“This is happening fast,” she said.
He pulled the braces off his shoulders. “Too fast?”
“I just thought this part would be slow. I can’t seem to think.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Good. For what we will do, you only need to feel.”
His voice was like his movements, fluid and imbued with purpose. He dragged his shirt over his head and when he reappeared, his curls disheveled, she wasn’t breathing. Strong arms, tapered torso, as if chiseled by an expert. He wasn’t smooth like a statue; dark hair covered his tightly wrapped muscles. Instead of vulnerability, his naked body radiated power. She felt terribly soft in contrast. He smiled, a little crooked, and she realized she was gazing at him with her mouth slightly slack.
His gaze dropped to her breasts and now she felt them, tense and strangely full underneath her chemise.
“Will you take off your chemise for me?” he asked.
He liked telling her what to do in the bedroom. Perhaps he was testing her compliance, preparing her for other instructions. Lie back. Spread your legs. No thinking.
She stripped and sat back down.
His face went very quiet while he took her in. He looked almost shy, an echo of the reverence she had sensed in him at the banks of the loch. When his lips moved but no words came, she understood that her softness held its own power. The act would not be done to her. They would do it together.
Elias discarded his remaining clothes. He was highly aroused, his erection almost touching his flat stomach. A heavy heat pooled in her belly. Once he was inside her, not a thread would go between them then. Mine—if only for a moment.
He turned to the nightstand, opened the drawer, and took out a small vial and a sheath. It had been prepared, and he handled it smoothly.
“Where did you find those?” she asked.
He shot her a look from under his lashes. “Pharmacy next to the grocer.” A soft snort. “The pharmacist warned me to exercise moderation in all things.”
“Why, how many did you buy?”
“Plenty.” He tossed the vial onto the counterpane and put his knee between hers onto the mattress.
She reclined, awed by the proximity of a naked man.
He hovered over her, feeling large and infusing her with his body heat. His addictive scent entered her on every breath and coated her taste buds like nectar.
“You need these now?” He was holding her face and tapped a finger against the rim of her glasses.
She shook her head. “I don’t need them, no.”
He took them off and lowered his face to hers.
A curl brushed over her forehead. His lips were soft like a butterfly’s wing on her closed eyelids, and the tender, unfamiliar sensation drew a gasp of pleasure from her. He kissed her on the mouth, twining his tongue with hers, licking, tasting, teasing. Faintly, she was aware that her hips were moving, pushing up as if seeking the weight of his. Instead, Elias stretched out alongside her. He put a hand on her breast, but she was very aware of the hard, hot part of him that was pressed against her thigh. He plucked at her nipple, the one she had pierced, and lanced a stab of erotic pleasure low into her belly.
Her small cry made him smile.
He nipped the tightening bud with his teeth, and she arched against his mouth, shamelessly clasping the back of his head to hold him in place. He suckled, patiently, relentlessly, until she felt the sinewy caress of his tongue inside her. She heard herself say please. He picked up the vial; oil poured into his palm, then his slick hand glided between her thighs. For a beat, he went motionless, as if he wanted to savor the feel of her liquid heat against his fingers. Please. He stroked, light and quick. “You liked this the last time,” he said, and her body contracted as it remembered the last time, the swelling pleasure, the need. Her breathing fractured. Oil melted into the downy insides of her thighs. Heat flashed, chased by chills.
She gripped his arm and stared up at his tense face. “I think I’m . . . I’m . . .”
“Spending?” he said gently. “Yes, that would be very nice.” His fingers penetrated her, slipping easily in and out. She was riveted to the one tense point under the pad of his thumb, to the enticing friction that was winding the tension tighter and tighter. She needed it to snap, or else she might die. She grabbed his wrist. Faster. He obliged, his smile raw and dark. Ecstasy surged, sudden and powerful like a riptide, pulling her right into her own black center. There was nothing. Then only pulsing bliss, exploding outward, flinging her to the edge of a galaxy. She had barely emerged, dazed and still twitching in the sheets, when Elias ran his oiled-up hand over himself. The hot muscled length of his body settled on top of hers, then there was pressure between her legs. He gazed down on her with a hard look in his eyes.