He battled the haze in his mind and raised his head from where he kissed her neck. He wanted to stop and spend forever looking at her. He wanted to tumble her immediately onto the bed behind them. “Marianne, I’ll shock you.”
“I want you.” She scattered a deluge of kisses over his chest. Her lips grazed one nipple, making him jolt.
She stretched up and kissed him with open-mouthed enthusiasm, her lovely breasts pressing into him. As the pebbled nipples brushed his skin, animal hunger took hold. He growled and swung her up into his arms. He placed her on the bed and kissed her with all the love in his heart. He couldn’t get enough of that luscious mouth.
Caution insisted that he delay to explore the glorious bounty of her body. But she surged up with a cracked whimper that set his blood afire. When she raised her knees to frame his hips, restraint rushed away. Instead there was welcome and
a need to possess that turned his brain to lava.
Seeking hands shaped her flesh, slipped between her legs to make her ready. She bucked and cried out sharply as his fingers slid into her sleek heat. He stroked her, but breathtakingly quickly, they’d both reached the point where this wasn’t enough.
Tensing his thighs, he nudged against her. On a moan, her fingers dug into his shoulders. Smoothly and easily his body slid inside hers.
Through passion’s deafening clamor, he recalled her innocence. But she sobbed in desperation and pitched her hips to take him deeper. He couldn’t fight her. He was lost to everything except primitive compulsion. He thrust into heavenly tightness and claimed her.
Through the roar in his ears, he heard Marianne’s shocked gasp. Then he gasped himself when she sank her teeth into the curve of his shoulder. Pain flashed through him, adding an edge to the unearthly experience of joining with her.
“Hell and damnation, what have I done?” he groaned, lifting his head and seeing her clearly for the first time since appetite overmastered him. “Did I hurt you?”
The drive to move deeper pushed him to insanity. The way she clenched around him felt like paradise, while devils of self-recrimination scurried around his head, kicking and pinching. He should have been more careful with her.
“Marianne, say something,” he said urgently. In the shadowy candlelight, he couldn’t interpret her feelings as she lay staring up into his face. “For God’s sake, if you want to scream at me, do it.”
The fraught silence extended before, to his astonishment, she smiled. Her expression conveyed an exhilarating mixture of self-satisfaction and elation.
“You’re mine.” She trailed her hands along his shoulders and down his bare back like an explorer taking possession of a new land. “All mine.”
“I’ve been yours since we met.” He rose on his arms so he could see her. He felt her body adjust to the change. Sensation blasted him. And the urge to finish.
“I love that,” she sighed. A flush marked her slanted cheekbones and her eyes were heavy with arousal. Before Elias could stop himself, he edged forward. She wriggled and seated him more firmly. She conquered every inch of him, body and soul.
“I love you. I can’t bear to think I hurt you.”
“You didn’t.” She paused. “Perhaps a little. At first.”
Relief flooded him and he sucked in a shuddering breath, drawing her scent into his lungs. Richer and earthier than before. “I wanted to spend hours worshipping you. I wanted you to feel cherished and special and adored.”
She tangled her hands in his hair and brought him down for a lengthy kiss. “I do feel cherished and adored. I feel like you’re the answer to all the questions I’ve ever asked, the beckoning fire at the end of every journey, my shelter against the storm.” Her voice thickened. “Thank you for loving me, Elias.”
“Oh, my darling,” he choked out. He wasn’t worthy of her, but he’d do his damnedest to keep her happy.
When he stared into her glowing eyes, all doubt vanished. They’d come together as naturally as rivers ran to the sea. That recognition banished his last misgivings and he began to move.
With the first slide of his hips, her eyes flared and she made a wordless sound of pleasure. “Elias,” she whispered in surprise.
“With my body I thee worship,” he said smiling.
“I’m the luckiest girl in England,” she murmured and rose to join him in the fiery voyage to ecstasy.
* * *
Marianne was in the grip of a whirlwind. Frantically her hands grabbed at Elias’s shoulders as his body thundered into hers. This was no gentle mating. Instead it was basic and brazen and untamed, as though what they did sprang directly from the earth.
She panted for air and bowed up, stirring a tempest of responses inside her. His skin was hot under her dancing hands. She’d never been so aware of another person’s physical presence.
At first, she’d felt overwhelmed by his size and vigor. Now she reveled in his will to possess her. Every time he thrust deep, he silently proclaimed his love. Bliss overwhelmed the memory of brief pain.
After the night in the music room, she recognized the strange, coiling sensation rippling through her. He shifted in her like mighty waves crashing on a wild beach, driving her higher and higher. Desperate for relief from the ferocious torrent, she whimpered and dug her nails into his shoulders. He shivered in response, but kept torturing her with merciless rapture. Surely she must shatter.