“Brush your fingertips across the peaks.”
The fiery jolt she felt when she complied took her breath away. “Come to me now, Lucius.” She touched her breasts again, aching for his hands upon her.
His dark eyes flared with satisfaction. “Soon.” He drew a long breath. “First, part your folds for me.” He loosened his grip on the bed frame long enough to brush an agonizing stroke over the curls between her thighs. “Here.”
She clenched deep inside, wanting to beg him to fill her there, where she felt nothing but emptiness. But the hard, almost painful expression on his face told her he wouldn’t comply until she’d done as he’d asked. She moved her trembling hand downward by slow degrees. Her fingers touched her own soft, bare flesh and slid along the hot dew of her desire.
His breath left in a rush. His body, already strung tight as a bow, tautened further. Beads of perspiration appeared on his brow, but still he didn’t reach for her. His eyes consumed her, urged her on.
She stroked herself again, finding the hidden nub that seemed to be the center of her torment. She touched it once and cried out. Her hips arched, her legs parted even wider.
Then Lucius was upon her, his hands skimming the surface of her skin, his body covering hers with its heat. He kissed a hot trail down her neck to her breast and suckled, and if Rhiannon had thought her want unbearable before, she found her anguish now to be beyond anything she could have imagined. She writhed under Lucius’s touch, wrapping her legs about his body and trying to capture his shaft between her thighs.
Coherent thought scattered in a gale of need. It was a storm she’d never before ridden, indeed, had never even known existed.
“Lucius—” Her plea ended in a moan when his teeth grazed her nipple.
“Steady, my nymph.” He rose over her, supporting himself on forearms braced on either side of her head. “It’s but evening and we have all night. There’s no need to hurry.”
She bit back a sob of frustration. Her palms skittered with urgency over his shoulders and across his chest. “I want you now.” Nay, she needed him—more than pride, more than sanity, more than breath. Her questing hand found the tip of his shaft, her finger catching a bead of moisture. A sound like a low growl tore from Lucius’s throat.
“Now,” she said. The word was a plea, a prayer. She inhaled. The scent of his desire inflamed her. He was rough leather and restless energy, sweet balsam and hot sun. He knelt between her open thighs, but still he held himself apart from her. Too far. She needed him closer.
She wrapped her fingers around his shaft and hissed with satisfaction when it leapt hotly in her palm. He shuddered and buried his face in the crook of her neck, catching her flesh between his teeth and nipping hard enough to send a dart of pleasure to her loins.
“You are fire and mist at once,” he said in a tone filled with wonder. He raised his head just far enough to look into her eyes. “Are you truly mortal? Or are you Diana, come to torture me?”
“Diana?”
“A wild goddess. The dark forest is her realm.”
“No goddess,” Rhiannon whispered. “I’m but a woman.”
“Then I am content to be a man.”
The hot tip of his shaft touched her at last, teasing, probing. Exquisite ripples of sensation overtook her as her hips tilted upward. He entered her slowly in one endless thrust, opening and stretching her flesh until he lay hot and full inside her.
The feel of him was like the summer dawn, sweet and wild. She clenched his cock with her body, sending a spasm of pleasure through her, and she knew he felt it, too, because his arms began to tremble with the exertion of holding himself motionless within her.
She opened herself further, lifting her hips and spreading her knees as she stretched to take in all of him. She gripped his buttocks and pulled him closer, wanting more.
“For the love of Jupiter, be still but a moment,” Lucius said. His expression was fierce, but his lips curved in a rueful half smile. “Or you’ll end your pleasure before it’s begun.”
Low laughter bubbled in her throat. She circled her hips and smiled when his growl sounded in her ear. He uttered an oath and surrendered to her. His mouth claimed hers in a punishing kiss as he began to move.
Her body responded with a flood of sensation, a turbulent combination of bliss and agony. Lucius’s tongue plunged and retreated with excruciating leisure. His cock matched the rhythm, thrusting and withdrawing in long, slow strokes. Rhiannon gripped his shoulders and bucked against him. If he didn’t increase the tempo of their joining, she would surely die before she reached … what? She could not fathom the answer, but suspected Lucius knew all too well what her body craved.