“Of course I do,” he muttered, burying his face in the curve of her shoulder. Without following her down, he swung her onto the bed.
“My lord?”
He stared at her sprawled across the sheets. His expression made her dig her fingers into the cool linen.
“Leath?” She bit her lip and the frenzy inside her expanded, changed to something she’d never felt before, despite knowing that she loved this man with every breath in her body.
“You’re remarkable,” he whispered, as if he spoke in a church and not in a bedroom where he claimed a new mistress.
Her heart slammed to a stop, then hurtled off again. He’d looked at her with desire before. He’d looked at her with affection. What she read in his face now went deeper. He looked at her as if he’d never beheld anything so perfect, as though she lit his world the way he lit hers.
The feverish desperation, as much fear that her nerve might fail as desire, drowned in this new feeling. A feeling that would sustain her whole life, whatever happened after tonight.
The stark honesty on his face was devastating. She closed her eyes. The words “I love you” hovered too close to slipping out.
When the mattress sagged, she opened her eyes to see that at last he’d stripped off his breeches. But before she could discover the mysteries of his body, he slid between her legs, supporting himself on his elbows as he rose.
Leath surrounded her. The arms that caged her were heavy with muscle. His shoulders and chest filled her view. She raised her knees to frame his hips and brushed the black hair back from his broad forehead. “Show me,” she whispered.
He turned his head to touch a kiss to the racing pulse at her wrist. When he took the beaded peak of one breast between his lips, she cried out at the pleasure, then again when he stroked between her thighs, finding a place that radiated wild sensation.
As he slid one long finger into her, she felt a subtle stretching. She started, then again when he brushed his thumb against that extraordinary place. She was slick and hot. He didn’t seem to mind.
By the time he stroked her deeply with two fingers, she was quivering and panting. The world began to whirl and she dug her fingers into his impressive biceps to keep her balance. What he did pleased her, but it also pushed her toward some end that ranged beyond reach.
He settled more firmly between her thighs. She stared up at his face, knowing that the moment had come. He looked uncompromising poised above her, his weight on his hands. She’d have been afraid, except in his eyes, she saw breathtaking tenderness.
She stroked his jaw, feeling the prickle of beard. His expression softened. Carefully he pushed her knees higher, opening her. He brushed against her and she whimpered with surprise. He was so hot and hard, and even without seeing him, she recognized his size.
Leath kissed her sweetly. “Trust me, Eleanor.”
She arched upward. “I want this.”
“Dear Lord, so do I,” he said with brief humor, and she choked back a laugh even as he shifted forward.
She felt a probing pressure, then a slow stretching. Not painful, but uncomfortable. The sheer strangeness turned her rigid.
“Don’t fight me, Eleanor,” he said unsteadily.
In the firelight, she saw what it cost him to proceed so gradually. The skin on his face looked too tight for the strong bones beneath, and his lips thinned and lengthened over his straight white teeth as he struggled for control.
He edged further and she tried not to resist. This possession didn’t hurt, but it felt alien. With one hand, he caught her under the hips and angled her up. The pressure changed, but still felt awkward. She bit back another whimper and sank her teeth into her lower lip.
He kissed her. She lay so stiffly that it took her a few moments to respond. When she softened into the play of his mouth, something inside her softened too. He made a low sound of approval and inched forward.
“Are you all right?” he asked gruffly, raising his head. He looked different. His eyelids were heavier and his pupils were so large that his eyes turned black.
She ran shaking hands over his shoulders and down his back, feeling the force of his restraint. His skin was damp and his breath emerged in jagged bursts. “Yes,” she said, although she wasn’t sure.
There was still no pain, but nor was there much pleasure, if she discounted the kiss. After his incendiary caresses, this wasn’t what she’d expected. With every touch, she’d begged for more. But this intimacy made her feel hemmed in and invaded.
His sandalwood scent flooded her senses. Sharper and stronger than his everyday self. Smoky with arousal. The part of him inside her was as hard as oak and just as unforgiving. She squirmed to settle him more comfortably, but it didn’t help.
Gasping, he rested his hot face against her shoulder. “This will improve.”
That stirred strangled laughter. “I hope so.”
“Relax.”