angle of her body in a way that pressed the breath from his lungs. “My body is crafted to accept a man. You. I’m asking you not to prolong either of our discomfort. Please. Just—”
Her voice broke on a sob as he thrust forward, impaling her as deep as he could, which seemed to be barely over halfway.
A sweltering slew of expletives burst from him as he held himself utterly still with trembling limbs. He cursed the cruel God who made this the most incredible bliss he could have possibly experienced…
And a terrible sort of discomfort for her.
Her nails bit into his back, and he welcomed the pain, wishing he could take it all from her. Because pain had become his friend over the years. Had often been the only way he’d known he was still alive.
But it didn’t belong in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he groaned, pressing his forehead to hers.
She said nothing, only breathed with him as he’d once taught her to do until he could feel the gradual give of her intimate muscles as her body accepted him inside.
In Gabriel’s experience, desire and privation had been his only drive. An emptiness he tried to fill with a fortune nearly consumed him, because with every acquisition, every time he reached for a fantasy… the reality always left him disappointed.
But this. This. Her.
Even though her body only sheathed half of him, the sensations suffusing him were far superior to anything he conjured on the lonely nights he’d spent dreaming of exactly this moment.
With her gentle sigh of relief, her muscles released further, welcoming more of him inside.
“Try again,” she urged softly.
He withdrew, gasping at the hot ripples of her intimate flesh as it gripped at his retreating cock, as if reluctant to let him go. He sank in again, gaining a bit more ground. Then again. And once more, until he’d seated himself as far as she seemed to be able to take.
After only those handful of motions, they were both panting and sweating, their chests heaving against the other.
He was inside her. A part of her. Locked within her body and her embrace.
Never in his life had he dared to hope. Christ… He wanted to savor the moment, but a drive as ancient as humanity itself, took his body away from his heart.
Ecstasy overtook pleasure as he found a slow, rippling rhythm with his hips, not withdrawing much at all, merely rocking against her.
Her lips moved with words he couldn’t hear over the roaring in his ears, so he dropped his head to her shoulder, releasing a shuddering breath. Fighting the rapture already clawing up his spine.
Her soundless whispers of encouragement never permeated the words that created a percussion to his every thrust.
Gold hair. Blue gaze. Soft smile. Scents. Blooms. Spice. Herbs. Slick musk. Smooth flesh.
He felt like a prisoner set free. Or perhaps better, like a warrior invited home.
Home.
That word had never meant anything to him until now.
Welcoming the mindless lust threatening to take over his emotive thoughts, Gabriel found the slick sounds their bodies made incredibly erotic, and he had to focus on keeping himself sane.
Lifting onto his hands to check on her, he nearly lost his rhythm at the sight. If she’d been breathtaking before, looking at her now was like trying to gaze at the sun.
He marveled as she seemed to lose control of her limbs, writhing beneath him, twitching and trembling, clutching at him with artless demands. Her hand smoothed down his back, lower, to shyly explore the curve of his ass, pressing him forward, deeper.
Without thought, he repositioned a bit, his cock finding some deep-seated place inside her that peeled her eyes wide.
“There,” she gasped. “Don’t stop.”
He would never. Instead, he accelerated his pace, deepened his strokes, driving himself home. Inside of her, he could feel the muscles quicken, tighten and release in unbearably sweet spasms as she opened her mouth in a soundless scream.
His own cock thickened, and he held on for as long as he possibly could before, with a deep groan of regret and iron will, he retracted from her, his seed spilling onto the ground beneath her open legs as his entire body undulated with inexhaustible, all-encompassing bliss.
Though the temptation to remain joined with her haunted him in the moments after the storm had passed, Gabriel noted the absolution of exhaustion in the sprawl of her limbs.
Her eyes were languorous upon his as she fought some sort of oblivion with a soft smile and a sigh that turned into