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His arms tightened around her. “Yes, I know. But not the first time. The first time is for soft caresses and easing inside untried places. I would give you restraint and care, Sofia, though neither are at the forefront of my mind when you are touching me. I feel desperate for you. Like my next breath depends upon yours. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”

She turned in his arms and kissed him sweetly. “Less thinking and worrying. I am here, in our home, and I want you in every way I can have you.” She trailed her fingers down his sides and over his lean hips. Sofia kissed him again, less sweetness and more lust, and nipped his lower lip for emphasis. She chose her next words with care, knowing that arousal would take the edge from his anxiety.

“Now take off my night rail and give me what I want.” She flicked her tongue across his lower lip, watched his eyes darken at the command.

Placing a hand on each shoulder, he turned her, kissing the nape of her neck and freeing the three tiny buttons at the collar. Before she could lift her arms for him to remove the garment, he sank one hand deep into her loose curls, gently tugging her head to the side. She felt his breath waft across her exposed throat and her pulse hammered in reply, shivery anticipation curling in her stomach.

He murmured against her skin, deep and gravely, “Oh Sofia, I do not like to be told what to do.” He did. They both knew he did. She felt the evidence now, thick against the swell of her arse. “You will wait and be good while I have my fill of you.”

He kissed the shell of her ear, coaxing breathy sounds from her lips. “I’ve been waiting an awfully long time to have you naked and sprawled out before me. I intend to take my time.”

Attuned to every swell of her desire, he applied himself to rousing her with impassioned diligence, as if he were collecting every gasp and hitched breath to keep for himself. One hand smoothed over her breasts, circling each nipple in turn, as the other held her firmly against his arousal. Sofia squirmed, arching into his mouth, and he bit down on the tender skin of her neck. She clutched his thigh as unexpected tendrils of heat unfurled deep in the pit of her stomach at the scrape of his teeth. Christopher exhaled a low, delighted purr, as if he had a ring full of keys and the first one he slid inside the lock had turned with a decisive click.

“You like that.” The velvety pleasure in his voice went directly to her quim. “Oh, Sofi. I'm going to spread your legs and nibble at the insides of your thighs until you are dripping wet for me. Linger there until my mouth is watering and my cock is throbbing, until every coherent thought crumbles beneath unendurable arousal. And then I’m going to open my mouth against your slick folds and devour you.”

With a groan, she turned in his arms, scrambling to get her mouth, her tongue, her teeth against any skin she could reach. Her kisses shifted from his jaw to his collarbone, then down his chest. She sucked his nipple into her mouth and he panted, digging his fingers into her hips. When she pressed the hardened peak with the flat of her tongue, the noise he made flooded her core.

“That’s enough of that now.” Christopher caught her hands with his and laced their fingers at her side, holding her in place. His habitually twinkling eyes glinted with hunger as he worked to slow his breaths. He pinned her gaze with his own as if that connection was the last thread preventing him from spiralling out of control. When he kissed her again, the cadence of his touch had shifted into something slower, more determined. She tried to slide her hands from his grasp, but he adjusted his hold, his thumbs working maddeningly soft circles into the inside of her wrists.

Despite the urge to break free, to press deeper into the circle of his arms and force his pace, there was a beseeching quality to his expression that gave her pause. Sofia relaxed her muscles, loosened her clasp on his hands, and gave him what he wanted. She softened against him, submitting, and he all but purred into her mouth.

“So good, my Sofi. You’re perfect.”

Christopher released her hands, his fingertips travelling up her arms to trace the shape of her breasts.

When her eyelids drifted closed and her head lolled to the side, he stopped.

“Open, Sofia. Watch.” Eyes snapping open to obey his decisive tone, she followed the deliberate path of his thumb, the textured pad rasping across one nipple. It peaked and pressed against the thin cotton shift that gaped across her chest. Her jaw fell slack at the expression on his face—tense with euphoric agony, pupils blown wide.

Easing his hands to the small of her back, he arched her spine, lifting her breast to fill his open mouth. He suckled her through the material, taking quick urgent pulls. Sofia’s hands threaded into his hair, holding him in place.

“Christoph …” His name faded away into an incoherent mewl.

Christopher responded with a long, satisfied groan and a hard flick of his tongue across her throbbing peak.

Heat and restless agitation plucked through her veins as one of his hands came up to knead at her other breast. Abandoning her hold on his hair, she reached for his hips, fingers sliding towards his cock … where they were promptly batted away. She moaned in frustration and his mouth gentled. He nuzzled across the damp material of her night rail, playing lightly at her nipple with his lips and the tip of his tongue. It was no less maddening. Again, she reached for his length. This time, her palm slid across moisture that had leaked from the tip and he shuddered, grasping her hand and placing it firmly on his shoulder.

“I’ll come in your hands if you stroke me, love. Do not touch me. I mean it. Test me, and I will see you writhing on the edge of climax until you are sobbing for release.” The roughness in his voice was allayed by a series of soft kisses to her cheek, her eyelids, her temple.

“Lift your arms, Sofi.”

She did as she was bid and he slipped the garment over her head, dropping it at her feet.

“Look at you … My God, just look at you.”

She could hear his breaths. Deep, ragged inhalations, as if he couldn’t fill his lungs with enough air. He didn’t touch her, just stood as if he had forgotten how to work his arms. She reached for his hands, toyed with the tips of his fingers.

“Kiss me,” he murmured. Then he stood perfectly still as every inch of her naked body brushed ever so lightly against his.

With a guttural expletive he lurched a half step backwards and his hand darted down between their bodies. She followed its path to find him squeezing just behind the rounded head of his cock. Raising her gaze, she watched helplessly as his face flushed bright red and his eyes slammed shut.

She reached for his forearm and pressed slow, soothing strokes to his skin. His entire body was tense, his lips pressed together in something like agony. After a few moments, he raised both palms to his eyes and pressed them into his sockets, releasing a long, slow breath. He stared at her then, shaking his head. She glanced to his length, which remained flushed and erect.

“Christopher?”

The head shaking resumed.

She stepped closer, and he flinched as if she had struck him. Swallowing down the hurt of his rejection, she eased closer again, careful to keep her body apart from his. Sofia remembered his embarrassment from the night in the billiards room and decided this must be similar, though he had not climaxed.