carefully, he pressed his fingers intimately to her.
‘Tao.’
With a shudder, her head fell back, neck exposed. He nipped at the pale skin of her throat and enjoyed the endless arch of her body into him. The blanket fell in a tangle about her legs and her toes curled tight into it. So beautiful.
Their first coupling had been rushed. He had been mad with waiting, lost the moment he buried himself inside her. This morning, he would hold back and take her to the heights of heaven. Then she could no longer question what held them together.
He stroked the smooth pearl of her sex, opening her. Her legs unlocked with abandon. Slowly, carefully he slid the length of his finger into her. She was tight, so tight around him.
‘Stay,’ he urged in a heated whisper. The same entreaty he’d given the night before. The only plea he’d ever uttered.
She shook her head, unthinking, lost in pure, mindless pleasure. She reached for him and cupped her hand over his swollen sex.
His patience was gone. He needed her now.
Through misted eyes, she watched him shed his clothes and slant his body over her to position himself. He could feel the tension building in her limbs as she anticipated his entry, bracing against the pain.
He kissed her throat as he angled his hips downwards and then forwards. Her flesh parted slowly and surrounded him, smooth heat tightening all around. She made a small sound in her throat and he slowed to stroke his hand through her hair.
She pressed her lips against the curve of his neck then. ‘Don’t stop.’
He gathered her to him and sank deeper. Her knees lifted to accept him. He paused, adjusted his hips and filled her completely.
There was still pain, but a welcome sort. It sensitised her, made the pleasure sharper. Her legs wrapped around his thighs and she dug her fingers into the bundle of muscle in his lower back. She closed her eyes to concentrate on the feel of him filling her. The pillow books spoke of coupling in vague, poetic phrases. It was none of that. This was wet flesh and heated skin, sweat and salt, vulgar and beautiful.
The muscles of his neck strained upwards. ‘Suyin,’ he groaned.
She loved that she could render such a powerful man helpless with her body. Loved that he did the same to her as hard as she fought against the surrender. He was no longer careful as his climax approached. He pushed harder, deeper into her, his thrusts taking on a restrained violence as if he needed to give her as much of him as she could take.
He took on an almost desperate rhythm, digging his fingers into her hips. She was rising again, chasing after him. At the height of it, the man above her disappeared. All that was left were the sensations he pulled from deep within her, the heady, spiced scent of him and the laboured pant of his breath in her ear.
Her inner muscles convulsed around him, squeezing him until he let out an anguished cry. He was releasing into her. She joined him and they crashed together in completion. This would never end. Still she held him tight. Still he thrust into her. They drifted into sleep that way, with his body embedded inside her and their arms entwined. Li Tao’s skin glistened in the lantern light and she couldn’t resist running her hand down his back to assure herself that his magnificent body belonged to her in that moment.
The clouds and the rain and the heavens opening. All that and so much more.
Suyin slept in satiated exhaustion, turning often in the strange bed. The awareness that Li Tao was close permeated her slumbered thoughts. Once, he reached out to pull her close. She dozed off tucked against his shoulder, but they didn’t fit together as well as one would hope. They shifted apart in a haze of movement. When she finally opened her eyes, he was gone.
A hint of sandalwood and soap lingered on the pillow, combined with the unique scent of Li Tao’s skin. She stretched her fingers over the rumpled space among the blankets where he had been. His absence was nearly palpable.
Her lover. She had thought she would grow old and silver-haired without experiencing what that meant. But the morning’s passion and her unbridled response to him only left her with more questions. She couldn’t be fooled by kindness. And the rapture between a man and a woman was natural. There was