“Why—is aught amiss?”
He smiled, the look slow and so powerfully sensual that her knees would have buckled beneath her had she been standing.
“Aye,” he said quietly. “And the first is this—”
He kept his gaze locked with hers as he reached up to yank the heavy curtains closed around the bed, enveloping them in a heady cocoon of darkness that cast them both in shadow.
“Then this—” he continued on a huskier note, at last divesting himself of his braies in one fluid movement. In the next instant he startled her by pulling her up to straddle him, guiding her with the strong warmth of his hands so that her parted legs perched over his straining, hard length.
Then, taking in a deep breath and seeming to hold it, he finished on a low and utterly sensual rasp, “—and finally, this.”
With that exhalation, he thrust up and slid with one, smooth stroke deep inside her. She released a gasping cry that was echoed by his groan, arching back with the absolute bliss of the feeling. Lights danced before her vision, and she rocked instinctively against him after the first delicious shock had passed, overcome by the beauty of their joining, even as she realized in some distant part of her awareness that he had gone completely still.
“Ah, by all the angels and saints, Alissende,” he said with a guttural sound, clutching at her hips and trying to halt her rocking movements, “you must wait, lady, or I’ll not last. ’Tis why I pulled you atop me, hoping to withstand the pleasure a little longer, but…”
Alissende exhaled slowly, the wondrous feelings goading her to continue, so that she needed to exert all her effort in trying to fulfill his appeal for patience. She braced her hands on his chest and felt the warm play of muscles beneath her palms as they both struggled to remain still.
It was a futile effort.
He was buried deeply inside her, and it felt so good…so good that in another moment she realized that she could not comply with his request. Nay, not if the world commanded it—though she would not deny him the joy of the same kind of explosive completion as she had known, either, given freely in all its fierce, unstoppable glory.
And so, considering that the turnabout was fair play, she gripped his shoulders and suddenly rolled sideways, breaking their connection for what she hoped would be naught but a brief instant in order to bring him up, poised over her now. She cradled him between her legs, and his entire body shook slightly with the effort it took to maintain his control as she lifted her hips up, urging him inside her again.
“Wait no longer, Damien,” she murmured softly. “Make love to me now, in the way we’re both longing for. Fully and completely, right now…”
Even in the shadows of their bed enclosure, the delicious agony of his reaction to her command shone in his face. With a groan, he thrust forward, rocking deeply into her once more. And then they surrendered to the ecstasy of their lovemaking. Alissende clung to him, matching every exquisite thrust and feeling the bliss of it building again to an unbearable, exquisite pitch…
She curled forward to Damien with the glorious tension, closing her eyes and burying her face in his neck as she pressed her lips to his salty-warm skin. With one more perfect thrust he sent her tumbling into bliss again, and she gasped his name as she convulsed around him; a moment later she felt him stiffen and heard him cry out as he yielded to his own powerful release, filling her with the sweet warmth of his seed.
When the spasms had passed, Damien collapsed onto her. His weight was a welcome burden, and from some dimly lit place of awareness, she felt their hearts beating in rapid, pulsing tandem. She threaded her fingers with his and pressed a kiss to his brow, sated and complete in a way she had not felt in more than five years.
His eyes were closed, his expression peaceful, though in the next moment, he shifted away from her so as not to crush her. But his arm remained draped over her waist, his hand entwined with hers.
“I am sorry I could not make it last longer, lady,” he murmured finally, his voice sounding gravelly. Spent. She smiled and raised his fingers to her lips, kissing them.
“There is no need to feel so, Damien,” she said, brushing her lips over the back of his hand now before she conceded to release it, leaving his palm splayed, warm and strong, over her belly. “It was wonderful. And it has been a long time, for both of us.”
“You have no idea.”
She tipped her face to look at him.
With her movement, he tilted his head off the bolster, opening his eyes then and meeting her gaze. “My last time, Alissende, was with you.”
“What?”The shock of hearing him say it pitched through her, making her feel wonderful and terrible all at once.
“After leaving you, I joined the Templar Brotherhood.”
“Well, of course, I know that—but I’d heard that the strict precepts of the Templar Order had fallen by the wayside over the course of time.” She gazed up now at the painted panels above the bed. “I suppose I assumed that in all this time…I just never imagined…”
Her voice trailed off, and she felt Damien shift to lie on his back as well, noticing that he took care to pull the sheet around himself as he did, to conceal the lower half of his body from her gaze. After a moment, he said quietly, “It is true that some did not live all their vows in good faith, my brother Alex among them. But I did, Alissende. One of the oaths I took was of celibacy.” He paused before adding with a hint of awkwardness to his voice, “The precepts against self-pleasure were no less strict. I was a Templar until my arrest and interrogation by the Inquisition, and I have never taken any promise I have made lightly.”
Alissende felt the power behind both that statement and the man who had uttered it. It took her breath away and left her feeling strangely shy. A gentle silence settled over them, and she resisted the urge to fidget. How should she act with him now, she wondered? Were they to go on as if naught had happened between them?
Sweet Mother Mary,couldshe go on as if naught had happened?
Damien solved her dilemma by extending his arm in silent invitation to nestle close to him so that he might wrap her in his embrace.
She hesitated only for an instant before she moved in gratefully, resting her head on the warm and powerfully muscled area between his shoulder and his chest. Once again she felt a twinge of surprise at how easily they had fallen into such a familiar position with each other again, and the bittersweet pang in realizing just how much she had missed it.
