading his biceps in a nervous rhythm. “My mother told me. She didn’t believe in keeping girls ignorant.”
Relief filled him. “Good for your mother.”
“But she didn’t tell me about…this.”
Caressing her, he pressed his lips to hers. At first she was distracted, but she swiftly got into the spirit and relaxed against the sheets. At last she released his arm, and her hand drifted down to drape across her stomach.
Slowly he pulled away, taking her lower lip in his teeth and biting down gently. Before she could start worrying about what came next, he slid a finger inside her.
She was deliciously
tight and slick. When he curled his finger against the walls of her passage and moved it in and out, a sumptuous liquid surge greeted him.
“Oh…” she said in audible shock.
“You’re perfect,” he said softly, bending to suckle one nipple. The pressure at her breast made her clench against his seeking finger, and she rewarded him with another of those quivery exhalations that sounded gloriously like the beginnings of pleasure.
How he loved to hear her discover her capacity for sensual delight. She laid her hand on his chest, where his heart galloped fit to burst. When she was sighing with every stroke, Joss eased two fingers into her, relishing her body’s welcome.
The scent of her need hung heavy on the still air. He licked his lips, longing to taste her.
Something else for next time. Her quick response and the sweet sounds of her enjoyment pushed him to a point where he could wait no longer.
He rolled over her, pleased that she instinctively moved to cradle him between her thighs. Her arms slid around his back, and she gazed up at him through the flickering light. Her blue eyes were dark and gleaming, and her kiss-swollen lips parted over small white teeth.
Joss stared down into her vivid face. Despite his urgency, he paused. At this, the zenith of desire, he recognized this moment’s life-changing importance.
He’d always been restless. Eager for the next challenge. But sharing this bed with Maggie Carr, he felt anchored for the first time. As if all his seeking found a purpose he’d never realized was lacking.
She was his home.
Joss kissed her with a reverence that was almost holy, even as he tightened his hips and pressed into her body.