“Yes, I can see that’s true. I admire it enormously.” He met her gaze. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t take care with you. Not just because of your past, but because you are lovely and wonderful and you deserve to be—” He leaned in and traced his tongue around her bare nipple. “—worshipped,” he finished.
She arched beneath him, in wonder at all the amazing things this man could make her feel and want and do. Tonight she wanted everything. It might be the only time she experienced such bliss.
There was no turning back from her needs now.
If he sensed that surrender, he made it clear by lifting her breast a little and going back to licking.Sucking. Little bursts of pleasure shot through her every time he did so, mimicking the way her body fluttered when he touched her intimately. This wasn’t release, exactly, but it drew her toward it. Muted pleasure that promised so much more.
“There is nothing like your taste,” he whispered against her skin. “I’ll never forget it.”
She lifted to him, her fingers combing into his hair as he sucked a bit harder, right to the edge of pain, but never over it. Just enough to make her feel alive and wanted and free.
As he pleasured her, he slid a free hand down the apex of her body, stroking his fingers over her bare skin until he came to the drawstring of her pantalettes. He pulled away from her breast and lifted his gaze to hers.
She was shaking. She knew he could feel it. Anticipation pulsed through her, but also anxiousness. Also fear. No matter how long it had been, the fear fluttered back and settled in her chest.
He glanced down, and together they watched his fingers work to untie the bow on the drawstring. With a few expert flicks of his wrist, he untangled the string and let the tension off her waistband. Slowly his hand slid in, over her stomach, across her mound. Her legs opened, granting him access to her sex once more.
He stroked there, sliding the wetness of her body across her sex. “It hurt before,” he said.
She sucked in her breath, trying not to go back to that dark night and the man who had stolen her innocence and her dreams in one cruel act. “Yes,” she admitted.
“It won’t tonight,” he promised. “Tonight is about you and your pleasure. If you trust me, I will make every effort to wipe away the past and make this time, this first time, something you do not regret.”
She gasped as his finger breached her slightly. “I already regret nothing,” she managed to croak out as the pleasure he could so easily generate began to build. “Please, just…just give me this.”
He gently pumped his finger in and out for a few strokes, then pulled away, leaving her body clenching against nothingness. He took himself off the bed and she stared as he unfastened his trousers and shucked them off in one smooth motion.
Her eyes boggled. Half-naked was one thing, fully naked another. She hardly knew where to look. Trim hips? Heavily muscled thighs? Or that thing between his legs. A cock, she’d heard it called. It was hard and jutted toward his stomach.
He said nothing but moved to the bed. He caught the edging of her drawers and tugged them off, tossing them over his shoulder and leaving her as naked as he was.
They stared at each other. His face contained as much wonder as she knew her own did, although a man like him had to have had lovers before. She was merely the next in a line, so why he appeared so enthralled was beyond her.
He moved closer, placing a hand on her calf. He watched her face as he drew his fingers up and up, skin on skin in places where no other person had ever touched her. Now he brought her to life, making her ultra-aware of everything he did to her.
He moved to the bed again, but his time he caged his body over hers. She gasped as his mouth covered hers. But kissing was comfortable, it didn’t make her afraid. Soon, she sank into the stunning desire he created as he brushed his lips against hers. Anxiety faded as he continued to kiss and kiss her, replaced by the warm desire that bubbled up in her entire body.
He drew back and she felt him shift, using his knees to part her legs a little farther, wedging himself into that snug spot so she felt the hard length of him just brush against her sex.
His gaze held hers, steady and calming, and he pushed forward. She felt him breach her, and immediately she tensed against the impending violation and the pain that would follow. No matter what he said, she knew what it would be like.
He stopped immediately and looked down at her with concern. “Gently, Helena,” he whispered. “Trust me.”
She drew a few long breaths. Trust him. That was easy in some areas, but in this…not as much. Still, she breathed, slow and deep, willing her body to relax. To cede control to him because he promised he would not take advantage of it. Bit by bit she relaxed, and it was only then that he moved again.
He stretched her with every inch, and she kept waiting for the pain. But it didn’t come. If anything, it was a delicious sensation of being filled up. His cock hit her in spots she didn’t know existed, and the pleasure she had felt before when he touched her or licked her murmured below the surface, whispering promises she didn’t know were possible.
Finally he fully seated inside of her and rested his forehead against hers. His breath came short and his hands gripped into fists as he pressed them into the pillow around her head. He was fighting for control, to be easy for her.
It meant the world.
“I want to move,” he ground out, his voice rough with passion. “More than I have ever wanted anything in my life. But I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
She wiggled around him and a shock of pleasure shot through her. It must have done the same for him, for his elbows buckled slightly and he let out a garbled sound.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Please!”
She didn’t have to ask him twice. He rolled back and thrust deep inside of her. She lifted to greet him, overcome by the luscious, powerful movement of his body within hers. She gripped him, grinding up and moaning as pleasure tore through her.
