After snuffing four candles, he stopped. “Here, I think, I will diverge from the script. It would be a crime to hide your beauty in the dark.”
The candle left burning was sufficient to illuminate the scene. Diana’s blue eyes were vulnerable and intimate in the candlelight, bidding him enter an unknown world of warmth and welcome. Her lips were parted and the rapid rise and fall of her breasts testified to her response. One of her knees was drawn up, and shadows played suggestively under the skirt of her gown.
As Gervase absorbed the grave sweetness of her gaze, he was suddenly and completely overwhelmed by emotions unlike anything he had ever felt before. He had never been in love; his only experience with a virgin had been a searing disaster that haunted him still. But now Diana’s fantasy came alive for him. Her gentle, sensuous beauty touched a vein of romanticism so deeply buried that he had not known it existed. With sudden ferocity, he wanted to believe in innocence, that one could begin again.
Bending over, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her with a hunger that went far beyond the physical. For once in his life he would throw away the guilty chains of living and imagine that he was worthy of loving and being loved. In reality, such joy was forever unattainable, but for this handful of moments he would dream. “Oh, God, Diana, don’t ever let me hurt you,” he whispered, his voice rough with tenderness and passion. “You are so rare.”
Her arms encircled him and he came down full length beside her for a kiss in which each of them gave and received equally. Only the fact that too much clothing separated them enabled him to eventually release her and sit up.
As he undid his cuffs, she reached up to unbutton his shirt. “Am I acting too boldly for my role?” she whispered as her hand slipped inside the shirt to caress his chest. Her palm brushed his softly bristling hair as her fingers made delicate explorations.
“Perhaps,” Gervase gasped, “but don’t stop.” Amazing that such a light touch could arouse him so.
Her face showed a mischievous pleasure in his reaction, and it took a major act of will for him to stand and remove the rest of his clothing, leaving it in a heedless pile on the floor.
He slid one arm under her thighs to raise her as he removed her gown, leaving her fully exposed for his admiration. Her loveliness made him grateful that he had left the candle lit. Such beauty must be savored.
Lowering himself to her side, he laid one leg across hers to keep her close, then gave her breast the attention it deserved now that it was free of all restraint. The tautness of her nipple teased his tongue. When he was sure it could be roused no further, he murmured, “I would be very careful that no part of you would feel neglected,” before giving the same thorough treatment to her other breast.
Diana whispered, “You, too, are beautiful,” stroking his wide chest, caressing the hard planes of muscle and bone, the ridged battle scars. There was no spare flesh on him anywhere, every part of his lean body honed to taut strength. As her hands glided over his head and shoulders, her hips began an involuntary pulsing against him.
His hand stroked down her body, kneading and caressing her waist and stomach before reaching the silky triangle of hair at the juncture of her thighs. Gervase raised his mouth to kiss her lips at the same time that his fingers delicately penetrated to her sensitive, hidden depths. Her legs tensed and her sharp inhalation was so convincing that he could almost believe she was as innocent as the maiden of her fantasy. Lost in his own role, he murmured, “Just relax. We will take as long as you need.” Raising his hand to her knees, he caressed her silken inner thighs, slowly massaging his way lower until she opened to him.
He summoned all his skill to bring her to the final readiness, and when her body was hot and moist and her breath rough and urgent, he moved between her legs and slowly, gently entered. She had acted the virgin so convincingly that it was almost a surprise that no barrier blocked his passage.
Diana gasped and her muscles tightened around him with such fierce sweetness that it took all of Gervase’s will not to culminate immediately. He held very still, his arms supporting him so that his weight wouldn’t hurt her.
Remembering the roles they played helped him maintain his control. “Now I would give you a few minutes to get used to how it feels to have a man inside you,” he said wryly, “and for me to calm down.”
Diana shivered in delight and pressed her hips upward, rotating them to deepen the sensation. She had not known how empty she was until he filled her, and it was impossible to get enough of him.
He inhaled sharply. “And I would warn you not to do that unless you are impatient to be done.”
She stilled, whispering, “Oh, no, not yet, I most certainly do not want this to end.” Gervase’s dark hair tumbled over his forehead and she could see a film of perspiration on his face and torso. She had never dreamed that his dark face could show such openness and intimacy. She raised a hand to caress his cheek, then skimmed her palm down the corded strength of his neck.
Even the touch of her hand inflamed him, and it took time to regain his control. Only when he was sure did he begin moving inside her, exploring her secret depths. Still careful to be gentle, he murmured, “Now I would tell you to move against me as we find a rhythm together.”
She obeyed, and he started deepening his strokes, pushing harder and longer, his eyes searching to catch every nuance of feeling as it rippled across her face.
She moaned and her eyes closed, the better to savor the sensations consuming her. For all that Madeline had told her, Diana had never dreamed that pleasure could be so exquisite and tormenting. She drew him as deep into her as was humanly possible, her nails digging into his back as her thrusting hips took on an uncontrollable rhythm of their own.
It was unbearable and she pleaded incoherently, “Please, Gervase, please . . .” without knowing what she asked for. And then, just when she could endure no more, her body convulsed in a series of shuddering explosions. She cried out, her voice drowned in his as he plunged and erupted within her, their bodies joined in ultimate closeness.
They lay tangled in each other, the only sounds their deep, uneven breathing. Diana’s arms were wrapped tight around his torso, unwilling to release him even now, and she could feel tears seeping from beneath her closed eyelids.
Gervase raised his head from the pillow as he eased his weight from her. As he did, she felt him brush the tears from her cheek. “Did I hurt you?”
She opened her eyes to smile reassuringly at him. “No, not at all. It was just that was so . . . so wonderful. I cry at everything that makes me feel deeply, whether I’m happy or sad.”
He relaxed and rolled onto his side, holding her tightly so they were still joined. Cradling her head, he said softly, “I’ve never experienced anything quite like that. Your suggested fantasy was brilliant.” He chuckled. “You were very convincing. It was easy to believe you were an innocent, until the very end.”
“Oh,” she asked, wondering if she had somehow betrayed herself. “Did I act wrongly?”
“Say rather that you forgot to act and responded quite unlike a virgin.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Do you think you will have to pretend satisfaction with me?”
Hiding a smile, she snuggled against him. Madeline had devoted quite a bit of time to explaining masculine arrogance. But he had earned a bit of arrogance. “You are very cocksure about your performance, Gervase,” she teased.
His gray eyes narrowed in amusement. “‘Cocksure’? That sounds like the right word.”
