Sattler, Veronica (43 page)

The
kiss seemed to go on forever; it began as a strong, insistent demand, plying
her lips apart as it sought their inner softness, forcing her to yield what he
sought.

Then
she felt his tongue seeking entrance; it lightly touched the tips of her teeth,
then began to explore the sweet inner recesses of her mouth, languorously
teasing, then withdrawing, then seeking entrance again. And all the while his
lips moved softly over hers, tasting, plying the sweetness from them again and
again.

Then
she felt his hand begin to move, sliding gently through the hair at the sides
of her head, moving down to her shoulders and caressing them while his mouth
traced a slowly moving trail of scorching kisses across her ear and down the
side of her delicate neck and throat.

"Ashleigh,"
he murmured, "was ever a woman more beautiful than you? So lovely... so
very... very... lovely..."

As
he spoke, his hands drifted lower, seeking softer flesh, until at last he had
her breasts beneath his palms and felt their budded peaks under the thin
material of her chemise.

He
raised his head and looked into her eyes. "I want to see you, Ashleigh,
all of you," he told her, and with a quick movement, he slipped the straps
of the chemise down her arms, baring her breasts to his gaze.

Ashleigh
gasped, shocked by the moment of intimacy, but as she began to turn her head to
avoid his eyes, he whispered, "No, don't turn from me, sweetheart. I want
you to see me looking at you... oh, God, but you're beautiful...
so damned
beautiful!"

Ashleigh
did as he asked, forcing herself to hold his gaze as his hands returned to her
breasts. Slowly, ever so slowly, he stroked their lush roundness, until at last
his thumbs found their peaks. These he began to tease with tantalizing strokes,
once... twice... and again....

Suddenly
Ashleigh was assaulted by an acute, twisting sensation in the pit of her
stomach, and then lower, at the juncture of her thighs. It came again, and she
moaned aloud with the sensation.

She
saw Brett smile at her reaction, his eyes fixed on hers as his thumbs worked
their sorcery.

"Do
you like this, love?" he asked softly. "Does it give you
pleasure?"

Ashleigh
managed to nod before closing her eyes in an effort to contain the
ever-building sensation within. "Ohh, Brett," she whispered as she
felt his lips at her ear, then her throat, and the tender place where her neck
met her shoulder. A hot furnace seemed to be burning somewhere in the lower
part of her body, and she began to writhe and move with its heat.

Then
she felt his mouth descend farther and, an instant later, close over the peak
where his thumb had played. Gently, he pulled at the aching bud with his lips
while his hands began to slip her chemise down past her thighs.

There
were multiple sensations gripping Ashleigh from several places at once. She
felt the cool flow of air on her naked thighs as he bared them, felt the rush
of candent heat to her body as his mouth moved to the rosy crest of her other
breast, felt her belly tighten with need as his hands moved across its flat
softness.

Then
she saw him rise above her, his breath coming hard and fast as he began to shed
his own clothes. She watched in mute fascination as he bared the hard, muscular
expanse of his chest and massive shoulders, saw his eyes glitter with desire as
his breeches followed his shirt to the floor. She had a weak, distant memory of
having seen him naked before, but she also knew it had never been like this.
His huge body looked, to her in the moonlight, like that of some pagan god, all
silvery and intoxicatingly male, and rigid with his need of her.

Then
he lowered himself beside her again, and his hands and lips resumed their
quest. Soul-drugging kisses captured her mouth again and again, and she felt
herself returning them with an ardor she never knew she possessed. In a great
wellspring of passion, she threw her arms about his neck, drawing him closer...
closer....

As
for Brett, he couldn't get enough of her and had all he could do to force
himself to take his time. Her body was so perfect, so sweetly perfect, and the
innocent passion of her responses was nearly driving him insane.

Carefully,
ever so gently, he traced his hand down her silken hips and across her thighs.
Then, with the softest of movements, he let it come to rest in the dark, silken
triangle between.

Again,
Ashleigh gasped, bringing her thighs tightly together with a startled movement,
but Brett's voice was at her ear, murmuring, "Easy, now, love... No, don't
close to me... I mean to give you pleasure, little one... sweet...
unthinkable... pleasure...."

Then
his knowing fingers began their final assault on her senses. Moving them lower
still, he gently pried her thighs apart, noticing they were trembling now. With
a deft movement, his thumb stroked the hard little protrusion above her nether
lips, his mouth at the same moment covering hers in a sweet, pliant kiss.

At
this latest touch, Ashleigh went into a frenzy, opening her mouth to his while
arching her back and spreading her aching thighs to his seeking caress. Then
she felt his fingers gain entry below, while at the same time his tongue probed
her mouth, but gently... oh, ever so gently....

Brett
heard her moan deep in her throat, Felt the wet, slippery femininity below flex
and tighten as she pushed herself against his questing hand. At the same time
he felt his own hardness throb, its swollen contours near to bursting. And he
knew they were ready.

Carefully
shifting his weight, he braced his hands on either side of her shoulders on the
mattress and poised above her arching body. Then he drove himself deep into her
waiting warmth.

As
she felt his hardness fill her, Ashleigh cried out softly with the relief it
brought, but this was only for a moment. Soon she felt an ever greater need
burning her loins, sending a sweet, aching pain to the core of her. Then Brett
began to move on her, slowly at first, then, as he felt her hands at his back,
felt their nails digging into his skin, he moved faster, harder, giving her
what she sought.

The
throbbing vortex at her center drew Ashleigh spiraling upward until she felt
herself teetering at the brink of something wonderful and unknown, and then she
found it. Great, searing spasms of pleasure began to rock her very being,
binding her mind and body in a cataclysm of sensation. Upward, far into the
heavens she soared with it, giving herself to it completely, giving herself up
to the man who took her there.

Brett
felt her pleasure break just as he felt he could no longer contain his own. He
felt her coming again and again, and his head reeled with the knowledge. Then,
with her yielding, throbbing flesh beneath him, he found his own shuddering
release as he joined in the rapture.

For
a long, long time afterward, neither of them moved. Neither could they speak,
so complete was the repletion they felt. Then, after a long while—a
very
long
while—Brett raised his head to look at her.

Ashleigh
felt him move and opened her eyes to find his, turquoise-silver in the
moonlight, gazing directly at her. And then he smiled, his deeply grooved male
dimples causing her breath to catch and hold for a moment before she released
it in a long, shivery sigh.

"Sweet
wife," he breathed as he continued to smile at her with those incredible
eyes, "I think you've just given me—" he bent to place a soft kiss on
her love-swollen lips "—the greatest treasure—" he kissed her softly
again "—a man could wish for...." Then he buried his face in her
hair, whispering, "Ashleigh, darling, how very perfect I find you."

And
Ashleigh felt herself expand, as if there were a great, buoyant bubble of
delight inside her, lifting her upward in ecstasy, giving her soul flight...
singing with joy.
She'd pleased him!
This sometimes dark, often brooding
near-stranger she'd wed under the most doubtful of circumstances had found her
pleasing....

And
oh,
what he had given her!
A "treasure," he said she'd given
him? Dear God, but he had given her as much! More... Tonight, in his arms,
surely she'd touched Heaven....

"Brett,"
she whispered, "Oh, Brett, I never knew...."

But
even as she tried to tell him how she felt, he was pressing further kisses to
her temples, her brow, her eyes, and, incredible though it seemed to her,
Ashleigh felt renewed longing seep into her limbs. She realized with a start
that his manhood was still buried deep within her when she felt it stir again
and she moaned softly with this awareness.

"Ah,
Ashleigh, I cannot have enough of you," she heard him say, and then she knew
it was the same with her as she welcomed his hands at her breasts, cried out
with the latest wash of pleasure they brought.

He
made love to her again and again through the long night, pausing between times
to let her sleep, holding her close as she did, but for Brett there was no
sleeping, no desire to do so. As many times as he took her, he only found
himself wanting her more, and so he merely held her while she dozed, and after
a time found himself waking her again with sweet, languid kisses that seemed to
touch her very soul. During these times he let his senses fill with her sweet
presence, making himself content to find joy in the moment, forcing, to the
nether reaches of his mind, by sheer dint of his will, a small voice that threatened,
telling him to take his joy while he might, for never could it last.

Finally,
as the dawn began to break, extending its rosy fingers into their chamber, he
feared he would never stop unless he removed himself from their bed. But as he
rose to leave, he heard her cry out softly, "Brett, no... please, I...
want you again...."

And
with a groan of renewed longing, he bent and pulled her into his arms, and the
magic began anew....

Ashleigh
awakened to a flood of golden sunlight pouring into the chamber like melted
butter. It reached her even before she opened her eyes, penetrating her closed
lids with its lemony color and warmth. She kept her eyes shut for a moment,
savoring what her other senses brought her: the sound of birds chirping outside
the open window, the scent of roses carried on the breeze from the gardens
below, the feel of silken sheets on her naked skin....

Suddenly
her eyes snapped open as she fully savored this last impression. She was
naked
in this huge bed with the silken canopy overhead! Naked because... Hastily
Ashleigh shut her eyes again, feeling a blush invade her cheeks as she recalled
her wedding night. Oh, dear, Heaven, had she really... had they really—

"Good
morning, slugabed," drawled a lazy male voice from across the room.

Ashleigh
opened her eyes a second time to see Brett grinning at her as he leaned
casually against the side of the chamber's marble fireplace. He was fully
dressed.

"G-good
morning," she stammered, hating the blush she knew was deepening under
that direct, turquoise gaze.

Laughing
softly, her husband bent to a nearby table and removed a tea cozy from a small
silver teapot on a matching tray, then brought the tray, which also bore a cup
and saucer, to a stand beside the bed.

"Your
breakfast tea, Your Grace," he said, an amused tone in his voice as he set
it down with a flourish. "You take your tea plain, as I recall."

"You
fixed
me tea?" marveled Ashleigh as she rose to a sitting position, her
embarrassment forgotten with this surprise.

"Of
course," he said offhandedly as he looked down at her from his height
beside the bed. "Did you think I wouldn't know how? You must realize that,
as a cabin boy, it was required that I know." He poured the tea into the
cup and handed it to her on its saucer.

As
Ashleigh reached for the tea, she suddenly stopped and glanced downward. Her
movement had caused the sheet to fall away from her, revealing a pair of
rosy-tipped breasts. "Ohh," she moaned, blushing furiously, and
reached for the sheet.

But
Brett's free hand shot out and forestalled the action. "Don't," he
said, covering lightly the knuckles of her two hands as they clutched the edge
of the sheet. "I love looking at you. Your breasts—" he brought the
teacup forward again, but his eyes were on her pinkening face "—are beautiful."

Ashleigh
lowered her eyes as the blush deepened, but managed to take the teacup.
"Th-thank you," she murmured before taking a quick swallow of the
excellent brew, mainly to silence the sound of the cup rattling against its
saucer as she held it.

Brett
chuckled and helped her set both cup and saucer back on the tray at the
bedside. He was enjoying himself immensely this morning, and he knew the reason
for it was sitting before him now. Ashleigh had given him the most satisfying
bedding of his life last night, and she was his
wife!
He recalled with
distaste his feelings about husbandly marital duty just a short time ago when
he'd gritted his teeth against a future with Elizabeth, and then he recalled
the fury with which he'd greeted Patrick's ultimatum. But here he stood,
flaunting fate in the face of both those recollections; here was the very
opposite of those earlier expectations, in the person of this tiny, fragile
beauty who sat blushing before him, to his total delight and not a little
amazement.