He pushed against her entrance and tapped something that halted his progress. She felt a tautening, a slight stinging pull.
“Damnation!”
She held her breath as he pushed again—this time thrusting sharply against the barrier until it tore.
Margaret gasped and jerked her hips backward, trying to escape the pain that burned like fire. But he followed her movement, sliding deeper inside, filling her channel to bursting. “We’re finished now?” she asked, a sob hitching her breath.
He nestled his hips closer to hers, prodding deeper still.
Was there no end to him?
Margaret took a deep breath and made herself relax as he tunneled into her, pushing deeper, stretching her inner walls to accommodate his intrusion.
“You can hold onto me.”
The way he growled his words sent a shiver through her. She met his gaze, questioning.
“Put your arms around me.” His voice sounded more strained now. His cheeks were flushed, his jaw tight.
She reached around his broad back and found his skin was soft and stretched over muscle as hard as an iron shield. Her fingers smoothed over him, exploring his texture, enjoying the ripples that rolled beneath her palms as he started to move.
“Yes, sweetheart. Touch me,” he whispered.
She reached lower to his amazing buttocks and glided her hands over the rounded muscles. Remembering her first sight of his pale, powerful backside, she could scarce believe she clutched it, her palms curving to bring him closer, her nails digging into his flesh to urge him deeper. The urgent itch growing inside her seemed to assuage with his movements.
Roland grunted and pumped in and out, stroking deeper each time.
Margaret squirmed a bit and discovered that if she tilted her hips, he slid straight and unimpeded.
“That’s it. Move with me.”
Margaret didn’t understand what he asked, but friction built inside her tight channel, tingling hot. This time when liquid flooded her, she sighed her relief, for his movements were aided with the lubrication and the snugness seemed to ease.
He flexed and pulled out, and then paused.
She moaned and tightly gripped his waist. As close to a complaint as she would allow herself to make.
He lowered himself on top of her, settling his frame like a blanket over her body.
Margaret was at once warmed, head to toe, and overwhelmed by all that masculine strength surrounding her, filling her. Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked to clear them.
His hands cupped her cheeks and urged her gaze to his. “I’ve no experience with virgins, and I know I’m a rough man. But if you tell me you’ve more pain than you can bear, I’ll stop now.”
Margaret glanced away from the intensity of his stare. “The deed is done?”
“Yes.”
She felt his body tense above hers. He’d fulfilled his duty, but didn’t want to end their joining. “There’s more?”
“If you want it.”
She could tell he certainly did by the tension that made his body rigid. “Will it be painful for me?”
“Perhaps a bit at first, but it will ease. You may even come to enjoy it.”
That gave her pause. If the itch and heat she’d felt were only a hint to the discomforts she would experience…
But was his eagerness to bed her something she could use as leverage in this one-sided relationship? Something that might give her some small portion of power so that she wouldn’t be swallowed whole by his needs and commands.