Again the Magic (Wallflowers 0.5)(56)

Aline’s legs trembled violently. If not for the support of the oak behind her, she would have melted to the ground. Her shaking hands went to his head, her fingers tangling in the close-cropped locks. “McKenna,” she moaned, unable to believe what he was doing to her.

He licked deeper into the furrow of her sex, his tongue invading the melting tenderness until she fell silent, her labored breaths puncturing the air. Tension gathered once more, coiling with every tug of his mouth.

“I can’t bear it,” she gasped. “Please, McKenna…please…”

Apparently those words were what he had been waiting for. Standing, he gathered her against his body and lifted her with incredible ease. One of his arms shielded her back from the scrape of the tree trunk, while the other hooked neatly beneath her bu**ocks. She was completely helpless, unable to move or even squirm. Her scars pulled, and she shifted her knee upward to ease the tension.

McKenna kissed her, his hot breath filling her mouth. She felt the blunt pressure of his sex, the hardness pushing into the vulnerable cove of her body. Her flesh resisted, tightening against the threat of pain. The tip of his shaft entered her, and as McKenna felt the hot, snug clasp of her, his urgency seemed to magnify a hundred times. He pushed upward, while at the same time allowing Aline’s own weight to impel her onto his engorged length. A broken gasp came from Aline’s throat as her body gave way to the unrelenting invasion. Suddenly he was inside her, rending and filling and stretching the soft tissues. Aline arched in shock, her hands fisted against his back.

McKenna froze as the signs of her pain registered in his lust-clouded brain. Realizing what the peculiar resistance of her body had meant, he let out an astonished breath. “My God. You’re not a virgin. You can’t be.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she gasped. “Don’t stop. It’s all right. Don’t stop.”

But he remained still, staring at her in the secret darkness, his arms clamping around her until she could barely breathe. He was part of her, finally, in this ultimate and necessary act that her entire life had led to. She held on to him with every part of herself, drawing him deep, binding him in the light, secure grasp of her arms. Feeling the rhythmic squeeze of her inner muscles, McKenna bent to kiss her fiercely, his tongue stroking the edge of her teeth and probing the dark sweetness beyond. Aline clenched her stockinged legs around his waist, while he began to thrust in slow, tireless movements. The stinging eased, though it did not fade completely—and Aline didn’t care. All that mattered was possessing him, containing his rising flesh, her body and soul changed forever by his passionate invasion.

Groaning between his clenched teeth, McKenna braced his feet and pumped harder, burrowed deeper, sweating with pleasure and exertion. He spurted inside her, his cl**ax primitive, fierce, endless. Aline wrapped herself around him, dragging her open mouth over his face and neck, licking greedily at the trails of sweat.

McKenna panted and shivered and held himself inside her for a long time. Slowly the tension drained from Aline’s body, leaving her exhausted. As McKenna withdrew from her, she felt hot liquid seeping between her thighs. Realizing that her stockings had slipped, she wriggled in sudden anxiety. “Please let me down.”

Lowering her carefully to the ground, McKenna steadied her with his hands, while she fumbled to yank her stockings upward, and pull the straps of her chemise back over her shoulders. When she was safely covered, she reached for the bedraggled heap of her gown. Oh, how she wanted to lie with him somewhere, and sleep nestled against his body, and awaken to the sight of him in the morning sunlight. If only that were possible.

Clumsily jerking on the rest of her clothes, Aline stood with her face averted, and let McKenna fasten the back of her gown. Something had happened to one of her shoes…she had kicked it off during their encounter, and it took a minute of dedicated searching before McKenna finally located it behind a tree root.

Aline’s lips twitched with reluctant humor as he brought the shoe to her. “Thank you.”

McKenna did not smile, however. His features were as hard as stone, his eyes gleaming dangerously. “How the hell is it possible,” he asked in controlled fury, “that you were a virgin?”

“It’s not important,” she muttered.

“It is to me.” His fingers grasped her chin none too gently, forcing her to stare at him. “Why have you never let any man bed you before tonight?”

Aline licked her dry lips as she tried to come up with a satisfactory explanation. “I…I decided to wait until I married.”

“And in the five years of knowing Sandridge, you’ve never let him touch you?”

“You needn’t sound as if that’s a crime,” she said defensively. “It was a matter of respect, and mutual choice, and—”

“It is a crime!” he exploded. “It’s unnatural, damn you, and you’re going to tell me why! And then you’re going to explain why you let me take your virginity!”

Aline fumbled for a lie to divert him…anything to conceal the truth. “I…suppose I felt I owed it to you, after the way I sent you from Stony Cross all those years ago.”

McKenna seized her shoulders. “And you think the debt has been paid now?” he asked incredulously. “Oh no, my lady. Let us be clear on that point…you haven’t begun to make amends for that. You’re going to reimburse me in more ways than you can imagine—with interest.”