He’d been so busy inuring himself to never kissing her again, this onslaught left him bewildered. Her scent flooded his senses, mingling with the lemon soap he’d used for his wash. Teeth clashed as she clumsily forced her mouth against his. There was no sweetness. Just blind, angry determination to prevail.
After mere seconds, she pulled away to stare into his face with heart-stopping focus. She looked near to tears and her breath emerged in choked gasps as if she struggled against lancing pain. “Kiss me, curse you.”
“Sidonie…”
“Kiss me,” she grated out. In a frantic rhythm, her hands opened and closed on his bare arms.
“Gently, tesoro, gently.” He pressed his palms to her cheeks to hold her still. His heart crashed against his ribs when he noticed blood on her lower lip where he must have nicked her with his teeth.
“No,” she moaned, pitching forward to kiss him again, still with that agonized violence. Her breasts mashed against his chest. She might as well have been naked. The pearls of her nipples tormented him through the thin linen. For all his misgivings, her unbridled assault had him hard as a pikestaff. He staggered under the enthusiasm, although he tasted more anguish than delight in her kiss.
No, he couldn’t do this. It wasn’t right. He ripped his mouth away from hers and resisted the fretful tug of her hands to bring him near. “Sidonie, what the hell is this?”
“I’m seducing you,” she said jerkily, stretching to run her mouth over his jaw. Sharp little nips lit a chain of explosions through his mind and made his cock throb with need. Devil take her, she drove him mad.
“This isn’t how it should be,” he said in a raw voice, his hands tangling in the back of her shirt. He told himself to push her away, but some things exceeded mortal will.
“It’s how it must be.”
So warm, so soft, so bloody eternally desirable, she slid against his body. He squeezed his eyes shut and prayed for control. What on earth was wrong with her? He feared she was here against her will, although he couldn’t guess why. He no longer held any power to compel her.
She wriggled in his arms, hooking a leg behind his knee and clawing at his shoulders. It made him hotter than Hades, blazing to have her, but still he struggled to keep his head. His hands lost purchase on her loose shirt and slipped to the lush curve of her bottom.
As his palms encountered satiny skin, astonishment jammed the breath in his throat. Under his shirt she was naked. “Good God…”
He told himself to make her slow down. To check this was what she wanted. Confirm she’d marry him if he got her with child. Except when she touched him, she made mockery of resolution. Still he could stop if he had to. He wasn’t an animal. He was a rational man, not a mere toy in her pale, slim hands. He told himself a thousand things as his touch became caress, exploration, enticement. He traced the smooth arch of her arse, gradually dipping lower.
As he touched the secret parts of her, she jerked. “Shh,” he soothed.
She was gloriously wet. He groaned and hid his face in her shoulder, bared under the loose collar. The darkness behind his eyes flared into flame as he stroked her. The craving to plunge into her became a storm to rival last night’s wild weather.
“Don’t let me go,” she begged, sagging against him.
“I don’t think I can,” he said in despair. He wrenched away long enough to extinguish the candles, sinking the room into firelit shadow. He’d prefer full darkness, but this dimness would have to serve. Rationally he knew that Sidonie had long ceased to shrink from his scars, but his vulnerable heart couldn’t bear for her to come so close to surrender only to realize she lay in a monster’s arms.
She was pan
ting when he caught her up against him. More kissing. More fevered caresses. When he swung her toward the narrow bed, he fell first so his weight didn’t crush her. She crawled up his body and kissed him. Physical urgency overwhelmed caution. He opened his mouth, ravishing her with lips and tongue and teeth.
He rolled her onto her back, rising over her. “I’ll rip this shirt to shreds.”
“Let me take it off,” she said breathlessly through a tangle of dusky hair. Her lips were swollen and her eyelids drooped over glittering eyes. She shifted and a drift of her arousal intoxicated him. He straddled her legs. The shirt hitched, revealing dark curls at the apex of her thighs. Lord above, she was beautiful. Everywhere.
She watched him as though she wanted to devour him. He’d remember that hungry expression as long as he lived. And count himself privileged, even if he had no more of Sidonie than tonight.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he groaned.
Her smile made his heart cartwheel. “I like looking at you.”
Her confession slammed through him like a gunshot. Damn it, she sounded like she meant it. He should remind her he was hideous inside and out. Warn her she risked destruction giving herself so wholeheartedly.
His protest died unspoken when she tugged the shirt open to reveal her breasts. Round. Perfect. He kissed one beaded raspberry nipple and she arched on a whimper of pleasure. Such a sensual creature. Such a shining soul.
He loved her shining soul.
Tragically, he loved more than that.
The idea slithered through his fuddled mind like a snake. Then Sidonie sighed and conscious thought abandoned him. All that remained was the thirst to possess. He parted her legs and slid between her thighs. She sighed again. These sweet little sighs would have him losing himself before he was inside her. He explored her satiny cleft, brushing the center. Once. Twice. A third time. She made a strangled sound and surged against his hand.