And still he kissed her, reaching deep, asking for more and taking it. Emboldened, she met his demands-and let her hands stray lower.
To his hip. Fingers reaching, she traced the wide bone, sensed the slightly different texture of his skin. And sensed the sudden hiatus in their kiss-the abrupt refocusing of his senses.
Deliberately, she let her hand fall, fingers languidly trailing over his lower stomach.
His breath hitched-he pulled back from the kiss.
Just as she found him.
Eyes still closed, she touched tentatively, surprised to find such delicate skin. And felt him quiver, then tense. Intrigued, she slowly reached farther, and wrapped her fingers around the heavy length. Every muscle he possessed locked.
The one in her hands throbbed.
Lips curving in a wicked smile, she stroked, and caressed, closed her hands and weighed, then explored farther still.
He broke and caught her hands. "Sweet witch, you're killing me."
The words sounded as if they'd been said through clenched teeth; she gave a wicked chuckle of her own.
Only to have him kiss her voraciously, ravenously, until her wits whirled and she lost touch with reality. Then he drew back.
"Now it's my turn."
He swung over her, kneeling, his knees on either side of hers. Catching the hem of her nightgown, he raised it.
Eyes closed, expectation hammering in her veins, Catriona lay still and waited.
He pulled her gown up to her waist-then straight up to her shoulders, drawing her arms up, clearly intending to wrestle it from her.
Catriona gasped and came alive. Grabbing folds of the gown, she tried to wrestle it back down. He didn't need her naked to-
He chuckled, the sound even more evocative with her head wrapped in her gown, her body fully exposed. To the night, to him.
"Actually," he drawled, "that's an even better idea."
The gown shifted, twisted; Catriona waited half a second, then tried to move her arms, only to find them stuck. Her head, arms and shoulders were wrapped, trapped, in her gown.
"Hmm. Excellent."
The purring drawl had her biting her lip, had her tensing with expectation. An expectation fully borne out when she felt him lower his naked body upon hers. He shifted, sliding lower, his legs outside hers.
"Positively succulent."
She felt his breath against the soft skin of her breasts and wondered what he meant.
The next instant, she arched wildly and nearly screamed as his mouth closed hotly about one nipple. He pressed open-mouthed kisses over her quivering flesh, then lovingly licked each peak to a tight bud-before torturing it with his tongue.
Catriona fought wildly-just to catch her breath. When she finally thought she'd become used to the new sensations, he suckled one nipple fiercely-she screamed and melted anew.
Luckily, the folds of her gown got into her mouth and muffled her shriek. As sanity returned, she realized his attentions hadn't faltered-she hadn't jarred him fully awake. When he suckled her other breast, she was prepared for the lightning bolt-the shocking strike of pure sensation. Her body arched, but she contained her scream.
Panting, gasping, her body afire, she waited, desperately trying to imagine what he would do next.
His lips drifted lower, leaving trails of fire down her body, over her waist. He pressed hot kisses to her stomach; she tensed, then relaxed as the trails continued down her thighs, first one, then the other.
Then he shifted, moving back and away. Senses searching, Catriona placed him kneeling astride her calves. Then she felt his hands close about her knees and hit them, parting her thighs.
After the slightest hesitation, she let him open her; catching her breath, she waited for him to cover her.