again.
He stopped.
No.
Bloody hell, no.
He’d known, and yet not wanted to think about or accept the fact that she was an innocent and he didn’t bed virgins and—
Lila took his face between his hands, forcing his eyes open.
Through the haze of desire in her eyes, she glowered fiercely back. “If you stop now, I swear I’m going to put together every last bare-knuckle lesson you’ve given me, you great lummox. I’m a grown woman, capable of knowing what or who I want. And who I want? Is y—”
Hugh consumed the remainder of that profession with his lips, sliding his tongue inside to duel with this woman, fiery in all she did. Fierce and proud, and there wasn’t another like her.
And as she keened softly into his mouth, shifting her hips in a bid to be closer, Hugh thrust home.
Gasping against his lips, Lila stiffened. Her entire body went rigid in his arms.
He breathed hard and kept himself absolutely still. Refusing everything within him that hungered to move. As he confronted yet another mark of his brutality.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, placing a kiss at the corner of her temple. “I wouldn’t hurt you for anything.” His gut twisted. And yet, he had.
“Shh.” Stretching those long, graceful fingers up, Lila brushed them through his hair, stroking him as if he were the one who’d suffered hurt and she wished to drive it back.
Had there ever been anyone who’d felt that way for him?
In the immediacy of that silent question came an equally swift answer—no.
There was no one. And there’d never be anyone.
But for now, there was this . . . and there was her.
And he’d wring every undeserved joy and pleasure he could from this moment.
Hugh ran his lips down the column of her throat, continuing that trail lower to a pebbled pink nipple. Drawing that bud between his lips, he suckled lightly until Lila’s breath quickened and her hips began to again move. And still he continued worshipping that flesh, until her soft, incoherent cries spilled around his room. He found her once more with his fingers and felt her entire body tense under his.
And then he began to move slowly inside her. Her sopping, tight channel slicked the way, drawing him in.
“Lila,” he groaned, thrusting now. Lunge-retreat. Lunge-retreat. And as his hungering built, he was capable of only her name, again and again. Over and over. “Lila. Lila.”
She matched the rhythm he’d set for them. “Hugh, please,” she cried, lifting her hips wildly. Wrapping her arms about him, she clung tight, and that fueled his desire, pushing him higher to that blissful edge of surcease.
And then Lila froze, her eyes went wide, and she screamed her release.
His pace grew frenzied.
Sweat trickled down his face, but Lila brushed that moisture back, the tenderness of her touch shutting his eyes, and he concentrated on the climax he was building toward.
He was so close.
And then he joined her.
Tossing his head back, Hugh bellowed, his voice booming around the rafters as he spilled himself onto Lila’s belly.
With a great gasping breath, he came down over her, catching himself on his elbows to keep from crushing her.
Their breath came sharply in alike little spurts as they just clung to one another. Time melted away, and he was happy to see it go.
Sometime later, Hugh rolled onto his side, and grabbing his shirt from the floor, he proceeded to clean the trace of seed from her stomach, then wiped himself.
Resting on her side, Lila watched him through languid eyes; a soft blush pinkened her cheeks and reminded him that she’d been a virgin. And he’d been the one whom she’d chosen to give that gift to.
An undeserving blackguard, a past killer of both innocents and evil alike. And yet, right now? He couldn’t care that he was unworthy. He only knew he was grateful that she’d chosen him.
A moth to the damned flame, Hugh looked back and went absolutely stock still.
Propped up on an elbow, Lila had rescued a small carved piece from his nightstand and now examined it.
And as she ran the tip of one finger along the great expanse of the creature’s wings, every muscle in Hugh’s chest grew tight at what her too-clever mind would piece together, for there could be no doubting that she would see the subject of his carving for precisely what it was.
Lila shifted her focus over to him, and Hugh immediately returned to tidying himself.
“It is beautiful,” she whispered, turning the bat over in her hands.
He grunted. “It’s