Then he bent his head and took her other nipple between his lips. He pulled at it, rolled his tongue over it, laving the sensitive flesh.
When he began to suckle her, she moaned, helpless to resist the impulse. Molten heat spread through her, concentrating between her thighs, where it pulsed. She squeezed them together, desperate to allay the unnamed urgency building within her.
“Sterling, I need…” She broke off with a whimper. She didn’t know. Twining her arms around his neck, she dragged him closer in a silent demand formore. More of the heady torment. More of his mouth, his hands, his weight on her.
With a low chuckle, he lifted his head from her breast, rose onto his elbows to bracket her shoulders between them. “I know what you need, darling,” he breathed. Then he covered her mouth with his and devastated her with his kiss.
He shifted his weight, freeing one hand to roam over her in unhurried exploration. Soon, cool air brushed her bare thighs as he worked his way beneath the sheer skirts of her silk chemise. His fingertips traced over her hip, her belly, the top of her thigh.
When he reached her curls, she shuddered. Everything inside her clenched as yearning and uncertainty clashed.
Somehow, he understood. “Let me, sweetheart. Let me touch you,” he purred into her ear.
She shivered. Embarrassed, because she knew, somehowknew, she was soaking wet. But she wanted, oh how she wanted, what only he could give, a release from this desperate, building tension.
He kissed her again, tenderly, so tenderly. Instead of calming her, the seductive brush of his lips only fanned the flames inside her. She grew hotter. Tighter.
“Please, Sterling.”
He groaned and slid one finger into her most private place, the sweet friction a lush sensation unlike anything she’d ever known. It stole her breath, her ability to think.
Groaning again, he dropped his face into her neck. “You feel…so…good,” he all but growled. His rasping breaths in her ear, he glided his finger between her folds in a steady rhythm, up and down, up and down, up and down, each time brushing one incredibly sensitive spot.
With each pass, her insides twisted, tighter. Tighter. She speared her fingers in his hair, scoring his scalp, certain she could not take more of the delicious torment, and then,release—as sudden, glorious, dizzying, pleasure exploded through her. She shuddered, she bucked, she cried his name. Nothing could have prepared her.Nothing.
Finally, she lay there, boneless, utterly replete.
She was dimly aware of Sterling leaving her briefly, jerking at his clothing. In the next moment, he eased atop her, his weight pressing her into the mattress, his hips nestled into hers. She knew what was coming. She’d been around horses all her life and thus had an idea of what comprised the male anatomy.
Still, she was unprepared when he guided his manhood, hot and slick, to her core. Unprepared for the shockwaves of pleasure rippling through her as his hips rocked, nudging the still-sensitive space.
Breath hissing between his teeth, he met her gaze. A blazing heat burned in his eyes. “You are unlike anything. You steal my ability to think beyond my need to feel you—like this.”
She nodded, unable to form words.
Jaw clenched, he pushed inside her.
She flinched as pain, sharp as a tack, pricked her. But she didn’t want him to stop. She wanted their joining. Needed it like she needed air.
Above her, he held utterly still, never breaking eye contact with her. Sweat trickled down his temple, and a muscle in his jaw ticked.
He started to pull free.
No.She bent her knees and arched upward.
He choked, his hips jerking forward in a reflexive pump. Then he was pushing deep. Sinking himself into her, gasping for air, his face a mask of pain and pleasure.
Everything in her reveled in the sight—of this man, her husband, lost to her. The wonder of it nearly overwhelmed her, leaving her giddy and desperate for him.
Unable not to, she wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his hips. He groaned in evident surprise, then his hips swiveled, his body contorted, and he loosed a husky roar of unmistakable male triumph.
Afterward, he collapsed on top of her.
A sense of feminine triumph washed through her. She had never been more content in her entire life.
Chapter 27
After they made love, Sterling finished undressing her, then cleaned her—to her private mortification—with surprisingly gentle hands before removing the rest of his own garments. Then he urged her under the bedsheets and joined her, cocooning her body with his.
