Though David would never rant at her for failing to please him, she feared she would disappoint him. With Blackadder, the joining had often been painful, and always unpleasant, so that made her a tad nervous as well.
“I want to take this slowly.” David lifted her to her feet beside the bed. “Let me undress ye.”
She would miss this naked hunger in his eyes. Whether he was disappointed or not, one thing was certain. Once she gave David what he wanted, he would never desire her this much again.
His hands, which were usually so sure, shook as he unfastened the hooks down the back of her gown. Her skin was overly sensitive and her breasts felt heavy. With each hook he released, the tension mounted between them.
After he unfastened the last one, he pushed her gown off one shoulder and kissed her bared skin. His lips felt warm and soft as they moved across her collarbone and up the side of her throat. He eased the gown off her other shoulder, and it fell in stages, catching on her breasts and hips before cascading into a pool around her feet. Taking her hand as if she were descending from a carriage, he helped her step out of it.
He swept her shift over her head in one motion. She felt awkward to find herself suddenly naked before him in the firelight, but it was too late to turn back now. And she did not want to.
“Ah, lass, you’re so verra beautiful.”
He stared at her, his gaze scorching her skin and making her nipples taut. When he finally pulled her into his arms, his tunic felt deliciously rough against her breasts. He gave her a slow, deep kiss that made her forget her embarrassment.
As they kissed, he moved one hand to cup her breast, and she moaned into his mouth when he found her nipple. When he broke the kiss and leaned back, he looked sinfully handsome with his hair falling over one eye.
“I should get naked too, aye?” he said, a smile curving up the corners of his mouth.
She smiled back at him. “Aye.”
Before the word left her lips, he had pulled his tunic and shirt over his head and tossed them across the room. He managed to discard his boots and breeks nearly as quickly, so that he now stood before her in all his naked glory.
He had called her beautiful, but by the heavens, he was the beautiful one. Her gaze slid over his muscular shoulders and chest, traveled down over his rippled stomach, and came to a halt on his huge erection. When he lifted her chin with his finger, she realized he had caught her staring at his manly parts and flushed.
“You’ve nothing to fear from me,” he said, his green gaze locked on her face. “I promise I won’t hurt ye.”
“I know ye won’t.” She rested her palms against his chest. “I trust ye.”
***
David swallowed. She trusted him not to hurt her when, despite his promise and his best intentions, he did not fully trust himself. The storm of passion brewing inside him felt too dangerous to unleash.
But then Alison rose on her toes and brushed her lips against his, and the sweetness of her kiss calmed the wild beast in him just enough. He would be the gentle lover she needed him to be.
Even if it killed him.
CHAPTER 26
Alison expected David to accomplish the act with quick determination, now that she had finally agreed. Instead, he touched her in all the ways he’d done before when he was trying to persuade her. Long before he was poised over her, prepared to complete their marriage, her anxiety had burned to ashes in the flames of their passion.
“Are ye ready?” David asked, his gaze fixed on her face as if watching for any sign of distress.
“Oh, aye.”
She sank her teeth into her bottom lip as he eased inside her, inch by inch, with excruciating slowness.Oh.
“I didn’t know…” she said between unsteady breaths, “it would feel…this good.”
David pressed more deeply inside her.Oh my.
The muscles of his face and neck strained as he pulled out most of the way and then slowly thrust inside her again.Oh my, oh my.
She forgot to breathe as she focused on the sensation. She wanted to hold David’s gaze, to stay lost in those deep green pools, but as he increased the rhythm, her eyes closed and little high-pitched sounds came from her throat.
Of their own accord, her hips lifted to meet his thrusts. She dug her fingers into his shoulders as the now-familiar tension rose inside her. She wrapped her legs more tightly around him, and yet he seemed to be deliberately holding back, keeping her on the edge.
“Harder” and “faster” escaped her lips. He groaned and kissed her deeply, then he did as she asked.
