“Do you expect me to buy the poor-little-princess routine?” He demanded, needing to grab onto any kind of anger or accusation to stop himself from ripping the damned lingerie from her body. The slow, sensual strip-tease was about to give him a heart attack.
“I am never alone and yet I am so, so lonely. I have no friends. I have never been able to indulge the behavior that other women take for granted. And I have wanted, for so long, to be made to feel like a woman.”
“Jalilah. You have to stop this.”
“Why? If you don’t want me, then simply walk away.” She finally lifted her lingerie off completely, dropping it to the floor by their feet. Her breasts were right there, and it took every ounce of his strength not to drop his gaze to them like some lecherous pervert. “But if you want me, as I want you, then please give me something no one else can.”
A muscle jerked in his cheek. “Men must be queuing up to be with you.”
“I told you, dating for me is not like this. It is … staid. I want to be touched. I want to feel. I will never have an opportunity like this again, when I can be completely alone with someone I desire.”
“And then what?” He prompted, his eyes scanning her beautiful face. He couldn’t believe he was even entertaining this idea.
“And then,” she shrugged. “When we leave here, it will be as though it never happened.”
“What if I don’t want to let you go?”
Lilah’s smile was wistful. “You will.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because a man like you could never live as I do.” She lifted onto her tiptoes. “The captivity would kill you.”
Now, finally, he glanced at her breasts, and instantly groaned. They were perfect, as everything about her was. Neat, firm, and rounded, he felt his fingertips tingle with a desire to grip them.
“Touch me,” she begged, as if reading his thoughts. “I won’t break. And I am desperate to feel.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he attempted one last time to dissuade her from the reckless path she’d chosen.
Lilah reached down in response and grabbed his hands. She lifted them confidently, until his fingers splayed across her breasts. “Touch me,” she begged, though the brief contact was already unfurling ribbons of pleasure inside of her.
“If you want this to stop, Lilah, you need to only say the word.”
“I trust you,” she promised, swaying her hips forward so that her silky underpants brushed against his arousal.
If only Will could have conveyed how little he trusted himself. He hadn’t slept with a virgin since high school. He wanted to make it special for Lilah but that would require the kind of strength he wasn’t sure he possessed. How
could he draw it out and make it memorable when he could already feel a little of himself seeping with anticipation for her?
His chin was roughened by stubble. When he pressed his mouth to hers, so gently she shivered, she was aware first of the beard and then of the perfectness of his mouth against hers.
She smiled as his tongue lashed hers, and she tangled her fingers through his hair on instinct alone.
“I would like to do this somewhere better,” he muttered into her mouth as he scooped her up and carried her through the cabin. “Somewhere clean and neat and …”
“It’s perfect,” she denied, pushing at his shirt, lifting it over his chest. He tangled his hands with hers, discarding the shirt then pressing her backwards into the bed. She fell against it but immediately pushed up onto her elbows, searching for his lips again.
He laughed, but it was a shaky sound. He couldn’t believe what they were about to do. He undid his jeans, kicking them off so that he could feel their bare legs.
Lilah thrilled beneath the weight of his body. It was everything she’d fantasised about for years; only so much better. His legs were hairy and strong. He straddled her and she felt his erection; even someone as innocent as Lilah knew what a sign of desire that was.
She ran her fingers over his chest, marveling at her confidence. For someone with no experience, it was easy to know what to do. She was guided by something much bigger than her, or him. A force of need travelled through her like an electrical current. She felt goosebumps on his flesh and smiled.
He trapped her hands against his chest and straightened. “You are too much.”
“Am I?”
“Absolutely.” He smiled though and her heart turned over.