Nan Ryan (33 page)

He said, “Know what I want?”

She swallowed with difficulty. “Tell me.”

“I want to see how all this red hair looks spread out on a white pillow.”

“If that’s what you want, then that’s what I want,” replied the princess, surprising herself. She couldn’t believe she had said those words. And meant them. She shivered at the realization that she genuinely wanted to please this man instead of only wanting him to please her. She touched his tanned jaw where she had scratched him, and whispered, “Anything you want, Virgil, I want to give you.”

More affected by her reply than he would have admitted, even to himself, Virgil abruptly released her hair, picked her up, and carried her across the room to the oversized bed. When he reached it, he stood beside the white-sheeted mattress, holding her high against his chest, desire rapidly heating the blood surging through his veins.

His heavy-lidded gaze locked with hers, Virgil told himself that she meant nothing to him, just as he meant nothing to her. They were after the same thing—a few hours of pleasant sexual diversion. A night of physical pleasure with no consequences.

She, like he, was perfectly willing to play, and neither need pay the piper when it was over. For tonight he would fully avail himself of her considerable charms. He would make love to her until she begged him for more. He would make love to her until she begged him to stop.

He would lose himself in her yielding flesh through the long sultry June night, and enjoy every minute of it. He would take her with infinite gentleness. He would take her with uncontrolled passion. He would, with her easily attained consent, take her anyway and every way he so desired.

And when the dawn came, he would have had his fill and no longer desire her.

Virgil put a knee on the mattress and carefully laid the naked princess on the bed, making sure her head was resting on a snowy, silken-cased pillow. He sat down on the bed’s edge facing her and meticulously arranged her unbound hair so that it swirled around her head in a huge, shimmering fan of loveliness.

Pleased with his handiwork, Virgil braced an arm across her body and gazed down at her. She was sheer perfection. So slender, so pale, so totally feminine. The stunning red hair, the long, swanlike throat, the soft, rounded breasts tipped with large satin nipples. The flat belly, the riot of ginger curls between her pale luminous thighs. The long, well-shaped legs and delicate ankles and cute baby toes.

But it was more than just physical beauty that made her so utterly irresistible. Despite the life he knew she had led, she looked appealingly innocent lying there below him, lovable and submissive. Her enormous eyes were those of a young, trusting girl. And her slender, pale-skinned body had a virginal, untouched appearance, as if she were actually as clean and pristine as new mountain snow.

Virgil’s heart kicked forcefully against his injured ribs as he realized what he wanted to do to her.
Had
to do to her. He was going to make love to her in a way he wouldn’t have considered making love to a woman like her twenty-four short hours ago. He was going to love her with his mouth. He had to taste her, to taste all of her, because here in the seductive moonlight on this hot summer night with the plaintive guitar music and the scent of roses stirring his senses, it was easy to pretend that she was as clean and sweet and charmingly naive as she pretended to be.

A skillful lover, Virgil took it slowly, just as if she were actually a modest young maiden who would be shocked and offended if he moved too quickly toward his goal. He patiently wooed her with words and with kisses. He took his time, leisurely stoking the fire in her blood. He kissed and caressed her until she was anxious and trembling. Then he drew her up into his arms and continued to kiss her, to whisper to her, to please and excite her.

Virgil kissed the princess’s eyes, her cheeks, her slightly protruding ears.

“You’ve got the cutest little ears I’ve ever seen,” he murmured, then nipped harmlessly at an earlobe.

“No, I don’t,” she said breathlessly. “My ears are—”

His lips silenced her. She sighed into his mouth, raised her arms to put them around his neck, but he stopped her. Catching and clasping her wrists together in one hand, he raised her arms above her head and held them there. With his free hand he deftly positioned—one at a time—three or four fat fluffy pillows up against the tall ornate headboard.

Then his hot mouth slid from her lips, moved down across her chin, past the hollow of her throat, and up the swell of her left breast to capture a pale pink nipple. He released her wrists and her arms fell weakly to her sides. A burst of breath escaped her lips when Virgil’s mouth enclosed a nipple and he began to suck firmly. Caught up in the exquisite pleasure, the princess hardly realized that as he dazzled her with his tugging lips, he was lifting her up, up and back toward the pillows stacked against the headboard. Gently, Virgil was hoisting her into a kneeling position.

Aware only of the pleasure he was giving her, the princess’s hands went into his raven hair, and she whispered, “Darling. Oh, darling.”

Sighing with ecstacy, she looked down on the dark, handsome face bent to her. She watched in fascination as his mouth released her wet left nipple and moved to the right one. His teeth raked tantalizingly over the sensitive crest, then his tongue toyed with her before he took her fully into his hot mouth to suck vigorously.

Sensing the level of her arousal was swiftly escalating, Virgil soon released her nipple, let his mouth slide down her delicate ribs. And while he kissed her pale, bare flesh, he continued to lift the princess higher, pressing her up against the pillowed head-board. Swept away on a rising tide of white-hot passion, her eyes now closed, the tingling princess didn’t realize that she was now fully standing, her back braced against the soaring headboard.

She might never have realized it if Virgil hadn’t said in a low, commanding voice, “Baby, open your eyes.”

The princess’s eyes slowly opened and she looked around dazed, surprised to find herself actually standing atop the bed, her bare back touching smooth wood, her hips and legs cushioned by soft, fluffy pillows.

“Look at me,” Virgil softly commanded.

The princess bent her head, looked down at him, and trembled violently. His handsome upturned face was on the level of her lower belly, and his lean hands were possessively clasping her hips. In his glittering eyes was a hunger that bordered on savagery, and there was an uncommon hardness to his full, sensual lips. The look in his eyes, the dangerous set of his mouth excited her beyond belief. She felt the blood scald through her veins, felt a frightening weakness seize her. She pressed her open palms back against the headboard, needing the support, uncertain how long her rubbery legs would hold her.

Virgil felt his bare belly contract sharply as he gazed at the beautiful woman standing naked and vulnerable before him. Her pale, full breasts were rising and falling with her quick labored breaths, and her flat little belly was quivering and jerking noticeably. Her long legs were slightly parted, offering seductive glimpses of the swollen sweetness shielded by the dense curls. Virgil’s heart thudded in his chest.

She looked sweet enough to eat.

Feeling his hot, accessing gaze travel over her body, the princess was suddenly embarrassed, shy. Her weak legs began to buckle, and she started to sag back down to her knees. Virgil stopped her.

“No, baby. Stay where you are. I want to kiss you.” The timbre of his voice was low, soft.

“Then you … you’ll have to stand too if you want—”

“No, sweetheart. I want to kiss you here,” he said softly, placing a possessive hand over her, cupping her, gently raking his fingers through the triangle of curls to touch the pulsing flesh beneath. “This is where I want to kiss you, baby.”

The princess was appalled. Surely, he didn’t mean it. “Virgil, no … no …,” she murmured, her breath short, her heart pounding.

“Yes,” he whispered, and brushed a kiss to her trembling belly. “Let me kiss you, baby. Let me taste your sweetness. If you don’t like it, I’ll stop.”

“Pro-promise?” she asked, short of breath, both incensed and excited by his shocking proposal.

“Promise,” he said, as he urged her legs a little farther apart with a gentle hand.

“No, please … no …,” she whispered, as Virgil leaned to her and nuzzled his nose and mouth in the damp springy curls. “D-don’t—” She gasped as he skillfully nudged the curls aside and kissed her, his smooth lips pressing a brief, tender kiss to the slick female flesh.

“Want me to stop, baby?” he whispered, never raising his head. His coaxing mouth never lifting from her, his furnace-hot breath fanning the flames of her wild desire. “Just say the word and I’ll stop.”

“I … yes … yes, stop, please … you … you must stop.” She said.

He kissed her again, opened his mouth slightly, and touched the tip of his tongue to her.

“All right, sweetheart,” he whispered, “I’ll stop.” He turned his head and laid his feverish cheek against her bare belly. “But I wish you wouldn’t make me. I want to love you, baby. I want to taste you. You smell so sweet, so clean. Please, let me. Let me. Give it to me, sweetheart. Give it all to me.”

The shocked, thrilled princess couldn’t resist him. He had her so excited she couldn’t bring herself to say no again. She wanted it as badly as he. Shameful as it was, she wanted him to kiss her there. She wanted to feel his smooth, hot lips pressed against that burning, hurting flesh. Even more shameful, she wanted to watch him while he did it.

“Baby?” he whispered, quietly asking permission, already knowing the answer.

“Virgil—” her breath came out in a loud whoosh, “I … I don’t want you to stop. I want you to … kiss me. Oh, kiss me now.”

Those were the words Virgil was waiting to hear. He lifted his cheek from her quivering belly, tipped his head back, and looked up at her with blazing blue eyes.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured, and slowly lowered his face to her. “I won’t hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”

He leaned to her, opened his mouth, and again touched her with his tongue. She said his name on an excited sigh and thought she had surely never felt anything quite so stimulating. A practiced lover, Virgil again took it slowly. He gently teased her, doing nothing more than pressing the warmth of his open mouth against her and lightly touching the tip of his tongue to her. He blew his hot breath against her and gave her kiss after kiss of checked intimacy while the mesmerized princess stood there in the radiant moonlight brazenly watching him.

To the awed princess it was powerfully erotic to feel Virgil’s mouth and tongue gently touching her while she watched him press his dark, handsome face between her parted legs. His beautiful blue eyes were closed now, his long black lashes fluttering on his cheeks. His dark head was barely moving as he kissed her with incredible tenderness.

As the delicate, restrained caresses continued, the passionate princess found herself longing to reach down, clasp his dark head, and pull him closer. To tilt her pelvis up against his hot face and meld her throbbing flesh more securely with his masterful mouth.

It was all she could do to keep from begging, “Darling, more. Give me more.”

She didn’t have to say a word.

Virgil knew instinctively when he had gotten her so hot she was dying for even greater intimacy. She began to bend her knees and to involuntarily press her burning pelvis closer to the promise of his mouth. She was, he could tell, ready to be taken all the way. And there was nothing he wanted more than to take her.

“Ah, baby,” Virgil whispered and slipped a hand under her buttocks to draw her closer.

He buried his face in her, opened his mouth, and with his tongue began to drive her mad with blinding ecstasy. Soon she was crying out and twisting frantically. Both frightened and elated, she panted and gasped and thought she surely couldn’t stand one more second of this shattering pleasure. At the same time she knew that she would die if Virgil took his probing, stroking tongue from her.

As he expertly touched and teased and tasted her, the princess clung to his dark, moving head and ground her groin against him, terrified he would take his loving mouth from her before she …

The entire universe was now centered there between her legs where this dark, experienced lover was kissing her. Frantic, her breath coming in shallow little gulps, the out-of-control princess anxiously pressed her pelvis hard against his mouth. And was rewarded with the fiery lashing of his talented tongue. The dazed princess, frenzied with desire, was half-sobbing now, unable to stand still. Wanting … wanting.…

Attuned to the slightest change in her level of excitement, Virgil knew the moment had come. He held her to him and sank his face deeply into her. He feasted hungrily on her, stroking her powerfully with his tongue until she was thrashing and twisting and calling his name in near hysteria.

The princess felt a frightening tension spiraling higher as her body grew hotter and hotter, especially where he was kissing her. Her fingers frantically clutching his jet black hair, she said his name on a sob, begging him, pleading.

And then it began.

Wave after wave of unbelievable pleasure washed over her, and she cried out, unable to stop herself. The incredible ecstacy continued until she felt as if she would surely scream if it didn’t end.

Feeling her potent response, Virgil stayed with her until she got it all out, keeping his mouth fused to her as she shuddered and sobbed and her body involuntarily quivered and jerked.

When the last little tremors had passed, Virgil finally took his mouth from her. Gently he drew her down to her knees. He looked at her flushed face, her bleary eyes, and smiled. His lips wet and gleaming from her fierce release, he kissed her. The princess tasted herself on his lips and was appalled, but his hands began to caress her breasts, her back, her hips, and she soon sighed. He touched her between her legs where he had kissed her and to her astonishment, she felt herself becoming half-excited again. Virgil took one of her hands, placed it on his pulsing erection.