arms, her breasts tight against his chest and her legs between his. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, wanting to thrust his hips as well, but the moment wasn’t about sex, although he thought of climbing over her with regularity. And if this moment with his hands on the bottom of this beautiful women and his tongue in her mouth was not about sex . . . then what was it about?
Lucinda chose that moment to lift her slender arms, the silk sleeves falling back to her shoulders, to wrap her hands around his neck. She moved her hips against his cock, which was already at full attention. She moaned at the contact and ran her finger around his ear.
He wanted her. He wanted her more than any other woman he’d ever known.
“Lucinda,” he whispered and pulled her hands from around his neck, gathering them in his. “We’re in some dangerous territory here. I think I should go.”
“I think you should too, but not before you lie down on that bed with me. You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted.”
“You’ll live to regret it.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m just a run-down fighter, and I don’t want to be the cause of anyone’s regrets. Most of all yours.”
“A woman’s virginity, her body, is her own. It’s not a man’s to take. It’s hers to give,” she said, meeting his eyes in that calm and precise way that she had. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, running her tongue over the chip in his tooth and making him growl with need.
“I can pleasure you without taking your virginity,” he whispered.
She took his hand and led him to the bed. She shrugged off her robe and bent to grab the hem of her gown, pulling it over her head and leaving her fully naked in front of him.
“I want it all,” she said. “And I want it with you.”
He pulled his shirt over his head and kicked off his shoes, all without taking his eyes from her body. She was slender, with full breasts, pink-tipped and puckered, curving hips, and a thatch of pale blond hair between her legs. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, with a body that would tempt a priest, and it was all bared for him. He felt gifted. He knew she was a virgin, and he was certain she did not do this lightly. He hopped around on one foot to pull off his stockings, and she looked at him with a raised brow.
He slowly unbuttoned his pants, his cock springing free, and pushed them down his legs. She was staring at him, at his crotch, and taking shallow breaths. She reached out a hand and touched him there, and he closed his eyes and moaned. She glanced up at him and sat down on the bed, inching back and stretching out until she was reclined, one knee bent, her hands at her sides.
James lay down beside her, kissed her open-mouthed, and palmed her breast, his member laying heavily on her thigh.
His body was everything Lucinda had anticipated. She’d seen his broad shoulders, deep chest, and large muscular arms when she’d watched him box and knew he was beautiful and masculine with a scattering of dark hair across his chest narrowing down to his stomach. But the rest of him made her breathless and damp between her legs.
“Do you understand what . . . ?” he asked while running a finger down her side and over her hip.
She nodded. “Aunt Louisa told me in very plain language when I was eighteen. She didn’t want me to be a victim because I didn’t understand a man’s intent.”
He leaned close to her, propped on his elbow, and hitched a smile on one side of his mouth. “And what is my intent?”
“Your intent is to take this,” she whispered and wrapped her fingers around him, causing him to close his eyes and pant a breath. “And put it inside me. And then rock back and forth on your knees, moving it in and out, and in and out, until you spill your seed in my body.”
“Jesus, Lucinda. You can’t talk like that and expect me to hold back,” he breathed in her ear.
She laid her hands on his cheeks. “Don’t hold back, James.”
He climbed over her, resting his weight on his forearms, kissing her and rubbing his chest against her nipples. She wanted this. She knew there would be heartache, whether she never saw