The Perfect Temptation (52 page)

sheet around his hips. He was forcing himself
to swallow

when she gently stepped up against him,
slipped her arms

around his neck, smiled softly and said,
"I'm done thinking.

Will you make love with me, Aiden?"

There was no denying her. Or himself. He bent
his head

and kissed her waiting lips, nibbling at her
lower one,
teas
ing

the inside curve of it with the barest tip of
his tongue.

She moaned softly and melted into him, her
breasts hot and

tantalizing against his chest, the feminine
pillow of her abdomen

cradling the hardened length of him.

Alex stifled a cry of disappointment when he
drew away

and lifted her arms from around his neck. But
the look in his

eyes reassured her even as it took her breath
away and

ignited a fire deep in her soul. Her hands in
his, he backed toward

his pallet and she went, her heart hammering
wildly

and her core going molten.

He stopped, placed his hands on her
shoulders, and

smiled as he leaned down and kissed her
again. She tried to

reach for him, to close the distance between
them, but he

stayed her gently and bent his head even
further to plant a

lingering kiss to the side of her throat.
Tilting her head back,

she granted him free passage, surrendering
her body to the

sweet mastery of his touch, the certainty of
his intent.

Her mind lingered, vaguely present beneath
the heady

delight of physical sensation and the swift
burgeoning of an

elemental hunger. He kissed the hollow at the
base of her

throat, languidly tracing the curve of it
with his tongue, before

he moved lower .. Oh, yes, she knew where he
was going

and the sweet torture he could inflict in
getting there.

She arched back to tempt him, impatient for
the pleasure

she remembered. His hands tightened on her
shoulders and

he groaned, but he conceded to her wordless
plea. She gasped

as his mouth closed over the tender peak of
her breast, staggered

as he suckled hard and the bolt of blinding
pleasure

shot into the swelling tide of need. The fire
was instant and

consuming and she grasped his forearms,
hanging on, breathless

and weak in the delight of it.

But he didn't leave her time to fully explore
it, to find a

comfortable place for herself among the
waves. With a long,

hard pull, he surrendered the prize to press
a kiss to the inside

curve of her breast. And then move lower
still.

"Oh," she breathed, her mind lushly
whispering of his destination.

His hands slipped off her shoulders to slowly
skim

over her breasts, to gently pinch her nipples
as he planted a

kiss at the juncture of her ribs. His
palms
heated, his fingers

firmly gentle, he stroked her sides to her
waist as he bent to

one knee and laid a trail of branding kisses
to her navel.

Her body quivering, Alex threaded her fingers
through

his hair, desperate to endure, and then
arched her back in a

silent plea for deliverance. His tongue
traced the edge and

she tensed in anticipation, shuddered in
delight as he dipped

in--once, twice-and then moved lower, his
kisses slow and

incendiary.

"Aiden," she groaned, a molten heat
surging into her

thighs and her knees trembling, weakening
with every frantic

beat of her heart.

He ignored her, slowly, gently, relentlessly
kissing his

way into her curls. Her mind marveled at the
thrill of the intimacy.

Then there was no thinking at all, no
conscious

awareness of anything other than the bolts of
luscious fire

arcing through her, slowly, singly at first
and then faster until

they came one on the other, spiraling her
senses upward

until her world narrowed into only an urgent,
burning desperation

to reach the top.

And then the pleasure and the need became one
and she

was hurled upward, gasping and quaking until
it exploded in

and through every fiber of her body,
overwhelming and possessing

all that she was.

Aiden smiled, savoring the moan that came,
low and quietly,

from deep in her soul as she collapsed by
small, quivering

degrees into his arms. Her face buried in the
curve of his

neck as she raggedly gasped for air and her
arms draped

limply over his shoulders, he gently laid her
down on his

pallet and took the sheath from the night
table.

Her unstinted embrace of passion, the
wholeness of her

surrender to pleasure ... He brushed a
tendril of dampened

hair from her cheek, knowing that he'd never
lain with a

woman like her. Pleasing Alex was an
unbelievably potent

pleasure in itself.

She sighed against his lips when he kissed
her, murmured

his name against them while he settled
between her thighs,

and then gently sucked the air from his lungs
as he pressed

against the gate of her citadel. His hands
deep in the feather

pillow on either side of her head, he waited,
gazing down at

her and marshaling control until her eyes
fluttered open and

she met his gaze.

Her eyes sparkled and then she arched a brow
and smiled

in the deliciously wicked way that was hers
alone. "Would

you think it too terribly selfish of me to
ask for more?"

She was, without question or doubt, the most
delightful

creature who had ever come into his life. How
she could

make
him
laugh and bum with need at the same time .. . "I

absolutely adore you," he confessed.
laughing and leaning

down to feather kisses at the comers of her
mouth.

Twining her arms around his neck, she caught
his lower

lip with her own and gently suckled it His
amusement faded

beneath a rushing wave of heated desire and
he pressed his

hips closer to hers, needing her, profoundly
wanting her to

need
him,
too.

She shifted. lifting her hips and fitting
them, taking him

in
with a slow,
luxurious ease that tore
a
moan from deep in

his soul and sent heated pleasure rippling
through his body.

Clinging resolutely to conscious thought, he
held the speed

of his advance in check, determined to give
her as much enjoyment

as he could before she had to endure the
pain.

Her flinch was abrupt and involuntary and he
instantly

eased away from the barrier. The friction was
exquisite and

he gazed down at her, stunned by her beauty,
by the pureness

of the joy in her smile. He stopped and then
gently swept forward

again, mindful of the limits of her body,
reveling in the

heat of her welcome, in the sound of her
languid, luscious

gasp.

Again he stopped short; again he withdrew.
And yet

again, always watching her, ever aware of her
rising ardor,

ever aware of his swiftly building need. At
the edge of his

control, he drew back one last time and
slipped his hands

lower on her hips.

"No," she declared softly, pushing
her hands against his

shoulders to stay him.

Aiden froze, straining to hold back,
understanding her

command but knowing that delaying or even
slowing

wouldn't make it any less painful for her.
Willing himself to

be patient, he leaned forward and brushed his
lips over hers,

murmuring, "You tell me when,
darling."

She kissed him while shifting slightly
beneath him and

hooking her leg over his. He groaned as their
fit changed and

he lost the angle he needed, but resolving to
let her have the

time she required, he didn't resist. He
closed his eyes, hoping

to God she didn't make him wait too much
longer.

"What the-" He gasped as she arched
up and neatly

flipped him over on his back. She looked down
at him with a

sultry smile and, fitting them just as
perfectly as before, settled

herself astride him.

"What are you doing, Alex?" he
whispered, his hands on

her hips as he gently tried to keep her from
inadvertently going

too far and bringing the pain upon herself.

She reached down and took his hands,
threading her fingers

through his own. "Making a choice,"
she murmured as

she pushed his elbows into the bedding. She
leaned

forward, her weight borne on his hands, the
deliberate,

changing friction intoxicating. He sucked a
breath as his

heart raced and his blood shot like fire into
his loins.

Rocking gently back, she stroked him again,
stopping

short of her maiden's barrier, then leaned
forward again, this

time more quickly. He clamped his teeth and
tightened his

grip on her hands, struggling to keep his
awareness from being

swept away in the maelstrom of exquisite
sensation.

"More, Aiden?"

"Alex," he growled through clenched
teeth, straining to

hold himself in check, desperately wild with
wanting.

She rocked back again, so fast, so hard that
he was paralyzed

by the pleasure, that his frantic effort to
draw her forward

came too late. For a second there was the
ecstasy of

being fully joined and then it was swept away
in the realization

of the price that had been paid. The cry
started low in

her throat, rolling upward and slashing at
his heart. He

bolted upright and pinned her arms behind
her, covering her

mouth with his own and taking what he could
of her pain

into himself.

The sound of it slowly ebbed away and she
relaxed

against him, gently tugging her hands from
his grasp. He

held her close, trailing tender kisses along
the curve of her

neck as her hands came to rest on his shoulders.

Her eyes closed, Alex threaded her fingers
through the