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She’d become a quivering mass of sensation when the knife finally dropped to the ground, and he stood. Beads of perspiration dotted his forehead, his breathing shallow and harsh. Did she have the same effect on him, as if she was tumbling into sensation, unable to stop?

Hands at his waist, he made to unfasten his buckskins.

Vangie nudged his hands away. “I want to do it.” She brushed her fingertips across his abdomen, and the muscles jumped and quivered. “Have you any idea how arousing it is to be undressed?” Pressing against Ian, she nuzzled the crisp hairs on his chest and slid her hands across his contoured ribs. She flicked his nipple with her tongue. His gasping groan further emboldened her.

He grasped her naked derrière and lifted her against him, rotating his hips upward.

She laughed softly. “Not yet.”

“Temptress,” he growled.

Inch by sinuous inch, she drew the soft doeskin pantaloons downward, across his tightly flexed buttocks and rock-hard marbled thighs. Her fingernails grazed his protruding heaviness. Surly a siren’s smile tilted her lips at his harsh expulsion of air through clenched teeth. She cupped his fullness, running her hands along its velvety length as his pantaloons pooled around his ankles.

Fragile moonbeams slanted through the tree’s branches casting Ian in ribboned light. Her gaze locked with his. Though they’d joined before, it was as if she were seeing him for the first time. This time when they came together, she could express her love. The anticipation was unbearable.

She stepped into his embrace and was lost. Her mouth fused with his in a kiss frantic with hunger.

When had they sunk to their knees?

His hands were everywhere, caressing, stroking, and igniting. He whispered, “I love you,” over and over, like a holy mantra.

She lay on her back and tugged him to her. “Now, Ian. Take me now.”

He growled his consent then lifted and parted her thighs. Hovering for a moment, he threw back his head and plunged into her depths. Vangie cried out, clutching him to her and matching his rhythm, stroke for stroke. This joining wasn’t gentle, but wild, almost violent. She was desperate to reach the ultimate place he could take her.

Only moments later, she stiffened as glorious sensation pulsed through her core. He slammed his mouth atop hers to muffle her scream of fulfillment then groaning his pleasure aloud, pumped his seed into her.