He didn’t feel this way just because she was beautiful. He’d known beautiful women all over the world. It wasn’t just because he ached to protect her. He’d protected the vulnerable for half his life. It was Laila herself. Her will was so strong, but her fragility underneath kindled every one of his protective instincts. Tonight, she had finally begun letting go of her wariness and suspicion and opening herself to him. He knew that because when he’d set his mouth on her, when she had been moments from orgasm, he’d felt her total and utter surrender.
Coaxing Laila, winning her trust slowly but inexorably… That fucking did something to him. So did knowing he’d been the first man to kiss her, the first man to make her come. Now he ached to give her first consensual sexual experience and make damn sure she enjoyed it enough to come back for seconds. For thirds. For more. Forever. So he would be the first—and last—man to win her heart.
Stop getting ahead of yourself, buddy…
Reluctantly, he ended the kiss. “Am I crushing you?”
“No.”
“Would you feel more comfortable on top?”
“Of you?” She frowned. “I have never done that. How would that make me more comfortable?”
By Laila’s own admission, she was no virgin, but in some ways she was sweetly naive. “Would you feel more if you were in control?”
Understanding dawned on her face, but she shrugged. “I do not know. What do you prefer?”
Obviously, she hadn’t caught on to the fact he liked to be in charge, but he could pause that until Laila relaxed. “My goal is to give you what you need, little one. What would make you happy?”
“I have never met a man who asked questions before sex.”
She’d also never been in bed with one who hadn’t raped her. But they could talk in circles for hours. The truth was, Laila didn’t know what she wanted in a lover because she’d never had one. He was accustomed to being in control, and it was his responsibility to give her what she needed. The anxiety plaguing her since he’d picked her up in Florida had only quieted when he’d inundated her with pleasure. So as far as he could tell, she needed more orgasms.
He was damn happy to provide them.
“Then I’ll stop asking, but I expect you to tell me how everything I do to you feels. If you don’t like it, I want to know. If you do, I want to hear you scream.”
Laila nodded. “All right.”
Not exactly a yes, sir, but someday he swore she would say those words to him.
But they were done talking for now. And the longer he stared, drinking her in, the more nervous she got. Time to dismantle her jitters so he could give her what she needed.
Trees took her mouth again, softly at first. She parted her lips, instantly yielding her mouth to him. She tasted like the spices from dinner and something addictively sweet. He chased her flavor, wanting more on his tongue as she wrapped hers around him, her legs around him, and gave herself over to him.
Their kiss went from exploratory to hot with a single beat of his heart. He slanted his lips over hers and delved deeper, gripping her hips to hold on as his desire rose hot and fast. Under him, she moaned. Then she began shifting restlessly beneath him—slowly at first. But with every sweep of his tongue and every caress of his hand, she shifted more, lifted, rolled, and arched in whimpered invitation.
Fuck, she was torching his self-control.
Thankfully, she seemed equally affected, clinging to him with needy fingers and locking them behind his neck as she gasped into their next kiss, spreading her legs wider for him. He tore away from her mouth long enough to see her dilated eyes, heavy lids, and flushed cheeks. She struggled for air, for understanding. For pleasure.
Trees didn’t have to ask if she was aroused. He just hoped like fuck that penetrating Laila wouldn’t cause her pain.
Tucking her knees into the crooks of his elbows, he prodded until his cock aligned against her slick, swollen flesh. “Are you ready, little one?”
Mentally? Physically, he knew she was.
“Yes,” she breathed, her lids floating shut. Then she kissed her way across his jaw, pressing her lips to his ear. “I have never felt this way. Please…”
Why the hell would he ever resist that?
Slowly, he pushed forward, inching his way in. She closed around him like hot, tight silk. Her body gripped the head of his cock, twitching around him as if she sought to suck him deeper. Already she felt so epic his head began to spin.
He drove down another couple of inches. She tightened and gasped before breathing out in long, ragged pleasure while she squeezed him like a vise.
Holy shit.
He withdrew until the head of his cock barely kissed her opening, then he surged inside her, driving down until he met gentle resistance and he shuddered in a shocking flash of desire.
She was fucking going to burn him alive.
“Feel good, honey?”
Laila blinked up at him, soft, confused eyes framed by thick black lashes. She exhaled and all but melted against him. “Yes.”
That fact surprised her. She didn’t understand why she liked his touch. He’d bet her head tried to intrude on the instinctive pleasure her body was feeling, telling her to be afraid. Telling her to fight.
Trees wasn’t letting that shit come between them. “Good. I won’t do anything to your body that you don’t love. Feel my touch, focus on my voice. Give in to the need.”
She nodded, head bobbing slowly, as he packed another inch inside her so-tight pussy.
Again, Laila clenched. She dug her nails into his back. Her thighs tensed. But her expression—eyes sliding shut, mouth gaping open—was full of rapture.
He was already big and tall, but her reaction made him feel like a giant, like he was on top of the world.
Trees trailed kisses across her temple, to her ear where he nipped on her lobe. “You’re so tight around me. It’s heaven. I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you, but this blows my fantasies away.”
Her breathing picked up pace. “More.”
In good time. “I don’t want to go too fast. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She shook her head. “Please…”
With Laila begging, she was fucking impossible to resist. He wanted to be buried inside her, balls deep, now. Hell, he’d wanted that days ago. But she probably hadn’t been touched in months, and there was no way he would plow inside her like an insensitive asshole when she was feeling pleasure for the first time in her life.
“In good time. I want this to be good for you.”
Laila nodded but let out a whine of protest as she planted her feet on the mattress and lifted her hips, impaling herself with more of his inches.
“Jesus!” He dragged air in, starting to sweat as sensation tingled its way through his body and slammed down his spine.
She tossed her head back, body twisting, and gripped his shoulders. “More…”
He definitely had more to give Laila, lots more—inches, pleasure, and love.
Gripping her hips, he pulled back, again nearly withdrawing, then plunged forward with gritted teeth, a bellow of a groan, and a blindingly insistent urge to bury himself completely inside her—something he could rarely do with any woman, given his size.
Her back arched. She cried out, nails digging into him, as pure ecstasy softened her face.