The Winter Wife

Relief flooded him, made him dizzy. Relief and gratitude. After the mull he’d made of everything, he didn’t deserve her consent, but he was bloody glad she’d given it all the same. Now he had it, he’d make sure she never regretted it.

“Thank you,” he whispered, wondering if she knew how profoundly he meant those simple words.

He leaned forward to brush his lips across hers. A deliberately light kiss however much her nearness eviscerated good intentions. A glancing touch that promised more. A salute to the woman who would become his partner in rapture tonight.

Her lips were impossibly soft under his. Smooth. Satiny. He lingered a second, savoring the exquisite sensation. In nearly eleven years, he hadn’t kissed his wife. He’d kissed her before they’d married, during

the giddy days of their short engagement. He’d kissed her during

their first weeks together, but the spiraling unhappiness of their life at

Balmuir had soon made kissing seem a travesty.

Kinvarra started to withdraw, the beast inside him straining against gentleness. Then Alicia made a soft sound deep in her throat and her lips parted.

Her warm breath filled his mouth. She tasted familiar. Yet as fresh and new as a fall of snow. Hot darkness exploded inside his head and reaction ripped through him. He longed to ravish her mouth with all

the passion locked for so long inside him. He clenched his hands in the blankets, struggling to remember what was at stake.

God give him strength. His control already shredded and he’d hardly launched his seduction.

Alicia cradled his head between her hands, holding him close as though afraid he meant to pull away, even now. Foolish woman, as if he was going anywhere. He’d ventured up to the gates of paradise and to his astonishment, they’d opened to allow him inside.

Her kiss was clumsy, as if she hadn’t kissed anyone in a long time. Shock rocketed through him. On an intellectual level, he’d known that she’d never been unfaithful. But that urgent, unpracticed kiss reass

ured his needy soul that in all the years they’d been apart, she’d belonged only to him.

Once, when he’d been an arrogant stripling who thought the world was his for the taking, that knowledge might have provoked triumph. Now he was only humbly grateful that she’d waited for him. After

so long without her, he took nothing for granted. He was under no illusions how lucky he was that Alicia was in his arms right now. The slightest misstep could put them at odds again. This time forever.

His arms encircled her, curved her into his body. She molded to him with an eagerness that set his heart cartwheeling. His mouth shaped itself to hers as she curled her arms around his neck. Her breasts crushed into his chest until blazing heat threatened to incinerate all will

beyond his hunger to possess. Even as he kissed her deeply, ravenously, stroking her tongue with his, he struggled to remember that he couldn’t dive headlong into this fire.

Kinvarra’s resolution faltered when her tongue moved in unmistakable response and she moaned with female pleasure. Restraint became even shakier after she sighed into his mouth and rubbed her body against his.

His shaking hands clasped her head as he plundered her mouth, stoking her passion. She began to touch him, feverish brushes of her hands as if she needed to learn the shape of his body again after all this time. Her unfettered reactions intoxicated him. Who would have

guessed his wife contained such delicious wildness? She was glorious, the answer to his every dream. When he finally raised his head, she whimpered in protest and her eyes were dark and slumberous under heavy, drooping eyelids.

A soft, shaken laugh escaped him as he stroked his hands through the soft hair at her temples. He couldn’t resist touching her—he couldn’t rely on fate being generous enough to let her stay with him past tonight. “I’m struggling to be careful, my darling, but you make it almost impossible.”

Uneven gasps escaped her moist, parted lips. Her face was flushed with arousal. “I’m not seventeen anymore, Sebastian,” she whispered. “I won’t break.”

Almost reverently, he cupped her jaw. “You deserve respect.” Her smile was tremulous. “Is that what you feel for me?”

“Of course,” he said swiftly. Then after a pause, “And desire.”

“Show me the desire.”

He bit back an agonized groan. Leashing his hunger was the most fiendish of tortures. But she couldn’t know what she asked. He’d acted the savage with her when he’d been a mere boy, but now he wanted her with a man’s passion. If she’d thought him a barbarian then, she’d quail if she guessed the fierce hunger raging inside him tonight.

“I promised I wouldn’t hurt you,” he said in a raw tone. Her gaze was steady. “You won’t.”

“I did once.” Shame bit deep, chastened his craving, although nothing could ease his craving apart from having her. The devil of it was that one night, however dazzling, wasn’t going to be enough for him.

She touched his cheek with a tenderness that speared him with guilty awareness of how badly he’d behaved. “We’ve both grown up since then, Sebastian. I trust you. Please, trust yourself.”