“No. I-I don’t want you to stop.” She licked her lips. “I just feel…I feel a little…dizzy.”
“Hmmm.” He tilted his head as he looked her up and down. “Well, we wouldn’t want that. Especially since it’s all going to get so much more pleasurable. So…”
He reached out and tugged her dress. It slid over her hips and pooled at her feet. Now she was naked, and she jerked her hands down to cover the space between her legs. “Ellis!”
He shook his head. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Are you telling me you’ve changed your mind?”
Her lips parted. He was…baitingher. Trying to taunt her into admitting she wasn’t ready or strong enough for what she’d said she desired. And the worst part was, he might be right. She’d felt the dizziness of desire before, when she looked at that dratted book she’d found.
But it hadneverbeen as intense as this. With this man. She didn’t want to let that go. She didn’t want to regret giving up what would happen here.
She drew in a long breath and backed away from him. She pushed up on the high edge of the bed and scooted back so that she was propped up on the pillows. Then she met his gaze with as much haughty elegance as she could manage when she was so utterly conscious of being naked. “There, that’s better. And I think you need me in this position, at any rate, to do the…er…the taking. The claiming? The taking.”
The dimple that popped in his cheek revealed his amusement. “You are patently incapable of letting go of control, aren’t you?”
She worried her lip. “When I do…sometimes bad things happen.”
His expression softened and he nodded. “I see. Well, angel, let me tell you this: nothing bad will happen tonight.”
She wanted to believe him in that moment. She wanted to fully trust him. That was folly, of course, but it didn’t change the desire that rose up in her to give herself to this man in every way, not just this one.
Instead, she nodded.
He pressed a hand into the mattress, bowing it with his weight as he joined her on the bed. He crawled up the length of her body, picking carefully where he set his hands. Never touching her but coming oh-so-close. At last he pressed one hand on either side of her head and leaned down. She lifted to meet him, and he was kissing her again.
Her mind emptied at last as she surrendered to the kiss. Now that she didn’t have to focus on somehow remaining upright, she could feel everything else a bit more. She tasted a faint hint of whisky on his tongue, along with the bite of mint. She felt the gentle abrasion of the beginnings of whiskers on his chin. And when he drew his mouth away from her lips and began to kiss her throat, she let out a long, low sigh of final surrender to the pleasure she so wanted to find.
When Juliana let out a low, soft sigh, Ellis lifted his head to look at her. Her face had gone relaxed at last, her eyes fluttered shut, and she’d stopped bracing so hard against the bed. It was something to see that act of submission from a woman who kept herself in tight control.
Better still was to be the man who had inspired such a surrender. He didn’t deserve it, of course. He’d never deserved or expected it. But he wanted it, he wantedherfor as long as he could have her. And because he was a bastard, he would take her when he knew he shouldn’t.
He lowered his mouth to her flesh again and licked a gentle pattern along her collarbone. Her skin was so soft. Had he ever had a lover with such soft skin? He couldn’t recall one. Actually, in that moment, he couldn’t recall another lover at all, despite having a good many in his past. But right now it was only Juliana. If he would likely die soon, she would be his last lover and that was something beautiful.
He moved his mouth lower still, until he scraped the beginnings of stubble against the swell of her breast. She gripped at the coverlet with a sharp intake of air, and he smiled. She was very responsive. He liked that. He liked making her arch up and sigh and gasp with pleasure. He wanted to do that more and more. Until she was begging and moaning and shaking with release.
He recalled how she had reacted to the touch of his hand against her nipple and smiled as he brushed his lips there instead. Her hands came down, for a moment he thought she would push him away. But instead she dug her fingers into his hair and held there, a silent demand for more. So he gave it, darting his tongue out to trace the raised nub of her nipple. He swirled around the exquisitely fragile flesh, tasting her, nibbling her and at last sucking until the skin shone and her nipple stood at full attention.
“Ellis,” she grunted, her hips lifting against his chest.
“Mmmmhmmm?” he muttered without lifting his head. He scraped his teeth gently against the sensitive nub. “Do you need something?”
“Yes.” The word was a broken sigh, and he glanced up her body once more. Her face was twisted with pleasure, her eyes squeezed shut. He had barely begun and she was already on the edge. It was going to be so easy to just push her over when he was ready. When she was ready.
He smiled at the thought as he dragged his lips to her opposite nipple, licking and laving there until she writhed on the silky sheets and gripped at his hair with incoherent sounds of pleasure.
He could have stopped there, he supposed. He knew in some deep part of himself that wasn’t utterly ruined and debauched that he ought to stop. She was a lady, after all. She was desperate. It wasn’t right or fair to take advantage. But she was sprawled out so prettily beneath him. She was moaning and panting for release that he knew he could give.
And goddamn it, he wanted to forget everything except what her orgasm tasted like. Not just for her and this foolhardy idea she had about last chances for pleasure. He needed to know for himself. He needed to forget all the darkness that was about to come after his conversation with Rivers.
They both had their needs, and this night would fill them. Was it really so very terrible to do exactly what they both desired?
He knew the answer and it in no way absolved him, but he ignored that as he slid farther down her body. Her skin was sweet, and he feasted as he licked a slow path along the apex of her body. He swirled into her navel and she gasped. His fingers gripped her hips and she surged against him with a cry. He inched lower with his mouth, lower still, scraping his teeth against that sweet line where her leg met her hip.
Her legs parted a little as he inched between them and rested a hand on each thigh to push them a bit farther. She had been panting above him, reveling in his touch, but the moment he opened her, she stopped. He looked at her and found she had pushed herself up on her elbows and was staring down at him, watching through a hooded gaze. She was holding her breath.
He stroked his fingers on her inner thighs, massaging gently. “I can stop.”
She shook her head. “N-No. I don’t want you to stop. I just want to see it when you…when you do it.”
