Jace buried his face between her breasts and kissed the soft flesh. His words were muffled. “Katherine… beautiful… sweet…”
He kissed her breasts tenderly, almost reverently. He pulled back and worshiped them with his eyes as his fingers paid homage. Then he kissed them again.
Looking at him from this angle, Katherine saw that his black eyelashes were thick and spiky. His nose was perfectly shaped—long and straight and aristocratic.
He clasped her behind the knees and moved his hands up the backs of her thighs. Her heart pounded in anticipation. Spontaneously, she placed both hands on his head and bent hers over it, draping that beloved head with her hair.
His hands circled her waist then moved to her stomach. He unsnapped her jeans and slid the zipper down her abdomen. Slipping both hands into the opening, he settled them on her hips.
“Katherine,” he breathed, “your complexion is golden and beautiful all over.” He nibbled her stomach. The stubble on his chin abraded her skin, but it was a pleasant s
ensation.
His hands clenched her tighter as his mouth encompassed her navel. He took it leisurely, nibbling it with his teeth and exploring it with his tongue. He attacked it, made love to it. It was a warm and possessive and totally sexual assault.
Katherine’s breath was coming rapidly. Small explosions of sensation erupted from her throbbing femininity and suffused her with fire. She had too much blood for her veins to contain, and it flooded riotously through her body.
Jace pulled back and studied the lacy elastic band on her bikini panties. He hooked his finger under it and traced a mesmerizing line first to one side of her abdomen, then to the other. His finger came back to its starting point just under her navel. With slow precision he began to lower it.
Just when Katherine thought she would cry out with suppressed emotion, Jace withdrew his hand and stood up abruptly, nearly unbalancing her. He cradled her face between his palms and hungrily sought her mouth. “I can’t take this anymore,” he muttered thickly. He extinguished the candles quickly and propelled her into the bedroom with him.
Tossing back the covers with an impatient carelessness, he eased Katherine onto the bed. She didn’t hesitate to remove her jeans and panties while he flung off his clothes, hissing deprecations to contrary buttons, buckles, and snaps.
When they were both naked, he covered her body with his. He rained fervent kisses on her face and threaded his hands through the golden strands of hair fanning the pillow.
Desperately he whispered, “Katherine, don’t deny me this. Please. I want you. I need…”
Her body answered for her. It was unreservedly acquiescent to his demands. Her hands smoothed over the broad expanse of his back, down over his hips, and as far as she could reach on his thighs. It was longing frustrated by abstinence that compelled her to meet his passion equally.
They became one without pause. Jace ceased his frantic kisses and lay his dark head beside hers on the pillow, breathing deeply. Katherine rested her hands on the lean muscles of his hips. They were content to savor the sensation, the satisfaction, the bliss of their bodies being joined in this timeless intimacy.
After long moments Jace supported himself on his elbows as he gazed down into her face. “I knew you were ready or I never would have—”
“I know,” she whispered back, brushing back the raven waves that lay damply on his forehead.
He traced the features of her face, sliding his finger across her cheekbones, down her nose to her lips. His lips followed the path.
“Being like this with you… it’s… oh, Katherine, kiss me,” he rasped. She could feel that his body was demanding more now that the initial frustration had been appeased.
She drew his tongue into her mouth and then searched the depths of his with her own curious exploration. He drew apart from her slightly and cupped a breast in each hand, pushing them upward to meet his eager lips. His velvet-rough tongue painted each rosy crest with a warm wetness before it was suckled with his mouth.
Katherine cried his name joyously as she lost all consciousness of anything except Jace’s body bringing her to fulfillment. No small component of that fulfillment was hearing Jace call her name in his own crescendo of ecstasy.
* * *
“I want to check on Allison.” Katherine said into the darkness a short while later.
“Who?” Jace asked jokingly. He dodged her playful slap and said, “I’ll come with you.”
They giggled like naughty children as they stumbled naked through the dark house. Jace managed to bump into and fall over everything he possibly could and blindly groped for Katherine for support. Invariably, he grabbed some intimate part of her anatomy, apologizing profusely as he did so.
“Oh, forgive me, milady. I’m so sorry. It’s damned dark in here you know.”
Katherine giggled. “You don’t need a light. You know where everything is.”
“You’re absolutely right,” he said with a lecherous growl and pinched the fleshy part of her bottom.
“Jace! In front of the baby?”