Again the Magic (Wallflowers 0.5)(7)

Aline moved again, flooded with a peculiar feeling of urgency, wanting things she couldn’t find words for. Wanting his mouth…hands…body…wanting to possess him and be possessed. Her body felt swollen, the tender place between her legs aching deliciously with each slow rub against the ridge of his arousal. “I love you,” she said, fumbling for a way to convince him of the enormity of her need. “I’ll love you until the day I die. You’re the only man I’ll ever want, McKenna, the only—”

Her words were smothered as he seized her mouth in a soft, open kiss. She moaned in satisfaction, welcoming the tender exploration, the tip of his tongue searching the delicate insides of her lips. He kissed her as if he were stealing secrets from her mouth, ravaging her with exquisite gentleness. Hungrily she slid her hands under his shirt and over his back, savoring the feel of flexing muscle and the sleekness of his skin. His body was so hard, sculpted muscle overlaying steel—a body so faultless and hale that she was awed by him.

His tongue entered her mouth more deeply, causing her to whimper at the subtle gradations of ever-increasing pleasure. His arms curved around her protectively, and he shifted his weight to keep from crushing her, even as he continued to devour her with sweet, soul-stealing kisses. His breath was unsettled and much too fast, as if he had run for miles without stopping. Aline pressed her lips against his throat, discovering that the driving pace of his heart matched her own. He knew, as she did, that every moment of forbidden intimacy came with a price that neither of them could afford. Inflamed beyond the point of caution, McKenna reached for the buttons at the front of her gown, then hesitated as he struggled once more with his conscience.

“Go on,” Aline said thickly, her heart thundering in her chest. She kissed the hard line of his jaw, his cheeks, every part of his face that she could reach. Finding a sensitive spot on the side of his neck, she concentrated on the vulnerable place until his entire body quivered. “Don’t stop,” she whispered feverishly. “Don’t stop yet. No one can see. McKenna, please love me…love me…”

The words seemed to erode his will to resist, and he made a rough sound as his fingers worked quickly at the row of buttons. She wore no corset, nothing but a thin lawn chemise that clung to the round curves of her br**sts. After spreading her bodice open, McKenna tugged the chemise down, exposing the soft pink tips of her ni**les. Aline stared up into his tense face, relishing his absorbed expression, the way his eyes had narrowed in passion. He touched her breast, his fingers curving beneath the pale weight, his thumb passing delicately over the peak until it contracted. He bent over her, circled the aroused nipple with lazy strokes of his tongue. Aline gasped in pleasure, her thoughts catching fire and burning to ashes as he drew her fully into his mouth. He tugged and licked steadily, until heat gathered in every part of her, and the place between her thighs had begun to throb in fervid demand. Letting out a shivering breath, McKenna pressed his cheek against the na**d curve of her breast.

Unable to stop herself, Aline slipped her fingers into the waist of his trousers, past the fasteners of his braces. The surface of his stomach was tightly muscled, the skin satin-smooth except for the sprinkling of coarse hair beneath the hollow of his navel. Her hand shook as she searched for the first button of the trousers. “I want to touch you,” she whispered. “I want to feel you there—”

“Hell, no,” McKenna muttered, catching her wrists in his hands and dragging them over her head. His turquoise eyes were brilliant as his hot gaze traveled from her mouth to her br**sts. “For God’s sake, I can barely control myself as it is. If you touch me, I won’t be able to stop myself from finishing this.”

She writhed helplessly beneath him. “I want you to.”

“I know that,” McKenna muttered, bending to blot his gleaming forehead on his sleeve, while maintaining his careful hold on her wrists. “But I’m not going to. You have to stay a virgin.”

Aline tugged almost angrily at her imprisoned arms. “I’ll do as I please, and be damned to everyone!”

“Brave words,” he mocked gently. “But I’d like to hear what you’d tell your husband on your wedding night, when he discovered your maidenhood had already been taken.”

The quaint sound of the word “maidenhood” made Aline smile grimly despite her misery. Virginity…the only thing the world seemed to expect of her. Relaxing beneath him, she let her wrists go lax in his grip. She stared into his eyes, feeling as if the entire world was covered in shadow, and he was the only source of light. “I’ll marry no one but you, McKenna,” she whispered. “And if you ever leave me, I’ll be alone for the rest of my life.”

His dark head lowered over hers. “Aline,” he said in the hushed voice that he might have used in prayer. “I would never leave unless you told me to go.”

His mouth descended to her bare br**sts. Aline pushed upward impulsively, offering herself without reservation, crying out as he took a hard, budded nipple into his mouth. He wet the rosy flesh with his tongue, swirling and flicking until she moaned in frustration. “McKenna,” she said fitfully, tugging in vain at her trapped arms, “I need you…please do something, I’m aching so…”

He shifted his long body so that he could pull up the front of her skirts. The thickness of his erection strained behind his trousers as it pressed against her hip. Aline longed to touch him, to explore his body with the same tenderness he showed her, but he wouldn’t let her. He reached beneath the layers of muslin and lace-trimmed lawn, and found the waist of her drawers. Deftly he untied the tapes that fastened the garment, then paused to stare into her half-closed eyes.