Forever My Love (Berkeley-Faulkner #2)(89)

“I damn well am… I’m going to have you now,” He crushed his mouth over hers, his body pressing her back against the wall even as she tried to shrink away, and he forced her lips open, plundering her hungrily. She refused to respond, tearing her mouth away from his and gasping frantically. “You’re mine,” he muttered, his lips hot against her throat. “How can you deny it, when even I can’t?... Don’t lie to me… dammit, don’t turn away from me.”

She fought him until his mouth found hers once more, and then suddenly she couldn’t move as she was flooded with warmth, and she gave a helpless sob… she was born for this, for him… it would be a lie to deny it. Weakly she tilted her head and yielded herself to him, her lips parting as his tongue feathered against hers. He felt her response and groaned with relief, easing the crushing pressure on her body. Breathing heavily, he lifted his mouth from hers and stared at her clenched fists, which were trapped in his own.

Something in his expression changed, and a curious shock went through Mira as she felt his lips brush against her hands. He nipped at the fragile skin over her knuckles, and his tongue flickered in the crevices between her fingers. She made a shuddering sound, her heart slamming inside her chest, her fingers slowlyuncurling. The warmth of his mouth moved over her throbbing palms, and he freed her wrists to gather her against him. She was stiff against him for a few seconds, knowing she should refuse him, knowing that she would regret what was about to happen. But as Alec looked down at her, she saw the desperation in his gaze, and she was lost. Slowly she slid her arms around his neck, pulling his dark head down to hers.

“Mira…”he whispered, and their mouths opened and fused together, tasting, moving, stroking ardently in a physical expression of love. Blindly Alec sank his hands into her hair, pulling out the pins, clenching his fingers in the mane of thick skeins. Every other reality, every other passion, was gone, as if there had never been anyone else but her. Mira wrapped her arms around his neck, allowing him total access to her mouth, her body. Perhaps she did not deserve the rapture of this, but she needed it, she could have it, if only for the next few minutes, and she would take it without hesitation. They kissed and touched with blistering ferocity, taking and receiving, melding together urgently. She felt his hands tugging at her clothes so roughly that they were in danger of tearing, and she didn’t care.

He freed her shoulders from the bodice of her dress and pressed his mouth into the vulnerable shallows near the slope of her neck, flaming, greedy, probing. Mira froze in a state of bewildered pleasure, and then she turned her face into the ebony silk of his hair as his head bent over her. There were no longer any pretenses, no questions, nothing except honesty: they wanted each other, neither of them could resist it… neither of them wanted to.

He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the low, flat sofa, spreading her along the length of it and covering her body with his. Moaning, Mira lifted her br**sts against the cupping warmth of his hands,impatient to be rid of the barriers of cloth that separated them.

“The laces…”she gasped against his mouth, fumbling with the cords that held the front of her bodice together. He brushed her hands away and yanked at the laces, his expression harsh with desire. They both sighed as the cords gave way and her dress opened, the edges of it spreading apart like the petals of a disheveled flower. His palms curved under her br**sts and lifted them upward, his teeth grazing the dainty peaks. Mira’s fingertips dug into the brocaded upholstery of the sofa as the damp velvet of his tongue feathered across her ni**les, as he drew the tip of her breast into his mouth and held it there possessively. His hands slid under her bare back and he shifted her higher.

“Pull up your skirt.” His whisper tickled in the gentle valley between her br**sts. Mira felt a blush stain her cheeks, even in the darkness, but she obeyed him with clumsy haste, feeling cool air touch the places that the velvet material had covered. Alec rewarded her with a long, deep kiss, tasting the inside of her mouth and sliding his arms more tightly around her back. “Now your pantaloons…” he said thickly. She hesitated and then unfastened the dainty white garment with trembling fingers, pulling it down over her h*ps and down to her ankles. He said nothing then, the ragged sound of his breathing becoming more pronounced in the quietness, and Mira touched the fastening of his breeches, shivering as she felt the thrusting hardness beyond the cloth. One by one, she undid the buttons, releasing his hot, full maleness, and her delicate fingertips brushed over him, caressing him lightly. Alec groaned deep in his throat, lowering his na**d h*ps to hers. He muffled her thin cry with his mouth as he entered her, taut, heavy, hard with arousal. Despite the urges of his raging desire, he pushed into her slowly, giving her body enough time to accept himcompletely. Mira quivered, burning with desire, and she opened her thighs hungrily, feeling him press in-side her until there was no more he could give her, no more she could take.

They entwined in a damp tumble, and Mira felt the violent power of his thrusts all through her body. Helplessly she fumbled with his clothes, trying to slip her hands underneath them to his skin… but then her overcharged nerves focused only on the pounding force of him within her, and she was not capable of doing anything but cling to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her knees flexed as she pushed against him strongly. Feverishly she answered his driving movements, faster and harder, until she was seized with an upheaval frightening in its intensity. She arched upward, making a sharp, broken sound. Alec murmured something tender in her ear, cradling her quaking body in his arms, moving within her in a way that stretched out her pleasure as long as possible. He kissed her bared throat… he denied the fulfillment of his own release in order to thrust into her with slow, purposeful strokes. “Let it last…” he whispered to her, glorying in the feel of her, suspended and paralyzed beneath him. And then, as he allowed himself to follow her into that arena of savage pleasure, Mira felt a hot burst of warmth inside her. His big body tightened against hers, the muscles of his sturdy shoulders bunching under her palms.