Only Mine o-2

by Elizabeth Lowell

  Water made gentle silver sounds as first the cloth and then his skin was rinsed. He sensed Jessica kneeling before him. When the cloth returned, it was to wash him without hesitation or inhibition. He couldn’t hide, for wherever she touched him, she would discover his passion.

  But Wolfe no longer cared about hiding, for he knew Jessica burned for him in the same way. She was touching him as if he were a dream condensing out of firelight, cherishing him in a hushed silence that was itself another kind of caress.

  The washcloth slipped from her fingers and fell forgotten onto the hearth. The feel of her hands on his thighs was both relief and another turn of passion’s rack. The glide of her palms over him was a pleasure so great it was pain. The gentle rush of her breath over his heavy arousal was Heaven and Hell in one.

  Wolfe couldn’t prevent the low sound he made when Jessica’s hand cupped him. Nor could he prevent the single silver drop that condensed, speaking so deeply of the need within him.

  When she kissed away the evidence of his need, she brought him to his knees.

  «You’re burning me alive,» Wolfe said hoarsely.

  «No more than you’re burning me,» she whispered, pulling Wolfe’s hands down her body. «Touch me. Know how much I want you.»

  It was like sliding into fire. There was no withdrawal, no coy retreat, nothing but the sultry rose opening at his first touch, weeping for him and yielding to him at the same instant. She clung to him, watching him, seeing the shivering rush of her own passion in the expanding center of his eyes, feeling it in the silky heat gilding his hand.

  Then Jessica could support her own weight no longer. With a husky moan she sank down onto the fur, drawing Wolfe with her, keeping his hand pressed deeply to her.

  «You have taught me so much about a man’s body,» Jessica whispered. «I never would have guessed…»

  Her voice frayed into another husky cry as Wolfe’s hand cupped her and stole into her in the same sweet motion. Unable to help her response, she moved her hips in slow counterpoint to his motions, deepening his presence within her body.

  Wolfe closed his eyes and tested the heart of the flower that had been given to him. He found only clinging ease and secret rain shielded by a maidenhood as fragile as flame. She wanted him as he had never been wanted by anyone, and she was telling him with each sultry drop, calling to him in a silence that was infused with hunger and the scent of roses.

  «What would you never have guessed?» Wolfe asked when he could trust himself to speak.

  «That you were made of honey and fire.»

  «It’s you, not me. Honey and fire.»

  Wolfe breathed Jessica’s name and withdrew from the satin sheath of her body, heard her cry out at the loss of him. For two seconds he endured it, for three seconds, then he could take no more of their shared pain. He slid within her again, and felt the sweet agony of her response all the way to his soul.

  «Hold me,» Jessica whispered. «I need to feel you pressed against me. Please, Wolfe.Ineed you.»

  «I shouldn’t.»

  «Why?»

  «You’re too dangerous when you burn. You make me forget…everything.»

  Yet even as Wolfe was speaking, he was moving over Jessica, crushing her gently into the fur. The feel of her along his naked body went through him in a soundless explosion of heat. When she shifted to draw him even closer, he pinned her hips with his own.

  «Lie still,» Wolfe breathed against Jessica’s mouth. «You’ll make me lose control. I don’t want that yet.»

  «What do you want?»

  «Your kiss.»

  «It’s yours, Wolfe. Only yours.»

  He took what she gave, giving himself in return. It was like no other kiss he had known. He felt her as though he was in her skin, burning, and she was in his, on fire. Slowly, his body moved against hers, pleasuring both of them in the same gliding motions. She answered instinctively, opening herself, seeking him blindly, needing him until she wept.

  Yet no matter how she struggled, he withheld himself.

  «Wolfe,» Jessica said, her voice strained. «Don’t you want me? You’ve taught me so much about your body and my own. Teach me about the shared body of love.»

  «No, elf.»

  «Is coupling that painful? Is that what you don’t want me to know? Is that what you’re sending me back to England to face alone, knowing that someday your elf will lie screaming and bleeding beneath a rutting man?»

  Wolfe shuddered with a combination of rage at the thought of Jessica lying beneath another man and desire because she was lying beneath him now with her legs open and her hungry softness pressing against him, licking over him with honey and fire.

  «Jessi, no,» he groaned. «It must not be.»

  But whether he meant her coupling with another man in the future or having Wolfe buried within her now, even Wolfe couldn’t say.

  «Then I’m right,» Jessica accused wildly. «I will be ripped apart. You have seduced me with everything but the truth!»

  «Taking a man within your body won’t hurt you.»

  «I don’t believe you,» she raged. «I have seen a man aroused. I have felt myself tight around no more than your finger. You are lying to me!»

  Jessica’s body twisted beneath Wolfe, inciting him beyond bearing. Even as he told himself to roll aside, he caught her mouth beneath his and sank down over her body, absorbing her struggles with his much greater strength. His tongue thrust heavily into her mouth and filled it as he longed to fill her body. His hips moved, dragging his hardened flesh over the softness he had called from her.

  Heat pulsed through Jessica and spilled over to Wolfe, increasing the stunning sensitivity of flesh sliding across flesh. He made a throttled sound as every muscle in his body clenched with passion and a need that was destroying him.

  With a low moan, Jessica arched against him, for she needed the heaviness of his body more than she needed air.

  «Hold still,» Wolfe said in a hoarse voice. «Don’t move unless I tell you. Do you hear me, Jessi? I’m going to show you how little you will have to fear from aman.Butyou must lie still.»

  She shuddered and became motionless.

  Wolfe took a breath and then another, trying to get a grip on the wild, seething violence of his need for her. It was impossible. Control kept sliding away by hot increments, leaving no reality but that of the girl who lay ready beneath him, watching him with eyes that were black with passion.

  «Wrap your legs around my hips. Slowly, Jessi. Very slowly.»

  Watching him, she shifted in slow motion until her legs circled his hips.

  «Like this?» Jessi whispered.

  Wolfe locked his jaw as he brushed against the sultry woman heat that lay open to him. A long shudder racked his restraint, threatening to tear it apart. He took several careful breaths.

  «Yes, like that.» His voice was low, almost a groan. «Just like that. Don’t move, Jessi. Not one bit. I’m going to show you how easily you’ll accept a man.»

  «Now?»

  «Now. Just for a moment. Just a little bit. Just so you won’t be afraid. I won’t take your maidenhead, but you must lie very, very still.»

  Jessica’s eyes widened as Wolfe’s fingers caressed her, parted her very gently, eased into her so slowly that she couldn’t believe it was happening at all.

  And then she realized it wasn’t his fingers pressing into her.

  «Dear God,» Jessica whispered.

  «Yes. Dear God.»

  Another shudder racked Wolfe as he eased a bit farther into the petal softness of Jessica’s body. He watched the center of her eyes expand into glittering blackness, tasted the unraveling of her breath against his lips, felt her hot, supple yielding to him, heard the small sound she made at the back of her throat as her nails scored sweetly on his arms.

  «Am I hurting you?» he breathed.

  The whimper that came from Jessica’s throat as her eyes closed wasn’t an answer, but the secret rain of her response was.

&
nbsp; It took his breath away.

  «Jessi, my sweet elf…»

  Shaking, Wolfe threaded his fingers through her unbound hair until his hands were wholly tangled within the long strands. He wanted nothing more on earth than to flex his hips and bury himself in her sleek, yielding warmth.

  What was making sweat break all over his body was the knowledge that Jessica wanted it as violently as he did.

  «Look at me,» Wolfe said heavily. «I want to see you while we’re joined even in this small way. Christ knows it’s not enough, not nearly enough, but it’s all that can be. Look at me, Jessi. Let me see the passion in you.»

  Slowly, Jessica’s eyes opened. She looked at the hard lines of Wolfe’s face, at his body drawn with restraint and glistening with sweat. His eyes were dilated with the same passion that was sending tongues of fire licking up from between her thighs.

  Then he moved slightly, retreating and returning with exquisite care.

  A burst of fire drenched Jessica in golden heat. Wolfe felt it, shared it, and moved again, caressing her with his whole body. She gasped and tightened her legs around his hips, instinctively trying to deepen the tantalizing union.

  Wolfe’s fists clenched in Jessica’s long hair as he felt his self-control dissolving in the hot, secret rain of her body. He knew he should withdraw completely from her heat, but he couldn’t force himself to. She was everything he had ever wanted, and he had wanted her much too long.

  Telling himself it would be the last time, he moved again, tormenting both of them with the incomplete union.

  «Does this hurt you?» he asked through his teeth.

  Jessica shook her head even as she wondered at the harshness in his voice. Heat shimmered through her, making her gasp.

  Breath hissed out of Wolfe as he felt passion ripple through Jessica to his own flesh just within her. Sweat gathered and ran down his spine. He knew he must draw back before the sweet violence overcame what was left of his restraint.

  «You have nothing to fear from a man inside your body,» Wolfe said through clenched teeth. His own need knotted and twisted within him, wrenching him until he wanted to cry out with anguish. «Do you hear me, elf? You have nothing to fear.»

  Jessica’s breath unraveled. Her hips moved rhythmically as pleasure peaked and ebbed and peaked once more.

  «Stop,» Wolfe said. Tremors jerked through him at each melting of her body around him. «Jessi — stop!»

  «I’m sorry. I can’t. I — Wolfe.»

  He saw her teeth sink into her lower lip as she fought the fulfillment that was taking her. He brushed his open mouth over hers as he moved very slowly within her.

  «Never mind, elf,» he breathed into her mouth. «It’s all right. Don’t fight it. Let me feel your pleasure.»

  Wolfe’s hand moved between their bodies, capturing the silky bud. He felt the splintering, shivering heat that washed through Jessica to him. The abandon of her response took him to the breaking edge of his control, and he hung there, shaking, while she clung hotly to him, silently begging for more of him with each sultry pulse of her pleasure.

  «There’s such fire in you,» Wolfe whispered.

  «You’re killing me, Jessi. You could take every bit of me without pain and you must know it as well as I.»

  Heavy-lidded eyes opened and watched Wolfe as he teased the sensitive flower that had opened for him. Passion burned as deeply in her glance as it did in her body.

  «All I know is that you are not the same as other men,» Jessica said.

  «In this,» he moved his hips, «I am no different.»

  «Dear God,» she whispered. «Again.»

  «What?»

  «Do that again. Please, Wolfe. Again.»

  With a whispered curse that was also a prayer for strength, Wolfe moved within Jessica once more and at the same time caressed her with his fingers.

  She made a low sound as a network of sensation raced through her, leaving ecstasy shimmering in its wake. She gave herself to the tender ravishment and to the man who had called passion from her depths. With each sensual peak shivering through her, she kissed him, whispering to him, telling him the only truth that mattered.

  «You are…my Lord Wolfe.»

  Her words became part of the blood hammering through Wolfe’s veins. Feeling and hearing the silky climax unravel Jessica was burning him so softly, so completely, that he didn’t know he was wholly afire. A shudder went through him at each touch of her mouth, but her words were even more seductive, telling him what he had always known and never wanted to face.

  «I will take…no other man…into my body.»

  Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s hot back to the rigid muscles of his hips, seeking his very different flesh, finding it. With exquisite care, she drew her nails over him.

  «Make me yours, Wolfe…only yours.»

  Jessica’s name was an anguished cry against her throat as Wolfe’s control broke. He drove completely into her, changing her body in a sweeping, irrevocable instant.

  Her breath tore as she was filled to overflowing. He was so deeply inside her that she felt the pulses of his release as clearly as she felt her own heartbeat. She put her arms around his shaking body and held him, kissing his eyes and cheeks and the corners of his mouth until he had the breath to speak once more.

  «Now you are mine, Jessi. Only mine.» As Wolfe lowered his mouth to hers, he whispered, «May God have mercy on my soul.»

  «Wolfe?» Her arms tightened around him. «What’s wrong?»

  «It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve burned for you so long that Hell has nothing new to teach me. But I have new things to teach you, Jessi. Heaven and Hell combined.»

  Before Jessica could say anything more, Wolfe sealed her lips with a kiss that claimed her mouth as completely as he had claimed her body. Then his hips moved powerfully and she forgot everything but his heavy presence within her.

  Pleasure coursed through Jessica with each thrusting motion Wolfe made. Her body tightened and tightened until she couldn’t breathe, yet still Wolfe moved in sensual rhythms over her, against her, within her, setting fire to every bit of her, burning her alive.

  She tried to speak but could think of no words, much less shape her tongue to form them. All she could say was his name, and she said it again and again as he ripped the world away, leaving her nothing to hang onto but him.

  Forerunners of savage ecstasy clawed through Jessica, drawing her body into a shivering arch. She gasped at the unexpected sensations. They were more acute than anything she had ever known, almost frightening in their intensity.

  «Wolfe?»

  «You’re feeling it now, aren’t you?» Wolfe’s voice was as dark as his eyes watching her. «You wanted this, Jessi. You’ve wanted it since you were fifteen. And since you were fifteen, I’ve wanted to give it to you.»

  Jessica gasped and her eyes widened with surprise as sensual lightning transfixed her, arching her into Wolfe’s driving body. He laughed and bit her neck hard enough to leave passionate marks.

  «Heaven and Hell combined, Jessi. I’m going to burn you all the way to your soul.»

  The restrained savagery of Wolfe’s teeth against her hot skin dragged a moan from Jessica. When she made a sharp, rising sound, he sealed her mouth with his own. He took her cries into himself and dragged more of them from her, wanting all that she had to give.

  Nails scored Wolfe’s skin, drawing a primitive sound of need from him. The small pain simply served to focus the seething violence of pleasure. When he shifted his mouth to the pulse beating wildly in Jessica’s neck, she responded to the barely veiled savagery of the caress by arching like a drawn bow.

  Wolfe held her there, stretched and quivering on a rack of pleasure, and then he began moving again, driving her higher and higher with each powerful motion of his body. Her breath became as broken as his, her skin as hot, as slick, until she was wild with need for the consummation that he kept just beyond her reach.

  «I can’t bear it,» Jessica
said raggedly, dragging her teeth across Wolfe’s chest in sensual punishment, twisting beneath him, seeking relief.

  Wolfe laughed and bit her shoulder as he pinned her with his hips. «I’ve burned like this for five years. Surely you can stand five minutes?»

  When Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s body, he shuddered, caught her wrists, and held them in one hand above her head.

  «None of your sweet tricks, elf.»

  «You are — torturing me.»

  «I’mtorturingme. I’m teaching you. Wrap those beautiful legs around my waist. Yes, like that. Now lift your hips,» Wolfe whispered against Jessica’s mouth, biting her between each word, «and you will find what you’ve been seeking so hotly.»

  Jessica lifted toward him as he drove into her. The ecstasy was so intense, she would have screamed if she could have, but Wolfe had taken her breath even as he had claimed her mouth. He slid his arm beneath her hips, dragging her so tightly against his body that he could feel her very bones. Then he thrust into her hard and deep, wanting to find the point beyond which she would refuse him.

  What he found was more sleek yielding to him, heat surrounding him, burning him, Heaven and Hell combined as he hurtled headlong with her into the sun.

  Later, much later, Wolfe held Jessica while she slept and he counted the cost of what he had done.

  18

  When Jessica awoke the next morning, Wolfe was standing by the window, as naked and magnificent as the mountains rising to meet the dawn. He was looking out over the rugged land with an expression of loss and yearning that made her heart turn over. She wondered what he was seeing in the wild sunrise.

  And why it made him so sad.

  «Wolfe?»

  As he walked toward Jessica, his expression changed. The gentle smile he gave her made tears burn behind her eyelids. Indigo eyes swept over her, lingering on the banked fire twisting through her hair and the crystalline perfection of her light eyes. Long, lean fingers traced her eyebrows, her cheekbones, the curves of her mouth. He sat on the bed beside her and kissed her tenderly.