Samantha (Barrett 2)

Their gazes locked.

"Yes," he breathed, covering her mouth with his. "God, yes."

Sammy arched up as he pushed forward, and together they took her from girl to woman.

A hoarse shout erupted from Rem's chest, and he pressed deep inside her until he could go no farther. "Are you ... all right?" he managed, feeling her body's shock as it struggled to accept him.

She nodded against his shoulder, ignoring the shards of pain his entry had induced, thinking only of the pleasure of being one. "Rem?"

"Yes, love." It took all his discipline not to move. His body was screaming its need to withdraw, then plunge into her, over and over, until his clawing passion was spent.

"What happened to me before ..." She kissed his neck. "I want to feel it again ... only this time with you."

Rem groaned, succumbing to the fire burning through his loins. He pulled out gradually, almost completely, then sank slowly forward, testing to see how raw she was, how much penetration she could take.

He was rewarded with a melting sigh.

"Is the pain gone?"

In answer, Sammy rubbed her legs against his. "Don't hold back," she whispered. "I want to know everything."

Aroused beyond bearing, Rem responded wildly, burying himself inside her, his hips beginning a rhythm instinctively meant to caress her every inner muscle, her every tingling nerve. Despite the savagery of his own need, Rem moved with erotic precision, calling on every iota of his expertise to bring Samantha the most dazzling sensations any woman could know.

The frenzied spiraling began inside her again, coiling upward and inward, pulsing harder and harder with each thrust of Rem's powerful hips. Sammy dug her nails into his back, willing him to feel what was happening to her, and Rem crushed her closer still, dragging her up to meet each feverish thrust, impaling her on his fiery hardness.

He could hold back no longer.

When Samantha's hands found his buttocks, clutching him tightly, pulling him deeper into her sultry core, Rem lost the battle, succumbing to his scalding climax with a feral roar. He felt his seed explode from his body into hers, flooding her with his bottomless, unimaginable passion. "Come with me," he demanded, unwilling to touch heaven alone. "Now, love ... come with me."

His plea, the frenzied motion of his hips, catapulted Sammy into her own mind-shattering release. She screamed this time, the pulsing surges of his climax intensifying her hard inner contractions beyond bearing. It seemed to go on forever, her body helplessly tossed on tides of sensation until at last she drifted, languorous and weak, back to earth.

Neither of them moved, their harsh breathing the only sound in the silence of the room.

Her eyes still closed, Sammy smiled, trailing her fingers along the hard plateaus of Rem's sweat-slick back.

Rem stirred, rolling to one side, Samantha clasped tightly in his arms. "Incredible," he muttered, barely able to speak. "Absolutely incredible."

Sammy kissed the hollow at the base of his throat. "More than that," she whispered.

Drawing back only far enough to look down at her, Rem caressed her flushed cheek with his knuckles, "The pain ... is it better now?"

"What pain?" Sammy turned her lips into his hand.

"Ah ... Samantha." He wrapped her closer, nuzzling her hair.

"Rem ... was I... did I... I mean you're so ..."

His lips were warm against the shell of her ear. "I never made love before tonight."

It was just what Sammy needed to hear, and too much for her to bear. Dizzy with joy, weak with fulfillment, she burst into tears, drenching Rem's shoulder, inhaling great gulps of air to calm her careening emotions.

The tantalizing scent of wildflowers accosted her.

Lifting her head in surprise, Sammy peered about for the first time since Rem had carried her to bed. And what she saw made the tears flow anew.

Flowers lined every surface of the room, were scattered along each window ledge. Their scent, subtle but sweet, filled the air with an intoxicating aroma she hadn't noticed in the wildness of the past hour.

Rising up on her elbow, Sammy encountered the rest of Rem's handiwork: a dozen glowing candles, their light as incandescent as that of the most radiant fire, a bottle of champagne, unopened and waiting on Rem's nightstand, and beside it,