Page 65

Her eyes gleamed like a flare in the dark, taking in his naked chest, then lowering to his erection.

She shifted toward him. He only waited, offering her the reins. Letting her choose. But instead of straddling him, she leaned down, her hair brushing his chest, her mouth just above his heart. Her breath warmed his skin.

Then she wrapped her hands around his cock. Rodrick sucked in a breath, arms tensing, but he didn't reach for her. He let her explore him. Let her take him in hand, stroke him with slow precision, her palm dragging over him like she meant to study the weight and heat and power she now commanded.

And all he could do was lie still and burn.

Louise tightened her grip, her thumb brushing the sensitive ridge just beneath the head, and Rodrick's hips twitched in response. She smiled—barely a curve of her lips, but it held the quiet triumph of a woman who had once trembled beneath him and now made him tremble in return.

She lowered her head and licked him from base to tip. He exhaled sharply, the sound more growl than breath.

Then she parted her lips and took him into her mouth.

Rodrick's fingers dug into the blanket beneath him. He kept his hands at his sides, resisting the urge to bury them in her hair and guide her pace. But she didn't need guidance. She was learning with every flick of her tongue, every slow pull, every hum that sent vibrations straight through his spine.

She set a rhythm, taking him deeper with each pass, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked.

"Enough," he growled, voice frayed at the edges.

He gripped her shoulders and pulled her up, dragging her from his cock with a wet sound that made them both shudder. She came into his arms like a magnificent she-cat, all muscle and heat, limbs coiled around him.

Rodrick shifted beneath her, settling her astride his hips. He grasped her waist and lifted her, guiding her body above his own. His cock slid along her slit, and he held her there, steady, letting the head nudge her entrance. Her breath caught. She sank down inch by inch, taking him in with a shudder. Her thighs trembled around him. When she was fully seated, they both groaned.

Louise tilted her head back. Her hair spilled down her back, her breasts rose with every breath, her skin flushed pink across her throat and chest. Her mouth opened on a silent gasp, and Rodrick reached up, cupped one breast, ran his thumb across the hard peak.

"Ride me, Lou," he said, his voice low, rough. "Ride me hard."

Make me forget you nearly died today. Wash away the image of your body ripped apart with your sweet sex taking me deep.

Rodrick gripped her thighs, urging her, and had to clench his jaw when she caught the rhythm. Each descent stealing breath from his lungs, each rise leaving him aching. Her lashes fluttered, and her mouth opened around a moan.

And he—he held on like a drowning man, letting her take him deeper, faster, harder.

“Harder,” he growled. Erase it all. The smoke. The muskets. Her body falling. Let there be only this. Only her.

“I can’t—” Her breath hitched. “Rodrick, it’s too—too much.”

She arched against him with a cry. “Don’t let me go.”

Rodrick pulled her down against his chest and pushed his tongue between her lips just as she came, her sex clenching around his cock in sharp, pulsing waves. Her moan spilled into his mouth, and he drank it down like absolution.

When the last tremors faded, he flipped her onto her back, the cot groaning beneath them. He settled between her legs and pushed inside her again.

He thrust forward, his knees digging into the hard frame of the cot for leverage, the motion dragging her body across the thin mattress. She cried out, and he gripped her shoulders, anchoring her beneath him.

He'd never let go this way. Never allowed need to hollow him out and fill him with someone else.

"I'm sorry, Lou," he panted against her neck. "I need you like this. If it hurts, I'll stop."

Her hand fisted in his hair, yanked him back to her. "Don't you dare stop."

He drove into her with everything he had, lost in the slap of skin, the rise of her cries, the heat gathering fast and brutal at the base of his spine. His body tightened hard, warning him he had only seconds left.

Rodrick tore himself free and spent across her belly in hard, blinding pulses. His breath tore from his chest. For several seconds he remained braced above her, arms shaking, head bowed.

Louise lay beneath him, flushed, black hair spread across the blanket, her lungs working as hard as his.

Rodrick gathered her against him before either of them could object, and Louise folded into the space beneath his chin.