Romancing the Crown Series

by Romancing the Crown Series (13-in-1 bundle) (v1. 0) (lit)

  Had he spoken? What did it matter? His body shuddered and shivered with adrenaline as he caught her around her waist. In an instant he'd pinned her, flat on her back, to the mattress.

  The flashlight rolled away somewhere, but it spilled enough light across the bed that he could see her face staring up at him... the dark enigma of her eyes, utterly without fear, just tiny lines of puzzlement between them.

  Her breasts heaved beneath his arm as she whispered, "You do not wish me to continue?"

  "No." This time he knew he'd spoken, but it was in a voice he didn't recognize. "And it's not a matter of wishing. I can't let you."

  "Why? I do not understand. Do you not like it?"

  Looking up and away from her, he gave a soft, croaking laugh. Then he brought his eyes back to her, and was caught off guard by a treacherous, shimmering fog of overwhelming tenderness. Like that strange, protective tenderness he'd felt for her before, only this was much, much worse. He couldn't speak, but had to look away again, and take deep breaths and laugh a little the way men do when they dare not humiliate themselves with symptoms of emotion.

  When he was able to look at her again, he lifted a hand to touch her face. Softly, with wondering fingers he traced the ink-black line of her eyebrow, the clean, pure sweep of her cheek and jaw.

  "Don't you know?" He shrugged one shoulder and said it with aching simplicity. "You're a virgin."

  Chapter 12

  She didn't say anything for several seconds, while her heartbeat fluttered against the barricade of his arm like a captive bird struggling to free itself. Then she made a sound, a perplexed and impatient little sigh.

  "In my culture," she whispered, and her frown deepened as she searched his face, "a man would consider a woman's virginity a treasure.. .a gift. I think that for you this is not true. I think.. .for you it is only a burden."

  "Not so much a burden..." He considered, his voice gravelly and soft. "More like...a responsibility."

  "But.. .why?" She gave a hopeless little sigh and said again, "I do not understand."

  And again Cade had to gaze into the shadows beyond the light while he gathered his courage. She couldn't know, could she, how hard it was for him to talk about such intimate things? "I'm too full.. .too hard.. .right now. Too...aroused." He took a breath, but the words wouldn't come, and finally he whispered it brokenly, "I don't think I could stand it if I hurt you."

  "Oh," she cried, "is that all?" Her eager innocence nearly shattered him. Her fingers closed around his wrist. She turned her lips into his palm like a bird snuggling into its nest, and he could feel them form a smile against his skin. She closed her eyes, and something glimmered like tiny diamonds in her lashes. She whispered, "I thought...it was because you did not want me."

  He was too precarious; he dared not laugh. With a soft groan he lowered his forehead until it touched hers. "Not want you? No, no, it's that I want you too much."

  Her fingers left his wrist and wove themselves into his hair. Her face tilted and her lips touched searchingly here and there on his face...his chin, the edges of his jaws, the corners of his mouth. Between touches, in breathless little puffs he heard words. "But I am.. .your wife. How.. .is it possible.. .to want.. .your wife...too much?"

  Your wife. He replayed the words in his head and his heart shuddered as if from a violent collision. In a sense it was—a collision between heart and head.. .between reason and emotion. If you do this, his head reminded him, it can't be undone.

  To which his heart responded, I don't care!

  In slow, sighing surrender he brought his mouth into alignment with hers.. .barely touching.. .brushing her breath with his. He felt her go motionless with wonder. Her lips opened in a blissful, waiting smile. She moved her head slowly back and forth, caressing his lips with hers, mercilessly teasing nerve-endings already honed to needle points. He felt the caress in his temples and breastbone, in the soles of his feet and the backs of his knees, in the pit of his stomach...and with a deep, burning ache in his groin.

  If I kiss her now, he thought—he absolutely knew—I won't be able to stop.

  "It is all right," she murmured, as if she'd heard his thought, her words tickling his lips. "I have been told it is normal for there to be pain the first time. I do not mind."

  With a quick, violent motion he caught her wrist and held it pressed against the bedspread while he drew back to look at her. Her breasts rose and fell in uneven rhythm, brushing against his arm. He frowned down at them and muttered groggily, "Who told you that?" Whoever it had been, in his heart he was vowing there and then to make that person a liar.

  "Salma. When I was very small she was my nanny. Now she is my very dear friend. And she gave me something to help soothe the pain...a special recipe of herbs and oils. She said it is from her grandmother."

  Herbs and oils? He was beginning to get The Arabian Nights feeling again. That sense of unreality grew more encompassing as he listened to the muffled thump of his heart.. .heard his own voice as if through layers of wool. Carefully, trying not to smile, he said, "And you... brought this magic stuff with you?"

  "Yes, of course—I have it right here, in my bag." And lithe as an otter she twisted under him, rolling onto her stomach as she stretched an arm to reach for her overnighter.

  He barely knew when she opened it and began to rummage through its contents. Raised on one elbow, he gazed at her body.. .the pale, curving shape of it against the darker bedspread.. .and paler still the narrow stripe across her back.. .the triangle that barely succeeded in covering the rounded mounds of her bottom. He was thinking about himself in just that position, the treatment she'd put him through...his terrifying vulnerability, the exquisite sensations...his overwhelming arousal.

  She gave a soft "Hah!" of triumph and held up a bottle, graceful in shape and iridescent in color. But before she could roll back to him, he growled, "Not so fast," and with a hand on the small of her back, pinned her there on her belly. In a moment he was kneeling astride her thighs, bending over to whisper in her ear, "Now it's my turn...."

  Though the pain of desire, the pressure of his arousal as merciless as before, now his mind, at least, was clear. He felt in control again, of himself and of circumstances. Confidence surged like a drug through his veins. He felt light-headed with his power over her, and at the same time he quivered inside with tenderness.

  Oh, so gently, because he knew from firsthand experience how helpless and vulnerable she must be feeling, he drew the silken skein of her hair away from her face and neck, pausing to trace, with a delicacy he'd never known he possessed, the outline of her ear. He heard her exhale as he brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers, and felt the tickle of her lashes as she closed her eyes.

  He straightened, then, and deftly unhooked the fastening of her bra, and with his fingers fanned outward like a moth's wings drew his thumbs downward along her spine, acquainting her with his touch. Her skin felt hot and smooth, as if she had a fever.

  He eased the bottle from her curled fingers and opened it, then held the bottle to his nose. The fragrance was exotic.. .mysterious.. .intoxicating.. .all the things he associated with her. It filled his head with images... impressions.. .memories.. .of sun-drenched gardens heavy with the scent of roses, of laughing fountains and brightly colored birds, and of a black-haired princess with a winsome, dimpled smile.

  Setting aside the cap, he poured a small pool of oil into the valley between her shoulderblades. He began to spread it over her body, working like a master sculptor, kneading and molding, sometimes with his fingers, sometimes with his whole hands, utterly engrossed in the artistry of her body, the utter perfection of her muscles, the way they arranged themselves so beautifully over her bones. The clever symmetry of her spine...

  She wasn't as relaxed as she seemed. She stirred when he eased himself backward, fingers reaching under the lacy top of her underpants.

  "Fair's fair," he whispered as very slowly he peeled them over the rise of her bottom, and forgot to bre
athe as he watched with a schoolboy's fascination this final unveiling of her nakedness. He moved to her side at last in order to shuck her panties the rest of the way off, and felt her spine contract when he leaned over to kiss, like one bestowing a benediction, the matched set of indentations just where the firm resilience of muscle began.

  With upmost care, and marshaling all the self-control he had left, he poured oil into the gentle valley at her waist. Then began to spread it downward.. .down her sides, over the smooth mounds of her buttocks to the backs of her thighs. He poured more oil and with it slipped his fingers into the cleft between her buttocks, gauging minutely her response to this first invasion of her body's most private places.

  Her breathing grew quick and distressed. She stirred again, and it was instinct, perhaps, that made her move her legs a little apart. He lay beside her, then, stretching his body all along hers and raising himself on one elbow so he could murmur assurances to her as he caressed her. She tried to turn her face toward him, searching.. .seeking.. .but he pressed his face against the side of hers to keep her still and kissed her ear, and then her neck. She gasped and squirmed closer to him, but didn't try again to turn.

  And then he soothed her with kisses and wordless sounds while he slipped his oiled fingers between her thighs and penetrated for the first time her virgin softness.

  She was tight.. .so tight.. .breathing in little pants and whimpers, but not, he knew, with pain. Gently, he withdrew, then penetrated once again, then again, easing farther into her body each time. The oil and her own moisture made it easy. Her skin was hot where it lay along his, her hair damp with sweat and musky with her own unique, exotic scent. His heart pounded wildly, giddily, as he brought his open mouth to her nape and immersed himself in the heat and smell of her.. .as he pushed deeper, and yet deeper into her body. And when he had penetrated her as far as he could in that way, he heard her give a sharp little cry—more surprised than frightened—and felt her flesh contract and pulse around his finger. He held her so gently, housing her safely in his hand, soaking himself in her heat, and his own body was shot through with ripples and shudders—of pleasure, and other emotions even more bewildering.

  Presently, when her body had quieted, she turned her face again—not toward him, this time, but downward, as if she wanted to hide from him. With her arms drawn in under her she spoke in a muffled voice to the bedspread. "Cade, I am sorry. I did not mean for that to happen.. .I do not know why—I could not help it. Such a thing has never happened to me before."

  Please, oh please, he thought, just let me do this right.

  With careful gravity, he said, "No, probably not. What you felt, Princess, was an orgasm." He paused. Then, letting a smile leak into his voice, he added, "A small one."

  She lifted her head to stare at him, half her face veiled behind the midnight fall of her hair. "Really? Is this true? I did not know it would feel like that. I have read about this in books, but—"

  "Books?" It was such a relief to laugh. "Where in the world did you get hold of a sex book?" There were obviously unplumbed depths to this princess of his.

  "In boarding school, one of the girls had one. I think she was French. We used to look at it at night under the blankets with a flashlight." She looked down, catching her lip and dimpling at remembered mischief. Then she brought her eyes back to him and in that feeble light he caught the tiny movements of her swallow, the quivering of her mouth. "But it is impossible to know from reading a book how something will feel."

  He lifted his hand, slipped it under her hair and gently cupped her cheek. "I don't know, either, how it feels for you," he said softly. "I only know how it feels for me."

  She tipped her head, resting it in the cradle of his hand as her eyes clung to his face. "It must feel very, very good for you, then."

  "Oh, yeah..." The words vibrated under his sternum like a tiger's purr.

  Her lips quivered again, this time with a smile that flickered out before it could reach her dimples, then vanished when she turned her lips into his palm. "I want you to have this feeling," she said huskily as her eyes drifted closed.

  "Oh, I will, don't worry about that." Again, the laughter felt good to him.

  "And...you must not be afraid of hurting me."

  For a moment he was silent, struggling with emotions new to him and words he didn't know how to say. He'd been enjoying the interlude; it was new to him, this quiet intimacy wrapped in a cocoon of almost-darkness, with his mind at least temporarily at peace and his body like a pressure cooker on slow simmer. He'd been in no hurry to have it end, using those moments to marshal his strength and shore up his sagging self-control. Because he knew, as she didn't, that she was nowhere near ready for him, not if he was going to have a prayer of keeping the promise he made to her then, in a fierce and determined growl, "I'm not going to hurt you, Princess."

  She gave a patient, acquiescing sigh. He allowed her to turn onto her back then, and his eyes to feast on the banquet of feminine beauty he'd only seen, before tonight, camouflaged in the modestly elegant clothes she always wore. Camouflaged now by the darkness, allowing him veiled hints of creamy mounds and dusky hollows, of purple-rose areolas and an ink-black triangle, kitten-soft above the juncture of her thighs. Hungry for more, he was reaching for the flashlight when she spoke, raising herself up on her elbows.

  "I would like to see you," she said.

  And he kissed her instead, and murmured against her mouth, "You will...but not now."

  "But why?"

  So he kissed her again, and more and more deeply until, overwhelmed, she sank back onto the bedspread and reached hungrily for him, already panting and gasping and arching her body toward him as she drove her fingers into his hair. He drew back, then, and stared down into her dazed, midnight eyes. "You have to trust me," he said.

  Trust me.. .What choice did she have?

  She was lost in a world she could not have imagined, a world of senses and sensations, some so exquisite and lovely she wanted to reach for them, hold them in her hands like a child grasping at soap bubbles. Some so overwhelming she was in awe of them, frightened by their power, like one standing on the edge of a waterfall. She was lost, and yes, she was frightened, too. But there was a delicious, shivery excitement to her fear. Because there was Cade.

  Yes.. .she trusted him. There it was.. .as simple and glorious and mystifying as that. She trusted him with all her heart and soul. Her body was no longer hers to command—she was his, now, completely, only clay in the potter's hands.

  A potter? No. Though she had no scale by which to judge such things, to her it seemed he must be an artist.. .a master. His hands.. .his mouth.. .they commanded and consumed her.. .controlled and demanded, molded, manipulated and presumed. But never, never did they cause her pain. Only the most exquisite joy and unimagined pleasure. Twice more she felt the strange and wonderful sensations as her body first seemed to grow hot and huge and intense as the sun, then come suddenly apart into a cascade of a thousand pulsing infant stars, once when he had drawn apart her thighs with his hands and kissed her.. .kissed her the way he kissed her mouth, deeply, with his tongue...just there, where she was already so hot and swollen and sensitive to the slightest touch. The feeling then.. .it was so intense she cried out and arched and trembled in his hands, not knowing whether she struggled away from, or toward the terrifying sensations, only certain she could stand no more than this—more than this, and she would surely die.

  Then.. .and now it seemed too quickly.. .he was holding her tightly and she was rocketing over a precipice and falling, falling, breath forced from her lungs in pants and cries, and her body throbbing inside and burning, tingling all over, in every part of her, and she understood finally what Cade had meant when he had said, "A small one."

  She trusted him. Completely. And when at last he drew her legs wide apart and knelt so carefully between them.. .when he had taken Salma's bottle of soothing oil and poured some in his hand, then stroked it gently between her legs and de
ep, deep inside her.. .when he leaned over, bracing himself on his hands, and looked a question and a promise deep into her eyes.. .she gazed back at him from under half-closed lids that had somehow grown too heavy to lift.. .and smiled.

  She trusted him. But she gasped when she felt him fit himself to her softness; she couldn't seem to help it. She gasped again when she felt the first intense, steadily building pressure. And instantly he was there, taking her face between his hands and stroking her cheeks, her eyelids, her temples with his thumbs. Taking over her consciousness, whispering urgently into her mouth, " Stay with me.. .relax, sweetheart.. .don't tense up on me now..."

  She nodded, let her breath out and opened herself to him.

  By slow and careful degrees she let him come into her body, and she accepted the mounting pressure with something akin to triumph. Was this pain? She did not know, and anyway, if it had been she would not have let him know. She simply did not care, for this was her husband.. .from this moment he would forever be a part of her. She could never have imagined such a fierce and all-consuming joy.

  Oh, but now, as the pressure in her body was increasing almost beyond her ability to endure it, so was another kind of pressure altogether. She could feel it coming, feel it filling her throat, making her chest jump and quiver.. .making her breath whimper and her eyes sting. She tried to stop it, but it came anyway, like that other tumult her body could not control.

  "I am sorry," she gasped, and her chest was heaving, her voice high and broken with panic. "I do not mean to cry—I do not want—it does not mean—please do not think you are hurting me. I do not know why—I cannot seem to stop it—"

  She had trusted him in all else, she should have trusted him to understand this, as well.

  For he only whispered, "Shh.. .it's okay," and she could hear a smile in his voice as he kissed her and stroked her puddled eyelids. "It's just emotions... go ahead and cry if you want to."