He leaned in, his face so close that she could feel his breath on her face, his eyes piercing hers. “Bravery isn’t the absence of fear. It’s acting even though you’re afraid. And you have done exactly that, my lady.”
She took a deep shaky breath, opened her mouth to speak, and found that she had nothing to say. His eyes dropped from her eyes to her lips, and he licked his own.
“You are brave, Helena. Braver than you should be,” he said, his voice like gravel and heat. “Looking at me like that. Standing this close. You have no idea what kind of man I am when I want something.” His fingers slid to the back of her neck. “And I want you.”
Her chin tilted upward and his head tilted lower.
And he kissed her.
His mouth pressed harder against hers as hers softened to him. She felt his tongue flick out, a taste, a question. She was desperate to taste him again. Parting her lips, she let his tongue in, and let it touch hers.
Coffee and cigars,she thought.
That’s what he tasted of. It wasn’t a taste she would have thought to love, but her senses were buzzing with pleasure. Like bees to honey, she could feel everything in her yearning towards him, her back arching so that her bosom could brush against his chest.
His hands tightened against her waist, and he began to kiss her in earnest. She clung to his shoulders, her knees weak, and let him hold her up as his mouth ravaged hers. Her entire body came alive, tingling with nerves and ready to go, though she knew not where.
She hummed into his mouth as if he was a delicious meal she’d had the fortune to come upon. She felt him shiver as she did so, his hips jerking.
He likes that.
She didn’t know what to do with that knowledge, but it made her feel powerful. Powerful, and in control.
She went up on her tiptoes, the better to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him close. She wanted him deeper into her mouth, to let him plunder to his heart’s content.
His hands began to move, tracing patterns on her back as his lips left her mouth to trail kisses along her jaw and down her neck.
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to touch you like this,” he panted.
She threw her head back, panting softly as his tongue lit a wet trail of heat along the mounds of her breasts, before sucking her skin into his mouth.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, her body jerking in reaction, nerves experiencing a type of awakening she’d never felt before.
His hands dropped to her hips and before she knew it, he was lifting her up and dropping her on the table.
Thank Heavens, for she didn’t think her legs would hold her for much longer.
As soon as she was seated, he was diving back in, his deft fingers working the hooks at her back, one by one, as his mouth kissed along her slowly exposed shoulder before biting into her neck.
Then, he had her unhooked to her waist and he pulled down the neck of her gown.
He pulled back for a moment, gazing at her like a man who’d dragged himself through the desert, and she was the oasis.
“I want to worship you,” he breathed, and lowered himself to cup her breasts with a hungry growl.
He opened his mouth wide, teeth digging into the soft, giving flesh as he kneaded the underside of her left breast. It popped right out of her stays, and he took her nipple into his mouth, moaning and groaning like it was the most delicious thing he’dever tasted, his tongue licking around it before he placed a kiss at the pebbled tip of her nipple.
She shivered in reaction, wanting more, no, needing it, but not knowing what more it was she wanted.
He reached up with his finger and flicked at her breast, and she uttered a sound halfway between a whimper and a moan, thrusting her chest out at him, as she grabbed his other hand and placed it on her right breast that was just as hungry for the same treatment.
“Good girl. That’s it,” he purred, opening his mouth wide, swallowing as much of her right breast as he could, and suckling at it before moving to her left and doing the same thing.
Back and forth, back and forth as she began to squirm, her lower body lighting up like a beacon, unidentified liquid seeping out of her warmth and wetting her thighs.
“God…” she moaned, not knowing what to do with herself.
He straightened up at the sound, grabbing her legs and pulling her closer so that he was wedged between them, and they were as close as two people could be. He cupped her face and began to kiss her in earnest, body pressed against hers so firmly that she could feel his… hardness poking against her.
