“It’s like a tree.” With her index finger, knowing she teased him, she followed the almost perfect circle of the foliage, the short, thick trunk below.
“Why are you smiling?”
She looked up. The idea that she knew this intimate secret about him seemed special. Which was absurd. He’d had so many lovers. All must have seen this brand on his hard hip.
He’d run a hundred miles if he knew she nursed such sentimental notions about him. Nonsensical, untenable, dangerous notions. Instead, she let her smile widen. Her eyes focused on the part of him she found enormously interesting.
Enormously.
“I’m looking forward to what happens next.”
“Saucy wench,” he murmured, leaning forward and landing a swift kiss on her lips. As he drew away, she licked her lips, relishing the flavor.
Bringing his hand to her face, she kissed his palm. He tasted salty, delicious. With a shock, she realized the musky flavor of his skin must be her, lingering from when he’d touched her center.
Instinct was her only guide. Very deliberately, she licked between his fingers and thrilled to hear his breathing change. Very slowly she took his long middle finger between her lips and sucked.
“Diana…” he groaned, and shifted closer.
She could smell his skin. Fresh sweat, sex, some essence she’d recognize in a crowded room as Ashcroft’s. The scent was heady, seductive.
Her confidence edged higher at his immediate response to her tentative attempts to please. She slid the hand resting on his hip around to cup the heavy sac between his legs.
“Good God…” He held himself quiveringly still as she sucked harder on his finger and stroked him from base to tip. He was hard as steel, hot as fire. Like satin over living oak.
Very gently she circled the head. A drop of pearly liquid oozed out to lubricate her finger’s tantalizing journey.
He pushed his hips forward, demanding more. His eyes blazed like fiery emeralds in a face pale with strain. A muscle jerked in one lean cheek, and his jaw set hard as granite.
Carefully, she ran her hand up then down the heavy length. He groaned and grabbed her hand, demonstrating the movement. She quickly caught the rhythm that incited him to madness.
His eyes closed and his nostrils flared wide. His unabashed need sent hot shivers through her to coalesce into molten desire. The urge to replace her hand with her mouth became overpowering. How odd to be so eager to taste him when the thought had once repulsed her.
Groaning he grabbed her hand, pulling it away. His chest heaved as he fought for breath. With shaking urgency, he pushed her onto the mattress, following her down. His mouth opened over hers in a devouring kiss. She countered his passion with passion of her own, drowning in crimson darkness.
He slid between her legs, and she tightened her thighs around his narrow hips, anchoring him. He tilted her toward him. Breathlessly, she waited for him to plunge inside. He paused and stroked his hardness along her cleft until she shook and gasped with need.
She became the aggressor in the endless kiss. Silently insisting he stop teasing. “Do it. Do it now,” she moaned, hardly aware of what she said.
“Oh, yes.” With a long, low growl deep in his throat, he surged inside her.
She was so wet and ready, all she felt was a ravishing fullness. She drew a long, juddering breath and crossed her ankles behind his buttocks, changing the angle of penetration. Fresh sensations made her moan with delight.
He shifted in and out, wild and relentless as a stormy sea. She opened her eyes to see him rising above her. The image burned into her brain. His face was stark with ferocious passion. His lips drew back from his teeth as if he was in pain. The tendons of his neck were distended, and sweat dampened his skin.
He looked like a man crossing the extreme edges of control.
She closed her eyes and arched as he thrust hard. Over and over he plunged into her, lost to his hunger.
Flames filled her vision, dazzling and golden. It was like falling headfirst into the sun. She twisted as lightning battered her from every direction. Vaguely, through her shuddering crisis, she heard him release a deep, heartrending groan.
Liquid heat flooded her womb.
Chapter Ten
Blind to everything but his volcanic release, Ashcroft pumped into the woman beneath him.
The act’s unprecedented freedom fractured all restraint. He unleashed himself as if he dived into a deep blue ocean. Helpless to resist, he closed his eyes and let the waves wash him far out toward the horizon, where he saw only brilliant light and sky.