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A frisson of fear crept up her spine. Fear he would now reject her. “It is nothing you have not done before.” The knot in her throat ached, and she swallowed to ease it. “After I am wed, should you wish to make of me your mistress I will welcome you, for I can assure you there will be no warmth in my marriage bed. I offer myself to you free of obligation.”
“Obligation.” He gave a little laugh. The twisting of his lips made something in her midsection coil a little tighter. “Do you truly comprehend what it is you ask of me?”
Her heart galloped like a mad thing as he took a step toward her.
“In the past, I would have taken what you offer without question or care. But I am no longer that man, Eden. I’m a better man, partly because of you.”
“Partly,” she echoed with a grimace. “It was not I who began your reformation.”
“No, but you’ve had a hand in its progress, such that I wish to be all that is admirable and honorable in your eyes. Your high regard is precious to me, for it has been hard won. Yet now you wish to tear down what you’ve helped build. Why? Because you’re angry at being made a pawn? Because you wish quiet revenge against those who would use you to further their ambitions without regard for your wants?”
He reached out and traced the neckline of her nightgown just above where the traitorous drum pounded away inside her, relentlessly counting out each stolen second. “Such is life for many. None of those reasons could persuade me to do what you ask, to ruin you utterly. The only thing that can sway me is the truth. I want to know what really brought you here tonight. I want to know what is in your heart.”
A shaky breath shuddered in her breast as she stared, mesmerized by the naked hunger in his sin-black eyes. She wanted this man more than anything she’d ever wanted in her whole life. Every action she
’d taken up to this point led to the answer she’d tried so hard not to acknowledge.
She could no longer deny it. She loved him. With acceptance came release. Release of fear, release of care for the possible consequences. Taking the final step that would bring her within inches of her desire, she tilted her face up, letting her tears fall without shame. “My heart is yours and yours alone. It has always been, and it will always be. I fear nothing in life save being forced to live without you.”
With fingers that shook, she pulled loose the ribbons holding her nightgown closed and tugged it down, baring her flesh to his heated gaze. “I give myself to you without reserve or regret. Touch me, Percy. Make me your own. Let me be yours at least once. Otherwise, I will be unable to abide what is to come.” She closed her eyes against the thought. “But if I bear your imprint on my body as well as my heart, nothing he does will ever be able to touch me.”
She heard the sharp intake of his breath just before his arms drew her close and crushed her against the unyielding wall of his chest. Joy surged through her as his hands tangled in her hair and splayed across her back, as his mouth covered hers in a drugging kiss. Only when she was breathless did he break away to bury his face in the curve of her neck.
“God, Eden. I have longed for you so.” His muffled voice trembled almost as much as her knees. “Tell me this is no dream. I need you to be real.”
She clung to him, pressing kiss after kiss against his neck, his cheek, his lips. “I’m real,” she breathed. “This is real, and I am yours.”
With a shudder he bent, and lightning tore through her as his hot mouth closed over the taut nipple of one aching breast. He drew upon it gently, and she gasped. Delightful tension coiled inside her belly, tighter and tighter. His tongue flicked out to tease the hardened pebble, and it built until it became almost unbearable. Grasping his head between her palms, she pulled back and nudged him toward the other one.
Tremors wracked her as he treated it to the same delicious torment. Merciful heaven, if this is what sin feels like, what more is to come? Even as she thought it, he withdrew to slowly sink to his knees before her. His hands skimmed down her flanks until his broad, warm palms cupped her backside. Dropping kisses all the way down, he stopped before her most private place.
Flushing, she reached down to haul him back up, but before she could do so, he tugged her closer, unbalancing her so she stumbled forward into him. Embarrassment turned into incoherent ecstasy as his tongue darted out to thrust up between the curls at the juncture of her legs.
Though modesty demanded she close herself off at once, lust screamed otherwise, overriding all decency to make her widen her stance and grant him better access. Her fingers dove into his hair, holding him to her as his hot, wet tongue caressed her sensitive flesh, licking, lapping, teasing until she thought she would go insane.
He shuffled forward on his knees and nudged her backward until she felt the upholstered arm of a chair bump against the backs of her thighs. Leaning against this support, she succumbed to the raging fire of her need, opening wide for him. His hands shifted, caressing her thighs and moving down to grasp her calves. When he pushed them up onto his shoulders, changing her position, she thought she would die from pleasure as his tongue plunged into her.
The tension within her drew tauter still as he kissed her most intimate place in the most shocking way. The brush of his breath against her as he whispered how beautiful she was made her gasp and squirm. That a man could do such a thing to a woman’s body was something she’d never even imagined.
Then his tongue dipped into her well once more, and the coil inside her snapped, sending a wave of pleasure rippling through her. On its heels came another, and another. A ragged cry rose in her throat as sudden heat flooded her, as he drank from her fountain with delicate strokes.
“Tell me again your heart is mine,” he rasped, rising to stand between her knees. Reaching down, he took her hand and hauled her to her feet. “Tell me you belong only to me,” he murmured at her ear even as his fingers slid into her nether curls to tease the swollen bud nestled there.
“I’m yours,” she whispered, the words ending on a quiet sob of ecstasy. “Only yours…”
Just as she thought she might come apart, he stopped and bent, scooping her up into his arms. Moving to the bed, he deposited her on it and then tore off his nightshirt to stand before her clothed only in firelight.
His form was lean, but power was etched into every line and curve of muscle. He was, to her, beautiful in a way nothing else had ever before been, and her eyes devoured him, learning him. Her gaze traveled slowly down until she beheld his arousal, silhouetted against the hearth’s flames.
She’d known losing her virginity would hurt, but…
“Eden, if this is not what you truly want, you’d better tell me right now.”
Looking into his eyes, she saw a curious mixture of tenderness, hope, and fear. “I want you, Percy,” she said, her voice surprisingly firm. “I’ve never wanted anyone else. I never will.”
It was enough for him. The next instant, Eden lay against the pillows, her body trapped beneath his. She didn’t expect to find the taste of herself on his mouth so incredibly erotic when he kissed her—but it was. Insanity pulsed its heavy way through her veins as she released her final inhibitions and kissed him back in full measure.
He leaned to the side and she rolled with him, clasping his strong shoulders to keep him close. His skin was like velvet over sun-warmed rock. Succumbing to temptation, she tentatively ran the tip of her tongue along the curve of his collarbone. The unique, faintly salty taste of his flesh seared her senses, further inflaming her desire.
