She was like an expensive porcelain doll, too beautiful to touch. His unwieldy brawn felt useless, untrained, and inexperienced.
He found and focused on the trust within her eyes. A trust his own body could answer, even though he couldn’t find words for everything welling up in his heart.
He placed one knee on the bed. With reverent tenderness, he kissed her forehead. Her right cheek. Then, her left. He cupped her cheeks and brushed his lips across hers.
“Please note”—he smiled—“this time, you didn’t need to ask.”
She answered first with a tiny upward curve of her lips. “Obliged.”
He ran his finger down her neck and then around the contour of her breast. “I shouldn’t be the one.”
Her breath slowed, deepened. “You’ve always been the one.”
“I wish I could say I waited for you.”
“Well…” She smoothed her hand over his shoulder. “I’d ratheroneof us be experienced, else this would take a very long time.”
“I want this to take a long time.” Heat shimmered in his blood. “Averylong time. Just you and me.” For hours. Days.
Long enough they’d never need depart.
“Darling”—she caressed his back—“when will you understand? It’s you. It’s only you. You’re the only man I want. The only man I’ll ever kiss. The only man—”
He claimed her lips less to silence than to imprint—a brand that would keep her words forever true…and not just—as his demons suggested—spoken from inexperience.
The same inexperience that allowed her to open without guile, in full trust, intensifying her unintentional, seductive allure.
His first sincere coupling.
Wanting to give her something in return, he whispered a secret he’d held close. “I haven’t been with anyone else since we met.”
“No one?”
He nodded, concentrating on the way she stroked his hair.
“Rayne.” She imbued his name with awe.
He ran the pad of his thumb over her throat, following her jawline with his lips, burning with the need to claim.
Gentle.
Careful.
Kind.
He trailed his lips to her breasts.Patience.He placed a comforting hand on her hip as he enclosed her nipple again, a light but thorough swill. Her moans thrummed in his cock.
At this rate, the tinder would be gone before they reached the flame.
“My minx.” He stroked her quivering stomach. “Now, I’ve countless hours to study you.” He gripped her hip. “To cherish you.” He cupped her bottom. “To memorize your taste, your sounds.” He moved until she was hemmed in between his thighs. “I swear to seek out every touch that makes you shiver. To map you from head to toe.”
She murmured an incoherent sound of assent. Grasping his cheeks, she yanked his lips to hers and kissed him until her breath and his merged.
She grew into his arms, lifting like a wave off the bed, answering his promises with hunger all her own. They were shadow and light, large and small, restraint and enthusiasm—but in this, they were one.
His fingers dipped into her slick heat—she was ready. His body seized with a primalyes, draining his blood for one, essential purpose.
A purpose he could no longer delay.
