Dom resisted reaching for her, though everything in him longed to.
“And what do you want, Tess?”
When her head came up and their gazes clashed, the look in her eyes caused the organ behind his ribcage to thud in a strange, unsteady way it never had before.
In his life, he’d gorged himself on adventure, fed himself on anticipation of what came next. But in that moment, everything seemed to stop short, balanced on a precipice.
It couldn’t have been more than a moment that he waited for her answer, and yet his future seemed to hinge on it, so the world shrunk until all he saw was the lovely naked longing in her eyes.
“I want you.”
That was all Dom needed to hear. Too quickly for her to utter another word, he stepped forward, took her by the waist, and lifted her against him. He kissed her with all he dared not say to her. Not yet. He kissed her with all the feelings that were so damned new, frightening, but too powerful to ignore.
She responded to him in kind, one hand tangling in his hair, the other gripping the muscles of his shoulder.
As he pulled back to look in her eyes, she reached for his hand.
“Come with me.” She was a beckoning siren, and he needed no convincing.
She led him to her bedroom, and he shed his coat as she went to close the curtains on two windows that looked out on rolling green fields.
When she turned back to him, he caught a flicker of hesitation in her gaze.
Then she approached boldly, stopping just before him. With maddening slowness, she began to unfasten the tiny buttons that ran down the length of her blouse. Dom followed her lead and unbuttoned his own shirt too. It took him less time, and she smiled appreciatively when he shrugged the fabric from his shoulders.
Dom licked his lips when she dropped her blouse to the ground, revealing an ivory corset beneath.
Rather than unfasten it, she reached for the fly of her trousers, paused, and then arched one tawny brow as if waiting for him to do the same.
Dom made quick work of the buttons on his trousers, and then nearly lost his bloody mind as she inched the fabric down her gloriously long legs. Then she had her corset off a moment later, and the peaked tips of her lush breasts strained against the fabric of her chemise.
“Mercy.” His mouth watered, and his thoughts scattered.
He tried to shove his own trousers off as artfully, but he was too eager, too starved for a glimpse of that heaven at the apex of her thighs, hidden only now by the thinnest cotton drawers.
“Mercy indeed,” she breathed as she fixed her green gaze on his aching hard cock.
He shot her a shameless grin.
“Shall I help you with the rest?” Dom licked his lips and took a step closer, desperate to free her of every other bit offabric between them. He reached for the pale-yellow ribbon at the top edge of her chemise.
One tug and the garment gaped wide enough for him to slip it over her shoulders and watch it glide down to her feet. Then he lowered himself to his knees before her. His hand trembled like he was a green boy as he unlaced the ribbon of her drawers.
Then he reached down and swept both garments aside.
Tess slid her fingers into his hair, and he groaned at how good it felt, how much he longed for her touch everywhere.
“These legs,” he rasped, stroking his fingers from her calves up to her thighs as he got to his feet.
She shivered and then gasped when he bent to scoop her into his arms. Her gaze turned toward the bed, then she frowned when he walked her to the wall next to the fireplace.
Dom set her down gently. “I have another idea,” he told her softly.
“Against the wall?” she asked confusedly.
“Only if you wish it, Tess. Only if you trust me,” he whispered and knew he was asking for a great deal from a woman whose faith had once been abused.
She swallowed hard in the dimmed light of her room, nodded, and stepped back.
