“No callow youth could feel like this,” Faith told him with complete certainty, raising herself on tiptoe, bracing her back against the door, seeking his lips.
“You would be surprised.” He allowed her a brief, unsatisfactory kiss. “Callow youths are just as hard. They have no control and no expertise, but they’re just as hard.”
“How do you know?” She nipped at his chin in frustration as he continued to evade her kisses.
This time he laughed. “I was one. Once.”
“You? Never!” She tried another
tack, brushing her half-bare breasts against his bare chest.
He sucked in his breath as the firm tips of her breasts inside their cotton cage brushed against him. The whisper of the cotton was almost as erotic as the bare flesh. He ached with the need to lose himself inside her, but he was reluctant to end the game. God, she learned fast! Reese was thoroughly enchanted by the seductress she’d become.
“Yes, me. Before I learned how to pleasure a woman.” His words were harsh whispers, uttered through clenched teeth. “Before I learned control.”
“Reese?” Her questing tongue left his lips and concentrated on his naked chest. She lapped at the points of his nipples.
“What?” He could barely think.
“Forget control. Pleasure me.”
Reese pulled Faith away from the door, bent his knees, scooped her up into his arms, and carried her to the bed. She lay across the bed, looking up at him. He kicked off his shoes and socks, then fumbled with the buttons of his fly, his usually adept hands, clumsy and shaking.
She sat up in bed, then crawled on her knees to the edge of the bed. “Let me.” Faith reached for him.
Reese moved closer.
She unbuttoned his trousers. His proud jutting length spilled out into her hands. She marveled at the soft-hard feel of him, the pulsating warmth. She ran her fingertips along his arousal, then closed her hand around him.
Reese sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled, groaning loudly as his breath rushed out. He caught her braid in his hand and tugged her toward him. “No more. I can’t stand it!”
Faith released him, suddenly afraid she’d caused him pain. “Did I hurt you?” It was hard to tell from the expression on his face.
“No. But I can only stand so much.” His breath came in gasps. “God, Faith, I have to feel you! Help me!” Reese pushed his pants down over his hips, then stepped out of them and kicked them aside.
She stared at him in wonder. He stood tall and proud, bronzed by the lamplight. A lump caught in her throat. Her first brief look at him had been burned in her memory, but now she realized her memory was faulty. She had thought him perfect, except for the small crescent-shaped scar under his chin. He was more handsome than she remembered; his legs were longer and more muscular, his thighs bulging with strength. But he was also flawed. Several scars, some round and puckered, another long and thin, marred his torso. Faith ached with the need to kiss those marks and soothe away the memory of his pain. She moved to kiss the puckered circle on his thigh.
He stopped her with his hands and pulled her upward. His mouth tasted hers. He unfastened her skirt and the ribbons of her chemise, then gently, firmly, pushed her back on the bed and lifted her hips, tugging at her skirts until they came free and glided down over her legs.
When she was left with only her corset and stockings, Reese finished unbraiding her straight black hair. “Now, you look the part,” he whispered, nuzzling aside the long tresses to kiss the curve of one breast.
“What part?” Faith looped her arms around his neck.
“The seductress.” He dipped his tongue into the moist crevice between her breasts.
“Am I your seductress?” She kissed the top of his dark head.
“You’re learning.” He encircled a hard bud. His mouth left a wet ring on the white cotton. His breath fanned the damp fabric.
She shivered in reaction, arching toward him. “Teach me. Everything.”
Reese rolled her to his side. He unlaced the strings of her corset and threw it aside. He left her cotton stockings and garters in place, then pulled her atop him. He forgot control. He forgot everything except her demands and his throbbing need to bury himself in her warm depths.
She whimpered with need as he lowered her onto his arousal. He taught her the rhythm, guiding her hips with his hands until he suddenly rolled her onto her back.
Faith urged him on, digging her fingernails into his shoulders, spurring him onward with the heels of her feet. She screamed his name, crying out her pleasure as she found her release.
Reese’s control deserted him. He grasped her tightly, lifting her hips as he poured himself into her. “Faith!”