He laid her back on the mattress, and sat back on his heels, surveying her with pleasure in his eyes. “You’re everything I’ve been imagining. More.”
She smiled, feeling shy. “You’ve been imagining me?”
“That’s what men do,” he told her bluntly. “As soon as there’s a woman we want, she invades every spare moment in our minds.”
“How distracting.”
“It’s a curse.”
“And what did you imagine doing with me?”
“I’ll show you.”
He bent down, running his hands along her waist and hips while he kissed her stomach. Poppy gasped at the feeling, her muscles contracting in response to his attentions. She had read of such things in books she was absolutely not permitted to read…but that was very different from actually doing them.
He moved lower along her body, his hand sweeping her thighs, very gently encouraging her to part her legs. Poppy inhaled, uncertain. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I’m going to make you come undone with just my mouth,” he told her, smiling in a way that made her stomach flip over and her breath stop. “Now lay back and put your hands on my head. Tell me when to go faster or slower, or harder or softer. I’m listening. And feel free to beg me for things, or just scream my name.”
“You have a high opinion of your skills, don’t you,” she said, trying to hold onto a semblance of her usual wit while also reeling from the notion that this beautiful man intended to touch her in ways no one else had touched her in her entire life.
“When I’m done, Poppy, you’ll have a high opinion of my skills, too.”
He was arrogant. But also correct.
Poppy learned that bliss took all sorts of forms, but one of the nicest was when a person devoted themselves to pleasuring another completely, postponing any and all attention for themselves. Under his tongue, Poppy moaned and sighed and spoke absolute nonsense as her body vibrated in reaction. She did find out that she enjoyed both slow and fast, and that she was inclined to twist and arch her back when overwhelmed with pleasure. When the sensations grew intense, beads of sweat broke out along her forehead and under her arms and between her breasts and along her spine.
He ran his fingers over her skin, turning that moisture into something sublime for her nerves. Poppy whimpered, needing release. Since he requested it, she did beg Carlos to give her that release, earning a low laugh from him that she felt in her core. A moment later, Poppy cried out as the moment came, leaving her shaken from the waves of pleasure breaking over her.
Carlos moved to lay next to her, gathering her in his arms. She curled up onto him, nuzzling her head where his shoulder met his neck. He seemed to have an endless supply of internal heat, and his skin was delightfully warm. She sighed as she stretched one hand across his chest. Under her fingertips, she felt the thud of his heartbeat—he looked calm, but he wasn’t. She realized that all this time, he’d been holding back his own urges to give her more attention.
“I don’t have anything to compare it to,” she said at last. “But I suspect that I’ll remember that forever.”
“Or until the next time,” he said.
She smiled at that. “Oh, you think you’ve conquered me, do you? That I’m just going to lie about pining for you, unable to look at any other man?”
“Will you? I like that idea,” he said, tipping her head up to lay a kiss on her mouth.
The kiss quickly deepened, and he ran his hand along her leg, pressing it against his erection. Poppy wanted to move right along with the ruination, so she moved her leg away and slid her hand down instead, curious to touch him and learn all about this bit of anatomy that caused half of society to get locked in their rooms for safety.
Carlos swore under his breath in Spanish, and she had definitely not learned those phrases in her lessons.
“Should I stop?” she asked.
“No, you should do that for the rest of the night. Every night. Possibly forever. Christ, Poppy, that feels so good.”
“I’m glad,” she whispered. “You made me feel good.”
“I will again. I’m going to make you need me.”
She bit her lip, excited yet scared by his words. Poppy didn’t like to need people. Especially not men.
He must have noticed her expression, because he suddenly moved, managing to roll her onto her back while he stretched over her, all within the space of a breath.
“It’s not that kind of need,” he told her, his voice low in her ear. “You’ll still be the same gorgeous, maddening, lovely little snapdragon you are now. But you’ll know what you want. And you’ll want me.”
“Show me,” Poppy breathed.
