He couldn’t know that no man had ever seen her before, not in the light, not even Stefan. They had always undressed in the dark, with their backs turned to each other. When Stefan had wanted satisfaction from her, their nightclothes weren’t removed; they were shifted out of the way. She had never questioned the custom of it, or even wondered if others behaved in the same way.
When Webb released her wrists to span his hands around her slippery waist, she reached for his shoulders, holding on to them while he lifted her out of the water. Her wet feet touched the floor inches from his boots, her dripping body brushing against his clothes. A heady silence encircled them as his eyes took in every intimate detail of her. Lilli trembled slightly, unnerved by the wild heat flowing through her veins.
Webb reached for the thick toweling cloth looped through the wall ring and began blotting the moisture and drying bubbles on her skin. He started at the top with her neck and shoulders and slowly worked his way down over her breasts and tightly indrawn stomach, then crouched to dry her hips, thighs, and legs, finishing with her feet. There was a crazy weakness in her limbs when he straightened. Her breathing was no longer deep but very shallow as he wrapped the towel around her shoulders.
Effortlessly, he lifted her into the cradle of his arms. She automatically linked her hands together around his neck. With his face so close to hers, Lilli gazed at his features, so strong and sun-browned, and severely handsome. There was a lightness to everything that she couldn’t explain as he carried her into the bedroom.
In the middle of the room, Webb paused and let her feet settle to the floor. She stood within the loose circle of his arms. The towel had slipped, but an instinctive movement of her hand kept it partially covering her front—not out of any sense of modesty, but simply because it was there. Her gaze drifted down to the wet patches on his shirt. There were more on his pants.
“Your clothes are wet,” she said huskily.
With calm deliberation, he unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it. There was a tightening low in her stomach as she looked at the rippling muscles of his chest and the dark hairs that nested on it. The sensation increased when he stripped out of his pants. The long white underwear beneath them was molded to the lower half of his body like a second skin. The boots and socks were gone only seconds later.
“You don’t need that.” His glance flicked to the towel and she lowered her hand, letting it settle onto the floor with his clothes. “Lilli.” He groaned her name and lifted her straight up into the air, pressing his mouth against the roundness of a breast.
Raw and curling desires quivered through her as he carried her, letting her slide down him by inches, while his mouth nuzzled a path to her lips. By the time they reached the bed, she was being consumed by a ravishing kiss. He eased her onto the quilt, his body following hers to partially pin her down. The male hardness outlined against her thigh was something Lilli understood, but the absence of any demand for him to receive immediate satisfaction was new to her.
His mouth rocked over her lips, his tongue darting in with tormenting touches until she turned the aggressor and made it stay to entwine with hers. His hands were roaming at will over her naked flesh, caressing the rise and fall of her breasts, sliding over her stomach and hips, heating her skin wherever they touched.
She was already drowning in the waves of sensations when he started a more intimate exploration. His lips were on her face, hair, and neck, then lower in the valley between her breasts. She sank her teeth into her lip as he rubbed his mouth over a sensitively erect nipple. Her fingers curled into the thickness of his hair and a moan of pleasure came from her throat when he took the nipple into his mouth.
Then he was rolling onto his back and pulling her with him to lie half across him. Her heavy-lidded eyes looked at him in confusion before he sought her lips. She kissed him, hungry for the excitement the contact produced. Some distant part of her mind was conscious that he was stripping off his underwear. Now it will come, the thought registered—but it didn’t.
When he shifted their positions again, it was to lie on their sides, facing each other, bodies touching. There were no more barriers between them. It seemed impossible to get close enough to him. Her breasts strained against the flat wall of his chest while her hands ran over the lean muscles in his back to mold him more tightly to her. His erection made no demands for entry despite the arching of her hips.
The aching fury of need was so intense that Lilli felt she could stand it no more. As if sensing it, Webb pressed her backward with his weight and his legs slid between hers. She tasted the perspiration on his skin as she arched to meet the thrust of his hips. His virility filled her throbbing emptiness. Under the driving power of his hips, she was all motion beneath him, giving and demanding, taking and receiving. No previous experience had prepared either of them for the wild passion of their coupling, the mating of souls as well as bodies.
A sweetly wild contentment flowed through every inch of her body as she lay nestled in his arms. Lilli sighed, laughing softly at the wondrously incredible discovery she’d made, and wrapped his arms more tightly around her, the warmth of his hard body the most comfortable blanket she’d ever known. His mouth moved against her hair.
“Are you as happy as I am?” she murmured, so full of pleasure that she was completely drained of all energy.
“Yes.” Although it seemed a tame word to describe a satisfaction that went beyond his ken.
“I feel like silk inside.” Lilli breathed in deeply and released another contented sigh. It was too unique a feeling for mere words to describe.
The week of courtship he had promised her had taken a much more intimate turn than he had planned. Webb doubted if he could have stayed out of her bed anyway, but he felt he owed her a choice now that he had taken her before marriage.
“Do you want to push the wedding date ahead? Because I’m not going to leave this room tonight,” he warned her.
She shifted sideways in his hold to look at him. Mischief danced in her eyes, surprising him. “Not even to eat?” she asked in mock disbelief, unperturbed by the anticipation of their wedding night and changing the subject to boldly show him. “A big man like you?”
“You noticed.” The amusement in his eyes changed the meaning of her remark.
She colored slightly when she caught the more intimate interpretation, but seemed more pleased than embarrassed. “I noticed,” she replied. “That’s why I thought you’d have to eat to keep up your strength.”
“Tonight I could be satisfied feasting on you.” He cupped a breast in his hand and bent down to kiss the sleeping nipple. “There are more ways to make love than just one.”
“Is that right?” Curiosity flickered in her eyes to contradict her casual reply. “Just the same, we should eat something.” She slipped out of his arms and stepped onto the floor.
As she started across the room, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the full-length standing mirror. She walked over and stood in front of it, looking at her naked body with new eyes and making a critical appraisal. Relatively tall and slim, she was nicely shaped, she discovered, with firm, round breasts, a slender waist, and flaring hips. Her legs were long and slimly muscled—not skinny.
On the bed, Webb was enjoying his all-around view of her. “What are you looking at?” he asked curiously.
“A woman.” She turned to face him, a glow in her expression that took his breath away. Webb thought he had been emptied out, but the pressure was coming back. There was a boldness about the way she stood before him, not trying to cover herself; yet it wasn’t a brazen posturing to rouse his lust. It was much more natural than that. “I think I just found out how it feels to be a woman,” Lilli declared.
“Come here,” he said, and she approached the bed, letting him catch her hand and pull her onto the rumpled quilt beside him. Immediately she insinuated herself against him.
“Do you think we’ll ever get enough of each other?” she murmured.