“Then I am happy to oblige.”
Crossing to the bed, where the covers had already been pulled down, Quinn stretched out on his back, leaving room for her to join him. When she moved toward him, he watched her avidly, his gaze raking her body.
His regard thrilled her. She wanted him to see her as a desirable woman. Her most ardent wish tonight was to be the lover he wanted.
Climbing into bed, Venetia knelt beside him, then stopped to study him. She was captivated by his golden splendor. His sleek, muscular body was beautiful, rawly masculine. And when her gaze dropped to the jutting length of his sex, her breath caught in her throat.
He was watching her in turn, his gaze frankly, sharply male. Venetia wet her suddenly dry lips with her tongue. She wanted to make him hard, as feverish and desperate for her as she was for him, to put an end to this restless, hot longing he’d kindled inside her.
“Now what?” he ask
ed, his tone faintly taunting.
“You must advise me on what you like,” she suggested, “since I have never done this before.”
His smile was slow and dazzling. “As you wish, sweetheart.”
Yet he did nothing more.
“Quinn,” Venetia said more insistently, “you will need to show me how to pleasure you.”
“I expect you can use your imagination.”
The excitement of yearning swept over her. Pressing her hands against his bare chest, Venetia let her palms glide downward, loving the play of light and shadow over his body…admiring how his muscles shifted, smoothly rippling under taut skin…her fingers skimming over his flat belly, toward his loins….
And there she faltered.
When she made no move to proceed, Quinn urged her along. “You can begin by touching me.”
She reached lower to brush the thick, pulsing heat of him with her fingertips. “Like this?”
He remained completely still, yet his voice was husky with desire when he replied. “Exactly like that.”
“I suspect I need more detailed instruction.”
He closed his fingers around her hand. For the next few moments, Quinn guided and tutored her, showing her how to stroke him with the same erotic rhythm he’d used to pleasure her in the cave, teaching her the points where he was most acutely sensitive. But eventually he released her hand.
“Feel free to take over and explore your natural womanly talents. I won’t lift a finger to interfere.”
The prospect exhilarated Venetia. When she continued fondling him on her own, the powerful, instinctive thrust of his hips was gratifying. It was a heady feeling, eliciting such a response from such a vaunted lover. And when she cupped the velvety pouch beneath his shaft, Quinn inhaled audibly. His eyes looked as hot as the hearth fire.
Encouraged, she bent to tenderly kiss his healing scar. Perhaps because he was letting her assume the power, she was ready to take her seduction further.
“I like this wanton side of you,” he said in an unsteady voice.
“I like it also,” Venetia agreed in a whisper.
His body spoke to some primitive instinct inside her, while his virile maleness made her feel wonderfully feminine.
Feeling bolder now, she shifted her position, letting her hair glide across his belly. When she pressed a delicate kiss against the warm skin there, she shivered with yearning. Surely Quinn noticed her shaken response; Venetia guessed that she was affecting him nearly as much, since all his muscles had gone rigid.
Deliberately she fixed her gaze on his manhood. The hot flesh of his member was a temptation, his erection long and swollen and ready…She could only think of how he would feel when he plunged into her, how his splendid arousal would fill her.
A fresh curl of desire unfurled inside her. She could feel the pulsing in her core increase, as though he were moving inside her already.
She drew a slow breath then and kissed the satin heat of his arousal. Quinn shuddered, while his fingers threaded in her hair. As she stroked the smooth flesh with her tongue, the faint strangled sound he made in his throat could have been a growl or a sigh. And when she began suckling, his hips jerked.
She had taken him aback again, she realized. In response, she slid her hands beneath his buttocks to hold him still. It made her feel powerful to turn the tables on him, and her confidence grew further at his helpless reaction.