A Knight of Honor (40 page)

A fiery urgency filled his body and he felt himself being swept up in an inferno, into a blazing fire of need that could only be quenched by one thing.
 
Slane bent his head to Taylor’s lips, reclaiming them.
 
He needed her just as much as she needed him.
 
He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life.
 
And this time, he would not be denied.
 
Her mouth parted and he tasted her fully, exploring the sweet recesses of her mouth, feeding off of her delectable lips.
 
His manhood grew strong beneath his breeches, bulging against the cloth, aching to explore the dark hollow that lay but a few inches beneath it.

Blood pounded through his mind as his lips swept hers.
 
His consciousness seemed to ebb and then flame brighter than ever.
 
He felt more alive than he had ever felt.
 
He felt every inch of his body pressed intimately against hers, his chest against her breasts, his bulge intimately against her core.
 
His blood surged through his veins, burning like molten lava.
 
He released his hold on her and she immediately put her hands on his arms, refusing to relinquish the moment.

Instead of pulling back, Slane dipped his hand to cup her breast through her tunic, encircling it with his fingers, massaging it with his thumb.
 
Her flesh was firm and full, filling his hand.

Taylor gasped and Slane kissed her again, driving his tongue deeper into her mouth, plundering the recesses, exploring every part of her mouth.
 
Her hands moved from his arms to his back, tracing the coiled muscles with light strokes.

Slane slid his hand across her neck and dipped his fingers beneath her tunic, almost ripping it in his hurry, in his craving, to feel her flesh.
 
When his fingers encircled the delicate, sensitive rise of her breast he felt her arch toward him, gasping for breath.
 
Her knees came up at the sides of his body, her womanly core pressing tight against his manhood.
 
Slane dipped his head to her neck, tasting her skin, wanting her with an urgency he had never felt for anyone else.

Taylor moved her hips against his.
 
She responded to his caress with a deep groan that inflamed Slane’s already combustible senses.
 
He slid to the side of her body, pressing kisses down her throat to the tip of her tunic.
 
He moved his hand out of her clothing and over her flat stomach, across the planes of her belly, to the bottom of her tunic, which had gathered dangerously close to her womanhood.
 
He moved his hand to the bottom of the cloth, feeling a heat emanating from beneath the fabric of her leggings as his fingers touched the very edge of the tunic.
 
Then he dipped his hand lower.
 
He touched the inside of her thigh, letting one finger roam close enough to her womanhood to feel her shudder.
 
The smell of her raw lust permeated her leggings and he let the sweet aroma fill him, let the intoxicating scent of her possess his senses.

Slane moved his hand up to the top of her leggings.
 
She placed a trembling hand over his, halting his movement.
 
Confused, he looked into her eyes.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” she whispered in a husky voice.

His confusion vanished and a dark grin came to his lips.
 
“I know exactly what I’m doing,” he whispered in a silky voice before his hand slipped inside her leggings.
 
He moved his fingers closer to the wetness of her womanhood and touched the soft curls of hair that kept her pearl hidden.
 
Her womanly hair caressed his fingers with whispery, silky softness as he moved through them, easing his way toward the moist petals of her womanhood.
 
He reached the delicate folds and parted them.
 
And then he touched the precious jewel that lay hidden beneath.
 
The sweet sound of her gasping breath, the gentle curve of her arching back, did indeed show that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Taylor couldn’t have stopped him if she wanted to.
 
But the only thing she wanted was more of him, more of his touch.
 
Shivers of pleasure peppered her skin and passion pounded through her veins as he expertly stroked her to heights of rapture.

Slane removed his hand from her womanhood and was surprised and gratified to hear a groan of objection.
 
Slowly, he began to undress her, lifting her tunic up over her flat stomach, past her slim rib cage and over her breasts.
 
He bent his head to the mounds, worshiping her flesh with light kisses.
 
He eased the tunic over her head without taking his lips from the peaks of her breasts.
 
His tongue swirled over the rosy tips, across the hardened pebbles of her nipples.

Taylor gasped, her mind swirling end over end, her world tilting on its axis.

Slane’s lips returned to claim Taylor’s, buffeting them until she was breathless.
 
His hands skimmed the sides of her body to her waist and tugged down her leggings.
 
His kisses traveled over her throat and down to the valley between her breasts as he pushed the leggings from her body.

When he had freed her body of her clothing, he gazed down at her with adoration.
 
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
 
Quickly, he yanked his shirt from his torso.

Taylor watched the unveiling of his glorious body.
 
Like a curtain being swept aside, his tanned chest was revealed, gleaming like bronze in the rising sunlight.
 
Muscles lined his exquisite frame, and more planes of muscle contoured his stomach.
 
She had never seen a more handsome man.
 
When he slid his leggings from his legs, she marveled at the stark power in them.

He leaned over her, holding himself above her with his hands for a long moment, simply gazing down into her eyes.
 
She reached out to him, running her hands along his arms, his shoulders and into his hair.

He lowered himself to her, and Taylor inhaled sharply as his chest touched her bare breasts, the peaks tingling with pleasure.
 
Then his body covered her like a warm blanket.
 
She felt something touch her most intimate core and knew what it was.
 
She opened her legs, trying to feel him against her, to be closer to him.

Slane almost exploded at her invitation.
 
His member lurched forward and found a hot wetness waiting for it.
 
She wanted him as much as he did her.
 
He groaned at the realization.
 
He reached down and touched her core again, opening it.
 
She raised her hips and he eased himself into her.

He felt her stiffen and stopped, pulling back to gaze at her face.
 
Could it be? he wondered.
 
Could she be a virgin?
 
He kissed her lips with a powerful hunger, one close to starvation, and then trailed hot, wet kisses down her neck.
 
He caressed one of her breasts with teasing feather strokes until she relaxed again.

He slid the rest of the way into her, penetrating her completely.

She gasped and thrust gently, tentatively.
 
He answered her plea and began to move.
 
Slowly at first, and then their tempo increased as she matched his moves, thrusting against him.
 
A swirling ecstasy built inside her, until she thought she could take no more.
 
He touched her breasts, kneading, squeezing, and kissed her neck with hot liquid caresses.
 
Her desire rose to peaks of pulse-pounding passion, swirling past the stars to a heaven she had never known existed.
 
Then he kissed her lips with a fierce possessiveness that sent her exploding toward the heavens.
 
Shattering into a million twinkling lights, she lingered in those heavens for a long moment until she fell toward the earth like a shooting star, burning like a fiery inferno.
 
Finally, she lay still beneath him, breathless.

Slane stared down at her in disbelief.
 
He had thought she was beautiful before, but that was nothing compared to the vibrant creature beneath him.
 
Her cheeks were rosy and bright, her breath now easing from her lips in a sweet rhythm of contentment.
 
She was more than he could have possibly imagined.
 
She was everything he could ever want.
 
And with that one thought, he lunged into her, again and again until his own world erupted in a rapture to rival hers.
 
He stiffened, releasing his seed into her, holding her tightly, binding them body and soul.

Slowly, reality penetrated his mind.
 
He felt the night’s breeze cooling his heated skin.
 
He heard his horse whinny in the distance.
 
Birds clattered somewhere to his right.
 
But mostly, he could feel Taylor’s breasts crushed to his chest, her flat stomach pressed to his, his manhood sheltered in her warmth.
 
Slowly he withdrew from her, rolling onto his side.

Taylor didn’t want to open her eyes; she was sure it had all been a dream.
 
She felt... safe somehow.
 
It was silly and ridiculous but she felt sated and warm and…

She opened her eyes.
 
The blackness of the night sky had burned away, replaced by the red of the rising sun.
 
She felt the soft grass beneath her back, heard a soft whinny, and turned her gaze.
 
In the distance, Slane’s horse stood, eating the grass.

She turned to look at Slane.
 
He was staring at her with a small grin on his face.

“What?” she asked defensively.

“You’re beautiful,” Slane whispered.

Taylor was unprepared for the honesty in his voice.
 
She felt the heat rise in her cheeks and had to look away from him.

His low rumble of laughter shook her body.
 
“You don’t take compliments too well.”

“Sorry.
 
That wasn’t something Jared taught me,” she retorted, grabbing for her tunic.

But Slane was quicker.
 
He snatched it off the ground and moved it out of her reach.
 
“And did he teach you how to kiss like that?” he wondered in a strangely dark voice.
 
“Or how to respond to a man’s touch like that?”

“Of course not,” she said, lurching for her tunic.

Slane easily moved it out of her grasp.
 
“Then someone else taught you?”

“No,” she said, dropping her hand.
 
Her eyes got a faraway look to them as she remembered.
 
“There was one man, or rather boy, who came close.
 
But I just didn’t trust him.”
 
She snorted.
 
“It’s a good thing I didn’t.
 
He was a liar and a thief.”

“There were no others?” Slane wondered.

Something in his voice pricked her nerves and she lifted her head.
 
He hadn’t known!
 
He had thought she had slept with other men!

Slane scowled.
 
“I’m...
 
You’ve never...”

Taylor shook her head slowly.
 
He’d regret what he’d done now.
 
He’d turn away from her.
 
“No.
 
There was no one before you.”
 
She steeled herself against his rejection.

But there was no rejection.
 
His look softened with tenderness.
 
There was possessiveness in his stare, and something else, something she didn’t recognize.
 
A crooked grin curved his lips and he leaned forward to plant a kiss against her cheek.

She lifted her eyes to lock gazes with his.
 
He was so close to her that she felt the heat of his breath fan her lips.
 
He reached out to her, drawing her to him, engulfing her in a tight embrace.