She struggled to sort her thoughts, find more faults. Heaven knew, her looking glass had always held many. “I am far too tall for a lady.”
“You are the perfect height for me.” Rafe dragged the hem of her shift higher, until the linen pooled in her lap.
The raiment was thin and smooth from many launderings. A governess could not afford the number of garments a lady could. Not by far. And that was what she was now. A governess. Nothing more, nothing less.
His hands were on her outer thighs, stroking and inciting a new world of sensations. Had she been listing her complaints about her appearance? She quite forgot to recall any others when his hot, hazel gaze met hers.
“I want my mouth on you,” he said, his voice rough with desire. “Do you want that, love?”
She licked her lips. “Yes.”
Oh yes. Please.
For the last three nights, she had been alone in her bed, dreaming of how it had felt to have his mouth on her. Wondering if she would ever see him again. And now, he was here. On his knees before her, not taking as every man she had ever known had tried to do.
But asking.
Requiring her permission.
She could have wept at the realization, but the roiling emotion inside her gave way to pleasure when he guided her legs apart and his head dipped. His mouth unerringly found her center, sucking on the sensitive part of her. Her pearl, he had said. Finally, a name for the place where her pleasure seemed to dwell, brought to life by him.
Her own fingers had proven poor replacements indeed in his absence.
He sucked hard. She gave herself up to the sensations, wild and streaking through her, furious as bolts of lightning in the midst of a storm. Her hips pumped. He groaned into her flesh, the vibration sending more sparks of desire careening through her, catching flame.
His big, callused hands were not finished with her. He ran them up and down her outer thighs, before catching the hollows of her knees and hooking them over his shoulders.
The position was new.
Decadent.
It forced her to balance herself on her flattened palms on the bed, her legs draped over his back, her lower body tilted toward him as he feasted. And there was no other word to describe what Rafe was doing as he sucked and licked her. The wet sounds of her own excitement echoed in the quiet of the room, joining her pants and his groans of enjoyment. He tortured her so deliciously, swiping his tongue up and down her seam in long, lingering licks before lashing her pearl with swift, fast movements of his tongue, followed by hard sucks. The combination forced her to the edge quickly.
“Rafe,” she crooned, mindless, lost to everything but the passion and the pleasure. “Oh, yes.” More sounds followed, strange and uncontrollable. Sounds she had never made as the pleasure rendered her mindless.
His rough hands cupped her bottom and tipped her toward him. He rubbed his face against her, the golden whiskers she had so often admired on his strong jaw lightly abrading her sensitive skin.
So sinful.
So wonderful.
He laved her pearl and then paused long enough to lavish praise upon her. “Such a perfect cunny. So pretty and wet. All for me.”
“Always for you,” she said, feeling wetness slide from her body, trail lower. “Only for you.”
“How does this feel?” he asked just before pressing a kiss to her throbbing bud.
“Wondrous,” she hissed as his wicked tongue licked up and down her lips, then slid lower, parting her folds, finding the place where her wetness had gathered. He licked into her there, his tongue darting gently at first and then with greater persistence. His fingers gripped her, biting into her rump with painful pleasure. Just when she thought she could bear no more, he sucked hard on her pearl.
Her explosion was instant.
Crying out, she arched shamelessly into him as her inner walls contracted and spasm after spasm gripped her. As the intensity of her pleasure began to slowly subside, her pounding heart returning to a more subdued pace, she became aware of his gaze on her, intense and hot.
His sensual lips were glistening. “God, I love the way you come on my tongue.”
She should have been shocked, she supposed, but his sinful confession only made her want him more. “Take me, Rafe. I am yours.”
With a guttural sound of pure need, he slid her legs from his shoulders and rose to his feet. “You are sure? If we go too far, there will be no undoing what we’ve done.”