The Wicked Heir (Spare Heirs #3)(64)

Only he pulled back a fraction, breaking their kiss to study her with heavily lidded eyes. He slipped his hand from her hair, tracing the line of her jaw with his fingers as his thumb passed over her bottom lip and tugged it down. She watched him, waiting.

She had no experience to lean upon. Certainly she’d flirted plenty, but that’s all it had ever been: innocent flirtation. She wasn’t like Victoria. She couldn’t command men about. She was just Isabelle. Kisses for her had been the sparkly, rose-scented clouds that dreams were made of. But Fallon was real. How did she tell him what she wanted?

He must have read her muddled thoughts somehow because a second later his mouth was back on hers, more commanding than before. She leaned into him, wanting more, and he bit at her bottom lip, the place that he’d toyed with only a second before with his thumb. Her lips parted as she allowed him access to her mouth.

He made a noise deep in his throat at her surrender, one that rumbled through her body with delicious tremors and pulled her closer in his embrace. Then he tasted her, his tongue tangling with hers. She roamed her hands over his back, his shoulders, as she arched into him.

He smoothed his hand up her side and cupped her breast in his palm, tracing hypnotic circles around the peak with his thumb all while plundering her mouth like the pirate she’d accused him of being. Taking. Demanding…but giving back more than she could handle.

That was when she realized all of her dreams of romantic kisses with handsome knights hadn’t prepared her for the reality of Fallon. Her head spun with desire. She slid her hand around the thick column of his neck to where his shirt gaped open, and she slipped her hand inside. The muscles in his chest flexed beneath her grasp.

He broke their kiss but didn’t pull back from her. Resting his forehead against hers, he murmured, “Isabelle, you were supposed to stop me.”

Her breath was ragged as he continued to tease the sensitive peak of her breast through the linen of his shirt. “Why would I stop you?”

He chuckled. “Right now, I haven’t a clue.” He moved to the side of her neck, and her head fell back to give him as much of her as he wished.

The stubble of his jaw abraded her skin even as his soft lips trailed down to the base of her throat. He caught the pulse that beat wildly for him there and tasted it with his tongue. Moving his lips over her collarbone, he dipped his attention to the breast he’d palmed earlier, grazing his teeth over the peak through the thin fabric of the shirt. The sensation sliced through her body, and she was reaching for him in the next second.

She pulled at the linen that he still wore, wanting to feel him, to taste him as she’d imagined doing earlier this evening. She didn’t have any idea what she was doing, but as long as she was with Fallon, nothing else mattered. She knew now that she didn’t have to fear the unknown with him. He held her steady in the palm of his hand, leading her with every touch, every press of his lips, and every flick of his tongue. Every soft murmur against her skin guided her forward.

He paused to study her, a question in his dark gaze, but in the next second he was reaching up to rip his shirt off over his head. She watched as the white linen slid up his body to reveal tightly corded muscles, a broad chest with a smattering of hair covering the surface, and powerful arms that returned to her before the shirt had even hit the floor.

She trailed a hand over his chest. He would rule the seas with ease just like this. Leaning forward, she touched her lips to a spot on his shoulder. His skin was hot beneath her mouth, and she inhaled the warm air that surrounded him. Unable to resist, she darted her tongue out and tasted him. Salty skin—the most masculine and delicious concoction she could have imagined. She smiled against his neck as he roamed a hand down her back and over her hip to grab her bottom. Her eyes widened at his touch, but she didn’t move away, only moved her mouth over his shoulder, breathing in everything about him. Learning. Memorizing.

When she lifted her head from his neck, he kissed her again with a thoroughness that left her disoriented when it ended. She blinked at him and saw him smile. It wasn’t the wry lift of the corner of his mouth she saw often on his face but a true smile. It was a smile just for her, and she knew it came from his heart—even if he would claim otherwise if asked. There was a truth in his smile, one that didn’t require words. He was happy here with her. He may have walked away two days ago when she’d tried to tell him she loved him, but tonight he was hers, she was his, and this was what he wanted. The magic that surrounded them was what stories of love were made of, and she wanted to hold on to it forever. Nothing beyond this room mattered.

“Our tale is one of pirates and wood nymphs,” he mused as he brushed his lips over hers again. “Kisses were always bound to happen. Untrustworthy fellows and all…”

“Fallon?”

He raised a brow in question but didn’t reply.

“I trust you.”

His hands froze on her as he looked into her eyes.

“I do. I’ve never been with another like this. And…I…wouldn’t want to. Only you.”

His eyes narrowed on her for a second, his question clear even though he said nothing.

It was true, she’d recently claimed she loved his friend, then had been on the path toward love with another before he’d brought her here. And really, she’d done the same over Fallon before she’d learned about his past. She’d been the ninny that her family often accused her of being, but so much had happened since she came here, even if it had been a short time. Now, sitting here in Fallon’s arms while her hair dried by the fire, she was in a different world, one she didn’t want to leave. He was the true noble and trustworthy gentleman of her dreams. She knew his deepest secrets and loved him all the more for what they revealed about him.