Anger flared hotly inside her. ‘You already seem to know all the answers, Blake,’ she responded brittly, ‘so why ask the questions?’
‘Perhaps because I’m hoping I don’t.’ His thumb was rubbing lightly over the thin silk covering her nipple and Sapphire squirmed slightly beneath the tormenting caress, trying to clamp down on the feelings he was arousing inside her.
‘What’s the matter? Doesn’t my touch appeal to you as much as his? I can make you want me, Sapphire.’
‘No!’ Her denial was meant as a plea for him not to carry out his threat, but Blake chose to ignore it.
‘You think not?’ he muttered into her throat, searching for and finding the fast-beating pulse that gave the lie to her denial. She could smell the warm musky scent of his body—inflaming her own with a subtle sexual chemistry that made her languorous and weak. The rough hair on his chest rubbed abrasively against her skin as he moved, biting delicately into her skin, making her shiver almost deliriously with pleasure. The fine silk of her bra and briefs was a barrier between them that tormented her, denying her the intimate contact of skin against skin that she now craved and when Blake’s hands slid round her back to remove her bra she expelled her breath in a pent-up sigh of relief he couldn’t fail to understand. Soft colour filmed her cheeks as he looked down at her, his smile tormentingly cruel.
‘Still expect me to believe you don’t want me, Sapphire?’
What could she say? That he had misunderstood her initial remark? She turned her head aside, not wanting him to see the betraying sheen of tears she knew wasn’t far away and then gasped out loud as she felt the stinging nip of his teeth against the swollen curve of her breast. Hard on the heels on the initial burst of pain came a pleasure so intense that her eyes widened in acknowledgment of it.
‘Don’t expect me to believe you haven’t been touched like that before,’ Blake told her thickly, watching her, ‘or like this.’
Ripples of pleasure spread shiveringly through her body as his tongue stroked and teased the aching fullness of her breasts, making her tense and arch in a mindless frenzy of need she hadn’t known herself capable of feeling. She dimly heard Blake’s suddenly harsh breathing in counterpoint to her own quick shallow breaths, and then his hands slid to her waist, gripping its slenderness until his mouth opened over first one nipple and then the other, tasting, sucking, tugging, while Sapphire felt she would explode with the intensity of pleasure building up inside her.
Unable to stop herself, she moaned Blake’s name, reaching up to stroke the hard contours of his back with hands suddenly desperately eager for the feel of his skin against them, scattering wild, impassioned kisses over his shoulder, using her teeth to deliver delicate little nips that drew a hoarse groan of satisfaction from his throat.
All sense of restraint and commonsense abandoned, Sapphire didn’t allow herself to think or reason. This was Blake who she still loved as desperately now as she had done when they first married; and if he had accused her so unfairly, well what did it matter now that she was in his arms and he was touching and kissing her with a hunger that her body recognised even if her mind could not. It was a hunger that fed and matched her own, his body whispering to hers that it too had starved and ached for this tumultuous pleasure they were now sharing. Despite the fact that they had never before made love, there was nothing tentative or exploratory in their embraces. Sapphire responded to the intimacy of Blake’s touch as intuitively as though they had been lovers for years. Her lips brushed the flat hardness of his nipple and she registered the surprised shock of pleasure jolting through him. His eyes closed, his mouth warm against the indentation of her waist, as she lay half-pinned beneath him, indolently admiring the sculptured perfection of his body.
She ran her fingers lightly down the dark arrowing of hair, stopping when she reached his briefs. He tensed, and then demanded thickly, ‘Touch me, Sapphire.’
She let her fingers stray exploratively over the thin cotton of his briefs, her touch slightly hesitant and unsure, her heart thudding violently in response to the small, liquid sound of pleasure emerging from Blake’s throat. Heated, muttered words of praise and encouragement overwhelmed all her shyness and reserve. When Blake tugged off his briefs her breath caught in her throat, her eyes unknowingly widening slightly.
‘A man could be in danger of forgetting that he’s only mortal under a look like that,’ Blake told her throatily, sliding his hand round her throat, his thumb under her chin tilting her face up to meet his.
Passion blazed into life as they kissed, her mouth opening willingly to admit the penetration of his tongue, seeking, taking all the warm sweetness she gave up so willingly.
Blake’s free hand was resting possessively against her thigh, a heavy warm weight that tantalised and excited her, her own fingers stroking and cajoling the strong muscles of his back, sliding round to investigate the sharp angles of his hips, moving in restless, roving urgency as she responded to the hunger in Blake’s kiss.
He released her to tease a chain of moist caresses in a line that investigated the valley between her breast and the slight well of her stomach.
The restless urgency in the pit of her stomach increased and in obedience to its commands Sapphire brushed her own lips against the firmness of Blake’s belly, thrilling to the sudden tension in muscles finely tuned to her light touch. His skin tasted warm and slightly salty, its flavour almost addictive. Lost in the veil of pleasure touching him had revealed to her, she let her lips travel where they wished barely aware of Blake’s harsh groan of protest until he snatched her up, rolling her beneath the constraining weight of his body, parting her legs with his thigh, muttering her name like a litany as his fingers touched her intimately, making her yield and ache for his possession.
Far beyond remembering the accusation that had preceded their lovemaking, Sapphire wasn’t ready for the unexpected burst of pain. Her muscles tensed immediately, shock mingling with hurt as she fought to understand the too-swift transition from pleasure to pain.
Above her she heard Blake curse, a fiercely bitter sound, his body withdrawing from hers. Suddenly the pain was gone, and shamelessly she clung to him, refusing to let him go, her eyes pleading mutely with him as her fingers dug into his shoulders, her soft, ‘Blake, please …’ dragging an anguished mutter of response from his throat as he tensed and then shuddered and her body melted in welcome to his, her senses singing with pleasure.
Never had pleasure seemed so tangible, her body was awash with it, glowing, so supremely fulfilled that she wanted to tell the whole world. Stretching indolently she turned her head. Blake was lying inches away, his eyes open, his expression sombre. Of course, this wasn’t the first time
he had experienced such feelings—not by a long way.
‘There’s never been anyone else, has there?’ he asked the question in a flat voice that drained her pleasure as effectively as a tap being turned on. Sapphire shook her head.
‘Then for God’s sake why didn’t you say so?’
No need to ask if he was regretting making love to her. It was there, written all over his face, etching into his scathing voice.
‘I didn’t think you’d listen.’ She turned away from him, not wanting him to see how vulnerable she was. Neither of them had mentioned love … but silently in her heart she had told him how she felt about him, just as her body told his how much it worshipped and adored him,
‘So you decided to let me find out for myself?’
‘I didn’t think I could have stopped you.’
‘Half-a-dozen words or so would have done it—”I’m still a virgin”, for instance.’
Sapphire arched her eyebrows, turning back to face him. ‘And you’d have believed me?’ She turned away again. ‘I’d better get dressed …’