Reckless Angel by Jane Feather Page B

trifle, reflected Daniel. Conversation played havoc with sensuality. “Lie down,” he instructed, running his fingertips lightly over her arms, feeling her skin quiver beneath the delicate caress.
    The air was cool on her bared skin as he slipped the smock out from under her, lifting her with an intimate palm that shocked her so that for a second her body went rigid. A flush seemed to creep over her entire body as his eyes roamed slowly over her, lying so still and so naked on the bed.
    â€œThere is no need to be uncomfortable,” he said quietly, his hands following his eyes. He had seen her naked before, but on that occasion had not permitted himself the luxury of acknowledging the woman’s body. Now he could do so, and it was an entrancing, lean little body, narrow hipped and long legged, her skin soft and creamy, the silken triangle at the apex of her thighs as fair as the tresses massed upon the pillow.
    He kissed her belly, nuzzled her navel, feeling her skin mist, bedewed with a faint sheen of perspiration,as she half protested these attentions yet yielded to the wild turmoil of sensation. “You are very beautiful, Henrietta,” he said, looking into her eyes as he parted her thighs.
    She resisted the pressure of his hands spreading her wide, her head shaking in vigorous negative although she could find no words. But the inexorable trespass continued and with a shuddering sigh she gave in, allowing herself to be tossed hither and thither by weird and wonderful feelings that in her soul she thought should be shameful, yet they were not and she could not have cared if they were.
    When at last he removed his own clothes and came down onto the bed with her, the feel of his skin against hers, the strange roughness of it so unlike anything she had before experienced, brought her to vibrant awareness of his physical presence. She inhaled deeply of the scent of him, felt his hair tickle her cheek, the hair of his chest slightly abrasive against her breasts, the hard throb of him against her thigh. He took the bolster and slipped it beneath her bottom, angling her body to facilitate his entrance into the tight virgin portal. She bit her lip hard, her whole body seeming to tighten against him as she looked up into his face, feeling him now as an alien presence, a stranger who would invade and possess her. His eyes were open, as if he was seeing into some other world, and he pressed ever deeper within, refusing to acknowledge her resistance. Then he looked down at her, at her fearful face, saw her confused anger at this invasion, and he lowered his head to kiss her eyelids, gentling her with nonsense murmurs, concentrating now on her so that the anger and fear left her.
    For a moment he had forgotten her youth and inexperience as he reveled once more in the glory of being within a woman. For four years he had been chaste, as if by such denial he could atone for the responsibility he bore for Nan’s death, and only now did he realize what a sacrifice that denial had been. It required every effort of control to delay his own satisfaction and bringall the skill he possessed to the fore, so that the girl lying so still beneath him began to relax, began to make little sounds of perplexed pleasure as she entered the realm of womanhood.
    He withdrew from her body the instant before his own pleasure peaked, and Henrietta, whose education in these matters was but barely begun, thought nothing of it. She lay, feeling strangely limp, accepting the heaviness of the body upon hers, now accepting the body itself, the physical presence in all its sensory reality, that had so frightened her with its unfamiliar and invincible power.
    Daniel rolled away from her, propped himself on an elbow, and dropped a kiss on her brow. A smile trembled on her lips, but she said nothing because she could think of nothing that seemed appropriate. A shyness now filled her, as if, despite the intimacy they had just shared, again she was