He kissed her.
He kissed her like he had been waiting four days to do exactly this, and the waiting had worn his restraint to a wire that was not going to hold tonight.
His other hand found the small of her back and pulled her against him. The length of her body met the length of his, and the difference in scale should have been alarming, but it wasn't. It was shelter. Her soft, full breasts pressed against the hard planes of his abdomen; her generous hips fit into the cradle of his palms like they belonged there.
His mouth found her throat. She gasped, her hands fisting in his tunic, and he made a sound against her skin, a low rumbling that vibrated through her collarbone, down her spine, and settled somewhere hot and heavy between her thighs.
"What is that?" she asked breathlessly. "That sound?"
"Pleasure." His mouth moved lower, tracing the line of her collarbone where her dress left skin bare. "Satisfaction." His teeth grazed the curve of her shoulder, and the rumble deepened. "You."
She had no response to that. Her hands were still fisted in his tunic, knuckles pressed against the hard planes of his chest,and she could feel the vibration traveling through the fabric into her palms. Her spine curved toward him, her weight tipping forward, her fingers pulling at the cloth to close whatever distance remained.
He lifted her.
One arm hooked beneath her thighs, the other braced across her back, and then she was off the ground entirely, cradled against his chest like she weighed nothing at all. The room tilted. She grabbed his shoulders for balance, fingers digging into muscle, and he carried her through the open doorway into the sleeping chamber.
The bed was enormous. Furs piled deep enough to sink into, the frame built from timber that could have supported a siege engine. He set her down on the edge of it, and she sat there looking up at him while he stood between her knees, his hands braced on either side of her hips.
"Your dress," he said.
She reached for the laces at her side, but her fingers were clumsy, fumbling with knots she had tied a hundred times. He watched her struggle for exactly three seconds before his hand closed over hers, dwarfing it completely.
"Let me."
The laces came apart under his fingers. She felt the bodice loosen around her ribs, felt the fabric gap and shift. Cool air touched skin that had been covered, and she shivered.
He paused. "Cold?"
"No." She was burning. "Nervous."
"I know." His hand slid inside the loosened fabric, palm flat against her ribs. "I can smell it."
His eyes met hers. The iron-gray had gone darker, pupils wide in the low light.
"Stop thinking."
She laughed softly. "I don't know how."
"Then I will help you."
His mouth found hers again, and this time there was nothing careful in it. His hand spread wide across her ribs, thumb brushing the underside of her breast through the thin fabric of her shift, and the sound she made was swallowed by his kiss.
The dress pooled at her waist. His fingers found the ties of her shift and pulled, and then that was gone too, sliding off her shoulders, and she was bare from the waist up in the firelight, full breasts swaying slightly with her quick breaths, nipples already tight and aching under his gaze.
She should have felt exposed. Vulnerable. All the words she had associated with nakedness her entire life.
Instead, she felt seen.
His gaze moved over her breasts, the soft curve of her belly, the way her flesh yielded under his palms when he cupped her. The rumble in his chest deepened until she could feel it in her teeth.
He lowered his head.
His mouth closed over her nipple, and Verity's spine arched off the bed. Her hands flew to his head, fingers tangling in damp hair, and the sound that tore out of her was high and broken and she didn't recognize it as her own voice.
His tongue traced circles. His tusks framed her breast, pressing into soft flesh without breaking skin, and she writhed beneath him, her hips grinding upward against nothing.
He pressed her back down. One massive hand flat on her belly, holding her still, while his mouth moved to her other breast and repeated everything until she was shaking.
