“Do you need help undressing?”
Before Cam could respond to her impudence, she tugged at his trousers. In her haste and inexperience, she was breathtakingly clumsy. Finally his throbbing cock bobbed free.
“Good heavens…” Pen breathed, looking down.
“You saw me last night.”
“You look bigger.” She licked her lips, ratcheting up his arousal. “I think I’m nervous.”
He wrenched her up and kissed her, holding her with one arm while his other hand shucked his trousers. Her mouth was hot and wet and desperate. As he followed her down onto the bed, he slid between her legs and nudged her humid heat. She sighed against his lips and shifted on him. A tilt of his hips and he edged inside.
She caught her breath and stiffened.
In an agony of need, he stopped. He couldn’t bear to hurt her again.
She lay unmoving beneath him.
No, he wouldn’t accept this. Penelope was created for pleasure. And he intended her to achieve it. Or die trying.
With a shaking hand, he touched her sex. Every nerve close to snapping, he caressed her into trembling urgency. She arched and drew him into her. The sudden acceptance had him thrusting before he recalled the devastating price of impatience.
On a sigh like the sweetest music, she twined her arms around him. Her body flowered into glorious welcome.
Pen braced for pain, but between last night and now, her body had adjusted to Cam. This sensation was closer to completion than invasion. After all her running and dodging, she was in Cam’s arms and she’d stay here.
His head dropped to the curve of her shoulder. His soft hair tickled her cheek. His skin was damp and hot.
The long muscles in his back tautened and released under her hands as he moved. To her surprise, the glide of his body set off a faint quake. A quake that intensified when he kissed her neck.
She inhaled sharply as he withdrew to plunge again. Immediately that sweet fullness returned. His spicy scent was the air that she breathed.
Another glorious stasis before he moved once more. This time, he changed the angle. A spiral of tension stirred inside her. Half pleasure, half torment.
He established a powerful rhythm. She clung as the spiral twisted tighter. Instinct made Pen raise her hips. This time, impossibly, he went so deep, he must touch her heart. He groaned encouragement into her shoulder.
Roughly, he raised her knees, changing the angle again. She was shaking and sweating and clawing at him. The tension in her belly coiled and uncoiled. She reached for something she’d never experienced before, some relief from this agonized striving.
Moving faster, Cam’s thrusts became choppy, urgent. His body hardened. She tilted her hips, begging with incoherent sighs for him to fill her.
She was so close. So close.
He bit down hard on her shoulder and flung her over the shining horizon into the melting heat of the sun. Crying out, she shuddered under the onslaught of astonishing, overwhelming, inescapable pleasure.
Brilliant light blinded her and she closed her eyes to retain the rocketing colors. Fire ricocheted through her, searing every corner, making her anew. Through the wild clamor, she felt Cam jerk against her. His groan filled her ears.
She opened hazy eyes to see him rise on his arms. As he spent himself inside her, the strain leached from his face and his eyelids drooped with sensual satisfaction.
Briefly he looked happy, younger, less burdened. As if Camden Rothermere during these seconds became just a man, not the embodiment of centuries of duty and tradition.
Sensual reaction still pounded through Pen. If he’d done this to her on the yacht, she’d have drowned for sure. Right now she didn’t have strength to roll over, let alone swim for her life.
I love you, Cam. I’ve always loved you.
The words welled up. She knew he didn’t love her, but after the shattering honesty of what they’d just shared, she couldn’t keep such a vital secret.
Cam’s kiss was tender. She tasted satiation.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “Thank you for trusting me.”