Page 58 of A Figure of Love

“No.” He handed her his coat and watched her slip it on with eyes as sharp as a raptor’s. His coattails—which hit him just at the knee—tickled her ankles. When she was covered, he took her thin, wet chemise into the sunshine and stretched it out on the grass to dry.

The coat dwarfed her and the clean scent of him was dizzying. She closed her eyes and shivered in anticipation.

“Are you cold?” His voice came from beside her ear, hot breath on her temple and soft, soft kisses beneath her ear. “I will warm you.”

His hands, strong and hot, pushed between the coat flaps and settled on her hips. He spanned her waist and squeezed her lightly, the gesture making her feel small and dainty, two things she knew she was not.

“Mmmm,” he hummed against her, his kisses moving down her jaw, forcing back her head, until he nibbled and licked at the underside of her chin. He took his time, his focus on her pleasure rather than his own. It was an onslaught unlike any other she’d experienced and her arms hung uselessly at her sides while his hands roamed her torso. He licked, kissed, and tasted his way down her throat, grazing her strangely sensitive collarbones on the way to her breasts.

Serena cried out when he flicked a cold, hard nipple with the hot tip of his tongue, and then was gone. She pushed herself against him. More.

He took her in his mouth and suckled her until warmth radiated out from her breast. “So beautiful,” he whispered into the hollow between her breasts, and then moved to her other nipple and tormented her until she had to bite her lip to keep from screaming.

Suddenly, the heat of him disappeared and she opened her eyes.

“Come.” He took her hand and pulled her down beside him on the blanket. His hands slid between the flaps of the coat she wore—his coat—and he cupped her bottom with strong hands, molding her body to his. Lips and teeth drifted over her throat, jaw, and ear while his hands—his wicked, wicked hands—stroked and teased and kneaded.

“Unbutton me.”

A rush of pleasure shot through her at the sound of his command, spoken in such hushed passion. She pushed a hand between their bodies, tracing the hard length of him thrusting against the soft leather.

He groaned and tightened his hold, his fingers sinking into her soft flesh. She stroked him again and again and again, until his powerful body vibrated with need, and then, with a few deft flicks, she opened the flap of his breeches and released him.

He hissed in a ragged breath at her touch and rolled onto his back, pulling her with him, his gray eyes heavy-lidded as they gazed up into hers. “The ground is hard and I don’t want to hurt you.” He explained in a lust-roughened voice she hardly recognized. “I want you to ride me, Serena.”

She shivered at his raw words, her fingers working on the buttons of his waistcoat as she pushed up onto her knees. He watched her straddle his hips with a heavy-lidded, sensual stare, an expression of bliss on the hard, taut planes of his face.

Serena shoved up his shirt once his waistcoat was open, groaning in amazement at the latticework of muscles beneath her hands. His ridged abdomen shifted and tightened when he sucked in a breath, his hands holding her still as he flexed his hips and rubbed his hard ridge against the most sensitive part of her body.

It was too much and Serena’s eyelids fluttered shut. She sucked her lower lip between her teeth as he ground against her, hard, insistent, and slick.

When she opened her eyes it was to find him watching intently, his jaws clenched tight as he stroked, the slight curve of his lips that of a man confident in his ability to bring her pleasure.

“Touch yourself.” He spoke the shocking words in an even more shockingly normal tone. At her look of disbelief he nodded, “Yes, touch your breasts—your nipples. Tease them for me.”

She swallowed loudly enough to be heard over their heavy breathing and the distantly chuckling river. Her hands moved slowly up her ribs until she touched one finger to the tip of her breast. His hands tightened painfully on her hips and his thrusting motions became jerky.

“More,” he forced the word through clenched teeth.

She put a finger in her mouth and slicked it before swirling it around her other nipple. His lips parted and his breathing roughened as he strove to control the rhythm of his thrusts. Serena tipped her head back, surrendering to the sensation building inside her. She was drowsily aware that he’d not entered her body and yet he was driving her steadily and relentlessly toward her climax, stroking and grinding against her sensitive core until her entire body hummed with delicious tension. Until she could not bear another second without coming apart.

Serena came hard, the waves of pleasure pummeling her, overlapping and receding, only to crash again and again. She realized, vaguely, that he’d stopped moving and she looked down to find him watching her with rapt hunger.

“I want to be inside you.”

She nodded shakily and raised up off him.

His hand moved to where they touched and he positioned himself against her entrance. When he raised his hips, she impaled herself—hard. They gasped as he sheathed himself fully, the echoes of her climax contracting around his thick shaft. His body jerked and arched, the muscles of his stomach, chest, and shoulders so defined they looked as if they’d been carved from the finest alabaster.

Serena leaned forward until her breasts grazed his chest, her hands fisting the blanket on each side of his shoulders as she tilted to take him even deeper. Barely an inch separated their faces and this close to him she saw the fine, icy gray shards that made up his irises. She tightened her inner muscles and his eyes widened, his hands like butterflies on her waist.

She swiveled her hips and his nostrils flared. His grip tightened on her waist, but he did not take control of their lovemaking. He let her dictate the pace and depth and rhythm, the pale skin of his face flushing with passion as she rode him inexorably to his crisis, her own body tight with anticipation, her attention on his pleasure after he’d given her so much.

And when he stiffened and cried out, his beautiful face no longer under his tight control and his body pulsing inside her, Serena felt as triumphant as if she’d just completed a fine piece of art.

∞∞∞

Gareth only gradually became aware of the rock jabbing his neck and the stick or twig digging into his lower back; he did not care. The warm, soft body lying on top of him was worth a thousand times more discomfort. He was still inside her, his cock too delirious with joy to have completely softened. Indeed, he began to want her again even before he’d emerged from the pleasurable fog that suffused both his body and brain.