Beyond Seduction

Chapter 8

At two o’clock the next day, Gervase sat on a flat rock at the top of the path that led down to Castle Cove. He held Crusader’s reins loosely in one fist while the big gray cropped the short grass nearby.

He stared out at the sea, at the long waves rolling in to gently wash the sands, their roar today muted to a soft swoosh, and tried hard not to think-not of the anticipation that knotted his gut, nor of the unexpected fear that, once away from him and with time to think, she would have changed her mind.

The sound of hoofbeats, regular and repetitive, reached him; even as he turned to see who approached, he was reminding himself how many people rode the cliff path on any day.

But it was her. Her hair, uncovered, marked her unmistakably as female; the fact she was astride a large and powerful chestnut confirmed her identity.

Nearing, she slowed, reining in to a walk. He rose.

When she halted, he was waiting to grasp the bit and hold the chestnut steady as she slid down from the high back.

She came around the horse’s head. She was wearing a long full riding skirt over trousers, a matching jacket over a crisp linen blouse; it being high summer, jacket, skirt and trousers were of lightweight twill, dyed a regal blue. As usual, tendrils of her fine coppery-brown hair had worked loose to frame her face.

His eyes traced her features. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.” The confession was on his lips before he’d thought.

She raised her brows. “I asked for this…appointment.” She studied him in return. “Did you think I’d balk?”

“I thought you might think again.” Drawing Crusader around to flank her chestnut, he waved down the path, and started walking.

She gave a soft snort, and kept pace alongside. “Well, here I am. Where are we going?”

He didn’t meet her gaze but pointed ahead, down the steep path.

Madeline looked, and only then remembered the castle’s boathouse. It was almost as old as the castle itself, built of the same rough-hewn stone and set on a ledge, a natural rock platform that extended out from the cliff just above the high-tide line. Unlike most boathouses, this one had two stories. The ground floor had double doors like barn doors facing the sea, with heavy beams and tackle jutting out above to lift and swing boats out over the water, then lower them. The upper level sported a balcony built above the beams from which the tackle hung. There was no outer stair leading up, but unlike the windowless ground floor, the upper story possessed many wood-framed windows opening to the balcony and to either side. The back of the boathouse faced the cliff.

It wasn’t far; they stepped off the path onto the ledge, and tied the horses up in the sheltered space between the building and the cliff. As she turned from securing Artur’s reins, Gervase grasped her hand and led her to a door in the side wall. It was locked, but he had the key on his chain; setting the door swinging wide, he led her through, then closed the door.

The ground floor was dim and deeply shadowed; with all doors shut, the only light came from above via the stairwell. Madeline glanced around, noting four different-sized boats housed on blocks, with various pulleys and ropes dangling from above. Nearest to the sea doors sat two rowing boats.

Gervase saw her studying them. “When I took your brothers out, we used the sailboat-the one with the blue hull.”

She glanced at one of the bigger boats; it carried a mast, currently lowered, and sails.

Gervase tugged her hand and headed for the stairs. “Up here.” He glanced briefly at her, then started up. “This room’s always been a retreat of sorts. My father had it refurbished for my mother-it was hers, her place, for years.”

Ascending the stairs behind him, Madeline stepped up onto well-polished boards and looked around with no little surprise. The room wasn’t what she’d expected. The stairs came up in one rear corner; slipping her fingers free of Gervase’s, she walked slowly up the room, drawn to the wide windows facing the sea.

As if sensing her unvoiced question, he continued, “My mother was an artist-a watercolorist. She loved painting the sea.”

There were expensive jewel-toned rugs on the floor, and the furniture, while not ornate, was of excellent quality, all dark wood chosen to complement the setting. There were chairs, both comfortable armchairs and straightbacked chairs with thick cushions, and a sideboard against one wall with three books haphazardly stacked upon it as if someone had brought them to the retreat to read. In one corner by the seaward windows a folded wooden easel draped in a paint-spotted cloth stood propped against the wall. Yet all that was incidental. Dominating the room, its central focus, set in pride of place with its foot angled to the balcony windows, stood a wide daybed with a thick mattress and many cushions. On a side table stood a bowl of fruit and a stoppered decanter filled with honey-colored wine.

The place was clean and smelled fresh; not a speck of dust lay on the lovingly polished wooden surfaces.

Reaching the windows, Madeline looked out over the waves, then turned and surveyed the room. It was easy to see why an artist would have loved this place; the light was both strong and dramatic, varying with the many moods of the sea.

She let her gaze return to Gervase, let it travel up his length from his boots to his face; he’d paused by the side of the daybed. “Your father must have understood your mother well.”

“He adored her.” His eyes on hers, he continued, “I was fourteen when she died, so I remember them well, seeing them together, especially here…my father loved Sybil, too, but it wasn’t the same. My mother was his sun, moon and stars, and she loved him in the same way.”

She studied him. When he held out one hand and beckoned, she hesitated, then slowly walked back to join him. “It must be…reassuring to have such memories.”

He took her hand as she neared. “You can’t remember your mother?”

She shook her head. “She died when I was three. I’ve a vague recollection of her, but none of my father and her together.” As he drew her to him, she glanced around one last time. “So…” The breathlessness that had hovered, threatening to afflict her since she’d joined him on the cliffs, closed in. “Whose place is this now?”

His arms closed around her; she met his eyes. His lips curved. “Mine.” He drew her against him and lowered his head. “No one comes here but me.”

And now her. Even as his lips brushed hers, then confidently covered them, Madeline noted that-that he’d chosen here, his special place, one in which his parents’ love still lingered, at least for him, as the scene for her seduction.

It was her last coherent thought before the pressure of his lips, the impact of his nearness-of his arms holding her, his hands controlling her, his lips and tongue tempting her-suborned her wits. Lured them, caught them, trapped them in a web of sensation, of kisses that promised, of caresses that hinted, gently yet definitely, of what was to come.

Oddly, she felt no trepidation; contrary to what he’d imagined, she’d had no second thoughts. She’d slept well last night, and woken calm and focused, content to know that this moment, and those to follow, would come.

That she would be with him here and now, that she would lie with him through the golden afternoon and learn what he would show her, teach her, and so experience what she’d thought she never would, all the forbidden glory that with him she could.

The kiss whirled her into a familiar landscape; she readily followed where he led. For long moments as their mouths melded and their tongues boldly caressed, she sensed that he needed to reassure not her but himself-to confirm that she truly was not just there, physically in his arms, but that she remained committed to their mutual plan.

If she could have, she would have smiled; instead, she reached up, speared her fingers slowly through his hair, letting her senses revel in the silky texture of the short curls, then she gripped his head and kissed him back.

A simple, unadorned demand he understood perfectly well.

She felt his breath hitch as her meaning washed over him, felt the change in him-the hardening of muscles, the tension that flowed into them-as he responded, reacted, as helpless as she, it seemed, in the face of the heat that flared between them.

He drew back from the kiss, lifted his head. His eyes caught hers; between them his clever fingers swiftly undid the buttons closing her jacket. The instant the last was undone, she shrugged the jacket off, letting it fall where it would.

His lips, set in a line she now recognized, curved just a fraction up at the ends, then his eyes dipped; he worked at slipping the smaller buttons of her blouse free.

She said nothing, just watched his face, sensed how the moment held him; he opened the blouse, paused, his eyes on what he’d revealed, then he drew a breath, tighter than she’d expected, and eased the blouse from her shoulders, his palms shaping her upper arms, then tracing down to her wrists. While she dealt with the tiny buttons at her cuffs, his hands roved her breasts, screened but in no way shielded by the fine silk of her chemise; his hands warmed her, lightly cupping, each caress tantalizing, too light to satisfy.

Her lungs were locked when, both cuffs undone, she drew her arms free. The blouse fell behind her. Lifting her arms, she reached for him; his lips curved as he gathered her in, and kissed her-took her mouth in a long, slow kiss that made her shudder.

With rising need.

She felt the tug at her waist as he undid the laces of her skirt; he held her to the kiss, immersing her in a cauldron of heating desire that swirled and swelled and steadily grew as he eased the laces free. Then she felt them release and he pushed the skirt down over her hips; it sank to the floor, crumpling in a pool about her feet.

His fingers immediately searched for and found the laces anchoring her riding trousers, equally expertly dealt with them. Then he drew back from the kiss. Eased half a step back, then he dipped his head and placed a kiss on one silk-clad nipple before going to his knees before her.

He drew her trousers down, revealing…His lips curved. “You do wear drawers. I’d wondered.”

The unexpected comment surprised a small laugh from her, but she was more intent on him, on watching him as he undressed-no, unwrapped her. There was a suggestion of long-anticipated discovery in his usually impassive face, his features no longer quite so unreadable when invested with desire and its concordant emotions.

He stripped her trousers to her ankles, then rolled down her garters and stockings and held her boots as she, needing no direction, lifted first one foot, then the other, free. He swept her clothing aside, so she stood barefoot on the polished boards. Then he sat back and looked up-all the way to her face.

Despite her height, he was so tall himself that his face was level with her midriff. She looked down at him and arched a brow, wondering what he intended next.

His gaze lowered, slowly, to her breasts, then descended further to her waist.

Then he smiled.

And reached for the silk ties anchoring her drawers.

She would, she thought, remember that smile always. Raising one hand, she threaded her fingers through his hair-and watched, waited. Breath bated. Nerves tightening, flickering, skin flushing, heating. Her heart beating just a little faster, just a little harder.

Gervase felt her fingers lightly riffling his hair, understood the unspoken encouragement. She was with him, unquestioningly, unconditionally, even though he was perfectly certain she was following him blind. She didn’t know what he would do; no matter how great her theoretical knowledge, he doubted she could guess. Quite aside from all else, he hadn’t scripted this encounter; he’d thought of it often enough, but had been unable to see her and how she would affect him, unable to predict his responses let alone hers well enough to make planning at any level worthwhile.

So he was operating on instinct, pure and unfettered, following some inner guide he wasn’t sure he fully understood.

The knot he was coaxing at last came undone; letting out the breath trapped in his lungs, replacing it with one even more shallow, he hooked his fingers in the waistband, releasing the gathers, then drew the soft garment down.

And simultaneously rose to his feet, one palm cupping the back of her knee, then sliding upward as he stood and stepped toward her-a long, evocative caress that swept with deliberation up the back of her thigh, sliding beneath the edge of her chemise and rising further until he closed his hand over one globe of her derriere, skin to bare skin, and held her to him as with his other hand he framed her face, and kissed her.

As he’d been wanting to kiss her-waiting to kiss her-for days.

Possessively.

There was no longer any need to disguise what he felt-what she evoked in him; she was here and she would be his-of that he no longer had the slightest doubt.

So he kissed her ravenously, let his beast have its fill, then, when she trembled and gasped, he drew back. Lifting his head, he released his grip on her bottom only to band his arm about her waist; his gaze locking on her heaving breasts, he eased back enough to jerk the ribbon tie of her chemise undone, hook his fingers beneath the gathered band and draw it wide, then he lifted it free of the ruched peaks of her breasts and drew the fine silk down.

To her waist, then he shifted his arm and drew it past, further, until it slipped from his fingers and floated to the floor, the sound a whisper of surrender.

One she heard. She shivered, inwardly quivered; her eyes on his face, her hands tangled in his hair, she searched his eyes, then licked her swollen lips. “You now.”

He heard, but his gaze lowered and fastened on her breasts. He’d touched them, tasted them, but he hadn’t before fully appreciated the reality. He felt her draw in another breath. “In a minute.” He lifted his hand to lightly touch, to watch her nipple tighten even more. “In a moment.”

Her breath tangled in her throat.

Easing his arm from about her, he gripped her waist for an instant, ensuring she was steady, then let his hands fall. “Just let me look.”

He took one step back, then another, would have closed his eyes at the painful throb of his erection but…his entire awareness, his eyes, mind and senses, were too fascinated. Captured and held by the sight of her.

From the moment he’d first focused on her, he’d known she would be statuesque, that, naked, she would resemble a goddess-one of the Roman deities, full-figured and proud.

But her clothes had disguised her charms to a greater extent than he’d guessed.

She was more, much more, than he’d expected.

Enough to turn his head, to steal his breath, to lock every last iota of awareness he had-on her. In that moment, he lived for nothing else-nothing beyond appreciating, worshiping, drinking in her beauty.

Her breasts were full, perfectly formed, high and proud, their skin creamy, with nipples a soft rose. Below, her ribcage narrowed to a surprisingly slender waist, one he could nearly span with his hands. The flare of her hips, the subtle swell of her taut belly, were the epitome of womanly perfection, entirely proportionate to her height, to the long, gracefully curved lines of her legs.

She stood before him, not exactly relaxed yet without any false modesty, much less shame; head tilting, a question forming in her eyes, she started to raise one hand.

“Just wait, please…” He licked his dry lips. “Stand there and let me look.”

She arched her brows, but let her hand fall.

He drew in a tight breath and circled her, his gaze lovingly roving every inch, every curve. Letting each facet, each perspective sink into his mind, and enrich his imagination. His passion, his desire.

His need.

He’d inherited his mother’s artist’s eye well enough to appreciate the play of light on her fine skin, the curves kissed by a radiance that seemed almost unearthly. Pearlescent. Precious.

Halting behind her, he set his fingers to her chignon, already halfway undone. Pins pattered on the floor as he released the heavy mass, felt the silky slide of the tresses over his hands. Stepping closer, he lifted the burnished mass to his face and inhaled, deeply, let the essence of her wreath through his brain.

Leaning forward, careful not to touch her skin with his hands, not yet, he brushed his lips to her temple, then ran his hands out, letting the bright strands fall over her shoulders.

“You are…unutterably beautiful.” He breathed the words by her ear, then drew back. Forced himself to step back-and look. Study. This time, this innocence-him of her and her of him-would never come again.

Slowly, he continued around her.

He thanked every angel he knew that she wasn’t missish; although she watched him as he circled her, she stood calmly and made no move to cover her curves, her tantalizing hollows. The golden brown curls that adorned her mons fractured the light, shimmering like gold.

Shielding a treasure he ached to see, to touch, caress. To possess.

Madeline watched as he returned to stand before her. With her eyes she’d tracked his face; what she’d seen there, stamped in his features and blazoned in his amber eyes, had held her mesmerized. She’d felt the heated brush of his gaze wash over her bare skin; if anyone had told her, even an hour ago, that she would willingly stand naked while he examined her, she would have laughed. But that look in his eyes…for that, she would have walked naked over hot coals.

She’d known she-her body-could fix his attention and arouse him; she hadn’t known that she-her body-could affect him to this extent, could command this degree of sincere, wordless reverence. Especially not from him. From a man as experienced as he.

Even less had she expected him to so openly let her see and know how enthralled he truly was.

In doing so he’d given her a gift, a precious pleasure.

When he halted before her, she reached for the lapels of his hacking jacket. “Your turn.”

My turn.

He met her eyes, read her determination, and acquiesced. He was no more visited by modesty than she, not in this, not now, not between them. More, impatience, that telltale tension, gripped him; he didn’t wait passively while she peeled his clothes from him but threw them off himself, sitting bare-chested to haul off his boots and stockings, then standing and unbuckling his belt, stripping off his breeches, flinging them aside.

Then he was naked, but not about to stand and let her peruse. The instant he was upright, he reached for her and pulled her to him.

She gasped. Every bone in her body melted at the contact; she clung to his shoulders, the shocking heat of his naked skin searing hers. Her breasts pressed into the hard hot wall of his chest, nipples furled to tight points, excruciatingly sensitive as the crinkly hair adorning his tensed muscles abraded them. Her hips were firmly wedged against his rock-hard thighs, his hard hands cupping her bottom, holding her there so his erection burned against the taut cushion of her belly.

Then his head swooped, he found her lips, covered them, and took possession.

Of her mouth, of her body, of her.

She hadn’t known what to expect, but never would she have imagined this-the heat, the sheer wildness that infected them both, that raced unfettered through them, igniting fires that consumed, that cindered any reservation she might have had, that vaporized hesitation and replaced it with ravenous need.

The conflagration affected him in the same way. His hands were everywhere, demanding and driven. His patent need evoked hers, built and sent it raging, surging like a wave to sweep her into a roiling sea. Of hot passion, of frantic desire, of that unrestrained, greedy need.

She clung to him, kissed him wildly, pressed to him and let her body speak for her, let the way she responded to his increasingly driven touch, to every possessive caress, scream her willingness, her urgent desperation.

Hers only fueled his.

He half lifted, half tumbled her onto the daybed, following her down so closely their lips barely parted enough for her to gasp. She reveled in the sensation of his hard body beside hers; she twisted, pressing close, hooking one knee over his the better to hold him to her. The better to savor the hard muscled strength of him down her long length, to feel the wall of his chest against her breasts as he shifted over her, pinning her to the bed.

Their mouths had fused again, neither willing to forgo that contact, the slick heated pleasure of their mating tongues.

Then his hands found her breasts, and her focus shifted. To his touch, the quality of it, to this, a culminating possession. He kneaded, flagrantly demanding, then his wicked fingers found her nipples and she gasped through their kiss.

He played briefly, expertly winding the tension building within her, until, driven by the excruciating delight, she arched beneath him, consumed by their fire and begging for release.

His hands left her breasts and ranged lower, spanning her ribs, her waist, as they swept down to her hips, then pressed around and beneath. One hard thigh pressed hers wide, anchoring them, leaving her open and vulnerable-desperate, urgent and aching for his touch.

When his hand cupped her she cried out; when his fingers parted her folds and found her slickness, she nearly sobbed.

Her lungs were so tight, she couldn’t breathe but through him. Fingers clenched in his hair, she held him to her, and with her lips and tongue urged him on.

Gervase needed no encouragement; he was already sunk deep in passion’s thrall, closer to overwhelmed than he’d ever been. He’d imagined this first encounter would be slow, a gentle initiation during which he led her along the path to intimacy, to sensual fulfillment.

Instead there was heat and searing flame, a passion beyond his experience, and a need so profound that if she hadn’t been so blatantly willing, controlling it would have brought him to his knees.

He had to have her, had to be inside her, had to make her his-that was all the direction his mind let alone his body seemed able to accommodate.

Hot, urgent, it had to be this way.

As he pressed a finger deep into her sheath, and felt her tremble-not with shock or even surprise but with unalloyed anticipation-he made a mental vow to make it up to her next time, that their next engagement would have all the gentleness, the tenderness, that this one did not. Would not.

She arched, breaking their kiss, losing what little breath she had in a gasp so evocative-so provocative, so sensually desperate-that it rocked him.

He withdrew his finger, then pressed another in alongside, stretching her…but she was in no mood to be denied, even in such a cause. She shifted against him, her body arching against his in wordless entreaty. She rode every day and was stronger than any female he’d previously had under him; he couldn’t easily control her, couldn’t stop her from sensually wrestling-given his state, his already strained and tenuous control, and her aim, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

Muttering a curse, he found her lips with his and pressed her back into the cushions, subduing her-appeasing her-with a kiss so demanding she had all she could do to meet him, match him…while he withdrew his fingers from the scalding haven of her sheath, settled his hips between her thighs, and entered her.

He slid in a little way easily enough, but then the untried tightness of her sheath slowed him. He pressed on, steady and sure as she quieted beneath him, as her whole awareness focused on his invasion.

Giving thanks she was so tall that he could easily kiss her while burying himself inside her, he used his lips and tongue to draw her back to the kiss, but this time she wouldn’t be distracted; her inner tension returned, her fingers tightening on his upper arms, nails sinking in as he forged deeper into her-and swept past her maidenhead, barely any barrier.

She rode astride and had for a decade, another blessing.

Madeline felt the slight give, the faint sting, but the momentary discomfort was immediately swamped by a wholly different sensation. He didn’t withdraw but thrust deeper still, seating himself fully, heavily, within her, and she was suddenly mentally, sensually gasping, trying to absorb, to take it in, to accustom her senses to his weight above her, pinning her to the daybed, to the hardness of his thighs pressing hers wide, his hair-dusted muscles rasping her smooth skin, but more than anything else to the hard, hot masculine reality buried deep within her.

It felt like hot steel encased in velvet; no wonder men so often referred to it as a weapon-a sword, a lance.

She inwardly shuddered, still caught in passion’s flames but for an instant able to know, to clearly sense-and feel-physical vulnerability, a sensation she’d rarely experienced, to understand why he’d termed this a conquest.

His lips were still on hers, his tongue stroking hers, but although joined fully with her, he’d stilled, as if he were waiting…

She realized she’d tensed; she wasn’t sure why. On the thought, her muscles eased, the tension flowing away. Revealing the fire still burning, poised, waiting, flames hungry and eager.

Swelling again, growing, demanding.

As if he knew, before she could even think to move, he did; he withdrew, then thrust deep again, forging even further than before.

And the flames flared, roared as he repeated the movement. She gasped and clung to the kiss, eager again, desperate again.

Burning again.

Again and again he withdrew and thrust in; she found his rhythm and matched him. Clutched as the flames built, then raced down her veins; heat poured from them as he rode her hard, then harder, and she absorbed each thrust, each deep penetration, welcomed the passion, embraced the fire, drew it and him into her.

Until her core ignited, until bright tension gripped her so fiercely she thought she might die.

She pulled away from the kiss, desperately arching beneath him, head back, reaching for she knew not what.

Then ecstasy speared through her. She cried out, breathless, helpless.

And shattered.

Infinitely more powerfully than before. As if she’d been flung off some sensual cliff and every sense had fragmented.

Eyes closed, sightless, she drifted in the void, but then tactile sensation returned, and she felt him within her, hard, hot and unyielding; beneath her hands, in her arms, hard and heavy above her, she felt him holding still, heard his harsh, ragged breaths beside her ear, his chest laboring, his muscles locked as he fought to give her that moment…then his control gave way.

His lips found hers, covered them; with no longer even a vestige of sophistication he ravaged her mouth-unutterably glad, she appeased him, let him. Gave him what he had given her.

Her body unstinting.

Driven, his body rocked compulsively into hers, powerful and unrelentingly; she wrapped her arms about him and clung, tight, then he abruptly tensed, shuddered, and spent himself deep inside her.

She felt the warmth within, felt his weight as, his trembling muscles giving way, he groaned and slumped upon her.

Holding him in her arms, she felt her lips curve, satisfaction mingling with glorious satiation; the feelings burgeoned and rose through her, buoyed her, then swept her free, onto a calm and blissful sea.

Gervase stirred, then glanced at the woman sleeping in his arms. Warm, trusting, utterly relaxed, she remained asleep.

He stared at her, at her features relaxed in sated slumber, at her tumbling mass of hair now in wild disarray, at the magnificent creamy slopes of her breasts mouth-wateringly visible above the silk shawl he’d draped over her to shield her cooling skin.

The sight held him, transfixed him, then, carefully disengaging, he eased from her side. He sat on the edge of the daybed for a moment, head hanging, then he rose, stretched.

He glanced at her again; when she didn’t stir, he padded soft-footed to the windows.

The sea, the sky, the expanse of cliff, the distant mound of Black Head-nothing beyond the window had changed.

Within the boathouse something had, but even now he had no idea what. What it was, what power had connived to sweep him so far beyond his customary control. Looking back, it felt as if some fate had intervened and handed the reins to his beast, denying his rational mind any say in how he took her.

Not that she’d helped, let alone seemed to mind. She’d given no sign that gentleness and tenderness were what she’d come to the boathouse, and him, to find; she’d had her own agenda, and that agenda had had more in common with his beast’s wishes than his more calm and logical side.

Although he hadn’t planned it, he’d had a definite vision of how this engagement would go, that he, calm and in control, would teach her, show her, introduce her to her own sensual nature…instead, she’d shown him something he hadn’t known about himself, regardless of whether she’d intended to or not.

She couldn’t have intended it; how would she, an innocent, have known?

Regardless, despite his vow of how their next encounter would go, having once indulged without restraint, screens or shields, he wasn’t sure it was possible to retreat and come together in any mild and gentle, distant and controlled way, without igniting that raging heat.

Without succumbing to passion’s relentless beat.

For the first time in his life, with a woman, he was unsure. Uncertain of where he stood sexually with her. He stared out at the surging waves. He would have to wait and see what she wanted, how she reacted; he would have to play by her wishes, be reactive and responsive to them, rather than make and follow any plan of his own.

That was an utterly alien concept-to have a woman calling his tune. So alien that he stood at the windows, staring unseeing at the waves, and tried to find some way, some path, around it.

Madeline watched him, let her gaze play over him. She’d woken the instant his weight had left the daybed, but had lain still and watched from beneath her lashes. He’d seemed distracted, mentally elsewhere; she saw no reason to refocus his attention-not until she’d looked her fill.

Like all the males of her acquaintance, he was totally at ease naked. She wasn’t all that bothered over being nude herself; it was more perceptions of modesty that ruled her actions, but with him, there had seemed little point.

With the remnants of golden pleasure still coursing her veins, she lay back on the daybed and studied him-noted the proud set of his head, the broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist and hips, the tight buttocks above his long, strong legs. Rider’s legs, she’d once heard them called, long thighs heavily but sleekly muscled.

He was like that all over; she could appreciate anew the light she’d earlier noted as it played over him, over the dimples and hollows, the muscle bands that shifted and contracted under taut, lightly bronzed skin…as he turned his head and caught her staring.

Somewhat to her surprise, no blush rose to her cheeks. Instead, she watched as he turned from the windows and walked toward her. Mouth drying, she stared some more-still not blushing, instead battling to keep a cat-eyeing-the-unguarded-cream smile from her face.

She just hoped she didn’t look too hungry.

The thought stirred her to action; sitting up, ignoring the silk shawl that had materialized over her as it slithered down to her waist, she reached across to the side table. Selecting a small bunch of grapes, she sat back, plucked one, and lifted it to her lips-and let her gaze travel once more to him. Noting with interest that despite their recent engagement he was again aroused, she reluctantly raised her gaze to his face.

And with becoming confidence, arched her brows.

Her question was transparent: What next?

He halted by the daybed; hands rising to his hips, he looked down at her-as if unsure what to make of her.

Indeed, she wasn’t entirely sure what to make of herself; she felt…not new but different. As if during the last hour he’d freed the sensual woman who had always dwelt inside her, and somehow integrated that hidden self into her whole so that she could now without a blink, with calm assurance and a better certainty of who and what she was, sit there, naked, and watch him, naked too, and calmly wait to see what he would do.

When he didn’t do anything but stare, a frown forming in his amber eyes, she leaned back against the raised head of the daybed, looked him in the eye-then plucked a grape and held it up to him.

He held her gaze for a fraught moment, then knelt on the daybed and with his lips took the grape from her fingers, then slumped beside her. He chewed, swallowed, then reached across and took the stem and remaining two grapes from her hand, plucked one and held it for her to take.

She met his eyes briefly, then did.

He popped the last grape into his mouth, tossed the stem back into the dish, then sighed and settled back. Lifting one arm, he slid it around her; drawing her in, he placed a kiss on her temple.

Settling against his chest, her hand splayed over his heart, she waited.

After a moment he said, “You…I didn’t think it would be…like it was.”

“In what way?” Looking up, she met his eyes. “You have to remember I haven’t done this before.” Regardless, she wasn’t such a ninny that she didn’t know he’d been, at the last, utterly sated.

The look on his face was one to treasure; it wasn’t often he was lost for words. Or rather, that he encountered so much difficulty over choosing which of the many replies that had plainly leapt to his tongue to give voice to.

Eventually, he said, “It wasn’t supposed to be so fast and furious.”

She studied him, raised her brows. “I rather like the fast and furious.”

“Obviously.” He hesitated, then asked, “Are you sore?”

She looked across the room, inwardly assessing, then shrugged. “Not especially.” Not more than if she’d ridden hard astride for several hours. There was a small degree of chafing, a little heat, but…She met his eyes. “Nothing that would prevent me from doing it all again.”

He searched her eyes, then shifted around to face her. “In that case…” Lifting one hand, he brushed back her wayward hair, feathered his fingers over her jaw. “Let’s try it again. Only this time we’ll aim for the slow and gentle.”

He tipped her face to his and kissed her-so gently, so tantalizingly she nearly growled with impatience. She drew back enough to say, “I’m rather fond of the fast and furious.”

“Nevertheless, in the interests of your education, let’s try it with less heat.”

Inwardly wondering why he would want to, she mentally shrugged, kissed him back, and let matters take their course.