wrenching his mouth from hers and searching her face for signs of fear.
She nodded. “I’m fine. As long as you don’t stop.”
“No chance, habibti.”
“Good.”
He tugged the top of her sun dress down and exposed her breasts. He looked back, saw that the palace was obscured from view by the rock. “No one will see,” he said, his voice rough, another man’s voice, filled the kind of animal need and desire he’d never allowed himself to feel.
“I hadn’t even thought about it,” she said, a shaky laugh injecting a tremor into her words.
He lowered his head and swept his tongue over her nipple, then the other.
“Careful about how you do that,” she said.
He ignored her, tasting her again. Would he ever get enough? It seemed like the void had opened back up again, only now it was desperate to be filled by this. Hunger, need and lust. And Chloe. Always Chloe.
“Sayid,” she said.
“Oh, Chloe, I was missing a lot when I wasn’t able to touch you,” he said, sliding his thumb over one erect nipple. He lifted his head so that he could look at her, her face, filled with desire, his body flushed pink, further evidence of her arousal.
“I was missing quite a bit too.”
“Let me show you how much,” he said.
He moved his hands down around her back, sliding his fingertips along the elegant line of her spine, down to the rounded curve of her butt, still covered by the dress. He lifted the skirt up, sliding his fingertips beneath her panties, sucking in a harsh breath when he touched soft, bare skin. He squeezed her tight, loving her curves. Loving that she was all woman. Everything any man could possibly desire.
She shivered and he captured her trembling lip between his teeth as he moved his hand toward her inner thighs, his fingers coming into contact with the moisture between her legs.
“You want me,” he growled.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Tell me,” he said, needing to hear it, his body crying out to be filled by something. By feeling. “Tell me how much. Tell me what.”
“It hurts how badly I want you,” she whispered, burying her face in his neck, pressing a kiss to his throat.
“Tell me what you want,” he said, sliding his fingers deeper, across the seam of her body, the evidence of her desire coating his skin.
“I want you,” she panted, “I want you inside of me.”
“Like this?” he asked, pushing one finger into her slick channel.
“More,” she said, her voice shaking.
“This?” He added a second, working them in and out of her. She arched into him, her bare breasts rubbing against his chest. And he thought he would explode then and there. Thought his heart would burst from his body, thought he would come just from witnessing her pleasure. From feeling it.
Not yet.
He needed more.
He withdrew from her and she sagged against him. “Oh...”
“We aren’t through yet.” He reversed their positions, pressing her back against the rock. “Does that hurt?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Good.” He lowered himself in front of her, his knees in the sand, a position of reverence. All the better to give her body the attention it deserved.
He gripped the bunched up fabric of her dress and tugged it down her hips, letting it fall to the ground. He leaned in, pressing a kiss to her stomach, just above the waistband of her panties.
She pushed her fingers through his hair, holding on tightly as he shoved her underwear down, leaving her completely exposed. Just as he wanted her.
He kissed her stomach again and she trembled. “You are so beautiful,” he said. He brushed his fingertips over the lines on her stomach, evidence of all that carrying Aden had cost her. Physical proof. “I once thought of you as a mother tiger. And you are indeed. You’ve earned these stripes, and I am in awe of them. Of what they represent.”
“They’re...ugly.”
“They aren’t.” He kissed one of the lines, giving proof to his words. “You are beautiful everywhere.”
He moved his lips down. “Absolutely everywhere,” he said against her skin.
Then he kissed her at the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs, sliding his tongue along the same path his fingers had taken earlier. Her fingers tightened in his hair, incoherent sounds escaping her lips as he pleasured her, tasted her, let himself be filled with her.
But it still wasn’t enough.
He was so hard it hurt, but it wasn’t his body that felt the greatest need. It was the cavern inside of him where his