The brassiere strap across her back came away with one deft flick of his wrist. Her breath came unsteadily when his fingers drew a line from under her arms to her waist with agonizing, enticing leisure. With no objection from her, her panties went the way of the bra when his hands encountered the garment. Indeed, of their own will, her hips lifted to accommodate him.
All control vanished when she felt his hands on the backs of her thighs. Her breath quickened to rapid panting as he worked the creamy lotion into her skin. The backs of her knees, her calves, and the soles of her feet knew the strength and tenderness of his touch.
She ground her forehead against the quilt and stifled a moan of pure, animal pleasure when she felt his hair-roughened thighs closing around her hips as he straddled her. His hands slipped under her to fondle her breasts as he stretched above her. Instantly she knew that at some point he had rid himself of his underwear. He was a delicious weight to bear. She could feel the hair on his chest tickling the skin on her back.
Placing his mouth against her ear, he said with unbridled urgency, “Hailey, let me love you. Now, my love, before I die of wanting you.”
He levered himself above her until she turned to lie facing him. His eyes ran the length of her. Everywhere they touched, her skin felt like it had been prickled with the sparks that fly from a sparkler. Then, slowly, as one humbly accepts a long awaited tribute, he lowered his body over hers.
He kissed her. The kiss was exquisitely sweet. His tongue barely penetrated her lips, outlined the shape of them, investigated the inside of them, rubbed against her tongue. Greedy now that all the shackles had been loosened, her own tongue darted past his lips.
Her kiss unleashed his driving passion. Randomly, his mouth ran over her, partaking of her flesh like a man starved. Her breasts knew the blissful torment of his lips, her nipples the gentle lashing of his tongue. He kissed his way over the flat plain of her stomach to her navel, where he used the erotic powers of his mouth to full advantage. Her fingers burrowed in his hair and she cried his name when his kisses burned along the tender flesh inside her thighs.
“Hailey.” He said her name with the reverence of a prayer as he covered her again. She welcomed him, moving as he guided her with the adjustments of his own body. Kissing her deeply, he probed her tentatively and met only pliant acceptance. “Hailey, sweet Hailey,” he murmured as he claimed her in the timeless and most eternal of ways.
She knew only a flash of pain and fear when he breached the last barrier of her innocence. Then she was caught up in the wonder of it all as wave after wave of incredible feeling washed over her. “Tyler.” She hadn’t even realized that she had said his name until he stilled and lifted his head to look down into her radiant face.
“Am I hurting you, Hailey? Tell me and—”
“No,” she said, capturing his face between her palms and lowering it to kiss him. “No, no. I never knew … I never imagined …” She arched her throat as another sensation seized her and lifted her hips to know more of him.
“Take all of me, Hailey,” he groaned as he laid his head next to hers. “That’s it. Yes, my love, move with me. That’s it. Oh, God, so perfect.”
The universe could have been extinguished for all she knew, for all she cared. The revelation that burst upon her brain was like a blinding light that could have replaced the sun. This had been ordained, prescribed by Fate, predestined. And as thrilling as it was, it wasn’t the act itself from which she derived this transporting ecstasy, but from the man. Never would she share this with another.
She loved Tyler Scott.
Their movements were perfectly matched, a blending of spirits as well as bodies. She surrendered her love, her life, to him. He filled her, expanding her soul until they exploded in a simultaneous celebration of life.
For long moments, they lay still, locked in that most intimate of embraces. Her face turned into his and they breathed each other’s breath. When the pounding of his heart, which she felt inside her own breasts, had calmed, he kissed her brow.
“It is not you who has been seduced, my love. But I.”
CHAPTER 10
Are you trying to get me drunk?” she asked as he pushed another glass of cold, white wine on her.
“Naturally. Isn’t that what debauchers of virgins do? Get them drunk and then get them naked?”
“I’m already naked.”
He grinned and raked her with lascivious eyes. “So you are,” he drawled. Leaning forwa
rd from his sitting position, he buried his face in the hair that rioted around her head in enchanting disarray. “And I’m already drunk. On you.”
The kiss was long and deep and some of the wine was spilled onto the carpet. When at last Hailey pulled away, she sighed contentedly. He chuckled softly. “Does it feel that good?”
Her eyes were misty and slumberous, a green watercolor in her flushed face. “Yes,” she whispered convincingly. “It feels that good.”
His hand came up to marvel over the softness of her cheek. “To me, too, Hailey.” Carrying her with him, he fell back against the pillows they had taken from the couch and piled on the quilt before the fire. She stretched along his length, propping herself on her elbows and leaning over him as he caressed her arms and shoulders.
“I was afraid that I’d be … well, awkward … not good for …”
He stilled her lips by placing an imperative index finger over them. “You were perfect.” He searched her troubled eyes for a long moment then said softly, “Acceptance is crucial to you, isn’t it, Hailey. Why? You do everything well. You’re beautiful.”
“I wasn’t until I met you,” she said with tender gratitude.
His finger followed the hairline across her forehead. “You’ve always been, you just didn’t know it. What fool made you feel you weren’t beautiful? A man?”