I flashed a grin, my body simmering back to a controllable state. “When I what?”
She gave me a pointed look.
“You’ll have to be specific, Marietta.” Laughter bubbled within.
Her eyes narrowed, and the next thing I knew, the entire length of me was swallowed. My body bent backward without my consent, all laughter strangled. Her mouth pulled back up, a strong press of tongue underneath, and I thought, quite possibly, that this was how I would die. Held tight in starlight.
I reached for her, but she slapped my hands away, crawling up my body, entangling her fingers with mine and pinning them to the sides of my head. “Now, now, you did say I was in control, did you not?”
This woman.
Over the top of me now, her gaze darkened as our lower bodies brushed. Not in perfect alignment, like every cell in my body called for, but close. So close. She looked down between us, her hair tickling my throat—at my body at complete attention, glistening, straining upward. When her eyes drew back to mine,I could see the knowledge, the desire, written on everything from her darting eyes to her wet lips.
“Which?”
“You.”
A hitch of breath, then her body slid over mine, straddling me. I slid along her damp heat, my own sounds nearly drowning hers.
“Then Gabriel Noble, you will be mine.”
This woman. The warmth turned to heat and spread.
She moved so that I slowly slid along her, the motion deliberate and teasing. I gritted my teeth and pushed my hips as far into the bedding as I could, my body screaming to thrust up inside, to make her wail and scream my name, to claimheronce more.
She held my hands hostage and rubbed against me. From the color blooming in her cheeks, I wasn’t sure just who she was teasing more. One movement aligned us perfectly and I nudged, just an inch, an innocent look on my face when her head snapped up. Her eyes sparked and she kissed me, sinking down another inch. I returned the kiss and pushed my hips up, just a tiny bit. She drew back.
“No, no, no, Gabriel. I’m going to earn that prime spot in your harem.” She leaned down and flicked her tongue over the lobe of my ear as I had done to her many times. Spirits, had she paid attention to everything? Every lesson, returned with interest. “Three vows to sin and more.”
She swirled her hips. Ungh. Something unintelligible burst from my lips.
Confidence, passion, and emotions I dared not give voice to radiated from her. A drink mixed with the most potent ingredients for seduction. And more.
Her swirling hips sank her farther down, and the color fairly burst from her skin. Soft, breathy air escaped her parted lips. She freed my hands and planted hers above my shoulders.
“Touch me.”
Her lips hadn’t finished forming the words and I was reaching for her breasts, my thumbs rubbing circles that made her body shift madly and take me deeper. She pulled up an inch and the muscles inside her contracted around me.
“Mari—spirits—”
And damned if she didn’t tighten around me again.
I gritted my teeth and narrowed my eyes. I dropped a hand to where we were connected and flicked a finger upward at the same time I rubbed her nipple. She gasped and sank fully on top of me.
I wasn’t sure I had ever felt anything quite so wonderful as her contracting, warm and wet around me. And never heard anything as magnificent as her ragged breaths against my ear.
“Not fair.” It was more of a released breath from her than actually formed words.
I moved my hands to her knees to stop me from touching her further. “Better?” I whispered against her lips.
She kissed me, long and deep, then shifted back so she was sitting on me. After a few tentative movements she found a rhythm she liked—one that made my stomach muscles clench and my fingers clutch her knees. She swayed and lifted, riding, eyes on me and chin tilted like some wild fairy. Rose spread down her skin, making it glow. Her cheeks, fiery blooms, her eyelids heavy with passion. No man in his right mind would call this woman plain. I had never seen anything so evocative and gorgeous.
She moved, her breasts swaying with each movement. Dangling in front of me like the ripest fruit. She leaned into me and a nipple brushed my chin. Yesss. I captured it in my mouth,sucking it between my lips. She moaned, her cheek dropping against my crown, her hair curtaining us, her pace becoming more erratic as she pushed down, sheathing me, then pulled up toward my mouth in trembling thrusts, as if unable to decide which she wanted more. I sucked hard and she threw her head back, mouth open, beautiful beyond anything, giving me exactly what I wanted and taking exactly what she needed.
I drew my hands up her thighs, to the sides of her breasts, then down her waist to her hips, forcing her farther down, pushing farther inside her, as far as I could go, no longer playing the submissive, pulling us back to equal terms, exactly where we should be. I pushed down every time she drew back up, thrusting my hips upward to curve into exactly the right spot.
She went wild in my arms, exactly as I wanted, but instead of only reveling in her responses, the ones I drew and caused and controlled, I reveled in my own as well. The sleek, tight feel of her, the unintelligible sounds she was making in my ear, the wanton bliss of her reactions, responding like she was born to it. Born to me. Not a power game, but something forged by mutual desire and regard.
