“Yes,” she hissed, undulating and twisting with the sheer pleasure of it. “Yes...” She moaned, her eyes closing tightly as she cherished his loving. She wanted to remember forever every detail of this night, every sensation he roused within her. The passion in his hands; the way he touched her as though he adored her. “Yes,” she murmured, her body responding with tiny little shudders.
“Jessamine,” he whispered hoarsely, sliding up, bending low over her and burying his face within her hair. “I’m not going to stop this time...”
His whispery breath was velvety soft and blazing hot against her ear.
Christian lifted himself above her, waiting for her to reopen her eyes before continuing, wanting to know that she’d understood him clearly, wanting her to understand that it was to him she gave herself... not Ben.
She lifted her dark lashes at last, relief and anguish both evident there in the brilliant green of her eyes. They seemed to glow in the darkness, beckon him on...
She watched without moving as he tugged down his breeches, shrugging them off.
Her gaze met his and his lips turned ever so softly as her eyes lowered to that very erect male part of him. Her gaze flew once again to his.
He made some sound, part chuckle, part groan, at her reaction, for through the years Christian had lain with many women, all with diverse personalities, each with varying degrees of experience, but never had he been privy to such an expression as that Jessie gave him now. It was obvious to him that she’d never seen a man unclad before, and that knowledge gave him pleasure like no mating ever could have.
“Wh-What are you d-doing?”
“Making love to you,” he answered huskily, leaving no doubt as to his intent, and then his hands were moving across her once more with an urgency he could no longer restrain. Not gently at all, he jerked the last threads of her gown from her body, revealing her completely to his scrutiny.
“My God...” He swallowed with difficulty. “You are... more than I’d imagined...”
Jessie’s heart squeezed at his words.
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, only feel... His hands moved over her, searing her flesh, and then he cupped her breasts with his warm palms, kneading them gently beneath his expert fingers, as he bent to kiss her once more, his tongue delving deeply, possessively.
In the next instant his mouth left her lips to replace his hands at her breast, suckling her like a babe at his mother’s bosom, and Jessie discovered some heretofore unknown connection between that part of her and the other.
And then he knelt above her once more.
Heat flared in the innermost reaches of her body as she felt his hand slide like molten fire between her legs. She moaned as one large finger thrust within her body, exploring the depths of her, and in response her legs lifted of their own accord. His body shuddered violently in answer to her instinctive invitation. Seeming to have found what he sought, he tensed over her, staring at her through the darkness as though hewere overwhelmed by his discovery. Jessie could not tell his expression for the shadows, but his hand arrested there in the very depths of her. Then, all at once, she felt his finger stroking deep within her as his body quivered once more.
In an instant, he withdrew, covering her, his weight pressing her into the bed, and all the while he continued to adore her flesh, with his hands and his lips and his tongue. He was a man driven, it seemed. His arms slid behind her knees, and then it seemed he was parting her, separating her legs, lifting her. She obliged, wrapping her legs about his hips.
And then suddenly she felt it, the delicious pressure as he eased that part of himself within her, impaling her. Moaning, Jessie instinctively lifted against him, accepting him even as her body refused him entrance.
Cursing, Christian withdrew just a little, but the incredible tightness was his undoing. It seemed he’d waited for this moment a bloody lifetime.
A lifetime too long.
Crying out hoarsely, he lost control, surging down against her, tearing her maiden’s flesh in one fell swoop.
The fierceness of their joining drowned Jessie’s pleasure with such unbelievable pain that she instinctively recoiled with the shock of it. “Christian!’’ she cried as he began to thrust wildly. “Christian! Oh God!” But he would not stop. His movements were swift and hard and his handsome face contorted as though in pain.
Suddenly Jessie felt the heat again, and understood completely this deep joining of the flesh, for he’d somehow touched her all the way to her womb... and it seemed to ease the bittersweet ache so deep within her.
He filled her completely, her body, her heart, her soul.
His hands moved to her buttocks, lifting her slightly, as though to raise her more evenly for his thrusts, holding herimmobile as he pumped savagely, furiously, within. Jessie tried to give back full measure, but he was too strong and too quick, and his thrusts too unbearably sweet, and then he stopped, crying out savagely, casting his head back to reveal the taut cords of his neck. He held her so tightly that she thought he would crush her as his body shook, violent spasms wracking his entire form. After an eternity, he fell listlessly atop her, though he supported the majority of his weight upon his arms. His cheek was to her bosom, his breath ragged and spent.
She wanted to demand that he continue, for she’d been on the brink of something wonderful, something exquisite, but the muscles of his jaw tautened against her breast, and he whispered fiercely, gravely, “Pardonnez-moi...pardonnez-moi... forgive me, Jessie.”
And then the warmth and the need were suddenly gone, replaced by an anguish and disappointment so great that Jessie could scarcely bear it. Her heart hammering without mercy, and anger surging through her veins, she shoved him from atop her. He went willingly enough, giving a low, tormented growl as he turned from her to face the door.
Frustrated, and too furious to care that he was angry once again, Jessie turned her back to him, facing the blasphemous window. As she stared out at the inky black sky and pale moon above the oak tree, ignoring the figures beneath, she felt more bereft than ever.
22
The rap upon the door awoke her at once—or so Jessie thought, for when she opened her eyes she saw through the shadows that Christian had already readied it and was turning the knob. She wondered then if he’d slept at all.
