The Only One (11 page)

He gently blew a breath across her ear; nibbled on her neck. A tiny moan escaped her lips. She cupped the back of his head while her fingers slithered through his hair. Instinct compelled her actions. Responding to his guidance, she swiveled her hips.

His muscles flexed.

He slipped her beneath him. A raven lock fell over his eye. Tenderly, she raised her hand to his chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath her palm. Such leashed power should terrify her. Right now, his strength stirred curiosity rather than trepidation.

“I’ve hungered for you, Alex.” His harsh breath rushed through his lips, almost in desperation.

Her heart lifted with hope and joy, to think she had driven him to
lust
for her.

“It hasn’t been easy keeping my hands off you.” One hand skimmed from her shoulder to her breast.

“You don’t need to anymore. I’m here. I’m yours.” She clung to him, thrilled that he returned her advances. “Don’t think. Just love me.”

Chapter 17

Giles stared down at her, his stomach twisting in knots. “One day I fully intend to unravel you.”

“Why not today?”

A jolt of need thrummed his belly. Coming here was a mistake. His head dropped to rest against her forehead. Desire warred with reason and conscience. A torrent of sensation soared through his blood. Pounded in his temples. His heart battered against his ribs.

He wanted Alex. God, how he wanted her. He longed to touch, tease; find sweet oblivion in her delectable body.

Raising slightly, he watched the emotions play across her face. Yearning. Hunger.

His control tumbled to dust. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Her tongue had darted out to caress her bottom lip. Lust slammed at his endurance. He traced the outline of her mouth with a light touch of his index finger.

“Alex. Are you sure?” He could not deny her any more than he’d been able to resist their first kiss. His endurance weakened with each breath. Hoping to find some sense of fortitude to calm him, some stranglehold on his building need, he dallied.

But the look in her eyes, giving him her complete trust, snapped his last shred of resistance. Knowing he had no intention of following his own good advice, she suddenly became the one thing he must have.

He devoured her mouth, sliding his tongue in, then out, and back in again. Tasting, delving, so delicious he couldn’t get enough. Breathing heavily, he kissed a path to her ear and nuzzled her neck. With agonizing slowness, he swept his knuckles down her ribcage. Meaning to entice, he created torment for himself. His hands inched from her torso to the top of her bodice.

Her provocative smile coaxed him further, and he unraveled the laces of her gown, drawing the bodice apart to expose her creamy breasts. She gasped and shivered with excitement. Through half lidded eyes, he gazed down at her, drowning in her perfection.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

Needing to taste her so badly, he wanted to savor every moment. His lips adored her skin as he smoothed the gown over the curve of her shoulder. His fingers trailed down her side, to the indentation of her waist, over her shapely hip to her thigh. At her knee, he drew a circle, then traveling the same path, his fingers drifted upward relishing every delicious inch of bare flesh. Higher, over a taut belly and sensitive ribs.

A hiss escaped her lips.

He cupped a breast. Her body quivered and she moaned her pleasure. With every caress, he wondered how he ever thought he could remain detached. His fingers kneaded, teasing the swollen buds into hardened peaks.

“Touching you this way knocks the very breath from me.”

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered.

“I will teach you.” Languorously he removed the rest of her clothing while giving a kiss here, a nip there. Soon, every enticing inch was exposed for him alone. With the tip of his finger, he traced the vein at her throat. Her pulse beat a battering rhythm. He kissed her tenderly, then more forcefully as her response drove his hunger.

He shifted, tugging his shirt from his trousers. With a flick of his hand, the linen landed in the grass. When his gaze returned to her face, large brown eyes glowed with curiosity and awe.

“You’re beautiful,” she said.

He chuckled. “Men are not beautiful.”

“You are. I’ve seen my brothers without their shirts.” Her gaze lowered to his chest. “But to see you . . . to actually touch . . .”

Her fingers skimmed through the hair covering his chest. While she toyed and played with the curly strands, his reaction astounded him. Her touch sensitized his skin with a counteracting force. He’d no idea his body could burn so hot. He sank against her velvety breasts, melding their skin together.

“You feel so good.” The words she moaned rained havoc over his self-control. He dipped his head, kissing a pouting breast. Taking her nipple into his mouth, his tongue drew circles around the bud, then flicked it gently. She gripped his hair to hold him prisoner.

He loved her with tender kisses, soft touches, and warm caresses over every part of her body, memorizing each detail and curve, every valley . . . saving the temptation between her legs for last. His fingers drew close to his goal, then he’d change course; teasing, taunting, lulling her into submission.

While his fingers skimmed over her smooth skin, he kissed a puckered nipple, then drew the tender tip into his mouth. His tongue laved and he parted his lips, taking more of her flesh, gently sucking.

She squirmed. Her little whimpers encouraged his already feverish lust.

He ran a finger over her knee to the inside of her thigh. Growing bolder, he moved higher to the juncture of her center. She gasped against his mouth. When his fingers lightly skimmed her curls, she gripped him with urgency. Whether reflex or instinct, her enthusiastic fervor would be the death of him.

Giles told himself to linger. But one touch led to another . . . and another, until he reached his prize. His hand cupped her mound. Brushing her entrance, his fingers found her wet. Relief and hunger ripped at him as he probed her with a sure, swift stroke.

She shivered and jerked her hips while digging her fingers into his back.

He made no sound, only stroked her tenderly, massaged her swollen nub, then thrust one finger inside her slick passage.

Her breath hitched, brokenly.

A fierce hunger slammed his belly. Joy swamped his chest. How could the simple act of giving her pleasure affect him so?

Licking her creamy skin, he kissed a path down to her breast while his fingers stroked firmly, adding more pressure. Squirming, shuddering, her moans grew louder. He swelled with elation, watching Alex in the throes of her passion, basking in her breathless gasps of pleasure.

Knowing he was the one to send her on her flight to ecstasy.

Her hips rocked in rhythm to his caress. Faster and more urgently, until she stiffened and cried out.

His teeth scraped her nipple, then he lifted his head and glanced down at the delicate creature in his arms. Bliss covered her features. Her moans made his rigid shaft ache. Desire boiled his blood.

Summoning every raw nerve he’d been taught to control, Giles wrestled with the desire to possess her. He quickly worked the buttons on the falls of his pants, and tore his trousers off, kicking them aside. Slowly, he moved between her knees, bracing his arms to keep his weight from crushing her.

“Alex, will you let me . . .”

“Yes!” she cried with no hesitation.

His breathing ragged, he thought to soothe her fears. But his golden nymph seemed as eager as he. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m afraid it is inevitable. You may feel some discomfort.”

“I am not completely uninformed. And I have been riding a horse since I was four.”

Her flesh cushioned his shaft. He angled himself, searching for the small entrance.

Holy Christ.

Raging want threatened to sweep him away. The urge to thrust bubbled in his blood.

Narrow, the way inside her, and so very tight. He nudged, retreated, and nudged a little deeper. Sweat broke out on his neck. Slowly, by tantalizing inches, he sank into her, stretching and filling her with his rigid length. He felt her stiffen, and wished he could save her the pain that pierced her body. Her breathing quickened, yet he was the one who trembled.

“Relax. I’ve got you.” He gazed into her eyes. There was no turning back now.

Sinking into her virgin sheath, he kept his eyes locked on her face, taking in her beauty, her passion enflamed expression. And with one last push, he thrust his full length through her maidenhead.

Pleasure spread from his cock through every nerve in his body. Blood roared in his temples. Rapture beyond his reckoning, his head threatened to explode.

He gasped for air in hopes to slow the impulsive urge to thrust and end his madness.

But her body clenched and stole his breath.

An explosion of fire singed his core. The world disappeared.

Her dark eyes flew wide while only a harsh groan escaped her lips. Her grip on him tightened. Then she smiled, giving him the assurance he craved.

Need forced him to move. Unable to remain still any longer, he drew out slowly, then carefully pushed back in, embedding himself deeper.

“Are you all right?” His voice barely more than a growl, he prayed she would not halt him now. For he had little control, and if she denied him, he’d surely die.

“I’m beyond fine. What are you doing to me?”

“I’m making love to you, little one. Am I hurting you?”

“No. You could never hurt me.” She sounded out of breath. “Oh, Giles. Do that again.”

“Sweet girl. I will do that . . .” He pulled out, then pressed in, driving deeper. “Again . . .” He took a breath, slid out and thrust in. “And again . . .”

She caught his rhythm and joined him, matching his thrusts.

“Now, you will make love
with
me.” He tangled his fingers with hers. “Together.”

He surrendered to the enchantment spell she wove around him, hungry for every ounce of her sweetness, her passion, all that he could have. Famished for so long, he became driven, enmeshed in his need with wild and free abandon.

God, her body gripped him so snugly. She clung to him, her fingers holding on to his. Her hips gyrated beneath him.

Heat and friction pushed him over the edge, the flame of his desire burning his reason to ashes. He kissed her again and again. He worshiped her with lips, hands, and the powerful embrace of passion. Her body arched, then her walls contracted as spasms of pleasure made her tighten around him. His vision faded and his belly clenched as he choked out a groan.

With one hard thrust, he embedded himself deep inside her. Wave after wave crashed with mind-numbing pleasure as her name wrung from his lips.

Tingling started in Alex’s stomach and radiated out toward her fingers and toes. Ripples of sensation coursed through her body—it was more than her mind could take in all at once. Whatever hesitation she might have had completely vanished under Giles’ careful guidance. She trusted him. Lost in his ministrations, she’d been eager to experience every emotion, every sensation.

Becoming a woman was not as terrible as she envisioned. With Giles, most pleasurable. She had wanted him so badly. She loved him. And he loved her. Even if he didn’t say the words.

With soothing strokes, the pressure eased. He kissed her cheek, her ear, her neck. Gathering her wits, she tried to digest what just occurred, that gentle, passionate joining.

He lowered his face to the curve of her neck. “Alex, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

She sucked in her breath. “Do you regret what happened?”

He caught her wandering hand and linked their fingers together. Raising her hand to his lips, he kissed the back of her knuckles. “Not in the slightest.”

The anxiety in her chest eased.

“However, I should have behaved more in a gentlemanly fashion,” he added.

“Do you think me too wicked to admit I’m glad you didn’t?”

The outlandishly sexy smile he gave her set her belly fluttering.

Unsure of what to expect, still she’d wanted this. She’d yearned to make him hers. His touch charged her. Excitement shoved away any insecurity, any notion of anxiety, for the unbelievable rapture he made her feel.

Giles offered her nothing more than this moment in time. But she was determined to imprint her mark on him.

She curved her hand around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. Her pulse pounded in a wild rhythm. She had longed for this. His mouth over hers, his arms holding her, his flesh against hers. He gave her a squeeze, then his body eased away as he rolled to his side and gathered her within his embrace. His hands, strong yet gentle, caressed her shoulders and back. Her head rested on his silky furred chest, and she smiled, ecstatic. This had to be the most wonderful feeling in the world.

He’d made love to her.
With
her.

Alex emitted a heavy sigh and curled into his warmth. Her body still tingled. Lying together, his arm around her, she now knew what it was to be one with a man. One heart. One body. One soul.

They didn’t speak of their thoughts, or the sentiments in their hearts. But he had to feel the same as she.

Sinfully good.

Wavy tendrils of her hair streamed over her arms, onto his chest. He reached for a curl, worrying the strand between his fingers. “Your hair is the color of champagne shimmering in the sun.” His voice thick with contentment, his lips vibrated her scalp as he mumbled into her hair.

Curled against his body, Alex basked in his love. She raised her head. “I am deliriously happy,” she giggled.

“Judging by the smile on those well-kissed lips, I’d agree. But we mustn’t tarry. Someone could come upon us.” He stretched, reaching for his trousers. “I would not want to meet any of your brothers.”

“Please.” She stayed him. “They don’t know of my secret lagoon.”

He dropped a kiss on the end of her nose. A deep sigh escaped his chest as he wrapped her in his warmth. She curled her fingers in the scattering of hair angling down his nicely firmed ribs, a few tuffs trailing to the . . . “Oh, my,” Alex sighed.

She must be in heaven. To lie with him like this, her head on his shoulder, skin against skin, silk against her fingertips. He held her for long moments. She wanted more. Raising her head for another kiss, she ran her fingers through his raven mane, and tugged.