thing, we can never go back.” He stared deeply into her eyes and saw the little fear that flickered there.
“You worry over me. Over my virtue.”
“One of us must look out for you.”
“Aye. And for that I’m grateful.”
His tone roughened. “It isn’t your gratitude I desire.”
“Nay. It is this.” She lifted her face to him. In her eyes was a look of such love, it nearly melted his heart. “I have no wish to go back, Grant. Only forward. With you.” She lifted herself on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his throat.
Such a simple gesture, but the tenderness of it was his undoing.
The blood roared in his temples. His vision was nearly blinded by a mist of passion. His heart beat a thunderous tattoo in his chest. With each touch of her, each taste, the need grew until he was beyond thought, beyond reason.
With a growl that seemed more animal than human he drove her back against the trunk of a tree and savaged her mouth with kisses that left them both gasping for breath. Though this change in him had her fearful, she clung to him, offering more, wanting him to end this terrible need inside her.
Needs unlike any she’d ever experienced writhed and twisted, demanding to be satisfied. Deep inside, a small fist pulsed and throbbed like a hollow ache. Her breasts felt swollen and tender, as her body strained toward his.
He ran hot, wet kisses along the smooth column of her throat, sending delicious curls of pleasure down her spine. But when his mouth dipped lower, to capture her breast, she could do nothing but gasp his name.
Despite the barrier of her gown, he nibbled and suckled until she moaned and writhed in his arms. “Grant, please…”
He lifted his head. “Do you wish me to stop?”
“Nay. I…” She couldn’t speak over the dryness in her throat.
“Tell me that you want this, Kylia.” He waited, afraid to breathe. If she should change her mind now, he would surely die.
There was a light in her eyes he’d never seen before. A gleam of desire that had her tossing aside her cloak and reaching up to twine her arms around his neck. She drew his head close for a slow kiss as she whispered against his lips, “I want this, Grant. Only this. And you. Only…”
He cut off her words with a kiss so hot, so hungry, it seemed to steal her breath.
And then there were no words as he tore hergown aside in his haste. It pooled in the grass at her feet while he untied the ribbons of her chemise. As the fabric parted, he studied her in the moonlight. “Oh, my sweet Kylia. You’re even more beautiful than I’d imagined.”
He ran soft, nibbling kisses across her shoulder to her collarbone, then lower to her breast. He could feel the way she shivered, and he gathered her close, taking her nipple into his mouth.
She was seized with the most unbelievable wave of heat that nearly staggered her. She had a need to touch him as he was touching her. She reached blindly for him, and when her fingers fumbled, he helped her until his clothing joined hers in the grass at their feet.
He caught her hands and drew her down to her knees, before gathering her close to press kisses to her upturned face. He struggled to bank his needs as he kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, the tip of her nose. He could feel her relax in his arms as he ran his fingers lightly down her back, drawing her even closer, until his body was imprinting itself on hers.
“Do you know how much I want you, Kylia?”
When she didn’t respond he drew her down, until she was lying beside him, with nothing but the cloak beneath to cushion her from the grass. “I would move heaven and earth for you, my lady. I would face the wrath of an army, or walk through a wall of fire, just to be with you.”
She reached a fingertip to his mouth, tracing the outline of his lips. “I ask none of those things, Grant. I ask only that you feel about me on the morrow the way you feel about me this moment.”
“I fear I cannot promise that, my lady.” His
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