“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes.” She nodded and tried not to look at his muscled bare chest. He was being so nice to her. He always was nice to her. Even after she’d cruelly rejected him this afternoon. Run from him.
“Can you tell me now what’s wrong?” he asked.
She turned her body slightly toward his and met his gaze. “Father and Mother are moving up the wedding. It’s to be in three weeks’ time, as soon as the banns are read.”
“I see. And that sent you into a panic?”
She nodded miserably, wanting to launch herself into his arms and hug him. Press her head to his chest and breathe in his spicy scent of wood smoke and cologne. “I only knew I had to see you, Christian. I had to…”
His gaze searched her face. “Had to what?”
She had no more words. She launched herself at him, her hands in his hair, her mouth meeting his in a fierce clash. He toppled over backward onto the mattress and she moved atop him, kissing him, matching her body to his. His hands moved into her hair, his tongue in her mouth. Then his hands moved down to her hips, her waist, and he positioned her atop him. His hands moved back up to tangle in her hair, which spilled over his shoulders in dark waves.
“Touch me, Christian. Please. Like you did this afternoon.”
In an instant she was on her back, he was over her, and his hand moved along the edge of her dressing gown. He untied the knot at her waist and peeled the gown from her shoulders. She sat up to help him remove it and quickly tossed it aside. Then his hand was at the hem of her night rail and he pulled it up, off her. She lay there naked under his hot regard as his eyes roamed over her entire body. All she felt was pride. Pride and the desire to see him naked as well. His hand touched her bare ankle, moved up her lower leg, brushed over her calf, then her outer thigh. Then moved in between her legs. She shuddered and spread her hands over his bare chest, marveling as the muscles flexed at her touch.
“Show me how to make you feel the way you made me feel today.”
“No.” He shook his head.
“Please,” she breathed against his open mouth. “I want to.” She had a vague idea of what would make him feel good. She moved her hand down to his breeches and rubbed the hard outline of him underneath.
He groaned. “Sarah, I—”
“Let me touch you, Christian.”
But he pulled her hand away and pinned it, along with the other, above her head on the mattress. Then he slowly lowered himself down her naked body. “You’re beautiful, Sarah. Your body is perfect. Just the way I knew it would be.”
“Touch me,” she begged.
His mouth trailed down her neck, to her breasts. He sucked each one in turn before continuing his descent. He kissed her ribs and her flat belly, then moved down lower.Lower.
Sarah clamped her legs together and gasped when she realized what he was about to do. He’d let go of her hands and she was trying to push him away when his hot, wet tongue found the core of her and licked deeply in long, lush strokes that made her head fall back against the pillow. She twisted against him, wanting to move but not wanting it to stop.
“Oh, my God. Christian!”
“Shh.” He drew a finger up to her mouth. She opened her lips and sucked on it while he continued to lick her in deep strokes that made her thighs tremble and her knees weak.
He found that perfect spot again and licked in tiny circles again and again until Sarah writhed and twisted against the bedsheets. One of his hands was braced against her hip. The other left her mouth and moved down to her nipple, playing with it until she arched her back against it. Then the most perfect feeling, the wave of lust that shot from her breast and the final delicious lick from his hot tongue on her sex, sent her over the edge. She cried out and he covered her mouth with his hand while sharp zings of pleasure rippled throughout her entire satisfied body.
This time, however, she was not going to be denied. She wanted to touch him, too. To see him. Make him feel the way he’d made her feel. She waited for the intense pleasure to recede from her body before she rose on one elbow and pressed him on his back. She kissed his mouth long and hard.
“We need to talk,” he began, trying to sit up.
But she wasn’t about to let him get away with it. “No. Shh.” She pressed a finger over his mouth just as he’d done earlier to her.
“Take off your breeches,” she demanded.
Lust flickered in his light eyes. “Sarah, you don’t know—”
“I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m only going to touch you. Only touch.”
Her hands found his waist and she set about pulling down his breeches. Christian moved his hand down to stop her.
“Don’t stop me or I’ll scream and the entire household will come running,” she warned.
