While West took off his trousers, Helena perched on the bed to remove slippers and stockings. The sight of her bare calves and feet enthralled him. Odd how random, seemingly insignificant moments kept catching him on the raw.
Tomorrow he’d ponder reasons. Right now, Helena awaited. He cast away the last of his clothing and strode toward the lovely woman, watching wide-eyed from the luxurious bed.
Chapter Six
Helena gulped for air and curled her hands into the sheets beneath her. The opulent room turned suffocating. And tiny.
While West seemed terrifyingly…large.
“Dear heaven…” she croaked from a mouth that felt drier than a desert. She couldn’t look away from the stiff column of flesh rising between his legs.
West laughed. “Hel, don’t tell me you’ve never seen a naked man before.”
She couldn’t mistake his affectionate amusement. The traitorous warmth in her chest became harder to deny. She licked parched lips and managed to squeak out, “Crewe didn’t look like you.”
West’s eyebrows rose. “I assure you I’m perfectly normal. Well, apart from the damned fever I picked up in the Crimea, but that hasn’t changed my basic anatomy.”
“I’m going to faint,” she said in a thready voice.
“Never. Not my stalwart Helena.”
How she wished she shared his confidence. Although sparking excitement underlay her trepidation. Excitement and curiosity. And something that could be need.
Despite her best efforts, the hand she stretched toward him trembled. “Show me.”
He covered the distance in a single stride and caught her in his arms. As he lowered her to the bed, his touch swept away all misgivings.
He kissed her ravenously and set out to explore her body, learning every line and hollow. When his fingers trailed between her legs, her thighs fell open. What point playing coy when she ached with desire?
A sound of satisfaction emerged from his throat as he bent to take her nipple between his lips. Sensation assaulted her from two directions at once, and every muscle contracted in response. Nothing Crewe had done could compare to these shuddering reactions.
And West had barely started.
He stroked her cleft and lingered on a sensitive place that sent lightning streaking through her. She whimpered as a liquid surge greeted his daring caresses. Her heart hammered against her ribs, as if it fought to break free.
The tension rose higher and higher as he tormented that small, secret pearl. She squirmed. The pleasure sharpened until it approached pain. She gasped when he slid one long finger into her, adding to the giddy mix.
“Let it happen, Hel.” He raised his head from her breast and stared at her. “Don’t fight me.”
She gasped as her body stretched to accept two seeking fingers. “Fight you?” She couldn’t contain an unsteady laugh. “I’m positively begging.”
Something flashed in his eyes that struck her as important. If only she could read it. “You’re pure gold. You always have been.”
He curled his fingers inside her and stroked a place that set her quaking. Yet still what she wanted remained out of reach.
It had been like this with Crewe. He’d take her so far, then while he found release, she’d stay teetering on the brink. She dug her fingernails into West’s arms in a silent plea not to leave her behind.
“It won’t work,” she gasped. “I think it’s going to, then—”
He kissed her, and the touch of his lips soothed the demons. “Trust me.”
“Crewe was right. There’s something wrong with me.”
“Damn it, there’s nothing wrong with you, except the man you chose to marry.”
West kissed her again, until she forsook self-doubt and yielded. His fingers moved in and out of her with a hard, regular rhythm that made her shake. Each time he withdrew, the heel of his hand pressed on her mound and fire shot through her. Craving spiraled tighter and tighter, until surely she must snap into pieces.
Fulfillment still hovered too far off. As release evaded her, stinging tears seeped from her eyes. She couldn’t do it. Even with West, even wanting him so desperately.