He murmured against her ear. “Your passion is so beautiful, Emma. What I wouldn’t give…” He broke off with a smothered groan to press his mouth to the side of her throat.
She arched in his arms. The heat of his mouth contrasted with the cool night air and sent shivers across her skin. But his words incited a sudden fear he might leave her like this. Determined not to let that happen, she tightened her arms about his neck and pressed her hips more firmly to him. The evidence of his desire pushed hard into her belly and she moved against him, wishing she could reach between them and take his hardness in her hand.
Eighteen
Tension rode high through every inch of Roderick’s body as he resisted the need raging within him. Every catch in her breath and roll of her hips brought him closer to the edge of his control. Very soon he would not care that she was innocent. The yearning in his body, in his soul, would shortly overrule the corner of sense still present in his mind.
He could not forget she was of a world to which he would never belong. If he took her—claimed her—like he wanted to, she would be forever changed.
He would truly be a bastard by nature if he allowed her to come to ruin for his pleasure.
Yet he could not stop.
Despite the torturous effect it had on him, he kept feeding her fire—until he could taste her rising passion in her kiss, feel the need growing in her restless movements and the clenching of her fingers. He couldn’t stop urging her higher as he ran his hand over the curve of her hip and down the back of her thigh. And when she responded with another gentle moan, he grasped the material of her skirt and pulled it up to bare her leg.
Circling his palm around the curve of her thigh, he reveled in its silken warmth. His fingers eased closer to the heat at her core. She responded with a dart of her tongue into his mouth and a luxurious arch of her low back that flattened her breasts against his chest.
When she lifted her leg, bringing her knee up alongside his hip, opening herself to his touch, the world dropped away. A violent rush of need released his last tenuous connection to reality. No longer able to fight the lust clawing at him, he pressed her against the wall, pinning her there with his hips, holding her firm on his thigh.
She broke from his kiss with a gasp. With one arm secure around her back, his other hand still gripping the curve of her buttock, he peered into her face. The shadows were deep, but not so dark he could not see her eyes gazing up at him, reflecting the magic of the moon.
Her lips were parted and her breath came fast. She clenched and unclenched her hands in the material of his coat. The sweet scent of her surrounded him, making him weak and dazed.
Holding her gaze, he rocked his hips in a deliberate act of possession, his erection pressing hard against her hip.
Her eyelids fluttered and her head fell back, exposing her throat.
He rocked his hips again and she curved her spine—deeply this time—forcing the bare swell of her breasts over the edge of her bodice. It was too much. He lowered his head to dip his tongue into the decadent hollow of her cleavage. She tasted like temptation itself, all melting sweetness and female mystery. Her fingers slid through his hair, holding him to her and he felt near to death with the need to plunge into her body and make her his.
But not here like this.
No. Not ever.
No matter how lust-drugged he became, there was one thing he saw clearly—she was not for him.
And yet…perhaps he would never be able to claim her as his own, but he could give her some of the pleasure she sought.
He fitted his mouth against the heavy pulse at the side of her throat. Easing the hard pressure of his thigh, he slid his hand around the curve of her buttock until he reached the slick heat between her legs. She jerked gently at the first touch of his hand. Moisture coated his fingers as they glided over her virgin flesh. Slowly, she softened. With all the artful attention he could manage, he circled the sensitive bud of pleasure at the apex—teasing her, demanding she accept the sensations he evoked. Her body relaxed and tensed in turns. Her limbs grew restless and her breath started to catch in her throat.
His blood ran like fire as her rising passion fed his own. He had underestimated the effect her pleasure would have on him, but he remained relentless in his pursuit to drive her ever higher. He was desperate to show her what joy could be experienced in a lover’s arms.
When she began to writhe delicately, he took her mouth again in a passionate kiss as he eased two fingers into her hot sheath. Her tight body softened around the intrusion.
Grinding his teeth to control the violent throbbing in his loins, he began a gentle glide of his fingers in and out of her passage, alternating with lush strokes around her sensitive bud. She clung to him, her quiet gasps interrupting their kiss.