heat and want in his eyes sent a bolt of heat straight through her. Tenderly, he cupped her cheek, holding his gaze with hers as he slowly bent forward, giving her time. Time to move away, time to change her mind. Miri met him halfway, her lips melting against his, their sighs mingling. His kiss was deep and sure as if they had all the time in the world. She murmured her pleasure as he pulled her farther onto his lap to straddle him.
God, he was strong. Muscles shifted and bunched beneath her questioning hands. Smooth, cool marble became heated stone as his kiss deepened and became insistent. He trembled, and the strong arms that bracketed her tightened. “Don’t stop.” It was part plea, part demand. “I’d forgotten,” he whispered, “how it felt to be touched. To have hands upon my skin.”
Then she would never stop. Tremulously, she caressed the smooth slope of his back to the rounded curves of his shoulders. Archer sighed, his long body moving against her hand like a contented cat. “And kisses?” she murmured and placed a kiss on one corner of his mouth. Then the other. “More of those?”
His eyes drifted closed. “If you must.” His breath hitched as she kissed the tender spot at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. The skin was satin there, cool and strong. She moved to the other side, where the scent of him was heady and warm, and his pulse jumped beneath her lips. Silence lay thick around them, highlighting the lazy crackle of the fire in the grate. She pressed each soft kiss along his shoulder, increasing the cadence of Archer’s breathing.
Firelight flickered over his skin, setting it aglow like sunshine on winter ice. Down her hand went, over hard, flat pectorals, along the little ravine that divided his abdominal muscles. His navel was a small half-moon and ticklish, she discovered as taut muscles around it twitched at her touch. The thick length of his sex lay almost flat against his stomach, reaching toward his navel. It was changed, the color of ice. Fascinated, she wrapped her hand around it.
Archer hissed sharply. His hand locked on her wrist. “You will kill me,” he rasped. His grip on her tightened as if to pull her away, but then he stilled, and his fingers settled over hers, holding her there, urging her on. Enthralled, she stroked down. A weak curse tore from his lips, and his head fell against her shoulder. Heat swelled over her as she stroked, watching him shiver, his muscles tensing. He was hard as marble, yet pulsing with life. She squeezed and a choked sound rumbled in his throat.
“Harder?” she whispered. Vividly, she remembered him pushing her into a cold wall, his long fingers probing her. The helplessness and urgency, the luscious heat. Her insides tightened.
His brows knitted, a look of agony darkening his features yet his mouth was slack with pleasure. “Yes… God, yes.”
She complied, and he convulsed, his narrow hips thrusting up to meet her as if compelled. Her core pulsed in response. She wanted to bite his neck, lick his skin, drive him over the edge. Groaning, Archer burrowed his face into her neck, his hands weakly clutching her upper arms.
“Faster?” He swelled within her hand.
“Yes.”
A strangled sound died on his lips as she moved faster, watching his large frame shake. Heat throbbed between her legs; the empty void there wanting to be filled. Archer’s fingers bit into her skin, his breath coming in shallow gasps. Unable to help herself, she leaned forward and sank her teeth into the hard muscle of his shoulder. The response was immediate. Archer’s hand clasped hers, yanking it away, as his other cupped her nape and pulled her down to his mouth.
The kiss was deep and hard and frantic. She wrapped her legs around his waist as his tongue plumbed her mouth in deep strokes, and he tweaked her nipples, tender little tugs that pulled mewling cries from her lips. Red lust sent her head spinning. Her arms wrapped about his damp neck, and she rocked against his sex, her breasts heavy and aching, her skin tight and hot. “Archer,” she whimpered against his mouth.
Soft carpet met her back, his hard flesh and untapped strength surging over her, pressing her down, his mouth never leaving hers. “I will try to be gentle, Miri,” he promised against her lips. The tip of his sex bunted up against hers, so big that she convulsed. “I swear,”