Oh, no, he’d misunderstood her. She’d been running from him so long, using coldness to keep him at a distance. No wonder he doubted her capitulation.
&n
bsp; Forgetting inhibitions, she pressed closer, relishing his shirt’s soft friction against her skin. Her arms slid up to circle his neck.
“I’m not,” she choked out. She hardly remembered why she’d ever held herself apart from him. In case her consent wasn’t clear, she went on. “I’m not denying you, Elias.”
He gripped her hard around the waist. “You looked frightened.”
The last of her mistrust evaporated. He’d told her she was safe and it seemed she was.
“All this is so new.” She swallowed. “I like this. I like…you.”
“I like you, too,” he said with a quick change of mood. “Very much. If only you’d thrust your bosom into my hands earlier, I’d have told you that long before tonight.”
Ridiculous to blush when she lay so brazenly in his arms. Ridiculous to recall a time when he’d said he loved her. But she refused to let painful memories spoil this moment. “If I’d known what you could do with those hands, I might have.”
His soft laugh brushed across her skin like velvet. “I don’t believe it.”
How unexpected that humor built her pleasure. She was still laughing when he kissed her with a giddy mixture of elation and passion. This time Marianne let herself tumble headlong into the deep lake of sensation that waited. At last, she felt bold enough to initiate her own exploration.
Tentatively, she ran her hands over his chest. He made a low sound of enjoyment. Encouraged, she tugged at his neck cloth to reveal the hot male skin beneath. Under her depredations, his shirt fell open. She discovered the fine black hair that covered Elias’s chest. Her hand brushed his nipple and he started.
“Elias?”
He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “You tempt me beyond reason.”
She very much liked that he couldn’t resist her. “I need to touch you.”
She’d never imagined she’d caress a man, not even her husband, like this. And she’d barely started. Greed to know all of him, to see him without concealing clothes, rose like a wave. Control had been the guiding principle of her life. Control had no place in her ferocious need to follow this desire where it led.
Ruthlessness edged Elias’s touch. Until she’d tugged at his clothing, he’d been gentle. Now he revealed unabashed hunger. And a possessiveness that should send her scrambling for safety, but instead set her blood rushing. With sudden impatience, he tossed her skirts up and cupped her between the legs where need pounded most insistently.
Her body turned liquid. She bucked under this invasion and made a wordless complaint. This was like suffering a deathly fever. She shook with excitement and fear.
“Trust me,” he said in a guttural whisper, stroking her through her thin drawers.
“I can’t…” She hardly knew what she said. His hand felt hot and dangerous, even as her secret muscles clamped painfully on emptiness.
“I promised you’ll keep your virtue.”
Frantically she pressed back on his arm until her gaze met his. His face was flushed and his lips full from their kisses. But his eyes remained steady.
“Marianne?” he asked as if the pause had contained an entire conversation.
She managed a nod. “I don’t feel very virtuous.”
Elias smiled and pressed his lips to hers. His hardness jutted into her hip, but his kiss was sweet. When he was forceful, the fire stirred her caution. She had no defenses against tenderness. On a surge of crushing emotion, she answered his kiss with every drop of unspoken love in her heart.
Because that emotional surrender was so much more significant than physical need, she didn’t close her legs when he began a slow exploration. She shook as he gently traced her delicate folds. His long fingers found a place that sent unfamiliar sensation ripping through her.
She cried out and her hands clenched against his shoulders. “Elias?”
“This is for you, my love.” His voice soothed while his hand played fiendish music on her body.
Lost in a fog of carnal pleasure, she closed her eyes and twisted to bury her face in his chest. He was breathing harshly and his heart thumped hard beneath her ear. He stroked her again and a tremor shook her. She’d never felt like this before. She liked what he did, but every touch set her thirsting for some mysterious end.
She wriggled against his hand in a futile quest for ease, then muffled another cry when she felt a subtle pressure. He’d slid a finger into her body. That should seem bizarre. Instead it felt like an invitation to heaven.