Stranger in My Arms(65)

“when I came to you tonight,” she said, “I thought I wanted you to finish this quickly.”

He laughed suddenly, his hands gripping the sides of her legs. “I want to make it last as long as possible.

I’ve waited for this night…God knows when I’ll get another.” The heat of his mouth sank through the negligee as he kissed her thigh.

Lara tensed and strained her legs against him, her knees bumping into the wall of his chest as he moved higher. Her gown was a slippery midnight veil between them. He strung kisses higher on her leg, while his hands kneaded her h*ps and slid beneath her bottom.

His mouth moved to the verge of a private, forbidden place, and Lara reacted without thinkig, trying to push his head away. Undeterred, he caught one of her hands and kissed her taut fingers, and bent his head once more to her shrinking body. She felt his tongue through the silk, a wet, voluptuous stroke right between her thighs, where the sensitive flesh wasn’t protected by curls. She whimpered at the intimate sensation, and her husband settled more heavily over her, pushing her legs wider. He licked again, wetting the thin fabric, his tongue sinuous and teasing’ sending paralyzing pleasure all through her.

She gasped out something, not knowing if it was protest or encouragement, and Hunter lifted his head. “Shall we try it without the gown?” he asked huskily.

“No!”

He laughed at her quick response and levered himself upward until they were face-to-face. “Take the gown off,” he coaxed, pulling the negligee from her white shoulder.

“First turn down the lamp.”

“I want to see you,” he said, kissing the delicate skin he had revealed, nudging at the soft crease of her underarm. “I want you to see me.”

Lara looked at him warily. It would be easier in the dark. Easier to separate her ordinary self from the one who participated in events that were too intimate to dwell on in the daytime. She didn’t want to see what was happening between them. “No,” she said plaintively, but he heard the indecision in her voice.

“Sweet darling,” he whispered against her shoulder. “Try it this way just once.”

She lay unprotesting as Hunter slid the gown from her shoulders and eased it down her legs, leaving her vulnerable in the shallow pool of lamplight. He pulled her against him, her bare skin clasped against his fully clothed body. “Help me,” he said.

Obediently Lara worked at the buttons on his shirt, the linen crumpled and warm from his skin. Although he waited patiently, his muscles were taut and trembling from eagerness, and his lungs worked hard to draw in badly needed oxygen. As Lara fumbled to unfasten his French cuffs, his hand clenched into a fist.

“I want you,” he said hoarsely. “More than anything in my life.”

Before she could finish the cuff, he pushed her down and crouched over her, his open shirt falling on either side of her na**d body. His gaze slid over her, greedily absorbing every detail. He kissed her, his weight supported on his elbows and thighs, his muscle-banded chest right above her. There were so many things about him she could not remember, had never dared to investigate. Hesitantly she touched his bare chest, so hard and smooth beneath her palms, the brown points of his ni**les, the long stretch of his waist. His body had once been so sturdy and well padded, so different from this springy, lean animality.

He slid lower on her body and played with her br**sts, cupping them high in his hands, circling the peaks with his fingers. His mouth opened over the center of one plump mound, drawing the nipple inside, catching it between his teeth. Lara moaned, riveted by the sight of his dark head hovering over her chest, while he tugged and suckled, first one breast, then the other. She felt strange, feverish…

Something was loosening inside her, every defense falling away. His hand moved over her stomach, and she opened her legs to invite his touch, his penetration, anything he wanted.

Sensing her sudden abandon, Hunter dragged his mouth everywhere, tasting and kissing her waist, tummy, thighs… kissing the soft curls between them, breathing in the intimate fragrance. He used his fingers to separate the curls, gently parted her flesh to find the spot he wanted, and pressed his tongue against it. She arched against a blaze of pleasure, sharp and terrifying, while her eyes burned with salt tears. He licked in small circles of fire that made her gasp and quiver, and then she felt his tongue slide lower, deeper, invading her with exquisite softness.

He used the weight of his chest to pin her legs wide, while his tongue nurtured the sensation to savage intensity.

Lara struggled upward, raising on her elbow, using her free hand to touch his head, fingers tangling in his thick hair. Her heart pounded against her ribs, her vision blurred, and all awareness and feeling centered in the place his mouth covered. He worshiped, consumed, devastated her, until the twisting pleasure became too much, and she spasmed endlessly, groaning with the force of her release.

After the last contraction had faded, Hunter raised himself to look directly into Lara’s wet, bewildered eyes. His expression was serious as he used his fingers to brush away the tear-tracks on her cheeks.

She touched his mouth with trembling fingers, his lips damp from the liquor of her own body.

He urged his knee between her thighs, and she parted them at once, trusting him with every last part of herself. He fumbled with the openings of his pantaloons, and there was a blunt, heavy pressure against the soft cove of her body. She braced herself against it, knowing that now the pain would come.