Shifting his weight, he let his fingers dance between her thighs. With deliberate movements, they dipped into the soft wetness there, brushing the delicate button of nerves until her hips lifted to meet his touch. For long, breathless moments, he stroked her. Until she was panting. Writhing. Desperate. Hungry.
“I’m listening, Lauren.”
She bit her lip, and Theodore forced back his own groan of lust. She was pulling him under. Drowning him in a sea of desire.
“I want you, Theo. But don’t… don’t hurt me…” Her answer was the barest of whispers.
“Never.” The sudden press of his fingertips against her most sensitive flesh elicited a gasp of pleasure from her lungs. Theodore’s heart swelled with tender protectiveness at the frantic sound. God, he wanted to hear that from her lips every night for the rest of his life. “I’d just as soon cut out my own heart.”
Lauren hesitated before giving an almost imperceptible nod of surrender. “Then do your worst, Hawthorne.”
He smiled at her bravery, gliding his blunt, elegant fingers over her slickened folds again. “Darling, nothing but my best will ever do where you are concerned.” Taking her mouth with his again, he kissed and sucked at the plump flesh of her lips until she mimicked his actions.
When he finally pulled back, Theodore was the one who was slightly breathless. Drunk on the sweet taste of her mouth and the damp silkiness of her flesh. “I’ll stop the moment you ask it of me, Lauren.”
Her fingers coasted over his shoulders, testing the muscles bunched and hidden beneath his shirt. “And if I don’t ask?”
“You will.” Theodore took her hand, kissed her fingertips, then grasped her other hand so both wrists were easily bound in the circle of his fist.
Her dove-grey eyes dilated slightly when he tugged her arms until they stretched above her head. Displayed and immobile, Lauren trembled beneath him, caught up in the whirlwind of desire.
Bloody hell, how he wanted her. Wanted to fully claim her. Wanted to bind her to him and make her his forever. Wanted to plant his babe in her belly and watch her grow round with the life they created together.
“You are so beautiful, Lauren. My heart aches just to look at you sometimes,” he confessed.
In response, Lauren tilted her hips so they bumped against his. Her tongue darted out, moistening full pink lips already parted in anticipation of his mouth descending upon hers. She moaned in delight when he gave in to the invitation, kissing her with a wild roughness that should have terrified her.
“Remember, darling,” he whispered between the deep, invasive sweeps of her mouth and the conquering of her soul, “you must stop me when you’ve had enough or if I take more than I should.”
Chapter 13
Lauren was certain of it.
She’d never been kissed so thoroughly. So deeply. So… intensely.
Theodore slid a knee between her legs, pressing her open. The upper portion of his thigh brushed against the sensitive tissues of her sex. He was built like a Greek god, the muscles of his leg hard as stone and unyielding against her softness. His actions became increasingly bolder, his fingers gliding over her in sensuous repetition.
The brush of his erection on her leg startled her. The powerful force of it, thick and straining against the confines of his clothing, sent dizzying waves of lust galloping through her veins.
She couldn’t breathe. Gulping for air, she struggled to calm herself as he nibbled on her skin and his fingers explored her flesh as he wished.
Would she have the resolution to stop him? Would she even wish to stop him? She couldn’t be sure when her willpower was almost nonexistent.
Every time she took a breath, Theodore stole it. Every time she writhed, he stilled her, the inability to move provoking more flames from deep within her belly. From under her skin. From inside her heart. Until she was consumed and incinerated to dust.
“Yes, that’s it, my love,” he grated out as she moaned. Still holding her hands in one fist, he gripped her hip with the other. Pushing harder, he lazily guided her movements until she rocked upon his thigh. The encouragement to use his body as though it were an instrument of pleasure spiked her desire past a breaking point.
Pressure gathered. Built. Swirled and sought escape. A mindless, irrational need clawed at her insides. Swelled until she almost sobbed in desperation. She would do anything… anything… for him.
“Theodore… Theodore…” Her voice was shaky. High-pitched. Greedy. “Yes. God, yes...”
Before she could fathom his actions, Theodore ripped her gown open. The thin cloth tore easily in his large hands, exposing her body to the chill of the room. But she didn’t care, and there was no time to contemplate the loss of the garment. He moved with such graceful swiftness it was startling. His thigh shifted away. In a blatant claim of possession, his body slid down hers. His head dipped lower. His mouth claimed her aching sex and then…
And then heat combined with overwhelming, exquisite sensations. His tongue explored the delicate seam of her womanly core, reverently tracing the plump flesh. Flattening to taste all of her in one long, leisurely swipe, he ended this first assault in a fiercely gentle suckling of the nub hidden behind the soft curls.
Lauren cried out. Agonized delight flooded her, exploding in bursts of color and sensations too intense to comprehend. Releasing her wrists, Theodore now gripped her hips with enough force to bruise the skin. Those large, capable hands slid under her buttocks, holding her aloft as if in sacrifice to ancient gods. His fingers grasped so tight she knew instantly he would devour her with the ferocity of a hungry lion.
“You fucking taste like peaches,” Theodore growled, sucking and licking and biting between words. “Come in my mouth again, love. Come again for me.”
His tongue speared her flesh, thrusting with such firmness that Lauren began shaking once more as he commanded her body. Disjointed thoughts tumbled in her mind. Was this the residue of the first climax? Or the beginning of a second?
When it finally crashed over her, the glorious intensity was overwhelming. Her world spiraled out of control. Disoriented, Lauren could only weave her fingers through the thick waves of his hair. The silky strands were something to grasp, something tangible in the palm of her hand. She held on for dear life.
But it didn’t contain her. It couldn’t. She was floating away. Floating on a cloud, somewhere in a twinkling night sky. The threads of her soul and all the lifeless pieces of her life were illuminated. So brightly lit, she wouldn’t be able to view her reflection in a mirror come morning. Spreading deep, permeating her vulnerable heart, thunder rumbled through her body. Or maybe it was just his voice, declaring she belonged to him. That he was keeping her.
A storm had come.
And Theodore was the lightning.
Lauren drifted down in a pleasant, hazy fog of awareness.
Theodore still knelt between her thighs, nuzzling her skin, kissing the mound of her womanhood with tender attentiveness. His fingers no longer gripped her so harshly but now coasted over her. Skimming the soft, white flesh of her belly, tracing the lines of her flanks and the quivering expanse of her outer thighs. Sliding his hands to the inside of her legs, he pushed them to spread even wider.