Not that she would have had much time to do so, for he carried her to the bed and pushed her down on the mattress as he came over her. He pulled back, staring down at her. “Wait.” He traced his hand across her forehead, along the side of her face, across her lips, and down her chin and throat. He moved lower still, his eyes never leaving hers as he trailed his fingers between her breasts. He unfastened the clasps holding her gown together and spread the garment open.
“You’re more beautiful than I imagined.” He cupped her breast through the thin lawn of her night rail.
“You can take it off,” she whispered, need pulsing through her along with a deliciously sweet longing.
“I will. Soon.” He pinched her nipple, sending a cascade of pleasure straight to her core.
She arched up into his touch, gasping. “More. Please.”
He did as she asked, pulling on her flesh with a gentle but firm grasp. Heat flooded her. It wasn’t enough, and yet it was perfect.
She pushed up from the bed and struggled to pull her arms from the dressing gown. He helped strip it away, leaving her in just her night rail, which seemed an offensive barrier at the moment.
“Patience, darling,” he admonished, pushing her back down.
“I want it off. Touch me, please.”
He did, but through the fabric of the night rail. It was both enticing and frustrating. She wriggled beneath him as his mouth descended on her breast, his lips and tongue tormenting first one nipple, then the other. He alternated between sharply tugging on her and gently laving. She panted with need, wondering if she’d ever been this aroused.
“Have I tortured you enough?” he asked huskily, his hand moving to her thigh. He pushed the garment up to her waist.
“More, please.” She spread her legs, inviting him to touch her there as he’d done in the coach. But he didn’t. Instead, he slid the night rail up her abdomen and over her breasts, moving with a slowness that made every sensation more intense.
He gripped the fabric in his fist, pulling it against her upper arms and across the top of her breasts as he lowered his head and took her nipple into his mouth. Sucking hard, he moved his other hand between her legs, his fingers grazing her sex with light, tantalizing strokes.
She wanted him to claim all of her. She wanted more of what she’d tasted that afternoon. How had she ever thought she could just leave without a night like this?
She ran her fingers through his thick, dark hair as she’d longed to do. “Dare, I need—”
He stroked her clitoris as he drew on her nipple, and she writhed with pleasure. “What do you need?”
“Everything.” She pulled at his banyan. “Can we start with you naked, please?”
“You’re so polite. Even now,” he murmured against her. “Do you ever lose control?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you forget to say please? Do you ever demand instead of ask? Take instead of invite?”
Her blood heated. “No. Not really.”
He straightened, leaving her cold and bereft. She whimpered softly as he removed his banyan. Underneath, he wore a shirt, which she found horribly disappointing. Thankfully, he removed it with great speed, exposing his incredibly muscular chest, covered with dark hair.
Standing between her legs at the edge of the side of the bed, he splayed his palm over her lower abdomen, just above her sex. Her body twitched with need, her breasts aching for him to touch them again.
He narrowed his dark eyes at her. “Put your arms up over your head and clasp your hands together.”
She did as he commanded, her breath coming in short pants.
“I love what that does to your breasts.” His gaze dipped to her chest in appreciation.
“Touch them. Please.”
He shook his head. “No more please. If you use that word, I won’t do it.”
She arched a brow at him. “You want me to be disagreeable like you?”
He chuckled low in his throat. “I want you to lose control. Leave the charming companion somewhere else. Right now, in this bed, I want Juno. I want the goddess who can’t stand it when I don’t touch her.”
Goddess? She was surprised to realize he made her feel like one. “Touch me. Now.”
“What shall I touch you with? My hand?” He wriggled his fingers. “My mouth? Or my cock?”
“All of them. Pl—” She pressed her lips together. “Hands on my breasts—I like when you squeeze my nipples. Mouth on my sex.”
His lips curled into the most alluring smile she’d seen on his face yet. She swore she grew even more wet just from that.
He put both hands on her, gently stroking her for a moment. “Happy to oblige.” He pinched her nipples, pulling until she cried out in ecstasy. “Like that, then?”
“Yes.”
Repeating the motions, he pinched and pulled as he kissed her mouth, his tongue claiming her while she twisted beneath him. She clung to him, her fingers digging into his scalp and shoulders. She wrapped her legs around his waist and arched up against his groin. The length of his cock, still covered by his pantaloons, pressed into her sex, sending a wave of white-light pleasure through her.
“Not yet,” he murmured before kissing down her throat. He stopped at her breasts, alternating his mouth and fingers on each until she was on the edge of release. She’d never gotten there like this before. The depth of her desire for him was astonishing.
His lips trailed down her abdomen, moving meticulously as he kept up his attention on one breast. His other hand slipped down between her legs and teased her folds.
“So wet and ready for me. But I think I need to taste you first. The sample I had earlier wasn’t nearly enough.” His mouth descended on her sex, his thumb pressing on her clitoris as he licked along her flesh.
She gripped his head as he skimmed his hand from her breast to her hip. He brought her leg onto his shoulder and thrust his tongue inside her.
The orgasm that had been lingering just beyond reach rushed toward her. She was both desperate for release and didn’t want the anticipation to end. Ultimately, there was no choice. He stroked her clitoris, then sucked her flesh until she cried out, her muscles clenching as she came. She froze for a moment, her body caught in that state of sheer ecstasy when she felt as if she floated somewhere outside herself. Wave after wave crashed over her, and he was relentless, his fingers and mouth working her until she was completely spent.
Her legs began to quiver, and she opened her eyes to see he was removing his pantaloons. His cock sprang free, tall and hard amidst a nest of dark hair.
She licked her lips, and he groaned. “Next time, Juno. Right now, I’m going to slide so deep inside you that we’ll have no notion of where one of us ends and the other begins.”
His words tantalized her, but it was more than that. They carried weight, a promise of something that went beyond this physical joining.
No, she wouldn’t think of that. They had tonight, this blissful moment, and that would be enough.
“Take me, Dare,” she demanded, doing as he told her. Pushing up from the mattress, she rearranged herself lengthwise on the bed and spread her legs in invitation. She reached for his cock, curling her hand around the hard velvet shaft.
His hips jerked and he climbed onto the bed, settling between her thighs. Slipping his hands beneath her backside, he tilted her hips. She bent her legs and guided him to her sex. His flesh nudged at hers, and passion tightened within her once more. She’d thought she was spent, but she had much more to give.