The Buccaneer(66)

She shook her head.

His hand inched farther up. The shift caught on his wrist and moved along with him. "Then tell me what troubles you."

Seeing the sincere concern in his eyes helped her to answer. "I'll be naked."

He smiled. A small laugh followed. "Madam, I've seen you naked before."

She shook her head slowly, a serious expression filling her face. "I had my pearls on."

Lucian glanced to the floor where the pearls lay quiet and still as if in respect to the two lovers. He turned back to her. His own expression as equally serious as hers. "Then tonight, angel, I see you for the first time, innocent and fair of heart."

That he did not laugh at her concern made her at that very moment lose her heart to him. She only prayed he wouldn't break it.

Lucian eased the shift up and off her, tossing it to the floor. He devoured her with his eyes slowly, meticulously, lovingly. "You are more beautiful than the fairest rose in full bloom."

His sincere compliment stunned her speechless.

Softly he warned her of his intentions, "I'm going to taste you." He leaned over her, his hand cupping her breast. "All of you." His lips settled on her rosy pink nipple.

He loved the flavor of her hard little bud rolling around his tongue, the feel of her breast spilling over in his hand and her soft moans of pleasure.

He drew his mouth away briefly as he stretched out beside her. She turned and arched enough to offer him her other breast, he accepted it greedily.

Slowly his hand explored her body. Soft and warm, her silky skin quivered with passion beneath his touch. He splayed his hand on her belly, reveling in her rich softness. He dipped with teasing playfulness between her legs and then withdrew again.

His fingers drove her wild, taunting and then rushing away to leave her hungry like a starving woman in need of sustenance.

"Lucian," she whispered.

He paid her no heed, his mouth intent on enjoying her breasts. His fingers still magically teased her. She dug her fingers into his long hair and pulled until his mouth released her nipple and he looked up at her.

Words failed her and she stared at him helplessly.

"Tell me what you want." He breathed roughly, her interruption of his enjoyment costing him pleasurable pain. Catherine thought. So many things she wanted to experience with him, but what? What did she tell him? What did she want at this moment?

"What?" He ceased all movement and waited.

Her hands dropped from his hair, she moaned and shut her eyes, giving voice to her desire. "Touch me, Lucian, Lord, but I need you to touch me."

He eased her legs apart, stroking her flesh, stoking the fire that he had kindled with each teasing touch.

He brushed his mouth over hers and felt the spark of passion so intense that it stilled him for a moment. Then he resumed, intending to make this night, their first, last forever.

"I'm going to enter you, angel, slow and sweet. Wrap yourself around me. Let me know that you want me."

His words fired her soul and his touch —

Her deep, erotic moan filled the cabin.

"That's it," he encouraged. "Feel me. Enjoy me."

Insane. His touch drove her to near insanity. Nothing had prepared her for such exquisite torment.

"Tighten around me. Let me know you want me inside you." He felt her warm moistness wrap around him, engulf him, and he almost cried out at the thought of burying himself so snugly within her.

Catherine felt breathless and on fire, her flesh sensitive and quivering, alive and aching. "I never thought —" She stopped, her breath and Lucian's intimate strokes making it difficult to continue.

"You haven't tasted it all yet, angel. Wait," he whispered, and lowered his head to her belly, his tongue painting intricate swirls and paths as he descended to where his fingers teased her.

In her innocence she had learned much and knew exactly what he intended. She braced herself, but nothing prepared her for the jolt of sheer pleasure when his tongue caressed the tiny bud that flamed her soul.

She cried out, grasping the edge of the pillows, biting her lower lip, curling her toes against the strange and beautiful sensation that consumed her body.

"Come on, angel," he urged. "I want to feel your first climax against my lips."

His words were the devil's own. She should have been embarrassed, should have blushed at his audacity. But instead she surrendered to his talents and felt herself rise, soar, fly higher than the sun itself and then burst like a radiating star and scatter in sparks back to the earth.

Lucian felt her convulse against his lips. The mere thought that this was her first climactic experience hardened his loins beyond pain, beyond agony.

Time. Patience. He warned himself. Tonight she would be his. Over and over and over.