Give Me Tonight(58)

His lips smoothed over her eyebrow, then touched her eyelid in a butterfly caress. "Then help me change."

"I . . . I don't c-care if you change or not. I just want . . ." Her heart began to hammer in her chest as he kissed her chin. What was he doing to her?

"You want what?" he prompted, sliding his arm underneath her neck. She tried to push him away. But now that he had her in his grasp, he wasn't about to let her go.

"I want you to l-leave me alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said faintly.

"Think I could change your mind?" His voice was as raspy as a cat's tongue, the sound of it sending shivers down her spine. She blinked, forgetting what he'd asked until he repeated the question.

Shaking her head jerkily, Addie made a move to get up. "You didn't say you were s-sorry for k-kissing me."

"I'm not."

"It hurt."

"That I'm sorry for." He picked up one of her hands and brought it to his jaw, stroking the back of her knuckles against it. The gentle scrape sent an electric shock down to her toes. "Your hand is so small." As she tried to pull it away he held it more firmly and pretended to examine the rest of her. Slowly he smiled. "Why, you're no bigger than a minute, Adeline Warner."

"Big enough to handle you," she snapped, and went scarlet as he chuckled.

"You might be at that."

"Oh, let me go, you crude, overbearing . . . I'll never forgive you for . . . No, Ben—"

"No what?"

"Don't do that.'

"Don't do what?"

"Ben—"

Her words were smothered as his mouth possessed hers, insistent and skillful, kissing her as she had never been kissed before. Feebly she tried to turn her face away, but he cradled the side of her cheek in his hand, his thumb tracing over her temple in a delicately drawn circle. He kissed her as thoroughly as he'd wanted to for weeks, exploring the inside of her mouth, savoring the texture of her inner cheeks, the ticklish spot at the roof of her mouth, stroking her tongue with his. She trembled, no longer trying to fight him, and her lips parted as she began to drown in a sea of fire. They kissed frantically, delving, tasting, consuming.

A low purr vibrated in Ben's throat, making the hairs on the back of Addie's neck rise. Her body went liquid inside. Oh, the pleasure was more than she could stand. Sensations surged together, and still she wanted more. What was she doing, here on the floor with Ben Hunter? She'd lost her mind.

"I can't think—"

"Hush. Be quiet for once." He followed the curve of her neck down to the upper rise of her br**sts. Her heartbeat was rapid beneath his hand. Before she could stop him, his fingers slid underneath her dress until his hand was cupped around her breast. The friction between his palm and her bare flesh made them both gasp. His fingers flexed into the warm softness, his hand rotating until her nipple hardened and pressed into his palm. Addie moaned helplessly. She had never trusted any man with such intimacy, and it was fright­ening, and very good. Her mind screamed for her to stop, but the night was filled with madness, and the voice of reason had diminished into a whisper. She couldn't pull back.

His palm skimmed her ribs carefully, as if he were afraid she might break, and she arched up to him like a wanton. Her guilty, pleasured sigh filled his mouth as his hand returned to her breast, and his thumb made a slow excursion around her nipple. The sweet ache of it rippled all through her being. Writhing closer to him, she tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his mouth harder on hers. Their tongues slid together and mated in delicious thrusts, their lips clung until they were completely sealed.

After a long time Ben lifted his head and took a deep breath in an effort to master the powerful urgings of his body. The need to take her, here and now, was almost impossible to contain. She was his obsession. He wanted to know her most private secrets, explore her until he knew her body and soul as intimately as his own. With all his experience he'd never felt so drawn to another human being, or craved to know and be known so completely. He tugged briefly at her hair, his agile fingers hunting for pins and pulling them out. The locks that had been bound up and pinned away from others' sight and touch were now his, freed and loose.

Addie wound her arms around his neck as she felt his body move over hers, settling until they were molded together. The layers of clothing that separated them did nothing to disguise his desire and her soft­ness, the hardness of him and the yielding woman's shape of her.

Trembling, she felt him ease her gown down, lifting her breast out of its confines, his hot mouth descend­ing to her nipple, covering, pulling, sending streaks of lightning down to the pit of her stomach. Blindly she reached for his shoulders, gripping his hard-­muscled flesh as she sought to tell him without words how it felt . . . don't stop . . . don't ever stop. His tongue feathered over her lightly, learned the tender ­hard texture of her.

"Adeline," he whispered, moving back up to her lips and kissing her without restraint. "Don't hold yourself back from me. I won't hurt you." She shiv­ered in his arms, her breath rapid and hot against his neck. His hand wandered down her body, beyond her waist, underneath her pantalets. She tensed as his fingertips searched her gently.

"No . . . I shouldn't be letting you—"