"I hope you get sick, too," she griped.
She closed her eyes...and pressed her mouth over his, flattened her lips. She imagined nothing. She stomped every stirring sentiment into the bowel of her soul as she ignored the steamy buss.
At last she pulled away.
He grabbed her by the back of the neck, wove his thick fingers through her mussed hair. "What the h.e.l.l was that, woman?" He was holding her head tight. "I said kiss me."
Her heart fluttered. "I did."
"No," he said curtly. "Kiss me...kiss me until I"m satisfied."
She trembled. "I can"t."
"You will."
She wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to! The very thought filled her with pulsing want.
She yearned for a real kiss...she yearned for him.
He whispered, "Kiss me, Sophia."
She groaned.
She kissed him.
She wrapped her arms around him and straddled him, choking him with a deep and hungry and soulful kiss. She moved her mouth over him in desperate thrusts. She heard him gasp for breath. She heard him groan so deep in his belly. And then she kissed him even harder. She was hungry. So hungry for him. She had fasted for far too long. She needed him. He offered her breath and life. And she took both until she was sated.
Almost sated.
He grunted. "Better."
She chewed on her bottom lip, swollen. She stroked his head, keeping back the whimper that welled in her throat.
"What"s the matter, sweetheart?" He rubbed her spine. "Are you still hungry?"
She was breathless. "Yes."
The lamplight burned low, the shadows danced. But even in the darkened room, a flame glowed in his eyes, a ravenous look.
He pushed her against the bed. She shuddered with delight as he settled between her splayed thighs and cupped her lips in another gluttonous kiss.
"Oh, James." She searched for breath. She fumbled with his shirt, yanked the ends from his trousers. "Take off your clothes. I want to feel your skin."
He obeyed. He slipped the garment over his head and tossed it aside. When the wall of muscle pressed against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, she moaned and circled his ribs in an avid hold.
The man"s flesh was hot. It singed her fingertips. She opened her mouth and let him take her lips in insatiable want as she raked his fevered torso. She touched every muscle, every bone that throbbed beneath his skin. She marked him with her nails and sobbed in her soul to have him so intimately once more.
She reached for his waist and snagged her finger in his trousers. "Take everything off."
He looked into her eyes, scorched her heart. "You lost the game, sweetheart."
"Am I making too many demands?" She smiled. "I lost the game. And I intended to kiss you until you"re satisfied. Now take off your d.a.m.n trousers."
He shuddered. The vibrations tickled her skin, arousing her even more. He pushed away from her, muscles taut, breath ragged. She gasped for air, too, as she watched him, mesmerized. He settled at the edge of the bed and removed his boots.
She raked her toes against his firm, moist back. He glanced at her, his long, black hair falling loose from the queue and shielding parts of his smoky eyes.
He lifted to his feet and unfastened the b.u.t.tons of his trousers before he stripped the garment and revealed his naked splendor, whetting her appet.i.te for him even more.
"You"re beautiful," she said reverently.
He firmed at her words, every muscle stiffened. She explored the great expanse of his chest, the dark tufts of hair that gathered between his sculpted pectorals and tapered to his narrow waist...and to the throbbing erection that stretched between his thick thighs.
She was wet with need at the sultry thought of him inside her, and she beckoned him back to the bed with her eyes.
He settled between her legs. She groaned. She opened for him, spread her legs wide apart. She watched him intently as he grabbed her night rail with shaky fingers and pushed the fabric up her belly. She lifted her bottom, allowing him to drag the flimsy shift off her back and up over her head.
Sophia shuddered at the contrast between the cool castle air and the balmy sweat that covered her limbs. Heart pounding, she was tight and greedy and aching for more of his touch.
Touch me, James.
"I"ve missed you, sweetheart."
He kissed her belly, dipped his tongue inside her navel, making her tight muscles bounce. She grabbed the leather cord still securing the last of his hair and yanked it through his locks.
"Everything." She breathed hard. "I want everything off."
The man"s hair spil ed forward and caressed her ribs as he licked her navel over and over again, whipping her arousal. She splayed her fingers and skimmed them across his scalp, finding a good and solid grip, and keeping his luscious mouth against her taut and thrumming flesh.
"You taste so d.a.m.n good," he said hoa.r.s.ely.
He moved across her midriff and bussed a hard nipple, making her shiver. The heat in her belly ballooned, the sweet pressure spiked between her warm legs as he parted his wicked lips and sucked her breast with both tenderness and force, drawing her deep into his mouth.
She hugged him, crushed him with a savage hold. "Lick me."
He let his long and l.u.s.tful tongue slip between his teeth and swirl across the sensitive nub of flesh. The lanky strokes filled her with precious memories of heady tropical nights, slow seductions, and thoughtful intimacies, for he had always served her desires.
Even if she had submitted to him, he had never let her walk away from a s.e.xual encounter without feeling blissful satisfaction. And she sensed it deep inside her again, the knowledge that he would give her everything she craved for. That he would give her pleasure before he searched for it himself, that he would fill her with life and strength and renew her like no other.
"James," she cried, overwhelmed. "I want you inside me, so deep inside me."
He raised his heavy frame and captured her swelling lips in his mouth before he slipped his long erection into her aching quim.
Sophia sobbed with joy.
The woman"s sob resounded in his head. James had waited so long to hear that l.u.s.tful sound. The heady song confirmed Sophia"s delight, and nothing stirred his soul like the knowledge that he had made her happy.
I intended to kiss you until you"re satisfied.
The only satisfaction he received was in giving her joy-and she knew it.
He thrust deep inside her, fil ing her, stretching her. She quivered so greatly at the friction, he sensed her o.r.g.a.s.m pinch the cusp of his erection.
"Don"t you dare," he said roughly. "Don"t you dare come yet."
She moaned as he rocked her. She grabbed his b.u.t.tocks and pushed him deeper inside her body, ravenous.
James groaned as she burrowed her sharp nails into his a.r.s.e, demanding more. He quickened the tempo, slaking her l.u.s.t.
She let go of his a.r.s.e and lifted her legs higher. She wrapped the limbs around his waist, crossing her ankles, holding him tight. So tight.
He searched for her lips again. He slipped his tongue into her hot mouth, penetrating her from the top and the bottom.
She circled his neck, pinched his airway. He gave her more. A deeper kiss. A deeper f.u.c.k. He wanted to give her everything she desired. He grabbed her hair and undulated against her tight, wet quim with quick, hard strokes.
She ensnared him, suffocated him. It was true pa.s.sion. She needed him. And he needed to give her everything that he possessed, everything that he was. She wanted everything off. She wanted him. And him alone. No barriers. And he offered it to her. With every desperate breath and hard thrust, he gave her more and more of himself.
He was sweating. He tasted the salty sweat on her lips, too, the briny tears that had dropped from her lashes. She was so close to o.r.g.a.s.m. She was so anxious to shed the suffocating guise and unnatural restrictions that had pressed her for so long.
"Don"t you see how they crush you, sweetheart?" he rasped. "Take away your breath?
Let me give you breath."
She sobbed even louder as he kissed her mouth. He moved within her with strong, firm thrusts, grinding his hips against hers.
"We belong together, Sophia."
She cried out. He sensed the sweet juices flowing and her muscles constricting, pulsing even, as she achieved climax.
She gasped for breath and shuddered violently before the spasms weakened. She was quivering, faint. He rocked her for a few moments more before the pressure in his c.o.c.k reached a zenith and he pumped his hot seed into her wet womb with a feral groan.
James buried his face in Sophia"s mussed hair. He hovered above her, stil caged, for the woman had yet to relax her crossed limbs. But he was sated. He was at peace in her arms.
He would endure eternity in her embrace.
"Achoo!"
He chuckled gruffly and kissed her cheek before he b.u.mped her hips, shaking her loose. "And here I thought I"d cured you."
He rolled over, rested against the soft feathers, and sighed.
She sniffed and snuggled in the groove between his arm and ribs. "I do feel better."
"Good." He crooked his elbow and cupped her head. "I expect you to nurse me if I wake up with a chil tomorrow."
She smiled against him. He sensed the woman"s lips move across his skin. Every part of him was still so sensitive. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound of her heavy breathing. Slowly the rhythmic respiration mellowed into a steadier tempo.
James sensed the soft caress. He opened his eyes. Sophia was stroking the mark on his chin, the scar.
He grabbed her wrist. "What are you doing?"
"I"m sorry I cut you."
He let go of her wrist.
She curled her arm across his chest and squeezed.
Pulses pounded in his head at her atonement. He remembered the night of the ball, the night she had sliced him. That she offered him words of contrition for such a paltry slight, and yet no words of repentance for what she had so cruelly done to him on the island, stirred his blood to boil.
James separated from the warm body pressed against him and slipped off the bed. He didn"t need the woman"s false tenderness. He would not let her hoodwink him into thinking she cared for him. She was grateful for the f.u.c.k, that was all. He would not let his heart get entangled with hers again. It would only distract him from his true purpose: revenge.
James walked around the furniture and picked up his scattered clothes.
"You"re leaving?" she said softly, hurt.
A darkness fil ed his heart. The cheerless thought that he had enjoyed so many nights with her in the past-yet he never would again.
"I can"t stay." He fastened his trousers and slipped on his boots. "What if a maid-or the harridan-finds me in here in the morning?"
She sighed. "I suppose you"re right."
She sounded genuinely forlorn that he wouldn"t be staying the evening with her. It compounded the pain in his breast. He looked at her. She was so lovely, tangled in the bed linens. Full b.r.e.a.s.t.s thrust in the air, hair mussed and scattered across the white sheets. She was wild. Free.
Sophia.
He crushed the maudlin sentiment. She had never really cared for him. He had to remember that. She had only ever cared for herself, for her own social desires and erotic pleasures.
He grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head before he stalked toward the door.
"Besides...Sophia doesn"t like to sleep alone, remember?"
She glared at him, toffee brown eyes sharp-and dangerous.
"Good night, sweetheart."
He left the room and closed the door. Right away the knife, hurled through the air, struck the back of the door, the blade trapped in the wood.
He smiled.
Chapter 21.