“But you have had lovers?”
“I have had sex partners. Even when the same woman met that need for more than a few nights, the relationship would never be something I would describe as lovers. Or even a relationship really. We scratched a mutual itch.”
“That sounds so cold.” And crude, but she was getting used to his earthy way of discussing certain things.
He had not been raised in the refined and often stifling atmosphere she had been subjected to.
“It was. I did not realize how cold until I warmed at the fire of your honest passion the first time we kissed.”
CHAPTER SIX
WETNESS BURNED BEHINDher eyes, her emotions choking her. He might not believe in love, but that sounded like she was special to him. She said so.
“Of course you are special. I want to marry you. You are my lover and you will one day be my wife.”
She didn’t have the strength to deny him right then—wasn’t even sure she wanted to, so she avoided answering altogether by kissing him. He growled and yanked her body into his, pressing his hardness against her in a blatant demand and claim at the same time. She had no intention of refusing that demand, no hope to do so even if she’d wanted to.
He swept her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom, laying her down on the bed carefully as if she were both fragile and precious. She looked up at him, her heart in her eyes, her teeth clamped together to bite back the words of love that wanted to tremble from her lips.
He stood and began to undress. “Tonight, I want to take it very slow.”
Her body was already suffused with heat and longing and they’d barely done anything. “I don’t think I’ll survive slow.”
“You will more than survive it, you will enjoy it.” His husky laugh warmed her. “I guarantee it.”
“You’re very confident.”
“According to you, I have reason to be. You like my lovemaking. You think I am so good at it, you wonder how I learned such skill.” Oh, he sounded arrogant, but pleased, too, and she couldn’t help smiling.
“Yes, well…”
He smiled, taking those two words as wholehearted agreement. “There you see?”
But she was beyond answering. He was peeling off his shirt and revealing bronze skin covered with silky black hair over sculpted muscles that tapered to a narrow waist and an intriguing arrow of hair that hinted at more. He was so incredibly gorgeous and overwhelmingly masculine.
He undid the button on his trousers and she sucked in air. It didn’t help her feeling of light-headedness, though.
The man was simply too delicious for words.
He started pushing his trousers down his hips and she thought maybe she should be doing something, too. Though it was hard to move when her body was trembling so hard. She reached for the buttons on the front of her silk jacket.
“Don’t,” he said with a shake of his head. “I want to undress you.”
“You’re going to torture me, aren’t you?”
“With pleasure…. perhaps.”
She quaked inside where he could not see. “I’m not going to survive.”
“I had not pegged you for such a pessimist.”
She laughed, but the sound choked off as he divested himself of his briefs. His erection sprang out from a nest of curly black hair. Even though they’d made love twice the night before and once again that morning, she still felt a frisson of trepidation skitter up her spine at the prospect of taking the big shaft inside her.
“You are looking at me as if I am a snake ready to bite.”
She bit her lip. “More like a tree trunk ready to impale.”
He laughed out loud, his head going back as amusement shook his tall frame. “You are priceless, Ellie.”
Her heart squeezed. To see him like this was so rare andshe had made it happen. It increased her sense of being special to him.
He was still grinning, looking at her. “You know we fit. Perfectly.”
“Yes.”
“But you still look nervous.”
“I am, a little.”
“Let me see what I can do about that.” He moved toward the bed and the closer he got the faster her heart sped.
He stopped when his knees pressed against the end of the mattress and reached down to take one of her feet in his hand. He slid the sandal off. “Did you know that there are numerous pleasure points in your feet?”
She shook her head, her throat suddenly too dry to speak.
He cupped her heel in his big palm and used his other hand to massage her arch, sending pleasure arcing through her.