She shook her head, but another fit of laughter burst out of her before she clapped her hand over her mouth.
“I’ll teach you to laugh at my manhood, you irreverent wench.” But his eyes were dancing with laughter as well as he tumbled her to the bed and covered her body with his.
This was it. The moment she had been waiting for.
Hilarity vanished in a wave of heat. He smoothed the hair off her face, looking deep into her eyes. “Are you ready for me, my muse?”
“Yes,” she answered, nodding for emphasis.
“Guide me into your sweet haven, then.”
With fingers that were not quite steady, she reached down and notched his member at the entrance of her body. She thought he would ram into her, and steeled for it, but he rocked slowly, opening her with shallow thrusts that only breached her a little at a time. It felt so strange. To have this massive intrusion into her flesh. But also deeply erotic.
She relaxed. Her body accepting him, opening for him. She started chasing those thrusts, digging her heels into the bed andlifting in time with him. This wasn’t so bad. The friction was quite delicious, as it was the sense of being joined.
His mouth took hers in a deep, possessive kiss. She moaned in ecstasy, relaxing, opening... and he drove home.
Her whimper of pain remained trapped between their mouths as her arms and legs locked about him. They both froze, their gazes clashing. She saw confusion, incomprehension, and disbelief reflected in his eyes.
And her? How did she feel? She didn’t dare to breathe, as the burning and stretching sensation still robbed her of speech.
Good God, the pain had been sharper than she had expected. Until that moment, things had been going so well, she actually thought the process would be seamless. But of course, it wasn’t. Losing one’s virginity was not something that would be easy.
“Thalia? What just happened?”
She shook her head. Unable to articulate a response while her flesh still smarted.
“Fuck.” He muttered, drawing back. It intensified the burning sensation. So she tightened her limbs around him.
“Don’t move.”
“I’m going to withdraw so that you can be more comfortable. It’s obvious you are in pain.”
“Don’t go,” she repeated, shaking her head. “It’s better now. Just give me a moment, please.”
He acquiesced. Thank God. His body was a still and protective presence above her, while his mouth rained soft kisses over her brow and cheeks. The sheer tenderness of the gesture brought her to tears. She closed her eyes, not wanting him to see them and misinterpret them. But one lone droplet escaped from the corner of her eye. She felt it running down her temple until his thumb brushed it away.
“What is it, sweetheart? If you want to stop, I’ll stop. Just...talk to me.”
“I don’t want to stop.”
The searing pain she had experienced upon his penetration had receded. Giving way to a dull ache. She took a deep breath, consciously relaxing her internal muscles. And then gave them a tentative squeeze. He grunted but remained immobile. Awaiting her signal.
His patience and tenderness were everything. This man, who looked so large and threatening, whose features seemed carved of the same stone he molded to his will, was a tender soul. A generous lover willing to give pleasure and demand nothing in return. She could not have made a better choice for her first time.
Moved by an overwhelming feeling she dared not analyze, she brought her hands to cradle his jaw, feeling the harsh bristles of a day’s beard shadowing the sculpted angles of his face.
“Kiss me,” she begged.
He complied with alacrity, fusing their mouths in a deep, slow, thorough kiss that liquified her flesh and started another kind of ache in the place where they joined. She was familiar with this ache. It was a need for completion so profound it made her flesh throb. She rocked her hips into it, trying to create friction to ease the need.
His breath caught, but he still did not move, did not take control. He remained as immobile as a rock, steady, firm, secure. Hovering above her, allowing her to set the pace, to take her pleasure in his body.
But she needed more. Encouraged by his support, she ran her hands down the hard ridges of his back to land on his firm buttocks, kneading the flesh there. Only then did he allow himself the slightest of movement.
“Move,” she whispered against his mouth. “Take me, please.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. With a deep growl, his hips started a deep, slow, relentless pumping. His member slid almost completely out before sinking into her yielding flesh in a leisurely caress. Inch by inch in a delicious, wet slide.
