Page 46 of Claiming His Christmas Angel

“No, that’s not what I mean when I say there’s you,” he said softly as she met his gaze. “I’m talking about how difficult it is for me not to throw caution to the wind and bed you. It happens every time I get near you. You cannot begin to fathom how much I want to have you in whatever way I can. My body, my entire being, craves you. Even now, it’s as if someone is branding me with the very essence of you. The mere sight of you or the sound of your voice makes me yearn to have you under me as I teach you what genuine passion is.

Blue eyes glittered with a fiery hunger, and the need she saw in his gaze took her breath away. Atticus leaned into her even more until there was almost no space between them at all.

“A moment ago, you said desire and passion were the same thing. You couldn’t be any more wrong, Octavia. Desire ignites the flame, but passion is the raw, potent hunger for one’s lover in its most primitive form.” Atticus shook his head as his eyes darkened to a stormy hue. “Desire satisfies you physically, but passion breathes life into lovemaking. Passion ensures you’re satisfied physically and emotionally.”

Atticus’s words were fervent with an emotion that made her heart skip a beat. Was he saying that as her lover he would satisfy her emotionally? Was he saying he cared for her? He’d said he liked her, but could his feelings run deeper? Hope unfurled in her blood. A large, masculine hand cupped her cheek, and fire raced along her nerve endings until one white-hot frisson after another cascaded across her skin. Atticus dragged in a deep breath as his thumb ran across her bottom lip, then pressed down on it.

“You’ve asked me to be your lover, but we can be so much more, Octavia. I want us to experience passion, not just desire, in each other’s arms. Shall I tell you what passion will look like when I make love to you, my voluptuous, fiery Aphrodite?”

Octavia swallowed a moan as Atticus’s fingers trailed a lazy path to the base of her throat. The gentle, almost intangible, caress left her skin burning as if he’d dragged a torch across her throat and downward.

“Last night, I told you how much I wanted to teach you all the ways sin can be pleasurable, Octavia. I still do. I want to explore every plump, succulent curve of you. Curves that would make any of the Greek goddesses jealous. Your body is a temple ripe for me to plunder and worship. And by God, I’ll make your body a shrine of sin and wicked pleasure.

“When I make love to you, I plan to tease and pleasure every lush, voluptuous inch of you. I’ll use every wicked, shocking act I can think of to make you beg for your release. And if you knew how badly I want to fuck you right now, Octavia, you’d be thinking twice about refusing to marry me.”

The crudity of his words made Octavia’s eyes widened and stare up at him flabbergasted. His facial muscles were taut with hunger as his gaze swept downward to the apex of her thighs. Intangible and fiery, it made her sex clamor for his touch, and she tried to breathe. The man had barely touched her, and yet it was as if she’d stepped into a fire that would consume her.

“That shocks you, doesn’t it? My telling you how much I want to fuck you. Shall I tell you all the other things I’ll do to you that are just as shocking, but oh so pleasurable, my beautiful Aphrodite?”

The words were a dark rumble rising in his chest and past his lips. His hand left her cheek, and his fingertips traced a path down to the base of her throat. Octavia fought to breathe as he slipped his forefinger between the valley of her breasts, then slid it in and out with leisurely strokes. It imitated another carnal act, and her body cried out for him to appease the hunger that had erupted inside her.

“I asked you last night whether or not I should show you all the different ways I could kiss you. You didn’t answer me, Octavia, but let me tell you about one of the more shocking and pleasurable kisses I plan on introducing you to.

“First, I’m going to make you lie down and spread your legs wide so I can see your glistening sex. Then I’m going to take my time kissing my way up along your leg until your body is writhing with need for me. You’ll be so hungry for my cock, you’ll be screaming for me to fuck you and ease your body’s craving. But before I do that, I’m going to dip my tongue into your tight, hot sex and drink that tangy cream of yours.”

The imagery he’d conjured up in her head made Octavia gasp. Not with shock, but with a wicked anticipation that made her sex tighten and clench at the thought of his tongue exploring her. Octavia’s mouth grew dry, and a low moan whispered past her lips. The sound made the corners of Atticus’s mouth tip upward with satisfaction as he arched his eyebrows.

“Are you shocked at the thought of me fucking you with my mouth, Octavia? You won’t be the moment my tongue flicks over that sweet, succulent bud at the core of your sex. You’re going to forget everything but the pleasure. In one blinding instant, you’re going to scream as you beg me to fuck you with my mouth over and over again. And do you know what will happen when I suck on that sweet nub of flesh at the heart of you, sweetheart?

“You’ll going to sob with need, my perfect, plump Aphrodite. It’s going to be a hunger you’ve never experienced before in your life. In fact, you’re going to want my cock so bad, you’ll be ready to sell your soul to me. You’re going to plead, demand, and use that lusty tongue of yours to call me all sorts of names. You’re going to do all that simply to make me ease your hunger.”

Octavia gasped at the wicked smile on Atticus’s mouth as he closed his eyes. He was rigid with tension, and his throat bobbed before he looked at her again. His arousal evident, his hand moved up her waist to cup her, before he bent his head to kiss the tops of her breasts. His fingers tugged against the top of her corset so his finger could slide between it and her skin. The instant he found the hard tip of her, a quiet whisper of need filled the air between them. Atticus shuddered hard against her.

“God, I want to suck on you so badly right now, Octavia. I want to scrape my teeth over that hard peak, then suck on you until you’re pleading with me to satisfy you.”

Incapable of speaking, her eyes fluttered close beneath the blaze of lust in his gaze as he continued.

“I know you want me now, but I don’t think you’re feeling the same intense hunger I’ve been feeling for quite some time. So, let me tell you how I’m going to make you even hungrier for me. When I’ve finished drinking that tart cream of yours. I intend to do something even more wicked with your lush body. I’m going to flip you over and pull you up on your hands and knees until that beautiful, sweet ass of yours is displayed in all its glory.

“That’s when I’m going to stroke your fiery core. Ever so slowly, I intend to slide first one finger, then another, and another into your hot, tight channel. I’m going to make you shatter as your body clenches around my fingers.

“That’s when I’ll take you, Octavia. I intend to slide my hard cock into you from behind. But I’m going to take my time with that tight cunny of yours. I want to watch my cock moving in and out of you until it’s coated with your white-hot heat. With every slow, torturous stroke of my cock, I’m going to send you into a mind-numbing bliss, but I’m not going to satisfy you until I’m good and ready. And that’s when I’ll fuck you like you deserve to be fucked, my beautiful Aphrodite. I’ll drive my cock into you over and over until your body clutches mine so tightly I won’t be able to do anything else except explode inside you.”

“Oh dear God,” she whispered as her eyes met his, and her heart skipped a beat at the carnal desire in his stormy gaze. Every inch of her ached with the same hunger she saw in Atticus’s eyes. His gaze narrowed on her.

“Then, when we’ve both recovered from that pleasurable exercise, I’m going to teach you other hedonistic acts that will make you gasp with shock before you beg for me to perform them on you. Acts few women outside a brothel are familiar with. Christ Jesus, just thinking about it makes me hard.”

Strong fingers wrapped around her wrist and slowly pulled her hand down toward his groin. She whimpered with a raging hunger for his touch as Atticus made her stroke him through his trousers. He was as hard as he’d been last night, and her fingers reached for the buttons of his trousers, but he stopped her.

“By the time I’m finished with you, my beautiful, plump Aphrodite, you’ll be limp with pleasure. All the while, I’ll bide my time until I’m ready to fuck you again. That’s what you can expect when you marry me, Octavia. I’ll give you all of that and much more, but not until you say yes.”

Octavia shuddered as Atticus’s voice faded into silence. Every inch of her throbbed with a painful, intense yearning for him to do all the things he’d just promised. But was it enough? Would it be enough to love him without being loved in return? The passion he’d just described couldn’t last forever without his love.

Passion didn’t have to be finite. Octavia was convinced of that. Her parents demonstrated their ardent and deep love for each other in small ways. She’d witnessed too many moments of silent communication between the couple to believe otherwise.

There were the fiery looks on her father’s face when he looked at his wife or the seductive, teasing smile Lady Montford would give her husband, only to have her cheeks turn pink as her husband whispered something in his ear. Then there were the moments when Octavia had stumbled onto her parents amid a passionate kiss.

All the moments of intimacy she’d seen exchanged between her parents had strengthened Octavia’s belief that her parents, in the privacy of their rooms, demonstrated their fervent love for each other in ways only passionate lovers could. It was the kind of love she wanted, but Atticus hadn’t offered her that.