The Marker (21 page)

Once he had stripped her down to her chemise, he paused in his attack on her senses to study her. “I have envisioned you in satin and silk, in French lace, and yet, you dressed in linen is still somehow the most provocative thing I have ever seen. I’ve been unable to get the image of you dressed in simple linen out of my head since that night in my library.” Kissing her deeply, he shed his vest and his shirt. His chest was wide, hard, with a dusting of wiry reddish hair, and all she wanted to do was run her fingers through it. “You deserve the finest things—the finest, softest fabrics—against your skin, but I think I will always hold linen in high regard from now on.”

She reached up, threaded her fingers through his tawny hair and kissed him, opening her mouth for him, her tongue penetrating his lips to dance with his. His hands shifted the chemise up to her waist, his hands roaming the bare flesh of her hips, spanning her waist and kneading her buttocks. Taking a step back from him, she raised her arms above her head and looked at him expectantly.

Although he pushed her chemise higher, he kept his eyes firmly locked on her face. “Are you sure? Stop me now before it’s too late.”

She smiled and awarded him with a long, slow blink. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life, Nick.” His laugh rumbling lowly in his chest, he tugged her chemise over her head and cast it the ground.

He sucked in his breath, and for a moment she was afraid she displeased him. Her body wasn’t perfect. She was still too skinny to be fashionable, even after nearly six weeks of living in Nicholas’s household, her hips perhaps a shade too wide. Her cheeks flaming, she moved to cover her breasts with her hands, but Nicholas caught them in his and brought them to his chest.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, and lust gleamed in his eyes. Tracing the curve of her breast with his finger, he said, “I imagined you this way, naked and wanting me, but I never imagined such beauty.”

Pulling her body flush against his, he kissed her hard. Through his trousers, she felt the hardness of him, and yet he seemed to hold himself back. “Lexie...” he began.

Heart pounding, she ran her hands along his chest, and he closed his eyes and groaned. His expression, shrouded with lust, was all the encouragement she needed. “You don’t need to say anything, Nick,” she whispered. “I know what I’m doing.”

He said nothing in response, and he didn’t need to. Instead, he captured her mouth for the most passionately breathless kiss they had ever shared, his tongue plunging into her mouth, gliding deep, robbing her of her breath. Lexie’s last coherent thought was that no kiss would ever compare to this one she shared with Nicholas.

His lips never leaving hers, he pressed her against the bed, laying her on the rich brown, down-filled coverlet. Soft down against her back, hard man against her chest, she was surrounded by luxury. This was the most romantic, decadent moment of her life.

He separated her legs with one of his and settled into the vee of her thighs. She expected it to go quickly, but instead, he rested his body against hers, his warmth against her core, bent his head, and captured the taut bud of her nipple in his mouth.

A sharp cry escaped her at the torment of his touch, of his mouth against her sensitive skin. He knew just what to do to make her burn, how to touch her to rob her of her mind. Threading her fingers through his golden hair, she held his head in place while he kissed and licked and suckled her tender breasts.

“You like that, Lex?” he asked, blowing across her tender nipples.

Lust uncoiled in her stomach and something hot and hungry inside her clenched deliciously. She struggled for her breath and her words. When she finally spoke, she whispered, “Oh, Nicholas, what you do to me.”

He moved his head down to the sensitive skin of her belly and laughed, and the vibrations caused by his voice made her blood catch fire beneath her skin. “What I do to you? Woman, what you do to me.” He pressed feather-light kisses against her stomach, and butterflies fluttered in her belly. He lowered his head and placed a kiss in the triangle of curls at the juncture of her thighs.

With a gasp of surprise, she clamped her legs together the best she could with Nicholas between them. “Nicholas—”

He lifted his head and rested his chin on her belly. His fingers feathered across her hips, a touch that made the muscles in her belly clench with delight. “Do you trust me, Lexie?”

She’d never been asked such a question before, and it took her by surprise. “Nicholas, I don’t—”

“Shh,” he murmured against her belly, sending a fresh wave of desire up her spine, temporarily robbing her of her protest. “I have dreamt of this for weeks now, and I have every intention of tasting every inch of you tonight.”

“But—”

“You have to trust me, Lex. I won’t do anything you don’t want, but trust me.” With those words, he dipped his tongue into the cleft between her legs, and a wave of pleasure hit her so intense she was rendered speechless.

For five years, she only had herself to rely on. Now Nicholas, a man who had won her in a poker game, insisted she trust him.

And all the while she intended to lie to him.

She meant to stop him, she really did.

But Nicholas rubbed his tongue against the very core of her, the very part of her that ached with need for him, and her protests fragmented like shattered glass as the first climax of her life overtook her.

Before her shudders subsided, he slid up her body and kissed her hard. He leaned over and took a small packet from a box on his nightstand. “Condoms,” he explained. “To prevent pregnancy.”

He’d thought of everything. Even now, he protected her honor. It hadn’t even occurred to her to worry about pregnancy. Instead, she’d focused all of her energy on worrying about whether she’d walk down the aisle a virgin.

Her heart swelled with gratitude and ached at the same time.

He didn’t want to give her his babies.

Nicholas leaned down and kissed her again, his tongue coupling with hers and driving all thoughts of hurt feelings—however irrational—out of her head. He caressed her breast, rolling the taut bud of her nipple between his forefinger and his thumb, the pressure just enough, a touch so intoxicating her head began to spin.

He settled himself between her thighs, kissing her senseless. Sliding a hand between their bodies, he stroked her soft folds, sliding a long finger inside her.

She ached for more of him.

“Oh, Nick, please,” she whispered, arching up against his hand.

He gave her a smile of pure male satisfaction. “Please?”

She tried to catch her breath when he withdrew his finger. Slid it inside her again and withdrew. She needed so much more. “Please,” she breathed.

He needed no further encouragement. Shifting his position, bracing himself on his forearms, his chest against hers, he plunged into the haven of her body.

Lexie cried out.

He stilled inside her. His mouth against hers, he murmured, “Shh. The pain will pass.”

Before he had the chance to finish his sentence, she realized he was right. Already the pain had dissipated to the point where she became aware of him, throbbing inside her, and of the nip of pleasure lingering beneath the bite of pain. She shifted against him, and the nip of pleasure became more intense.

Through gritted teeth, he growled, “Don’t move. Give it time.”

Hissing a breath, she shifted again, and the pleasure intensified. She wanted him like this, inside her body, wanting her in return. She wanted him to move again and fulfill the promise he made with his kisses. She wanted more of this sweet torment. Beneath him, she insistently moved her hips, rocking against him.

“Lex—”

“Nicholas,” she whispered, and something in her voice caused him to raise his head and look at her.

Their gazes met. His eyes locked on hers, he began to move inside her again. Slowly at first, achingly slow, he thrust into her with such deliberate care she wanted to weep. But as her hips rose to greet him, his movements became more hurried, more insistent. His muscles in his strong shoulders bunched as he thrust into her, and just as she approached the peak again, he slid his hand between their joined bodies and buried his body inside hers.

Lexie’s entire world exploded into tiny prisms of lust. Her body rippled around his as the climax overtook her, and she became nothing but shuddering sensation from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Just as her tremors subsided, Nicholas withdrew from her body, and without him inside her, she was strangely empty, somehow less complete.

He rolled to his side and she with him. After the wonder they had just shared, she wanted to be close to him, to revel in the warmth of his skin next to hers.

She wanted to know he cared.

It wasn’t fair. She understood that. She wanted to know that her first time had been with someone who cared for and appreciated her. She wanted something from him she’d never be able to return.

She cared for him. Maybe she loved him, after only one night. And even if she did, she would never tell him. One day, in the not-so-distant future, she would leave him and marry another. Yet she still wanted far more from Nicholas than she would ever be able to give. It didn’t matter how illogical it was, or how unfair.

She clamped her mouth shut around the words threatening her. She would never tell him what he meant to her. Not tonight, not tomorrow. Not ever.

She rested her head upon his chest and toyed with the wiry hair. “That...that was amazing,” she said with a sigh. “Is it always like that?”

Nicholas kissed the top of her head. “No. Not usually.”

She leaned up and perched her chin on his chest so she could gauge his reaction, and his bright eyes met hers. “No?” She couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed by the knowledge. What had happened between them had been nothing short of miraculous, and so intense she already ached to have it happen again.

“No.”

She drummed her fingers on his chest and waited for him to continue. As if he knew exactly what she wanted, he gave her a roguish smile that sent her heart racing. Capturing her hand in his, he pulled her toward him so they were face to face. A flicker of emotion passed behind his eyes, but was suppressed so quickly she wondered if she had imagined it. “It’s not usually quite so ‘amazing,’ as you put it.”

She kissed him. Hard. Despite her soreness, she wanted him all over again. Swinging a leg over him, she rested on his chest and studied him. She cocked her eyebrow in a way she hoped he would see as suggestive. “Hm. Perhaps we should see if we can...um...”

“Recreate it?” he asked with a roguish grin.

“Mm,” she purred.

His chuckle vibrated in his chest, and the smile of real joy he gave her sent a new rush of desire coursing through her. Would she ever be able to get enough of this man?

“It’s too soon for you, I think.”

She pouted. “Are you turning me down?”

He rolled her to her back, pinning her beneath him with his body. His gaze intense, he said, “If I live to be a thousand, I would never.”

So they did it again.

Turned out, it
was
just as amazing the second time. And the third.