Protected by the Prince

Now she saw that despite Alaric’s raw hunger, he was the same man she’d come to know these last weeks. A man who’d been honest and straight with her. Who desired her.

A man she could trust.

Maybe every woman felt that tinge of fear the first time, confronted with such unvarnished lust and the stunning reality of naked male arousal.

Her lips curved up in a wobbly smile as she realised very few women were gifted with a first lover as gorgeous as Alaric. Just looking at him made her heart throb so fast she could scarcely catch her breath.

This was what she wanted. She refused to walk away from something that felt so good, so right.

She just needed courage.

Eyes holding his, Tamsin reached around and fumbled her bra undone, letting it fall with a shake of her arms.

Alaric drew a huge breath, his chest expanding mightily. His outstretched hand curled and fell away.

Her unbound breasts felt impossibly full, the nipples hardening to aching points as his heated gaze dropped. Fire scorched a trail across her breasts and lower.

Following the direction of his gaze, Tamsin hooked her thumbs in the sides of her panties. There she hesitated as her inbuilt urge to cover herself fought the need to offer herself to Alaric. A lifetime’s habit was strong, but far stronger was the magic she felt when he looked at her with such longing.

She felt desirable. Desired. Feminine. Powerful. Needy.

Without giving herself time to think she shoved her underwear down, felt the slide of fine cotton against her legs and the waft of air against her skin. All over.

‘You have no idea how badly I want you.’ Alaric’s voice was a rough blur of words that tugged at something low in her belly. Pleasure coursed through her as his eyes sparked blue fire.

A second later he lifted her up and onto the mattress.

His hands were so large they almost spanned her waist. His sure grip reinforced the physical differences between them. Yet this time her vulnerability didn’t bring fear. A delicious flutter of excitement filled her.

With one fluid, powerful movement he pushed her up the bed and sank down on her. Senses on overload, she gasped for breath, but nothing could calm the spiralling excitement that drove her on. She was hemmed in, surrounded by him and nothing had ever felt so perfect.

Arms closing round his torso, Tamsin pressed her mouth to Alaric’s neck, his shoulder, tasting the spicy salt flavour of him. Sinking into the mattress, soft velvet caressed her back while her breasts, belly and legs rubbed against satiny skin, powerfully bunched muscles and coarse hair that teased every nerve ending.

He was so…male. So intriguing.

So sexy.

He moved and she swallowed a gasp of pleasure at the sensation of his broad chest sliding against her breasts. Delight was a rippling wave engulfing her, surging again with each tiny move, each touch.

Driven by instinct, she’d invited this. Yet she’d been unprepared for the stunning reality of Alaric’s body against hers. Theoretical knowledge only took a girl so far.

Alaric slid a fraction and his erection pressed against her belly. Instantly the hollow ache inside intensified and her hips strained up against him.

Thankfully her body knew what it was doing. Instinct would make up for her lack of practical knowledge.

Then Alaric’s mouth captured her nipple and Tamsin lost the capacity for thought as wet heat tugged at her, drawing blood-hot wires of tension through her arching body.

She needed…she needed…

‘I love it that you’re so hot and ready for me.’ His hoarse voice was the most thrilling thing Tamsin had ever heard and the possessive splay of his hand across her feminine mound would have brought her up off the bed if she hadn’t been anchored by his strong frame.

She wriggled her hips and he moved, nudging her legs apart with one solid thigh. Eagerly she complied.

‘Yes. Like that,’ he growled, raising his head and spearing her with a searing look of approval.

Vaguely she noticed the way Alaric’s skin stretched taut over that magnificent bone structure, his mouth a grim line of tension.

His hand moved, arrowing unerringly through damp curls and folds that felt plump and hyper-sensitive. Tamsin’s body jolted as long fingers slid down.

She couldn’t gasp enough breath. Her chest pounded and she stretched her arms up to grab his shoulders, digging into taut, hot flesh. He said something she couldn’t hear over the roaring in her ears as he looked to where his fingers stroked again, further, faster.

Tamsin bit her lip against the sob of pleasure rising in her throat. But she couldn’t stop the way her body moved into his caress. Confidently, needily.

When he met her gaze again there was a feral glitter in his eyes. He looked like a marauder, a ruthless barbarian intent on plunder. As if she were the bounty he intended to take for himself.