Her gaze clung to his heavy-lidded eyes as long fingers slipped to a place no man had touched. The light brush against one tiny, sensitive bud made her whole body jerk as if from an electric shock. A blush seared her throat and cheeks as he watched her.
Part of her wondered at her boldness, letting him caress her so. Yet she couldn’t deny her need for him.
His touch circled and there it was again. Unmistakable. High-voltage pleasure at his lightest caress.
She heard her breath loud in her ears, felt her ribcage expand with the desperate need to draw oxygen.
Her breath whooshed out as his touch moved down and into slick heat. Without conscious thought she clamped her muscles around that tiny invasion.
For what seemed for ever Annalisa hung suspended, aware only of the pleasure of his caress and the grim stillness of his face. Tahir looked as if he concentrated every effort on control.
His hand moved fractionally, building a gentle rhythm: along, down, in. And back. And with each stroke she felt herself slip further from the rational world.
She might have no direct experience to draw on but Annalisa understood what her body told her. What Tahir was doing, the pleasure his caress promised.
Her voice was a raw gasp when it finally emerged. ‘No, Tahir. Stop.’
For a moment it seemed he didn’t hear. Her body was moving against his touch, her hips rising when his probing fingers stilled. Annalisa bit down a cry of disappointment, her body still throbbing to the beat of his making.
‘No?’ The single syllable sounded strangled, so foreign she barely recognised it.
‘Not like this.’ She lifted a shaky hand to his shirt, but was too unsteady to grapple with buttons. ‘I want you, not…’
Her words petered out under the weight of sudden shyness and the incendiary flare in his eyes. They blazed like burning sapphires.
Before she had time to gather her thoughts he was gone, rolling off the bed to stand on the matting.
Her instant protest died in her throat as he ripped open his shirt, shrugging out of it and his jacket in one rapid movement. Before she could catch her breath he’d discarded the rest of his clothes.
Breathing became impossible.
Despite the bruises and cuts marring the symmetry of his body, Tahir was the most beautiful being she’d seen.
He moved, and the lamplight caught a line of old scar tissue low on his back. Then he turned and Annalisa’s mind atrophied. She’d never seen a naked aroused man. She’d never known one could look so magnificent. Wonderful and slightly frightening at the same time.
He didn’t give her time to think. Tahir lowered himself, his bare flesh against hers, hotter than fire. His thighs rubbed hers; the soft hair on his chest abraded her nipples. She welcomed the weight of him pressing her down, took his roughened jaw in her hands and planted a fervent, clumsy kiss against his lips.
A deep rumbling growl vibrated through his chest. Teeth scraped the sensitive skin at her neck and she arched, burying her fingers in the rough silk of his hair. Then she felt pressure where he’d caressed so intimately. Tahir shifted his weight, pushing her legs wide.
She stiffened and the caress at her neck became a tender bite, sending lush waves of pleasure through her. At the same time Tahir moved, pushing up in a slow surge of power.
Pleasure splintered as a ripple of something like pain shot through her, a stinging discomfort that made her catch her breath and stiffen in his hold.
But before she did more than register the sensation Tahir withdrew, lowering his mouth to her breast and laving it until she shivered with renewed desire. She held him near, overwhelmed by the emotions stirring as she watched him, felt him.
When he pressed close again Annalisa rose to him. The feel of his big body against hers held a magic she couldn’t resist. Urged by large hands at her thighs she lifted her legs, clasping him close, revelling in the feel of his hot satiny skin.
He raised his head, eyes meeting hers.
There was movement, that bombarding of curious new sensations, and through it all his gaze didn’t waver. It held her steady and safe, connected in a way that made her heart swell in her breast as their bodies joined.
This time there was no pain as he pushed deep.
Her body opened to his as if it was meant to be.
He stilled.
There was no sound except a riffle of night breeze against the tent flap and the discreet chirrup of an insect down by the wadi. Annalisa didn’t breathe. Nor did Tahir. The moment stretched long and portentous between them.
Their gazes meshed as she absorbed the full weight of what they’d done. She read the grim tension drawing his lean features. The strained muscles of his shoulders and neck. The flare of his nostrils. The fact that his gaze had turned utterly unreadable.
Was he regretting this?