Marriage Without Love & More Than a Convenient Marriage(42)

He laughed deep in his throat at her quivering reaction, stroking his fingers along her midriff and lowering himself on to the bed beside her. ‘So timid and shy! I could almost believe you still a virgin if it wasn’t for Nicky, and some particularly entrancing memories. Do you remember what you said to me then? How you pleaded so sweetly for me to possess your body, and how you cried with pleasure when I did?’

His hands were moving slowly upwards, moulding her breasts gently, moving lightly against her nipples.

‘You do remember, don’t you?’ he breathed against her ear, his voice honey-sweet and seductive.

Briony tried to push him away, her palms tingling with shock as they came into contact with the male warmth of him.

‘No!’ She didn’t know whether the word was a denial of his erotic words, or a denial of her own feelings, but Kieron seemed to be in no doubt. He rolled over, holding her clamped against him, his eyes hard as they searched her face.

‘No?’ he prompted softly. ‘Then I shall just have to remind you.… The surroundings were similar, in that we were lying together on a bed. But then you pleaded with me to let you feel me against you without the restriction of our clothes!’

‘No!’ Briony denied desperately. ‘I never said anything of the kind!’

‘Perhaps not in so many words, but your body told mine pretty clearly that that was what you wanted. I even seem to remember you helping me out of my shirt. Like this,’ he added huskily, sliding her hand against his chest where it tangled in the crisp dark hairs and clenched convulsively against him as he pulled his shirt free of his waistband and pulled her down against his naked warmth.

Her breasts swelled tautly with remembered warmth and Kieron groaned huskily deep in his throat. ‘You see, you haven’t forgotten at all,’ he growled against her ear. ‘You show me what comes next.’

For a brief moment she fantasised about doing just that, the palms of her hands sliding treacherously against Kieron’s skin, the impeding jeans making her fingers curl resentfully as they ignored the commands of her brain to stop their sensual exploration and devote their energies to repulsing his masterful invasion of her senses.

‘Still shy?’ he teased, pinning her underneath him and raising himself up on one elbow to study the fluid lines of her body. ‘I seem to remember much the same problem last time, although we eventually managed to overcome it. Undress me, Briony,’ he urged against her ear. ‘I love to feel you touching me.’

Her tongue flicked out to wet her dry lips, the betraying movement quickly stilled, but Kieron had seen it, and his hands cupped her face, and his own tongue lightly traced the outline of her mouth, his eyes gleaming in the darkness as she swallowed convulsively.

‘Want me, sweetheart?’

Briony shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. Her whole body was trembling uncontrollably.

‘Ah, that’s better,’ Kieron murmured. ‘Now we’re getting to the woman you’ve buried for so long. She wasn’t cold and frigid, was she, Briony?’

Warning signals flashed despairingly in her brain, but her body was ignoring them, too languorous and aroused to heed their import. Her hands slid down to the hardness of Kieron’s hips, tugging ineffectually at the cream cotton.

‘Mmm, I know,’ Kieron whispered, moving away slightly. ‘That better?’ he asked her seconds later, taking her hands and spreading them against the flat tautness of his stomach, his faint laugh lost on an unsteady groan as her fingers stroked tremulously against him, causing him to shudder deeply and fasten his mouth on hers in aroused demand.

There was a throbbing ache deep down inside her, a need for fulfilment that obliterated anything else. Her body arched provocatively against Kieron’s, inciting him to subdue its subtle torment by inflicting his own revenge in the unhurried exploration of his mouth and hands. As though she had stepped from one world to another, leaving reality completely behind her, Briony responded passionately, her lips pressed feverishly against his skin, tasting its salty bitterness and feeling his gasped moan of pleasure. This time she was no uncertain novice having to be coaxed and taught, and her body remembered things her mind had long since refused to hold.

There was a moment when Kieron’s thigh parted hers, when she felt spiralling panic and fought against him, but the rebellion was brief, her body already writhing heatedly even while her muscles contracted in protest.

‘It’s all right,’ Kieron muttered thickly, caressing her into relaxation, his ‘Oh God, Briony!’ lost in her own sharply passionate cry as her body welcomed him back with passionate sincerity.