“I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” He confessed the words against her lips. Perhaps he ought to have kept the sentiments to himself, but—
“Don’t wait any longer,” she commanded, equally breathless. Her hands finished untying the sloppy knot he’d tied earlier and then worked his shirt out of his breeches and over his head.
An amazingly efficient woman. Damned if he would complain.
While his ribs protested, he turned his mind to her mouth, her breasts, her thighs… In a frenzy, they undressed one another with a familiarity as though they’d been doing it for years.
Except their passion was new. Burning and fresh.
As was the stabbing pain in his side and chest.
Niles had managed somehow to remove all her clothing before dropping his face into the curve of her neck. “Eve.” He could not have imagined the combination of nervousness and anticipation he’d feel with her.
And a level of trepidation. He wasn’t exactly at his best this evening.
But this was Eve.
When he lifted himself to hover over her again, something thick seemed to lodge itself in his throat. The trust behind her gaze slew him.
She was not a young girl in her twenties. She was a woman. A mother. She’d been a long-suffering wife.
And yet she could somehow trust him.
“I’m so glad it’s you.” She murmured the words as his mouth covered the pulse at her throat. “Niles.”
“Eve.” All he could manage was her name. And yet, it was everything. She was everything. Giver of life. Temptress. Her namesake had led to the fall of man. Would she lead to his own demise? He wondered vaguely that his heart might be obliterated completely by the time this, whatever it was, ran its course.
He didn’t care.
He pressed against her core. So wet for him. Legs wrapped around his thighs, ready to pull him closer.
If only each breath he managed to take didn’t make him feel as though his chest was about to crack open.
His ribs would heal eventually. He focused on the sensations where they joined and continued moving rhythmically.
Damnit. The pain was becoming impossible to ignore.
Eve’s hands clutched at his back as she arched upward. He needed to keep going. Just a few more minutes. He was close, so close, as was she.
He hated that he might be missing any of this.
And then…
She was trembling in his arms and pulsing around him. He exercised all the patience he could muster and then withdrew in one jerking motion, found his own release, and then collapsed into a heap of satisfaction and agony.
“Niles.”
He couldn’t quite answer her. Hell, he could barely breathe.
“Niles?” Concern filled her voice this time, and he could feel her leaning over to peer at him. For the second time in as many days, he lay helpless and pathetic, at this woman’s mercy.
“Ribs,” he finally managed. He’d not want her thinking he was about to expire.
Damn fool-headed manhad scared her half to death. Brought her to the height of passion and then collapsed lifeless beside her. She ought not have allowed him…
Well.
They shouldn’t have…
