Within a minute they were in his private chamber, the doors behind them firmly closed. Without setting her down, he lowered his head and took her mouth with his. Her soft moan set the blaze inside him higher, and when her tongue brushed timidly over his mouth Remi nearly lost his footing.
He’d barely lowered her down when he spiked his fingers into her bound hair. Then he dived deeper, unable to wait one more second for a taste of his wife.
His wife...
For the first time since tragedy had struck, the thought of anyone but Celeste as his wife didn’t strike with oppressive pain.
Perhaps it was because the deed was done. Perhaps his physical craving for Maddie was dimming the guilt and pain. Whatever it was, he intended to take it—even if it was just for tonight.
He licked her soft, velvety lips, then stroked his tongue deeper into her mouth, absorbing her unfettered shudders as her arousal spiked to match his. He repeated the action a few times before gently nipping her tongue with his teeth. She whimpered.
‘Do you like that, piccola?’ he breathed against her lips.
‘Mmm...yes.’
‘Then you shall have more.’
Remi kissed her until she clung to him. Until they were both breathing hard. Until the pressure in his groin demanded further action.
He gently nudged her to the side of the bed. Then, dropping to his haunches, he tugged her shoes off. He glanced up, surprising a strange expression across her face.
‘What?’
She bit her lip. ‘You... Almost kneeling at my feet. Feels...weird.’
He brushed his thumb over her delicate anklebone. ‘Weird good or bad?’
‘Is it bad to say good?’ she whispered.
Remi lifted her right foot and kissed her soft instep. A shiver raced up to engulf her whole body.
‘Nothing that happens between us tonight in this room will be bad,’ he responded.
Within his grasp her foot trembled, and her colour deepened. He slipped his hands beneath her gown, trailed his fingers up her legs without taking his eyes from her face.
‘Why are you watching me like that?’ she asked, again in the hushed whisper that had varnished her words since they entered his room.
‘You’re to be mine. I want to see what pleases you.’
Her flush deepened. ‘Will I sound gauche if I say everything?’
His hands tightened convulsively on her knees as a sudden compulsive need to claim everything swept over him. But did he have a right to everything when he couldn’t return the same? And why the sudden yearning for exactly that?
He shook the thoughts free, glided his hands higher up her silken flesh until he brushed the edge of her panties.
‘I’ll give you as much as you can take. Stand up and turn around, piccola.’
She obeyed. Still kneeling, he reached up and drew down her zip, exposing her supple back and delicate spine to his gaze. He kissed the base of her spine as he divested her of the dress and her bra. Then, hooking his fingers into her panties, he tugged the scrap of satin down her legs and tossed it away.
His mouth watered at the taste of her skin, the feel of her naked hips in his hands, the scent of her sex. Nudging her back around, he kissed his way up her belly to her luscious breasts as he parted her thighs and caressed his thumbs over her damp sex.
‘Remi...’ she moaned, her trembling intensifying as he licked and teased her nipples.
The clamouring grew too wild to resist and he drew back and pulled down the bedcovers. ‘Lie down and open your legs for me. I want to taste your innocence one last time before I claim it.’
Her breathing truncated as she silently obeyed. With their gazes broken, Remi allowed himself another look at the magnificent landscape of her body, at the secret place between her thighs he intended to lay full and final claim to tonight.
Full and final?