Her eyes widened. “Are you saying you’ve had erotic dreams of me, Mr. Ripley?”
He nodded without breaking eye contact. “Every night since the first time I saw you, Jane.”
Her lip trembled in response. “What did you dream you’d do to me? When you didn’t wake up at this most inopportune time?”
He untied his cravat, shrugged from his jacket, stripped his shirt. He tugged off one boot, then the other before he stepped toward her.
“Feast,” he growled, and pressed his hands into her thighs. She gasped as he bent between them, burying his head there and drawing a deep whiff of the sweet smell of her desire. When he stroked his tongue across her, the taste was even better. She jolted and her fingers came into his hair, holding him against her as she began to rock against his tongue.
They worked together at pleasing her. He tasted every inch of her slick sex, then put his focus on her clitoris. She arched it in time to his tongue, moaning and gasping so he knew what made her ache. Time slipped away, meaningless as he brought her closer and closer to the edge of madness.
When she found it, he smiled against her, reveling in the way she twitched and fluttered while he sucked her clitoris with merciless drive. He wanted to draw all the pleasure from her. He wanted her to be liquid and boneless beneath him. He wanted her hoarse from her cries. The same gorgeous cries that echoed in the room. Probably echoed in the hallway for the other guests to hear. But who gave a damn? This moment was theirs and no one else could ever take it.
When she went limp on the bed, when her hands fell away from his hair, when the jolting of her body calmed to mere flutters, he lifted his head and looked at her.
She was pink from pleasure, her dark blue gaze foggy from release. Gone was the pain from the day, gone was the fear for her sister. For a moment, at least, he had freed her from all that. And it would be enough.
Only when he began to roll away from her, she caught his shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?”
He smiled. “Did I fail to please?”
“You pleased beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “But you’re not finished. Not by half.”
She was temptation embodied, but he did his best to resist her. “You’ve been through a great deal today and I?—”
She sat up, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, forcing him to be face to face with her. “Campbell Ripley, if you don’t fuck me right now I will challenge you to a duel at dawn.”
His brows rose and he laughed. “A fight to the death?”
“Just a little one,” she whispered, and then kissed him deeply all over again and pulled him back down over her.
In her vast experience, Jane hadn’t met many men who gave a damn about her pleasure, let alone her emotions. But Ripley was not like other man. Not like any man. Here he had her splayed out naked beneath him, still quivering from the most powerful orgasm she’d ever experienced, and he was ready to back away to give her respite. Even though she could feel the heavy steel of his cock pressing to her belly. He wanted her and he would refuse his own needs for hers.
What a thing to have her well-being mean more than someone else’s wants. Only what she needed, what would make her better, was him. Him inside of her. Hers, even if it was just for tonight.
She wasn’t about to let him walk away from that. From her. From this.
She wrapped her thighs around his hips and he pushed against her, his cock nudging her pussy even though he was still wearing his trousers. She nipped his lower lip and he growled, his expression growing even more heated, feral. He looked like he did when he was in the ring, focused and powerful. When he kissed her, there was no more hesitation or gentleness. He devoured her, sucking her tongue, driving inside.
She glided her hands down his sides, shivering at the muscular thickness of his body. How many times had she wondered what he’d feel like? He was better than any imagining.
She crossed her hands over his flat stomach, tracing muscle with her palm, and notched her fingers into the waistband of his trousers. His kiss deepened further, moans lost in her mouth, as she unfastened the fall front and let him bounce free into her palm.
She flattered her other hand against his chest and pushed him back so she could look between their bodies. Look at him. He was thick, hard, the impressive length of him curling toward his stomach in a proud display of desire.
She stroked him, loving how he dropped his head back with a grunt of pleasure. This man was always in control. He was powerful and steady. She wanted to be the one who made him tremble, turned him animal.
She smiled up at him, knowing she was being wicked, watching his pupils dilate until his eyes were almost entirely black. “I want this,” she whispered. “Let me have it, Ripley.”
He caught her thighs, his fingers digging in, and tugged her to the edge of the bed. She sat up, winding her arms around his neck, tracing the muscles of his shoulders with the very edge of her nails. He spread her wide, stepping between her legs. When he kissed her, he put his hand between her thighs, stroked his fingers across her wet sex. He opened her, fitting the head of his cock against her. She lifted and he glided deep inside.
She shuddered with the feel of him, the weight of him, moving through her. He seated himself fully and then drew his face back, meeting her eyes.
“God, you feel good,” he said, his voice low and rough in the quiet. “I want to take you hard and fast, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
She smiled. “I’m not some virgin made of glass. Take me hard and fast. Show me how much you wanted me all this time. Let me show you the same.”
He cupped the back of her neck, his fingers teasing into her hair. She tilted her face, watching him as he withdrew a little from her body, then thrust forward again. The slap of their bodies meeting made her arch as pleasure ripped through her. How could he do that so easily? Was it just wanting this so long that made her weak? Or was it him?
