“I won’t hurt you,” he promised. His voice broke as he looked down at her flushed cheeks and passionate mouth. “You don’t know what you do to me,” he said hoarsely. “You make me want—everything. Look at me, sweet virgin. Tell me if I frighten you.”
Tory’s eyes opened, revealing a deep green rim around pupils dilated by sensual response. Reever’s breath came in with a hiss as he saw the evidence of her arousal. He felt like he was being licked by fire. His fingertips slid over the satin triangle of her underwear, barely touching her, yet she trembled violently. His hand caressed her thighs reassuringly as he bent and kissed her breasts and then her lips, tasting her with a consuming sensuality that made her shiver and moan.
“It’s all right,” he murmured. “I won’t do anything you aren’t ready for.”
“I feel so—strange,” she whispered, staring into his eyes.
“Frightened?” he asked softly.
She shook her head. “It’s just that—I thought I knew everything about my own body. But I didn’t. I didn’t know that you could touch me and I would feel it all over, everywhere. Even—”
“Even?” he asked.
“Inside,” she whispered, “where no one has ever touched me.”
Reever’s whole body tightened, but when he spoke, his tone was very gentle.
“I’m going to touch you there,” he said, bending and kissing her mouth. Gently his fingers smoothed over the thin, sheer cloth separating him from her hidden warmth. When she began to tremble, he lifted his head, looking at her. “Let me,” he said quietly. “I won’t hurt you. I’ll be so gentle that all you’ll feel will be pleasure. Just let yourself respond as honestly as you responded when I loved your breasts until you moaned. Remember how it felt for you then,” he said, his voice husky, “because that’s just the smallest beginning of the pleasure I can bring you.”
While he spoke, his hand moved caressingly between her thighs. At first she lay stiffly, but after a few moments she relaxed and let the shimmering pleasure of his touch spread through her. Without realizing it, she sighed and shifted, opening her legs a bit more. She wondered why his eyes narrowed then as he smiled down at her, but the sweetness of his touch drove all thoughts from her mind.
Slowly he bent over and kissed her navel, letting her feel his teeth and tongue until her hips lifted with the involuntary sensual response he had been waiting for. At that instant he slid the sheer panties down her legs with a sweep of his hand. Any objections she might have had were lost when his mouth locked over hers, and he consumed her with strokes of his tongue that made her moan and move sinuously, slowly.
By the time Tory realized that the wild sensations shivering through her were coming from Reever’s palm moving slowly between her legs, it was too late to be shy or frightened. She could only do as he asked, as he urged, opening herself to his touch, watching his eyes darken with the same wild desire that was shaking her.
Delicately, gently, he traced her layered softness with his fingertips, watching her eyes change as she understood what was happening.
“Yes,” he whispered, teasing the tiny, sensitive bud hidden in her softness. “You can feel what it will be like, can’t you? You can feel us coming closer and closer to the moment when you’ll give yourself to me.”
Her breath came in with a moan as she felt him begin to deepen the caress with a tenderness that made her forget to be afraid. She watched his eyes through half-closed lids while he gently took more and more of her secret softness, and she felt her very bones unraveling. She moaned again, watching him, unconsciously moving in counterpart to his touch, wanting more of him.
“You’re like a dancer, all grace and fire,” he said, smiling, holding her glance as his touch slid more deeply into her and she gasped with pleasure and surprise. “Yes,” he grated, “let me know how much you like it. Let me know how—” His words ended in a groan as she melted at his touch. He watched her eyes, saw her surprise consumed by another burst of pleasure when he caressed her intimately. “You’re so hot, so soft, so perfect,” he breathed, bending down to her. “You make me want to come apart right here, right now, with you watching me.” He shuddered and took her mouth with a thrust of his tongue. “Little virgin,” he said huskily, biting her neck and shoulder with barely leashed hunger. “But not for long.”
His fingers moved hotly, intimately, and she cried out again, melting again. His smile was a savage mixture of pleasure and the pain of not taking her.
When she saw that smile, lightning raced through her, a sensual hunger he was focusing with each searching caress. She reached for him, needing the consummation of his mouth, needing to feel his weight over her, moving, and her own body moving in return, needing something she had never known and could not even describe.
“Reever, I want—” Her voice broke as pleasure radiated through her at his touch, a slow, bursting heat that made her moan.
“What?” he murmured, slowly releasing her, letting his hand slide up to her navel, teasing the dimple with his warm, damp fingertips. “What do you want?”
Her hands closed on his shirt as she tried to bring him closer. The metal snaps gave way in a ripple of sound. For the first time she felt his naked skin against her palms. She made a sound of satisfaction and discovery, excited by his heat and the sensual tension that brought each of his powerful muscles into hard relief. The wedge of blue-black hair enticed her, caressing the sensitive skin between her fingers as she rubbed against him.
“Tory—”
“No,” she said huskily, flexing her fingers until her nails dug in lightly and he groaned. “Don’t make me stop. You feel so good, Reever. Or don’t you—don’t you want me to touch you?”
His laugh was a ragged sound that was torn from him. She knew the answer to her question even before he spoke because he was moving with her touch, twisting slowly, increasing the pressure of her fingers exploring his chest.
“I want your hands all over me,” he said, his voice as deep and ragged as his laughter had been. His eyes sought and held her. “But if I let you undress me, touch me, your time as a virgin will be over. I don’t want it to end that quickly. It’s only going to happen for you once, green eyes. That’s worth waiting for.” He shuddered as he felt her nails skim over his nipples. “Besides, if you see how much I want you, it may just scare the hell out of you.”
He tried to lighten his words with a smile, but he couldn’t. Just the thought of her turning away from him in fear made him want to take her right there, right now, before she could change her mind.
Tory heard the truth and buried fear in his words and wondered how she could tell him that she was no longer afraid. All the words she could think of began and ended in I love you, and those were the words she must not speak. Her hands slid down his chest to his hard waist. The involuntary, sudden movement of his abdomen surprised her until she remembered that she, too, had responded like that at the first touch of his fingers sliding down her body.
And it had been pleasure, not surprise or distaste that had moved her.
“Did you like that?” she asked softly, watching the smoky glitter of his eyes.
“Yes,” he said, his voice almost harsh.
“And this?”
Her hands slid lower, seeking and finding the hard length of him pressing stiffly against his jeans. His hips moved involuntarily, and a groan ripped from him at the first sweet touch of her hands on his aching male flesh.
“God,” he said hoarsely, closing his eyes and shuddering heavily. He put his hands over Tory’s as though to push her away, but he could not. His need was too great. He pressed her hands harder against himself and moved slowly, shaking with hunger and pleasure.
Then he opened his eyes and saw her watching him, sharing his pleasure as he had shared hers. For a moment he thought he would lose control. Only his deep need to b
e inside her allowed him to drag himself back from the brink.
The realization surprised him. With other women it hadn’t particularly mattered to him how he found satisfaction. Yet it mattered with Tory. He didn’t know why. He only knew that it did. It was a truth that was even stronger than his blazing sexual need.
Gently Reever smoothed Tory’s hands up the length of his body until he could bite her palms and fingertips with barely controlled force, wringing cries of sensual surprise and response from her trembling mouth.
“I think you’ve made your point,” he said, giving her a smile that made her heart turn over. “You may be a virgin, but you won’t faint or run screaming if you see me naked.”
He kicked off his boots and stood up, making no attempt to conceal himself from her curious eyes. He watched her face as he took off his shirt and tossed it aside. The sound of her indrawn breath was like a caress.
“Aren’t you used to seeing half-naked men?” Reever asked, smiling at her, his hands resting on his belt buckle. “Or do they swim in T-shirts where you come from?”
She smiled without looking away from his powerful shoulders and the sleek black pelt curling down to his belt buckle.
“Oh, I’m used to seeing men in a scrap of cloth that isn’t even worth mentioning,” she said. “But they shave all their body hair to cut down on drag in the water. And even if they didn’t shave...” She shivered as her glance moved over him like a caress. “They aren’t you, Reever. No man is. No man ever will be.”
The words sank into him like sweet tiny claws, bringing a violent surge of desire. He wondered again how anyone as honestly passionate as Tory had managed to stay out of a man’s bed for so many year.
And then he remembered what she had told him. It was easy. I hadn’t met you.
Watching her, he unbuckled his belt, unfastened his jeans, and pulled off all his clothes with a few swift motions. As her glance traveled down his body, he saw her curiosity, her approval, and then her surprise at the extent of his desire for her. He realized that, even though she had spent most of her life around nearly naked men, she was totally unused to seeing a man who was fully aroused.
“It’s too late to change your mind and run screaming,” he said, lying down next to her again, touching her with a hand that trembled.
“How about fainting?” she asked, her voice shaking, breathless.
“Don’t be afraid, little cat,” he said, kissing her gently despite the violence of his own need. “I know it seems impossible to you right now, but you’ll fit me like a wet satin glove, all hot and smooth and close.”
Reever’s hand kneaded gently down Tory’s body until he found and caressed again the softness hidden between her legs. As his fingers teased her feminine bud, she shivered and melted again with a tiny gasp.
“All of a man’s changes are obvious,” he murmured, nuzzling against her breast. “Yours are subtle, almost secret, until I touch what’s hidden and feel how very soft you’ve become for me. If you would touch yourself, you would feel how you’ve changed for me. You can hold me inside you now and have only pleasure, not pain.”
He saw her helpless blush at the thought of touching herself and he smiled. “Then you’ll just have to take my word for it, won’t you?”
Her only answer was a ragged intake of her breath as his hand slid caressingly between her thighs. His fingertips tormented her so delicately that after a few moments she forgot to be nervous or shy. Involuntarily her leg flexed as she shifted in response to his teasing, maddening, incredibly arousing touch. When he found once again her hidden heat and need, her eyelids fluttered shut and she lost herself in the sensations he drew from her.
Tory moved her hips gently, sinuously, beneath Reever’s caress as she opened to him completely. His eyes darkened and narrowed at her wordless, unconscious invitation. Seeing her so vulnerable, so trusting, so generous with her virginal body made him ache to bend down to her and tease her softness with his tongue, to know every shivering bit of her in an intimacy that he had never shared with another woman.
With a groan he forced himself to look away from her secrets lying open to his touch. But he could not wholly refuse the invitation that she had so innocently and hotly given to him. Gently he covered her body with his own, easing himself into the cradle of her thighs. Her eyes flew open even as her body tightened.
“It’s all right,” he breathed, brushing her lips with his open mouth, biting at her gently. “I won’t take you by surprise, little one. You’re going to have your eyes wide open—and so am I.” He shuddered as his violently aroused flesh nudged against her wet, vulnerable core. “I’m going to enjoy every instant of you every way I can. I’ve never wanted a woman like this. I want all of you, Tory. I want to watch your face as you change from virgin to lover with a single stroke of my body.”
She trembled and moved beneath him while he teased her with his hands and the hungry, hot length of him rubbing over her. Always he stopped at the edge of taking her, barely penetrating, giving her just enough of himself to make her wild to have more. Finally she gave a ragged cry and arched herself against him, instinctively trying to capture and hold him inside.
As Tory’s hands gripped the hard muscles of Reever’s buttocks, he jerked reflexively, sliding more deeply into her, stopping just short of the irrevocable instant when he would transform her. She twisted wildly as she tried to evade his restraint. Her body was like his, hot, shining with a mist of desire that increased the sensitivity of skin rubbing over skin. She twisted again, blindly seeking what he had prepared her for. His arm tightened around her hips, stilling her movements. With a thick sound he bent and took her mouth, pinning her completely, letting the shaking wildness pass.
“Look at me,” he said in a gritty voice. “Tell me how you want me. Slow or fast, tender or wild, whatever you want. I want it to be so good for you. I want it to be the best you’ll ever have.”
Tory’s eyes, almost black with desire, opened. “How should it be? How is it best?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Hot. Deep. Forever.”
Her nails dug into the rigid muscles of his body as the words burst through her. “Yes,” she whispered, arching helplessly against him, repeating the word with each rapid breath she took.
She felt him going deeper into her and shivered as his heat became part of her. When he reached the fragile barrier he stopped. She opened her eyes, knowing that he was watching her, waiting for her.
“Am I hurting you?” he asked, and his whole body trembled with the effort of controlling his own violent need. “Tell me, green eyes. I’ll never forgive myself if I hurt you.”
The contrast between his gentle words and the savage restraint of his body undid her. She shivered repeatedly as fire raced through her. All she could say was his name, but he felt the wild heat of her melting around him and knew that at that instant she could feel only pleasure. He thrust into her, sweeping aside the barrier, sheathing himself deeply in her welcoming softness. He saw her eyes widen with realization and heard her breath sigh out in a moan of sensual pleasure that was also his name.
“You’re mine now, little cat,” he said, bending to take her mouth as completely as he had taken her body. “You feel so good, hot and tight and deep.”
His tongue thrust and withdrew slowly, matching his other movements within her. She shuddered and washed over him in hot waves of pleasure. She sought to take more of him and give more of herself as she reached instinctively for the ecstasy that shimmered just beyond reach.
When he felt her twist beneath him, seeking him fully, his control slipped. He arched into her, filling her, wanting the same release that she was reaching for. Her tiny, wild cry ripped through him. Desperately he forced himself to lie still, afraid that his instant of uncontrolled need had hurt her.
But when he would have withdrawn slightly in order to sp
are her, she grasped his hips, trying to get closer to him.
“Do you want more of me, little one? Is that it?” Reever asked, biting Tory’s nipple with sensual restraint, trembling when pleasure burst through her and melted over him in the same hot instant. “Wrap your legs around my hips,” he urged huskily. “If it hurts, I’ll—” His voice broke as she shifted, wrapping around him, taking all of him, and telling him of her pleasure with every movement of her slender body. He rocked slowly against her, feeling currents of fire gather with each hot, sliding instant. “Am I—hurting you?” he asked, barely able to breathe, moving in tight, tiny circles against her, inflaming both of them.
Her whole body stiffened suddenly as her breath unraveled into soft, fragmented cries. He felt it begin for her, the tiny convulsions deep inside her. She opened her eyes and looked right into his, and her voice shattered as she called his name in surprise at the fire consuming her until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, could do nothing but come apart in his arms. He held her tightly, rocking against her slowly, sweetly, deeply, holding back his own release with all his strength because he wanted it never to stop for her or for him. He wanted always to be deep inside her, to feel ecstasy ripple through her body, to hear his name a broken cry on her lips, to have it last until he died.
His world slid away slow motion, a series of soft, fierce explosions that were like nothing he had ever known.
Hot.
Deep.
Forever.
8
The meadow was exquisite, unexpected. On a stage of green grass, wildflowers swayed like dancers in the wind. Dense, nearly black pines ringed the meadow on three sides. On the fourth, low granite cliffs rose in a ragged stairway winding along the brilliant blue of Wolf Lake. Wolf Creek swirled gracefully across the meadow, murmuring and flashing through sunlight and shadow alike. A small cedar lodge had been built just below the crest of a ridge overlooking the meadow. The lodge’s windows shined with the same clear silver light as the creek.
Too Hot To Handle Page 13
