She stared him down. “If that was true, could I feel as I do in your arms?”
“Are you saying you trust me?”
Her hands twisted together at her waist. Her voice emerged as a whisper. “I’m saying that for both our sakes, I hope my heart is leading me right. I hope that you’re not the man who destroyed my sister, but the man I’ve pledged myself to, body and soul. Heaven save us both if I’m wrong.”
Shocked disbelief held him paralyzed, before he swept her up into a kiss that made a mockery of regret.
This time, Leath’s touch was different. The hunger remained, but his kiss lured instead of commanded. Nell quivered with anticipation as he tumbled her down onto the leather couch.
His hands lit fires everywhere they touched. After losing herself so spectacularly in his arms—against the wall, no less—she was sure no scrap of energy remained for pleasure. It turned out that she had much more than a scrap. By the time he tugged her dress over her head and unlaced her corset to kiss the peaks of her breasts, she moaned and moved restlessly. His teeth scored one hard nipple, shooting jagged lightning through her. She bit back a cry.
He settled between her legs and she bent her knees, arching to bring him closer to where she wanted him. Again. Forever. She pushed his shirt up his back and let her fingers play across flexing muscles as he feverishly kissed her shoulders. She sucked in his delicious scent, redolent with arousal. Her stomach clenched with forbidden excitement.
“Take your shirt off,” she muttered in a voice that she didn’t recognize. This time, she could demand too.
He reared up and carelessly hauled his shirt over his head, flinging it away. He came down over her, bearing his weight on his arms. Nell made a deep sound of enjoyment as her rapacious hands explored him.
That broad, naked chest with its silky black hair set her heart cartwheeling. He was breathtakingly strong. The memory of how he’d held her so effortlessly against the wall made her shiver with pleasure. To punish him for that turbulent union, she curled her nails over his nipples.
“Witch…” he grunted, shuddering. It was the first word he’d spoken since carrying her to the couch. It sounded like an endearment.
As her hands tore at his breeches, she nipped and licked her way across his chest. He reached to help her and she released a drawn-out hiss when her hand closed around hard flesh, satin over a steely core. He felt so potent and vital.
Fascinated, she looked down. His nakedness remained a mystery. She’d been too overwhelmed on their first night and tonight’s tempestuous mating had given her no chance for leisurely exploration.
She tightened her grip, making him jolt. He groaned and angled forward in encouragement. Tentatively she slid her hand toward the nest of black hair at the base of his belly.
“Beloved Lord in heaven,” he groaned. A muscle danced in his cheek and his lips tightened.
“Should I stop?” she asked uncertainly, gently squeezing him. Holding him here, where he was most a man, teased her appetite.
“No,” he said, his voice raw. He rolled over until she rose above him. He caught her hand, firming her grip and shifting her fist up and down in a compelling rhythm.
“Like this?” To her delighted astonishm
ent, he grew even heavier.
“Yes,” he said on a long exhalation. He still looked tormented, but she came to realize that strain didn’t necessarily mean displeasure.
Soon Leath was breathing roughly. He seized her hand, but tempered his impatience with a sweet kiss across her knuckles. She sighed, then sighed again when he kissed her lips with more sweetness. He shifted until they sat facing each other.
Blindly she wriggled closer, bracing her hands on his chest. Hardly knowing what she did, delirious with desire, she squirmed on his thigh. Keening whimpers escaped her and her nails marked his skin.
Leath grabbed her hips and lifted her. “Take me,” he grated out. “For God’s sake, take me.”
Uncertainty pierced her fog of need. “Is it possible?”
His short laugh cracked and his hands dug into her hips. “Try.”
He drew her close for another kiss, biting gently on her lower lip. The mixture of pain and pleasure turned her liquid and she shifted downward. To her shock, he slid into her with exquisite smoothness.
“Oh.”
He nipped her neck at the place that always sent her wild. She felt another surge and took him completely.
Unsure, excited, a little frightened, Nell gripped his shoulders. His jaw seemed chiseled from granite. His long, expressive mouth parted. Under heavy lids fringed with thick eyelashes, his eyes were black with arousal.
She knew enough to read his expression as profound satisfaction. And when she instinctively wriggled to settle his thickness, he closed his eyes and exhaled in shuddering pleasure.