saying dear or hon. Did she know her face softened when he called her that? As if every time the endearment came from his lips, he was saying I love you; that’s how she looked. He’d never told any woman but his mam I love you, didn’t think, after the life he’d lived, the things he’d done, that he had love in him. And yet the melting in her eyes when he said it…love. That was love staring back at him. It had been love in her eyes when she’d surrendered to him.
Making love, not sex. He understood the difference now. He just didn’t know if he had it in him to return the emotion Lyse gave so freely.
Shoving the thought to the back of his mind, he crawled onto the bed and hovered over her sprawled body. “Let me be taking care of ya real quick.”
Except there was nothing quick about touching her. From the back of her neck to her belly, he traced every inch, clearing away sweat and memorizing the lines of her body. Between her legs, he came to his knees and shifted her legs out, exposing her. Cleaning her. Taking care of her. Lyse hissed at the rasp of fabric against her clit, her lips, but also lifted into him, seeking more. A quick glance showed her nipples tight and straining against the air.
Feck. His cock hardened at the sight. She was fighting it, he could tell, forcing her breath to stay even, her stare fixed on the ceiling as she concentrated—but her body didn’t know how to lie, not yet. She was too new to sex for that.
She had to be sore. He shouldn’t do this. But even as he thought it, he was dropping the cloth to the floor and pressing his palm over her mound, resisting the urge to sift through the neatly trimmed brown curls there. The weight drew a moan from deep in Lyse’s throat.
“You want me again,” he said, hoarse surprise in the words.
Her eyes squeezed shut, her head turning to the side. Hiding. Lyse always hid when what she wanted seemed to be too much. But it wasn’t too much to demand pleasure; he’d teach her that.
“Lyse, look at me.”
She shook her head, eyes still closed—until his thumb pressed hard on her clit. Still so sensitive, her body pushed up on instinct, searching for more. And God, he wanted to give her more.
“Look at me,” he demanded, circling his thumb. Her eyes lost focus as they sought him out. “Do you want me again, love? Because I can give you what you need. I don’t have to be inside you to pleasure you.” The words rang in his ears, and he realized they weren’t quite true. He was already inside her, deep inside where he didn’t think she’d ever get him out. Where he never wanted to leave.
“I do,” she whispered hoarsely.
He did too.
“Touch those tits for me.” Grasping her inner thighs, he shifted them farther out, far enough to accommodate the breadth of his shoulders. Pink lips peeled open, and his mouth began to water.
In slow motion he lowered his head, gaze fixed on Lyse’s hands as they cupped her firm tits. Her fingers were small compared to his, and when they grasped her nipples, pinching, he could still see the very tips, watch as they turned berry red. He wanted them in his mouth, wanted that primal connection between breast and man and sex, driving deep inside the wet warmth of her body. But right now something else would have to do.
He opened his lips, his breath coasting over her skin. The first lick along her labia brought a shriek from her lips.
He grinned against her opening.
Another lick. Another cry of need. The scent of Lyse’s arousal filtered into his nose, and he traced over her with his tongue, one side, then the other, sucked her between his lips, stabbed his tongue gently inside. She was rocking her hips to the rhythm of his mouth. He stared along the length of her body, fascinated, as she pulled at her nipples harder than he would have dared, stretching them, bringing herself a sharp pleasure-pain to counter the softness of his mouth on her core.
Only when she was groaning deep in her throat, the sound almost continuous, did he surround her clit with his lips and suck. Gently at first, coaxing her higher, then more strongly as her hips bucked beneath him, her heels pressing into the mattress