It was the only invitation he needed.
His lips crashed onto hers, and for a moment, Diana forgot how to breathe.
He tasted of dark wine and a raw, unchecked hunger that made her head spin. His mouth was a fever, devouring hers with a desperate urgency, his tongue sweeping against hers until her soul felt as though it were being pulled through her throat.
“You are so beautiful, Diana,” he murmured against her lips, his voice a jagged, ruined sound. “I have spent every waking hour trying not to touch you like this.”
His teeth caught lightly on the frantic pulse at her collarbone and Diana’s head fell back against the velvet of the chair. Her spine arched instinctively toward him, her chest straining against the restrictive silk of her bodice. Her fingers tangled in the thick, sandy silk of his hair, pulling him closer, desperate to anchor herself as ecstasy bloomed like a wildfire behind her ribs.
“Alexander,” she sobbed, the name a prayer and a plea.
“Diana,” he whispered, his hot breath fanning across her damp skin. “I want you. God, how I want you.”
His large hands found the hem of her silk gown. He bunched the fabric in his fists, the expensive material hissing as he slid it upward until the cool air hit her thighs. The chill was instantly incinerated by the searing heat of his palms. He mapped her, his thumbs grazing the sensitive skin of her inner thighs with a slow, possessive heat that made her blood thunder.
“You’re perfect,” he growled, his gaze fixed on her as he hooked his fingers into the silk of her panties and slid them down her legs.
A distant, frantic voice in the back of her mind screamed for her to stop, to remember her pride, to remember the man who had once discarded her, but it was drowned out by the sheer, crushing power of his presence.
Her legs spread slowly, an instinctive surrender to the man who was now claiming her with every ragged breath.
Alexander sank to his knees between her thighs. He looked up at her, his green eyes dark with a burning focus that made her knees tremble.
“I am going to worship you, Diana. Do you understand? I am going to taste every inch of you.”
She wanted to say something—to claim some scrap of her composure—but she couldn’t breathe. Her chest heaved, her ribs aching with the effort, and all feeling narrowed to the heavy, branding heat of his palms on her thighs.
The first touch of his tongue against her core was electric, a bolt of pure, white-hot sensation that made her vision snap. She gasped, her head hitting the back of the chair.
“You like that, my sweet?” his voice vibrated through her very center, a low rumble of satisfaction as she moaned and nodded. “That’s exactly what I want. I want to make you feel good, Diana.”
His tongue stroked her, again and again. Relentlessly. He used his mouth with a devastating precision, finding the exact, punishing rhythm that drove her toward the edge.
“So sweet,” he muttered against her skin, the vibration of his words humming through her marrow. “You’re so slick for me. Tell me you like it.”
“I… yes, please,” she gasped, her fingers digging into the hard muscle of his shoulders.
Her hips bucked against his mouth as the tension coiled tighter and tighter, a spring wound to the point of breaking. She was drowning in him, in the heat, in the wicked movements of his mouth.
He didn’t let up. He used his teeth with agonizing care, nipping at the soft flesh of her inner thighs before returning to her center with a renewed, hungry focus.
She pulled his hair tighter, her knuckles white, and felt the corners of his mouth rise against her skin. He was smiling in triumph, while she could no longer contain the frantic pressure building in her stomach. Everything in the world was reduced to the fire of his tongue.
Then, the world shattered.
A violent, shimmering climax tore through her, a tidal wave of gold and fire that left her crying out into the empty room. Dark spots blurred her vision, and for a long, breathless moment, she simply hovered in the abyss of her own pleasure, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Slowly, the room came back into focus, but his eyes had never left her. His hands were still steady on her thighs as she began to recollect herself. Through the haze of her ragged gasps, she felt his arms slide beneath her. He picked her up as though she weighed nothing, his chest a solid, warm wall against her cheek.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered, his voice thick with a tenderness that brought hot, unexpected tears to her eyes.
He carried her to the bed and laid her down against the cool linens. He settled beside her, the mattress dipping under his weight, and pulled her flush against his side.
Diana tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder, her ear pressed against the steady, thudding rhythm of his heart. Alexander’s hand began to stroke her hair slowly, soothing the frantic energy still humming in her veins.
And for the first time in her life, she felt truly wanted.
CHAPTER 15
