“Yes,” Madeline rasped. “More than ready.”
She felt on fire as liquid heat poured into her center; she burned there. When his fingers cupped her again, it was all she could do to keep from moaning.
Holding his hand still, Rayne captured her gaze with his. The air around them shimmered with sexual arousal as he leaned closer.
“I want to taste you everywhere….”
He bent down to her, breathing in the heat and wet scent of her body, then pressed his mouth against her mound, kissing her cleft. “You’re so sweet and tempting.”
Madeline moaned aloud as ravenous hunger swept through her.
“Good, you’re hot for me,” he observed, his voice deep and resonant and sexual. “That is exactly how I want you.”
His hands were on her buttocks now, his tongue lapping the wine from her feminine folds, suckling the throbbing bud of her sex. She shuddered as he feasted on her but nearly came up off the table when his tongue thrust into the hot, quivering core of her.
At her helpless response, Rayne applied himself to the task of really making her moan. He tortured her with exquisitely slow thrusts, using his tongue with devastating thoroughness. In only moments Madeline was panting, her body arching wantonly for him, her fingers clutching in his hair.
“That’s it … I want you writhing and hungry.”
“Rayne, merciful heaven, please….”
She was dimly appalled to realize she was begging. But he only held her surging body down, his mouth pressed hard to her, clearly savoring the soft cries she made, the breathless moans.
At last he relented. “Why don’t I let you come now?” he murmured before giving her one final, fierce caress with his mouth.
Madeline climaxed with a scream, her teeth bared in fierce, primitive surrender as a powerful firestorm rocked her.
For a full score of heartbeats afterward, she lay there sprawled senseless while Rayne continued to kiss her softly between her legs, absorbing the rippling aftershocks with his mouth.
“You look like a woman who has just been thoroughly pleasured,” Rayne observed finally, his tone satisfied.
“You are a fiend,” Madeline muttered, opening her eyes.
The slight curve of his lips radiated male arrogance. “No, merely a skilled sensualist.” He took her hand and brought it to his naked loins, stroking her fingers with the velvet-sheathed hardness of his arousal. “But I’m weary of exerting all the effort. It is your turn now.”
Requiring no further urging, Madeline reached for him. Her need to feel possessed by Rayne was as fierce as her desire to please him. Parting her thighs in eager welcome, she keened a soft moan as he sank his rigid shaft into the hot haven of her body. When he began to move inside her, she wrapped her legs tightly around his hips. His movements were sensual and powerfully controlled, the intensity of his expression spellbinding, his eyes hard with desire.
Yet his restraint fractured eventually, as did hers. Her blood pumping wildly, she began to jerk her hips, her whimpers turning to sobs.
“Madeline….” Rayne grated her name between his teeth, his voice harsh with the same urgency that was now knifing through her, his beautiful face taut with pleasure.
His answering growl inflamed her. She was on fire again, burning for him, and knew she couldn’t hold back much longer. She was in agony, sweet tumultuous agony. And so apparently was Rayne….
All his muscles quivered, straining with hunger, as he fought for control. When she clawed at his back, his control shattered with enough force to make his body convulse.
He exploded inside her, frantically groaning his release against her mouth. Moving with the thrusts of his body, Madeline felt every pulse beat of his hot, shuddering climax before she erupted in her own, her inner muscles spasming again and again and again.
When it was over, he collapsed against her, his face buried in the silk of her shoulder, his breath ragged in her ear.
He held her pulsating body until the glorious waves of ecstasy finally faded. Then, weakly, Rayne eased himself off Madeline and helped her to sit up.
“I suggest we have Bramsley serve dinner,” he murmured. “I for one am famished. Lovemaking always gives me an appetite.”
Still in a love daze, Madeline felt stunned by his callous words. How could he be so cold?
When Rayne lifted her from the table so she could stand, she clutched his shoulders for support, since her limp knees wanted to buckle. Yet as she stared into his eyes, Madeline realized she hadn’t been mistaken about his detachment; Rayne was deliberately pushing her away.
It was clear she hadn’t touched any of his emotions with her attempts at seduction. If anything he was even more distant now than on their wedding night. There was passion in his touch, yet the tenderness he’d once shown her was entirely missing.