“Scared?” he drawled, his tone mildly mocking.
She turned her head on the grass. Edmond was watching her, the expression in his eyes heated and intense. He was attractive in a dangerous, exciting way, and something wild and unfettered inside of her lunged for him, even knowing whatever they shared would be a fleeting experience in time. “Never,” she murmured. “This is an experience I am ready for.”
“Tell me, Ester, which experience exactly are you anticipating?”
“Why, Edmond,” she said sweetly. “Ravishment.”
The breath hissed from him as if he had truly anticipated a different response.
“Bloody hell, Ester, do not—” he said hoarsely.
“Scared?” she provocatively taunted. “Why, Edmond, I would never have imagined that—”
The next moment she was being hauled underneath his weight, his mouth capturing hers in a verythorough kiss.Oh!Pleasure thumped hard in her belly, and Ester moaned. Clasped against the full length of his body, she curved against him and opened her mouth to his passionate kisses.
Tonight…I will have no regrets.
CHAPTER10
Breathing felt impossible. Thinking…she could not think, nor did she want anything else in her mind but Edmond. Ester was drowning in pleasure and the wicked thrill of being held so wantonly in his arms. Their mouths tasted and sighed against each other as he kissed her endlessly.
“This is dangerous,” he growled against her mouth, nipping her bottom lip, almost in punishment for making him lose control.
“Perhaps,” she whispered, sliding her hands around his neck. “I never knew kissing could be thiswonderful. It may become my best pastime for the upcoming future.”
The low sound made in his throat was decidedly threatening and possessing. Her toes curled in delight. “I meant with you,” she whispered, kissing the corner of his mouth. “Only with you.”
“Ester, I—”
It was her turn to swallow his words and tempt him by licking along the seam of his mouth. His delighted moan at her actions vibrated through her entire body and settled low in her belly, to that place where she ached with throbbing intensity. They became lost in each other’s taste, scent, and whispering sighs of longing. Ester had never known desire could burn. The night air was cool, but there was a fever in her body that could not be assuaged, a heat that urged her to tighten her fingers in the hair at his nape and wickedly open her legs beneath him to cradle his weight.
Itwaswonderful and decadent and so very wicked. Yet she did not want to stop. That edge of loneliness and uncertainty about her wants and future vanished under the assault of sensations. He dragged her gown up her legs, the cool night air kissing over her skin with ripples of sensation. Ester trembled when he arched her neck and licked along the curve of her throat, murmuring rough yet sensually sweet words of wonder.
“I cannot…I feel as if I cannot damn well think with this mad need I have for you,” he groaned in the hollow of her throat. “By God, I am not an untried lad, but I cannot stop, Ester.”
She threaded her fingers through his hair and murmured in the dark gardens, “I have no wish for you to stop, Edmond.”
He stilled, his face buried at her throat, tension vibrating through his entire body. Edmond sank his teeth over the flesh covering her racing pulse. That small bite hurt…deliciously so. She whimpered and shivered in the cage of his arms. He pushed from her, and she was about to protest his loss, but word failed her when she realized he was stripping from his clothes.
A weak feeling of fright and wonder cascaded through Ester, rendering her boneless. She could not have moved if several people had trampled inside their secret haven. All too soon, Edmond was stark naked, and she could only stare in wonder at the naked form revealed by the dim cast of the moonlight. He was beautifully muscled everywhere, an almost intimidating strength and power to his form as he came over her. He tugged her into a sitting position, gently clasping her cheeks and tilting her face to his. This kiss was tender, and her heart flipped inside her chest like a runaway carriage.
Emotions tightened her throat, and she helped him remove her dress and undergarments between heated kisses with trembling fingers. Ester coasted her fingers over his chest's sleek, powerful muscles, reveling in the feel of him beneath her tips.
He touched her everywhere, raising the heat inside her body to unbearable heights. Edmond cupped the pert mounds of her breasts and kneaded the swollen tips of her nipples between his fingers. Then, as if not satisfied, his mouth seared along the path of his fingers. He sucked a nipple into his mouth. Ester moaned, the piercing sensation low in her stomach urging her to fall back against the prickly grass and allowing him to blanket her body with his.
He pressed heated wet kisses over her breasts until they were heavy, the feeling in them almost painful. His fingers brushed over the hollow of her throat, over the aching mounds of her breasts and seared a path over her quivering stomach down to her thighs. His hands and mouth gave her no ease, tormenting and rousing over her body.
Edmond went even lower, trailing his tongue over her lower stomach to nip at the flesh above her navel. Ester gasped and arched against his mouth, her senses assaulted with piercing desire. With a sense of dazed shock and arousal, she held her breath and watched as he kissed and licked his way past her stomach to that place between her legs that throbbed so.
His fingers found her damp curls, gliding through slick folds, sinking deep into her wet sex.
“Edmond!” she cried, curling her fingers into the grass.
“Shh,” he soothed, kissing right about her mound, gently moving his fingers inside her.
The feeling was indescribable. As if controlled by unseen forces, her thighs widened even further, and she wantonly lifted her hips into his caress. That pushed his finger deeper, and it touched a spot that had her slapping her hand over her mouth to halt the scream.Oh!“Edmond, I—”
Ester stopped breathing when he removed his finger and lasciviously licked along her sex. It felt as if her body froze as she tried to process the sensation that blossomed through her body. Her thighs trembled at the heat that filled her veins, and her breath lifted on a harsh moan when he did it…again and again and again with breathtaking intensity.