Moonwitch (17 page)

“No.”

Kyle repressed a smile, suspecting her docility was a measure of her fatigue.

“Come now,” he urged, “we’ve got to get you out of those wet clothes.”

He scooped her up and rose with her in his arms. Catching up the lantern, he carried her to his own cabin, where he settled her in a chair. When he had hung the lantern on a peg, he knelt before her. As he began chafing her cold hands, he saw she was watching him quietly with wide, expressive eyes that looked trusting and vulnerable.

He hesitantly raised her skirts to pull off her shoes and stockings and found she wasn’t wearing slippers. Realizing that she had lost them in her heroic rescue attempt, he felt his heart flood with tenderness. Untying her garters quickly, he stripped off Selena’s stockings and rubbed her shapely calves to bring the blood back. Then he unfastened the buttons of her pelisse, pushing it off her shoulders, and stood up, bringing Selena with him.

His gaze was drawn to her face, to her cold, trembling lips. Slowly, he bent his head, covering her mouth with his, warming her. He heard her sigh, and when he felt her arms tentatively reach up to rest on his shoulders, he deepened his kiss, thrusting gently into her mouth, warming her tongue with his.

When she shivered, he didn’t think it was from the cold, but he left off kissing her to peel the wet, icy garments from her body. The chemise was last, and when he drew it over her head and she stood before him, pale and naked, he could see that gooseflesh covered every inch of her skin and that the nipples of her high, firm breasts were chilled and rigid.

His gold-green eyes darkened at the sight. Selena tried to cover her breasts with her arms, but Kyle caught her hands and pulled them away, scrutinizing her carefully for injury. In the lantern light he could see the bruises that shadowed the right side of her rib cage, and his mouth hardened. Gently, he reached out to touch the faint discoloration. Then, without conscious intention, his hand moved up to the curving swell of her breast, to brush a puckered nipple with one finger.

Her reaction was immediate; she gasped softly. Kyle heard her faint inhalation with satisfaction. Purposefully, he splayed his fingers, covering her ripe flesh and molding it against his palm.

Selena closed her eyes and shuddered, and Kyle realized with a surge of desire that her demureness and reserve hid a woman of passion, of courage. He wanted her. Wanted to fill his mouth with the taste of her breasts, to span that impossibly narrow waist with his hands and draw those inviting hips beneath him, to have those long, lithe legs wrapped around him.

The fierceness of his wanting startled him.

“You’d better get into bed,” he forced himself to say in a voice suddenly grown deep and husky. Alone, now, please, he pleaded silently.

“Please,” Selena breathed. She moved closer, seeking the haven of his arms and solace from the turmoil of her emotions. Kyle represented safety, warmth, security. His ruggedness made her feel so feminine, his concern so cherished and protected.

“Selena—” the word was a rasp “—I can’t take much more of this. Any minute now I’m likely to forget I shouldn’t be here, alone with you… like this.”

“Please… don’t go.”

His arms went around her then, his hands tracing her curves without volition. “You should get some sleep.” The words were jerky, gritted out between his teeth as he felt her flesh warming beneath his callused palms.

She tilted her head back to look up at him. “Where will you sleep?”

With you,
his body responded. He tried to remind himself of his son, of how much depended on the successful annulment of this marriage, but her sensuous lower lip beckoned for his kiss, and he knew he was losing the battle.

He threw back his head in anguish, shutting his eyes tightly, but all he could think about was burying himself again in her silky sweetness. All he could see was the quiver of her tantalizing mouth urging him to kiss her into dazed insensibility.

Slowly, Kyle opened his eyes again, aware that the days of being around her, of wanting her, of self-denial and frustration had finally driven him beyond restraint.

“I know perfectly well,” he said hoarsely, with his last vestiges of reason, “that this is insane.” But his words were a mere whisper and were lost as he lowered his mouth.

Her kiss was tentative at first, as if she’d had time to reconsider what she was doing, but as his heat flowed into her, she seemed to relax a little. His tongue plunged into her mouth, seeking hers in a series of darting forays. He was determined to make her respond more fervently, to turn her shivers into shudders of pleasure. When finally her arms came up to encircle his neck, he urged her backward toward the large bunk.

He lowered her to the edge of the mattress, but instead of joining her, he knelt before her, placing his hands on either side of her waist. Selena tensed, watching him. She drew a quick breath as his hands slid upward to cup her breasts.

Kyle heard the soft sound and his eyes flared with golden flames. Slowly, he leaned forward to press his lips against her rib cage, his arousing fingers caressing her nipples. If he could manage it, he promised silently, she would experience the full depth of pleasure between a man and a woman before the night was over.

With exquisite tenderness, he kissed her bruises, letting his tongue flick out to touch her soft skin. She tasted faintly of brine and her own sweet perfume, and he was suddenly hungry for an even more intimate taste of her. With a fierce effort at control, he drew away.

“Let me shed my clothes,” he said hoarsely.

Pressing her back to lie full length on the mattress, he retreated a step to strip off his garments. Selena shivered as the delightful sensations were suddenly cut off. Feeling bereft, she turned her head on the pillow, watching shyly as Kyle undressed. When he was naked, she caught her breath at the marvelous perfection of the powerful length displayed before her eyes.

He was so different from her—earthy and vital and strong, all rippling sinews and bronzed skin…except where his breeches had covered his lean hips and muscular thighs. There he was pale and dark and… splendidly virile.

Kyle saw where Selena’s mesmerized gaze had settled, and the touch of it sent raw need quaking through his body. Locking his gaze to hers, he felt himself tremble in anticipation. He was like a callow youth with his first woman, Kyle thought, watching her. His aching arousal was pulsing and erect, his control tenuous and uncertain. He came to her then, wondering as he stretched out beside her if he would have the patience to let her reach fulfillment before him. She was so very beautiful, her skin like gleaming ivory....

Gently his lips touched Selena’s hair, while his fingers found the pins in her tresses and let them fall to the floor. He brushed back the damp tangled curtain from her face as his lips moved to her throat. Then slowly he drew her against his taut, tightly muscled length.

The size and heat of him still had the power to shock her, yet she pressed closer, warming her shivering body against the satin of his bare skin. His touch was incredibly sensual, and as he filled his hands with her breasts, a quiver built deep in her stomach. Closing her eyes, she let her head fall back.

“Kyle, please…” she said breathlessly as he continued to stroke her.

“What is it, Moonwitch? What do you want?”

Selena shook her head in frustration. She didn’t know what she wanted, only that she was aching with unfilled need.

Kyle knew the answer very well. The quick rise and fall of her breasts, her shallow breathing, the fast beating of her heart all told him. He bent his head.

“Open your mouth to me, love,” he whispered, and when she obeyed, he filled her mouth with his caressing tongue.

Selena sighed, her trembling hands reaching up to hold him. Under her clutching fingertips, the muscles of his bare shoulders coiled and quivered reflexively. The feel of his satiny skin, the masculine sea-fresh scent of him was intoxicating. It filled her with a heated glory of wanting, with desire.

Finally, however, Kyle broke off the kiss, letting his lips course over her face, around her ear, into the softness of her throat beneath the sensitive curve of her jaw.

Selena stirred restlessly beneath his tender assault. The heat radiating from his body was drugging her senses. The way his hands molded to the roundness of her breasts was making her feverish. And then his lips joined his hands, capturing the aroused peaks. Over and over his tongue flicked and circled the aching flesh. His devouring mouth dragged across her breasts, pulling at her, nipping softly, tasting her.

Selena moaned and strained toward his touch. Her response aroused Kyle even further, and he fought for control, his corded muscles contracting into hard knots. He was determined to make this good for her, not to satisfy himself until he knew she was satisfied, as well.

He moved his hand slowly up her shivering inner thigh and softly slipped in between. His slow stroking made her gasp. He pressed against the moist cleft, withdrew slightly and pressed again. To his delight and amazement, Selena’s hips slowly began to writhe.

Her trembling innocence was incredibly erotic; he longed to bring her to ecstasy. Kyle shifted his weight so that he was kneeling between her thighs, then lowered his head to scatter hot, openmouthed kisses over the taut skin of her belly. In a moment he gently eased her legs apart as his lips moved lower to the triangle of golden down at the juncture of her thighs.

She gasped with shock and grasped at his hair. “No… Kyle… What are you doing!”

Briefly, he looked up into her startled eyes. “Be still,” he ordered huskily, pressing her back upon the mattress.

Shocked to her ladylike core, Selena had no idea how to respond to his scandalous attentions. She lay there, open to him, taut and trembling, not knowing even where to put her hands as his mouth descended again to the silky nest between her thighs. But when he began kissing her again, soft, probing, erotic kisses, she instinctively reached down to curl her fingers in Kyle’s hair. He was stirring such sensations in her—desire and heat and staggering pleasure. And panic. Her body gave a sudden leap as his tongue found the center of her passion.

She tried to draw away from him, but Kyle moved his hands beneath her, holding her silken bottom in a relentless grasp as he lifted her hips to make her more accommodating.

“I told you to be still.” His voice was deep and soft and utterly determined.

Selena gasped again as he renewed his wicked assault, but she could only let her head fall back in helpless surrender as Kyle stroked her with his tongue, penetrating her warmth. He was arousing a pulsing, heated ache deep within her, one that frightened her with its newness.

How could she allow him to do this to her? Selena wondered dazedly. Yet he was her husband. Her thoughts fled as the throbbing intensified. All she could do was feel. She clutched at Kyle, her fingers tightening reflexively in his thick hair, which was still damp with rain, hardly aware that the hushed moans she heard were coming from her own throat. Her hips writhed as she sought to escape the hot brand of his tongue. Her body pulsed with fire.

“Don’t hold back, Moonwitch,” Kyle’s stirring breath whispered against her. “Let it come.”

Frantically, she flung her head from side to side, fighting the blinding tension that was building inside her. And then her entire body went rigid as Kyle at last sparked a slow, devastating explosion within her. Wave after wave of heat shuddered through her, leaving her trembling and gasping for breath.

It was a long moment before the wild beating of her heart slowed and her reeling senses returned to something resembling normal, and another long moment while Selena lay there, wondering what had happened to her. Her skin was flushed and hot now, when it had been chilled only a moment before.

“That’s better,” Kyle said softly, with approval.

Through a haze of desire, she heard his murmured words. Slowly, she opened her eyes to find Kyle brazenly watching her. His greedy lips were wet, his own gaze smoldering with golden fire. Suddenly shy and acutely embarrassed, Selena averted her gaze.

“No, don’t look away. We’ve only begun.” The words were a husky resonance as he eased himself up and covered her with his powerful, muscular body.

He settled himself gently between her thighs, his penetration long and slow, carefully allowing her body to accept his full, hard length, all the while watching her flushed face, the way her breath quickened and her dazed eyes widened with startled desire. He had awakened this prim and proper lady into a tantalizing creature who breathed passion and sensuality, and he wanted to savor every moment of it.

And he did. He held himself utterly still inside her silken warmth, clamping down on his own frenzied need, moving only the fingers of one hand as he teased her erect nipples, letting the heat build again until her soft whimpers and arching body told him she was hot and throbbing for him.

And then he slowly began to move his tautly muscled buttocks, burying himself deeper and deeper, keeping a fierce rein on his own passion until finally Selena’s luscious mouth parted in ecstasy and her throaty cry echoed in the cabin.

Then he swelled upward again, letting his control shatter and his own reservations shatter with it as he claimed her fully and filled her with the urgent desire he’d been keeping so tightly in check since his first possession of her that moonlit night on the beach. It was only when his shuddering release was over and his breath was coming in ragged gasps that he even remembered why he had harbored any reservations at all. And by then, he couldn’t find the energy for regret. His rock-hard body glistening with sweat, Kyle collapsed on her, barely remembering to protect her from his weight with his arms as he lay against her, spent, sated.

Later, when he could think again, he realized how still Selena had grown. And when he forced his thoughts to focus, he knew her reserve had returned in full measure. Amazing, Kyle reflected, especially when she was still lying beneath him, joined to him in the most intimate way imaginable. Then he remembered his vow to end their marriage. She would be shocked and embarrassed, of course, thinking she had done something shameful with him.