He gritted his teeth, drawing deliberate breaths. He would not rush this; he had to be the disciplined one. “I don't want to hurt you, Ree. I want to make sure you're ready. ”
She wriggled atop his body, nestling his shaft just right, until he was poised in her slick folds. “I am ready,” she insisted.
“Not yet,” he told her and retook control. Clutching her with one arm, he swept her beneath him on the bed and set to devouring her neck and breasts until he thought he might see red from his need to take her.
With a frustrated whimper, she tilted her shoulder, urging a breast back to his lips. “I've been ready. ” He hated the thought that this might cause her pain; he'd do everything in his power to ease it for her. Once again, Cormac brought his hand between them, his finger finding her and sliding in with ease. And then he slid in another. She was tight, but so wet.
“Aye,” he couldn't help but laugh low into her neck through his kisses. “You are ready at that. ” He crooked his fingers and felt a rush of masculine satisfaction at her little cries of pleasure. “But you're so tight. ”
“Wait. ” He felt her body stiffen the slightest fraction. “Will it hurt very much?”
“Relax, love. Look at me. ”
She looked. Daylight caught her eyes at an angle, lighting them the eerily vivid blue of stained glass. Her mussed light brown hair reminded him of the color of wet sand.
“It will. But I think it's just for a moment, and then you'll feel the pleasure. ”
“You think?”
He kissed the crooked half-smile from her mouth. “The pain will go quickly. ”
“Wait,” she said again. “Cormac?”
He froze. “Anything, Ree. What is it?”
“I trust you, you know. And I want you very badly. Please do it now. ”
“I'm trying, love. ” Chuckling, he kissed each corner of her lips. He nipped at her earlobe. “Now may I get back to it?”
Feeling her nod against his neck, he eased inside her an inch, and then another, all the while nuzzling and murmuring at her ear to distract her from the pain. He wanted nothing more than to plunge himself deep inside her, and the muscles in his back and thighs quivered with restraint.
He pushed in deeper and felt her sharp intake of breath. He paused, searching her eyes. “I don't want to hurt you. ”
“You can't hurt me, Cormac. You'd never hurt me. ” She canted her hips toward him, and he could no longer fight it. With one hard thrust, he drove all the way into her.
She cried out, and he froze.
Marjorie caught her breath, and then gave a quick laugh. “Go on, Cormac. ” She shifted suggestively beneath him.
“I know that's not all there is to it. ”
And then he laughed, too, with relief, with disbelief.
Their gazes locked, and his smile faded, his mirth hardening into something darker and more primitive. His cock pulsed inside her, and he began to thrust. She gasped, shutting her eyes, clutching at his shoulders.
Cormac had one last flickering thought before losing himself to her. “I think I'm still dreaming, Ree. ” And then she loosened, and finding his rhythm, joined him. Time fell away, until Marjorie shout
ed her climax, and Cormac's deep groan of pleasure wasn't far behind.
He held himself over her, bearing his weight on his arms. He rained tender kisses over her face as they caught their breath. “There's no going back,” he told her, his voice husky with emotion. “For either of us. ”
“I don't want to go back, Cormac. ” She drew a strand of hair from his sweat-dampened brow. “Ever. ” His heart clenched. Was it possible for a man like him to find redemption?
Cormac rolled onto his back, tucking her in the crook of his arm so they could doze in the late morning. But lying there motionless proved as turbulent as being tossed about in storm-roiled surf, his heart pitching in his chest like flotsam. He prayed he could keep her safe and that he might keep his soul safe in the bargain. But he knew it was too late now. He was too far gone.
He thought she was dozing, and so when she spoke, her clear voice pricked his consciousness, sounding through his reverie like the chime of a bell.
“I don't want to leave you,” she murmured, tracing lazy lines along his chest with her fingertip. His skin was damp, and her touch drew gooseflesh in its wake. “I don't even want to fall asleep. ”