“You don’t want me to touch you there?” he asked with a quietness at odds with the intensity in his eyes.
Afraid she was going to cry, she shook her head.
He continued gazing into her eyes, as if trying to penetrate them and read her thoughts. “When I was touching the rest of you…you enjoyed how it felt?”
She wished she could lie, but the untruth wouldn’t form, not when she was trapped in a stare so serious and intense. “Yes,” she whispered.
The corners of his lips made the tiniest curve before the fingers on her hip moved to cover her fisted hand.
His mouth lowered to hers for a featherlight kiss. “Breathe,” he whispered against her lips. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
With infinite patience, he parted her lips. If his mouth had been demanding, she would have recoiled, but the kiss was as gentle as when he’d taken her off guard with his goodnight kiss on their wedding night, and when his tongue slid against hers, she was powerless to stop herself from responding.
To Elio’s relief, he felt Siena begin to relax. It was there, in the slowly growing hunger of her kiss and the loosening of the fist covered by his hand. He wouldn’t allow himself to think of what had caused her reaction to his touch between her legs. Not yet. For now, it was enough to understand that she’d been panicked and close to tears, close to being as frightened as she’d been when she headbutted and fought him.
It didn’t matter who she was. He defied anyone to look into Siena Esposito’s frightened, soft blue eyes and not feel something in their chest twist. She carried herself so tall, but naked beneath him, she was tiny and far more vulnerable than he suspected anyone would recognise. Far more vulnerable than she would want anyone to know, least of all him, her mortal enemy.
And she was his mortal enemy too… But not in this bed. In this bed, she was his wife.
Being careful not to let his touch or mouth go close enough to her pubis to make her freeze and pull her out of herself, Elio explored her beautiful body afresh, trailing his fingers over the buttery skin and suckling the beautiful, weighty breasts thatreminded him of marshmallows like everything else about her did.
How, he wondered, as he circled his tongue around her navel, could a person have a body that screamed both sex and fragility? Did she even realise she was writhing beneath him, that her thighs had widened and her knees lifted? Was she even aware of her soft, soft sighs of pleasure?
Snaking his tongue back over her succulent breasts and up the arch of her neck, he kissed her mouth and felt something twist in his chest afresh when her small hand palmed the back of his head, then felt another twist when his arousal jutted into the top of her thigh, and she yanked her hand away and froze.
He took hold of his erection and lifted his head to look into her eyes. “I will take it slowly.” He kissed her gently. “Very slowly. I promise.”
Siena swallowed and clenched her teeth. She was trembling, from both the desire that had flooded her bloodstream and the fear scratching back at her. She could feel the head of Elio’s erection right at her opening, feel the brush of his hand holding it at the folds of her sex. Feel, too, the sensation of his chest brushing against her breasts. Feel the hard masculinity of him that was as intense as the expression in his eyes she couldn’t bring herself to pull away from.
His lips caressed hers lightly, but she was breathing too heavily to return the kiss. His thick length was pressing through her folds and sliding cautiously inside her.
“It’s okay,” he whispered against her mouth as he slowly fed more of himself into her. “We’ll take all the time you need.”
Her heart was pounding so hard she was certain he could feel it through his chest as strongly as she was feeling him drive his length through the walls of her tense muscles.
He raised his head to gaze again into her eyes. “Siena, relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She cleared her throat and managed to whisper, “But you’re very big.”
His smile was pained. “AmI hurting you?”
She shook her head. No. He wasn’t hurting her. Yet. She just couldn’t shake the remembered pain of when he’d thrust inside her.
“Then what are you feeling?”
“That there’s something alien inside me.”
He pressed a light kiss to her mouth. “And is it a good or a bad alien?”
She had to clear her throat again. “I don’t know.” Tiny flickers of sensation were starting to form in and around the muscles gripping him so tightly. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. The hand that had been feeding him inside her swept gently up the curve of her side and cupped her breast. The weighty length probed deeper. The flickers of sensation between her legs grew stronger, and when he slowly pushed deeper still, there was minimal resistance. She could feel him throbbing inside her.
The silver eyes pulsed. The strong throat moved before he huskily asked, “How are you feeling now?”
It took her a long time to open her throat enough to answer because the sensation had suddenly tripled. “Not bad,” she croaked.
His low laughter was as pained as his smile had been. “You feel like warm velvet.”
