He forced himself to pull back. He nibbled on her mouth until she began to mimic the movement, her lips reaching for his, clinging. And then her tongue stroked his, a warm slick slide. The taste of her was delicious, addictive, and he wanted more, this glorious rush of pleasure through his veins.
He pressed her with his body, allowed her to feel the full strength of him, both a warning and a promise. The disparity between them amazed him, made him want to weep. She was small and fragile and yet at the same time so brave and strong.
He dipped his head and buried his face between her breasts, cupped them with his hands, and heard her moan. He turned his head, cheek grazing her soft skin, and tugged a nipple into his mouth. It beaded against his tongue like a tiny, perfect pearl and she arched her back with a gasp of delight and fisted his hair, holding his head in place.
“Oh!”
This was undoubtedly stupid, but it was too late to stop now. He’d rather cut off his own arm. Heloise was the only important thing in his universe. He wanted to raze cities to the ground for her, to burn her up with the heat of his passion. He couldn’t tell her that he loved her, but he could show her in a thousand different ways. He could worship her with his body, love her with his lips, his tongue.
She didn’t protest when he lowered her to the mattress and stretched out on top of her. No, she tugged at his shirt, yanked it over his head, and threw it away. His heart sang at her impatience.Thiswas the real Heloise Hampden, this fearsome, intoxicating, untamed creature. And just for tonight, she was his.
Chapter 36
Heloise’s skin was on fire.
Each of Raven’s kisses was like a tiny flame, their cumulative effect increasing her desperation, each touch curling through her blood and heating it to a slow boil.
He kissed his way down her body and she let out a shocked gasp as he ran his tongue around her navel then went lower. She put her hands down to cover herself then squirmed in embarrassment as he bent her knees up and moved down so his shoulders were between her thighs. For a few seconds he just stared at her, his breath teasing her sensitized flesh. And then he turned and kissed the inside of her knee.
Heloise fell back and drew her hands into fists on the bedcovers. He moved higher, between her legs. “Oh, good Lord!”
It became a battle of wills. She tried to fight his mastery, but it was no use. He was a magician, teasing with his lips, his tongue. She arched her hips to encourage him to increase the pressure, but he just drew back and blew softly on her. Her skin pebbled and she wanted to scream at him to keep going, to stop playing and have mercy. She didn’t, of course. She had her pride. She could endure. And then he started all over again and she dug her heels into the bed, staring blindly at the infinite stars painted on the ceiling above.
He slipped his tongue inside her, then his fingers, and she clenched around him, trying to keep him inside. Close, so close, so—
He withdrew again and his knowing laugh made her want to hit him. “Not yet. Not without me.”
He rose up, wiping his mouth on his palm, and kissed her. She tasted herself on his tongue, musky and strange, and her stomach clenched in anticipation. Raven rolled over onto his back, shucked out of his breeches, and returned.
It was too dark to see much of him and Heloise bit back a moan of disappointment. And then he settled between her legs, a luscious, heavy weight that spread her thighs and pressed her into the sheets. His bare chest rubbed hers and the head of his shaft pressed against her, hot marble-smoothness where his mouth had been. She shifted, restless, urging him on. He slid over her slickness and groaned deep in his chest.
“I need to be inside you.”
“Please. Yes, please.”
“Don’t beg,” he said roughly. “You don’teverhave to beg.” He dropped his forehead to hers and exhaled in a despairing sigh. “God, Hellcat. I don’t deserve to be your first. Are you sure this is what you want?” He swallowed with an effort, his arms shaking as he held himself above her. “It’s not too late, we can still stop, I—”
Heloise curved upward and answered him with her mouth, stopping his ridiculous words. Idiot man. Of course it was too late. It had been too late for years and years.
She kissed him with every fiber of her being, with a force beyond decency and civilization, with a need to claim, and mark, and possess. She wrapped her arms around him, marveling at the contrast of soft skin and solid muscle on his back, embracing him with a kind of loving despair. This man stole her heart and soul, and she waved them both away, helpless to resist. She pressed her face into the curve of his shoulder and inhaled, taking him deep into her lungs.
He reached down and positioned himself at the entrance to her body. “You want me?” His voice was taut with urgency.
“Yes.”
“Inside you?”
“Yes.”
He changed the angle of his hips, and suddenly he wasn’t sliding against her, he was slidingintoher, a sensation of heat and a brief unaccustomed stretch; not pain, exactly, but not quite pleasant, either.
He drew back and she gripped his sides in panic, thinking he was leaving her. He supported himself on his elbows, forearms cradling her head, and brushed her hair back from her flushed face. He pressed forward again, entering her a little more. “Good?”
She nodded.
“Liar,” he chuckled. “But it will be.”
The look he gave her was so full of wicked promise that it made her pulse rocket even more. She could detect a certain arrogance alongside the concern, as if he knew some brilliant joke and hadn’t yet told her the punch line.