Autumn Lover (27 page)

Catlike, Hunter’s head moved against the caress, heightening the pressure of her fingers against his scalp. The frank sensuality of the movement sent ripples of heat through Elyssa.

Recklessly she drew her fingers down Hunter’s scalp to his bare nape. The lightning stroke of desire that arced through him in response was echoed in her own body.

Elyssa’s hands were hungry to caress more than the narrow strip of skin between Hunter’s hairline and his jacket collar. Her palms remembered what it was to rub unhindered over his chest, to feel the masculine bunch and swell of muscle, to savor the soft abrasion of his hair curling against her skin.

Belatedly Elyssa realized that her hands were pushing Hunter’s jacket away from his chest. Shocked by her own unruly hunger, she froze.

Hunter knew only that Elyssa no longer was returning his hungry kiss. Instead, her hands were pushing against his shoulders. Reluctantly he lifted his mouth, as he had promised he would.

Just one kiss
.

“It’s all right,” Hunter said huskily. “You don’t have to fight me. I’ll let you go.”

Yet even as he spoke the words, he couldn’t force himself to release Elyssa entirely. Delicately his fingertips stroked her hands where they pressed against his chest.

The tiny, yearning caresses made Elyssa ache for all that she would never know of Hunter’s heart. But she could know the elemental power of his desire. She could be the center of his world.

For a time.

Elyssa hesitated, shivering. Her body was certain that this time there would be more than pain waiting for her in Hunter’s arms. The promise he had made was as much a lure to her as the male power of his body lying coiled and waiting against her palms.

You’ll want it, too. I’ll see to it. Like setting a match to straw
.

Taking a ragged breath, Elyssa gathered her courage.

“I wasn’t fighting,” she whispered.

“You were pushing me away.”

“Not you. Just your jacket.”

When Hunter understood, desire stabbed violently through his body. For a moment he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even breathe.

With a sinuous twist Hunter stripped off his jacket and tossed it aside.

“It’s gone,” he said in a deep voice. “Now what?”

“I…”

The twilight of the cave couldn’t hide the flush that came to Elyssa’s face.

Abruptly Hunter remembered. For all Elyssa’s reckless response to him, she was just a brief step removed from innocence. She had taken that step with him, but only after he had dragged a confession of desire from her.

I…want you
.

And then he had mocked her for having difficulty with the words.

Was the truth so hard
?

“I…” Elyssa began again.

Hunter touched her lips with his thumb, sealing them.
He couldn’t take back what had happened the first time Elyssa trusted her body to him. He could only try to make her understand that the shame was his, not hers.

“Hush,” Hunter said gently. “I didn’t mean to tease you that way. I want you until I can’t breathe, but I don’t want to frighten you and I’m no damned good at reading your mind. That’s why I asked what you wanted next.”

Smiling despite the tears gathering in her eyes, Elyssa kissed Hunter’s thumb.

The simple caress sent a surge of emotion through Hunter. His eyes closed and his world shrank to the warmth of Elyssa’s breath flowing between his fingers.

“Let me show you how it should have been the first time,” Hunter said, opening his eyes. “Let me show you…everything.”

The only thing Elyssa could say was Hunter’s name. All her doubts and hesitations vibrated through her voice.

So did her passion.

Finally Elyssa nodded because her throat was too tight for her to speak again.

“This time,” Hunter said in a low voice, “I won’t cover that sweet mouth of yours. I’ll hear each sound you make, every word you say. Even if the word is
no
.”

Elyssa’s breath rushed over Hunter’s hand again. He tested the fullness of her lower lip with the ball of his thumb.

The simple intimacy of the caress made Elyssa tremble.

“Do you understand?” Hunter asked softly. “If I go too fast, just tell me. I’ll slow down. I’ll even stop, if that’s what you want.”

Again, Elyssa nodded.

“Are you sure?” Hunter asked.

The tip of her tongue touched his thumb.

Breath hissed out from between Hunter’s teeth.

“Tell me in words,” he said hoarsely. “Just this once. I won’t ask again. But I have to be sure, this time.”

Elyssa looked at Hunter’s clear, burning eyes and knew that he needed the words.

“I want what I had with you before you…before…” Elyssa took an uneven breath. “If that means taking the pain along with the pleasure, well, it wasn’t that bad. Just…unexpected…after all the pleasure.”

Hunter closed his eyes. The thought that he had prevented Elyssa even from crying out when he hurt her was acid eating at his soul.

“I’ll give you just the pleasure,” he said. “I’ll keep the pain to myself.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. But I do.”

“But—”

Hunter smiled sadly and skimmed Elyssa’s lips with the ball of his thumb.

“Wouldn’t you rather kiss me than ask me questions?” he whispered.

E
lyssa wished she could still the shakiness in her body and voice, but she couldn’t. So instead of trying to speak, she just braced herself against Hunter’s strength and stood on tiptoe to reach his mouth.

He met her halfway, then lifted her the rest of the way. She made an odd sound as she felt the length of her body resting on his.

Hunter heard and started to lower Elyssa to the ground again. Instinctively she locked her arms tightly around his neck. The movement kept her body pressed against his.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Hunter said against Elyssa’s ear.

“You didn’t.”

“You cried out and trembled.”

“It felt so good,” she whispered.

“To be lifted?”

“To feel you from my forehead to my knees.”

The passionate tightening of Hunter’s body at Elyssa’s words couldn’t be concealed, especially when she was pressed so closely against him. He made a ragged sound and fought to subdue his wild hunger for her.

Elyssa tipped her head back until she could see Hunter’s face.

“Are you frightened?” she asked, her voice shaky and teasing at the same time.

“Me?” Hunter asked in disbelief.

“You cried out and trembled.”

Hunter’s smile was as slow and hot as the kiss he gave Elyssa’s neck.

“Sassy to the core,” he murmured. “I like that.”

“You do?” she asked, surprised.

“Mmm.”

The purring sound Hunter made vibrated against Elyssa’s neck in another kind of caress.

“It’s part of the passion in you,” he said.

Hunter’s head turned. He brushed his lips over Elyssa’s. The tip of her tongue darted out, tracing his smile. What began as teasing quickly became a kiss of drugging intimacy.

For a time Elyssa forgot where she was, who she was, what she was doing. She knew only Hunter’s complex taste, his heat, the full, rhythmic penetration of his tongue…and the fire of her body rising to meet his.

One kiss became another and another and then another, until Elyssa was dizzy and breathing raggedly, and every breath came out with a small whimper.

For Hunter each tiny sound was a separate flame licking over his hungry body. He held Elyssa closer, harder, and was held just as fiercely in return.

Before the final kiss ended Elyssa was trembling and straining to be even closer to Hunter. Her body twisted against his with each urgent breath she took.

Hunter dragged his mouth away from Elyssa’s and struggled to subdue a passion more intense than he had ever known. The broken, pleading sound of his name on Elyssa’s lips nearly snapped what remained of Hunter’s control.

Slowly he sank to the bedroll, taking Elyssa with him.
He hadn’t planned to do it. His knees simply refused to hold any longer.

“Hunter?”

“It’s all right. I won’t hurt you. I just—” He took a swift, ragged breath. “You take the ground from beneath my feet.”

Elyssa looked at Hunter’s dilated, smoky eyes and felt an answering fire lance through her.

“That’s only fair,” she said.

“How so?”

“You do the same to me. You always have. I just didn’t know why.”

“And now you do?”

“No one can stand upright on fire,” Elyssa whispered. “All you can do is sink into it…and let it burn.”

Distantly Hunter wondered how much more he could take before he lost control.

He didn’t know.

But he knew he was going to find out.

“Hunter?” Elyssa whispered. “Is something wrong? You look so fierce.”

He smiled. Like his expression, Hunter’s smile was rather uncivilized.

“Nothing is wrong,” he said. “In fact, something is very, very right.”

“It is?”

“You don’t need your boots right now, do you?” Hunter asked, removing his own as he spoke.

Elyssa blinked, startled by the change of subject.

“Er, no,” she said. “I don’t often wear them in bed.”

Hunter gave a crack of laughter and shook his head. His fingers never hesitated as he nimbly removed boots and bright red socks from Elyssa’s feet.

“Bill named you right,” Hunter said, smiling. “Sassy.”

The caressing quality of Hunter’s voice took all the sting out of the nickname.

Elyssa smiled up at Hunter despite the race of her heart and her unsettled breathing. He was caressing her feet, her ankles, the curve of her calves beneath her loose trousers.

The sensations were indescribable, delicious. She wanted to twist and turn against the caresses like a cat.

“Such enticing little cries,” Hunter said huskily. “They tempt me to pull off these men’s clothes and find all the soft woman hidden beneath.”

As Hunter spoke, his hands shifted to the waistband of Elyssa’s trousers. The buttons started coming undone at a rapid rate.

Elyssa’s eyes widened at the thought of being absolutely naked in front of Hunter. She stared at the male hands that were even now urging the thick fabric of the trousers down toward her hips.

“But we didn’t—” she began. “Before, I wasn’t—”

“Naked?” Hunter offered.

Hesitantly Elyssa nodded.

“My fault,” he said in a low voice. “You should have been as naked as a flower. And I should have been all over you like warm, gentle rain.”

A shiver went through Elyssa.

Hunter stopped trying to pull the trousers down over her hips. Though the last thing he wanted to do at the moment was lift his hands away from her clothes, Hunter did just that.

“Too shy?” he asked.

“I never thought of myself as shy,” Elyssa whispered. “But—”

“Would this help?”

Hunter took a thin cotton blanket from the end of the bedroll. He shook the blanket out over Elyssa.

“Is that better?” Hunter asked.

She clutched the blanket and nodded.

“May I continue?” he asked.

Elyssa looked away from Hunter’s intent, dark eyes, but she nodded agreement.

“Tell me if you change your mind,” he said.

Hunter bent and kissed Elyssa slowly, thoroughly. Before he lifted his head, she was breathing in soft bursts, as though she had been running.

The heat of Elyssa’s response was addictive to Hunter. He wanted more of the hungry, sensuous kisses, but he was uncertain of his own control. Her combination of shyness and abandon aroused him as nothing ever had.

Instead of searching beneath the blanket for the waistband of Elyssa’s trousers, Hunter began unlacing her hunting shirt. After a few moments his fingers slid into the opening he had created. He stroked one of her smooth, warm breasts. The tip hardened instantly at his touch.

Hunter clenched his teeth against a husky sound of need as his own flesh leaped in response. He removed his fingers so slowly that it was a long caress rather than a withdrawal.

“I’ll need your help now,” Hunter said in a low voice.

“How?” Elyssa whispered.

“I want to take off your shirt, but the way you’re clutching that blanket…”

Hunter waited.

Letting out a tightly held breath, Elyssa dropped the blanket into her lap, grabbed the hem of the buckskin, and began pulling off the shirt.

Hunter’s long, strong fingers slid beneath the buckskin. At first he helped Elyssa move the shirt upward. Then he simply caressed her, enveloping her breasts in his warm hands.

A husky cry came from beneath the buckskin tangled around Elyssa’s head. She didn’t even know she had made the sound. She knew only that Hunter’s hands sent the sweetest kind of fire cascading from her breastbone to her thighs.

The buckskin shirt landed unnoticed beyond the bedroll. Elyssa didn’t realize that she had dragged off her chemise with her shirt until she felt the untamed heat of Hunter’s mouth where his fingers had been moments before.

Elyssa’s back arched in abandoned response. Her fingers speared into his thick black hair. Twisting slowly against his mouth, she held Hunter close. Small cries rippled out of her, echoes of the hot pleasure cascading through her and pooling in the secret places of her body.

Fierce response stabbed through Hunter, making him shudder with need. He gave Elyssa’s breasts nibbling kisses and listened to the broken, urgent breathing of her response.

“May I finish undressing you now?” Hunter asked in a low voice.

The feel of his tongue tracing first one hard nipple, then the other, made a coherent response impossible for Elyssa. Instead, she simply began tugging at the loose trousers.

Hunter lifted Elyssa’s hand to his mouth. He kissed her palm, bit the pad of flesh at the base of her thumb, and smiled at the jerk of response that traveled visibly through her body.

“Let me undress you,” Hunter whispered.

“Yes. Yes, please.”

Yet when Elyssa felt her trousers sliding down her legs, she instinctively made a grab for the drawstring waist of her soft linen drawers. The trousers vanished, leaving her wearing only the sheer, loose leggings of the drawers.

A moment later Hunter’s long fingers tangled with Elyssa’s at the waistband. Slowly he drew his fingertips down the open front of her drawers.

Elyssa jerked as though touched by lightning.

Her eyes grew wide as she realized that her underwear would give Hunter free access to the moist, sensitive flesh between her legs. The drawers were sewn together only at the waistband and down both sides of the legs. The crotch remained completely open.

Elyssa didn’t know if that fact tantalized or terrified her. It was the same for Hunter’s hand hovering so very close to discovering her most private places—desire and fear intertwined in her.

Hunter stopped just short of the pale, thick curls he knew lay beneath the fine linen of Elyssa’s drawers. Slowly, repeatedly, he drew his fingertip over her abdomen.

“I love touching your skin,” he said. “So smooth. So warm. Makes me wonder what it tastes like. Cream, I’ll bet. Spiced with cinnamon.”

An odd sound came from Elyssa’s throat when Hunter kissed the skin just below her navel.

“Fear or pleasure?” Hunter asked against her skin.

Elyssa couldn’t answer. The feel of his fingers sliding down the central opening of her drawers took her breath away.

When Hunter skimmed the heated petals of her desire, Elyssa’s response spilled softly onto his fingertips.

“Pleasure,” he said huskily, relief and passion combined. “Pure, wild pleasure.”

Hunter repeated the gentle touch and again was rewarded by Elyssa’s hot, helpless response. Each slow movement of his hand brought more heat, more pleasure, more freedom between her legs for his caresses. Finally he parted the soft, slick petals and found the sensitive nub concealed within.

Elyssa’s eyes closed as a wave of wild pleasure swept through her, lifting her against Hunter’s hand. Another wave lifted her, then another and another until she was crying huskily with each breath, each caress.

Slowly Hunter’s fingertips skimmed, circled, then gently probed the deep well of her response. The slick heat of her made his whole body clench with need. With great care he pressed inside her, first one finger, then two.

And every bit of the way he wished that he was truly, deeply joined with her rather than merely teasing her and tormenting himself.

The increasing pressure inside Elyssa’s body returned sanity to her in a rush. Memories of the first time returned. First the exquisite pleasure. Then pressure.

Then pain.

“Hunter, I—”

Elyssa’s words ended in a hoarse sound of pleasure as Hunter’s thumb rubbed over the slick, shimmering knot of passion he had teased into life.

“It’s all right,” Hunter said gently. “You’re tight, but I was expecting it this time. I won’t hurt you. Remember my promise? All of the pleasure and none of the pain.”

Elyssa made a ragged sound as pleasure coiled and burst inside her.

Through lowered eyelids, Hunter memorized the picture Elyssa made as she lay undressed but for the fine drawers that served to emphasize rather than to conceal the swollen petals of her desire. The trust implicit in her abandon humbled him.

The hunger in his own body raged at him.

Deliberately Hunter moved his hand, measuring and pleasuring Elyssa in the same smooth motions. Pressing, sliding, caressing, stretching the snug, incredible softness of her body. With each movement he gently se-
duced the very flesh he had once taken in a storm of ignorance and desire.

When Hunter could press no deeper he bent down to the passionate nub that now lay exposed. The tip of his tongue circled the knot of flesh, stroked it…and then he sucked hungrily.

Surprise and violent pleasure shot through Elyssa.

“
Hunter
.”

His hands and mouth moved in slow, caressing response.

Husky cries rippled from Elyssa’s throat as she lay helpless, open, a willing captive of the man whose unexpected loving burned her to her core.

Hunter heard, felt, tasted her response; and forced himself to remember all the reasons why he shouldn’t open his pants and plunge into the very fire that was burning both of them alive.

Without warning ecstasy transfixed Elyssa, held her arched and quivering, wholly abandoned to Hunter. Like the hot, hidden convulsions of her body, the wild song of her pleasure was a bittersweet torment to him.

Finally, reluctantly, Hunter withdrew from Elyssa’s body. Only after he pulled the thin cotton blanket over her did he trust himself to gather her into his arms. He held her in his lap and rocked gently, trying to calm both of them.

Slowly ecstasy eased its fierce grip on Elyssa’s mind and body. With a deep, shattered breath, she opened her eyes and looked at Hunter.

He smiled almost sadly at the wonder in her blue-green eyes.

“Good,” he said. “That’s what it should have been the first time.”

“I…”

A delicious echo of ecstasy shivered through her, stealing her ability to talk.

“I have no words,” Elyssa said after a moment.

She lifted herself to brush a kiss across Hunter’s lips.

The gentle caress twisted his guts into an even tighter knot. Hunter closed his eyes and battled with the savage clamor of his body.

When he could trust himself to look at Elyssa again, she was watching him with troubled eyes.