The word anchored in Rory’s mind as he stretched Juliet’s arms over her head, her body vulnerable beneath him, and angled his head to kiss the curve of her neck…
Trailing his tongue along the line of her clavicle, down the décolletage of her breasts, her nipples taut and straining against the silk of her gown before his mouth ever reached them. With his other hand, he tugged at her bodice, exposing her chemise. He tugged again, baring her nipples to the night air and sucked, taking one into his mouth like the sweetest cherry. Her back arched, pushing her into him, her lips parted and a soft sigh released to the crisp night air.
Lower went his free hand, which began tugging at her skirts, pulling them up, up, up until silk and muslin hems bunched at her waist. He shifted to take in the view of her—the beauty of earth below and sky above nothing to the beauty of her—long, stockinged legs…twin patches of bare thighs leading to the dark curls of her sex…her eyes half-lidded with desire…her kiss-crushed lips parted and releasing sighs and moans of want and need.
She needed him to touch her…there.
Light fingertips brushed across her creamy thighs. One moment she was squeezing them together, the next she was splaying them apart. She’d gone mindless with desire.
He tightened the hand around her wrists as the other found her mons pubis, his rough fingertips grazing along her slit, wet and swollen from desire, as he’d known it would be. Her hips angled, pushing her against him, begging for more. He smiled and kept his touch feather light, eliciting a moan of frustration from her. When he decided she’d anticipated long enough, his finger trailed to the entrance of her sex. Her breath caught as he slowly pushed inside.Tight. Wet.
“Oh, yes,” poured from the back of her throat, her eyes squeezed shut, her body a vessel of need.
A need he’d created.
A need only he could satisfy.
His.
His gaze fast upon her, she received the pleasure he gave and demanded yet more in return. “Greedy,” he rasped into her ear.
Another finger joined the first, stretching her, filling her, pulling more moans from her, making her wild beneath his hand. When his cock could take no more, he withdrew from her, leaving her teetering on the edge of release, no doubt. Her eyes flew open, both questioning and slightly outraged, demanding he finish what he’d started.
Then he had the fall of his trousers open and his cock free and pressing at her entrance. In one swift, satisfying thrust of his hips, he was inside her. He went still, letting her adjust to him, yes, but also soaking her into his senses. Her slick heat around him. Her breath rasping humid against his neck. Her crisp scent of sage and jasmine mixed with the heady sex scent of woman.
Her hips swiveled, and his cock throbbed. She arched into him, demanding the release promised. He began moving his hips, sliding in and out of her, and her quim picked up where his fingers had left it—on the brink of climax.
“Juliet, you’re going to release for me…” He licked his thumb and slipped it between their bodies, down to her sex, where her most sensitive flesh had only awaited his touch. “Now.”
He slid his thumb against the hooded nub—her breath caught. He applied pressure and rubbed—she tensed and bit her plump bottom lip, a woman held entirely in his thrall. Another slick stroke—her back arched, eyes squeezed shut, the entirety of her being concentrated on the patch of skin where he touched her—then another…and she broke on a cry and pulsed her climax around his cock. “Rory,” she gasped against his neck.
“And that’s how I like you to say my name,” he rumbled into her ear.
A languid smile replete with satiety curved about her mouth. He released her arms, which would start to ache if he continued to hold them above her head, but he stayed inside her, his mouth still pressed to her ear. “Now we have the first one out of the way.”
“First?” she gasped. No small amount of awe in that gasp. “It can happen again?”
“Oh, aye, lass, and it will.”
Her pupils flared at the promise.
She fully intended to hold him to it.
He began to move inside her again, to penetrate her with measured calculation and purpose. His own desire began to transform. This was need, raw and urgent, heightened by an emotion coursing through him that he’d never experienced.
This wasn’t merely the coupling of two bodies.
It was the coupling of two souls…
Of two hearts.
And perhaps, she felt it, too.
This sense of oneness couldn’t be all him.
It took two halves to make this whole.
Her legs wrapped around his waist, insisting he penetrate her deeper…fully. He slid a hand beneath her bottom, tilting her hips so she could receive more of him, and gathered her close, giving her what she wanted with sure, deliberate strokes, burying himself inside her to the hilt.