Bethie’s heart almost stopped. Had it gone this far? Were they really going to—
But then he did something she could never have imagined. He lay down on his back in the center of the bed, stretched his arms above his head, and closed his fists around the bedposts.
“My body is yours, Bethie. Touch me anywhere you want, any way you want. I won’t let go of these bedposts until you say I can. I put myself in your hands. Whatever happens now is up to you.”
For a moment she could do nothing but stare at him, her heart a hammer behind her breast. Even lying submissively on his back, he glowed with male strength and virility. No matter what he might pretend, he was not the submissive sort. And she realized he was doing this for her sake, trying to make her feel safe.
Whatever happens now is up to you.
Drawn to him despite her fears, Bethie crossed the room, sat on the bed beside him, let her gaze run the length of him. And then, with only her need for him to guide her, she rose to her knees, bent over him, kissed him.
True to his word, he did not release the bedposts, but met her kiss full-on, lifting his head from the pillow, invading her mouth with his tongue, teasing her swollen lips with his.
But suddenly she wanted to taste more of him, just as he had tasted her that night by the brook. She traced kisses across his beard-roughened jaw, down his throat, over the crest of his Adam’s apple to his chest, licking his nipples as he had licked hers.
“Bethie!” His body jerked, and breath hissed from his lungs. But he did not release the bedposts.
She had never touched a man like this, had never felt attracted to a man’s body before Nicholas, hadn’t realized how much pleasure there was to be found in touching and kissing a man. It was as if some deep-seated hunger had awoken within her. She wanted more.
Emboldened by his response, she kissed her way across his chest, down the line of dark curls to his belly, letting her fingers find their eager way over the ridges and valleys of his muscles. She could feel the male power of him, feel the shifting of his muscles, the tension in his body as he deliberately restrained himself. He could overpower her in a heartbeat if he so chose. And yet he kept his word.
She dipped her tongue into his navel.
His grip tightened around the bedposts, and he groaned, a sound of pure male need.
Bethie knew where the heat of his need resided, knew which part of him burned hottest. She lifted her lips from his skin, gazed on the rigid length of his shaft. But the fear she had expected to feel was no longer there. Instead she felt insatiably curious.
Touch me anywhere you want, any way you want.
She reached out with one hand, fondled his stones, cupped their surprising weight in her hands, and felt the sac that held them draw tight. Then she ran her fingers tentatively over the swollen head of his shaft, explored its smallest features one by one—the slit in the center, the thick ridge at its edges, the tiny line of pinched flesh on the underside.
Breath hissed from his clenched teeth, and she looked up to find him watching her through eyes that had turned to smoke.
She closed her hand around him, slid her hand down his pulsing length, amazed by the feel of him. He was steel in silk, both hard and soft.
“Bethie...” His eyes closed, and the muscles of his arms bulged as he strained against his grip on the bedposts.
Any way you want.
Driven by that same deep-seated hunger, she hesitated for only a moment, then leaned down and kissed this part of him as she had kissed the rest of him.
Nicholas felt her hot mouth close over him, thought he would come undone. “Good God, woman!”
He fought to hold his hips still, to remain passive, as she ran her tongue lightly over the head of his cock, tasting him. He knew she had never done this before, and yet her tentative touch, her exploring kisses, were more arousing than the expert actions of the most skilled whore. And when she gripped him in her hand and guided him deep into her mouth, he knew it wouldn’t be long until he came.
Was she ready for that? Was she ready to take his seed in her mouth? He doubted it.
“Bethie, let me... touch you. Let me show you how good it is! If you don’t stop...”
But she did stop, left him hanging on the edge, hard and aching.
He opened his eyes, saw her watching him through eyes filled with doubt. “Let me give you the same pleasure, Bethie. Let me show you just how good it can be for a woman.”
Her hair was a tangle of yellow silk, her lips swollen from kissing him. But her eyes still held a shadow of fear. “Must you be... inside me?”
Inside her. That was where he wanted to be, where he needed to be. He wanted to plunge inside her, to feel her muscles clench around him as his thrusts brought them both release. But the last man entrusted with loving her sweet body had hurt her, abused her. He realized she wasn’t ready for a man, not like that, not yet. He fought to subdue his own longing, looked into her eyes.
“No, love.” He could scarce believe what he was saying. He must be insane! “I don’t have to be inside you.”
