‘Let go…’
If anything his whispered command made her tense even more, and she had to fight down fresh tears of humiliation as James swiftly prised her hands free of her breasts and then tugged her arms down so that the upper half of her body was completely revealed to him.
He took his time in studying her, the drift of his attention from her eyes down over her throat and shoulders, and finally to her breasts so slow and deliberate that it felt like a refined form of torture.
When his fingers eventually freed her wrists, and stroked slowly upwards over her rib cage she tensed, closing her eyes against the unwanted sight of them caressing her breasts, but instead they gripped her upper arms, pulling her down over him. Jenna stiffened her spine against him, but it was useless, slowly he arched her body over his own.
When she opened her eyes Jenna saw that he was looking at her mouth. Traitorously, the sensitive skin tingled slightly in anticipation of his kiss. Hating herself for what she was feeling Jenna averted her head and then tensed warily as she heard him chuckle.
‘All right, Jenna…if that’s what you want.’ He sounded so good-humoured that she was immediately on the defensive.
‘Your skin is like alabaster…do you know that? But alabaster is cold, and you feel warm.’
She gasped in shock as she felt his lips brush the valley between her breasts, and knew then why he had been amused by her. In her dream her lover had touched and kissed her intimately, but he had not been gentle like James; he had been fierce and demanding, compelling from her a response that…Aghast at the direction of her thoughts Jenna raised her hands to James’s chest to push him away. She could feel the even thud of his heart beneath his shirt, and for some reason it was oddly disturbing.
‘Mmm…’
She winced beneath the appreciative sound of pleasure James made against her breast. Unexpectedly, his hands covered hers and he murmured against her skin. ‘I like your touching me, Jenna, but I’d like it much more if I wasn’t wearing this shirt. Help me take it off…’
Help him! Jenna ground her teeth, and once again she was conscious of laughter rumbling in his chest. His mouth was still exploring her breast, a delicate, thorough exploration which was having the oddest effect on her body. Tiny flutters of sensation unfurled themselves within her. Shockingly and unexpectedly her nipples peaked and hardened, her humiliation intensified when James noted their arousal with a soft masculine murmur of appreciation.
Like someone transfixed, Jenna was held in helpless thrall by the sensations his mouth against her sensitive skin was arousing inside her. It must be the drink, she thought wildly, when a shudder of pure primitive arousal convulsed her body, and then all thought was suspended as James’s lips and tongue caressed the tight buds of her nipples, coaxing them to swell and flower until Jenna was possessed by a sweet, mindless ache of need so powerfully intense that it obliterated every other thought from her mind.
Willingly now she arched against James’s caressing mouth, her rigid throat muscles stifling the betraying sounds of pleasure his touch induced.
When he released her to sit up and remove his clothes, she was too bewitched even to think of trying to escape. In the lamplight his skin glowed amber and gold, transporting her back once again to her dream.
Mindlessly she reached out and touched him, knowing already how his skin would feel beneath her fingertips, knowing the male scent of him and the power that those silk-sheathed muscles held. She could feel the pounding of his heart, sense the primeval
force of his desire, and inexplicably, it thrilled and excited her. When his mouth moved hungrily on her own she responded to it, opening to the savage thrust of his tongue, welcoming the heat and weight of his body against hers as they fell across the bed.
His hands touched, stroked and explored every satin inch of her, quickly followed by the moist heat of his mouth, the sensations it aroused inside her causing Jenna to abandon herself totally to the fierce tongues of pleasure licking heatedly at her skin.
In her mind already she knew James’s touch and her body welcomed the familiarity of it. In her dreams James already was her lover and her body felt none of the fear that had always so tormented her mind. It responded to James’s touch as though it had been designed specifically to do so, inciting, encouraging him to the point where Jenna could hear the savage harshness of his breathing like a litany of desire against her skin.
Her stomach quivered as he knelt over her and stroked it with his fingers moving slowly downwards to where her body pulsed with desire for him. Neither of them spoke, but Jenna watched him with eyes dark with passionate need as he sat back and slowly removed her silk pants, running his hands upwards over her ankles and calves, the backs of her knees and then her thighs, deliberately spreading her legs apart, without using any urgency or force.
Desire quickened inside her, the same desire she had experienced in her dreams, hot and fierce, a ragingly urgent sensation that eclipsed any other she had ever known.
James reached the top of her thighs and she started to shiver and tremble wildly. His fingers stroked intimately into her body, releasing inside her a sheeting wild torrent of sensation that made her catch her breath and cry out loud. She wanted to resist the intimacy of what he was doing to her, what he was making her feel, but already her body was writhing sinuously beneath his touch, welcoming it, demanding and getting more. Mounting waves of feeling built up inside her, each one moving her closer and closer to the brink of some sensation that lured and tantalised until she was driven crazy with the need to experience it.
When James moved between her thighs her body welcomed the male heat of him, her fingers clutching on to his shoulders as he kissed her deeply, his tongue thrusting into her mouth, his hands cupping the aching weight of her breasts. Her nipples were deeply pink and throbbed when he touched them.
She could feel the hard tension of his arousal against her body and ached to experience it more intimately. In her dream, she had not experienced beyond this point and now she ached to do so with a savage compulsiveness that overwhelmed her. Her body arched demandingly against his and she felt his corresponding tension. He released her mouth to expel a fierce deep breath and then she could feel the slow thrust of his body inside her.
Panic clawed briefly inside her, reality breaking through her desire-induced daze. Her body tensed, recoiling in anticipation of pain and against her ear James murmured soothing words of comfort.
‘It’s all right…I know it’s been a long time…I promise I won’t hurt you,’ Jenna heard him say, and, astonishingly, it was enough to make her relax and allow the flood tide of desire to roll back inside her so that apart from a brief momentary pain her body welcomed the fierce surge of his within it. He paused and as though in answer to some unspoken command Jenna arched against him, rubbing her breasts against the dark hairs covering his chest.
James’s breathing became fiercely harsh, tremors racking his body. He thrust deeper within her, unleashing a molten heat inside her that made her hips lift and writhe tormentedly against him, her slim legs gripping him to her as she felt him move rhythmically deep inside her until her body pulsed with aching tension that wanted only one release.
She was conscious of crying out his name, of burying her mouth against the flesh of his shoulder and wildly tasting the salt tang of his skin.
Waves of pleasure beat against her breaking over her in faster and fiercer tumult, the only sound in the room that of their mutually agonised breathing. She felt the waves break over her, submerging her, drowning her in pleasure and cried out in release, feeling the final powerful thrust of James’s body within her own and then his swift release, his mouth locking on hers, draining all the sweetness from it as their breathing and heartbeats slowly returned to normal.
Now, when it was too late, she was assailed by a flood of guilt and self-hatred so intense that her body ached with it. The fulfilment of her driving need for release had brought her a momentary physical satisfaction, but it had also brought her an intensity of self-loathing and disgust that blotted out everything else as successfully as her desire had done earlier.
‘Jenna…’ She felt James reach out towards her and curl her into the curve of his body, but she pulled away, revolted to the point of nausea by the thought of any physical contact with him.