the words of a protest were forming on her lips, he leaned forward and bowed his dark head over her thigh, his mouth bestowing a warm, gentle rain of kisses over the scraped flesh.
“For this, I do take full blame,” he murmured, nudging the blanket higher, extending the path of his caresses to cover more than just the blemished area. “I would beg your forgiveness and ask, in my most humble mien, what form of penance might be acceptable?”
“What you are doing now will suit quite nicely,” she said on a stilted breath.
He lifted his head a moment and his eyes narrowed. His hands skimmed up beneath the layer of wool and circled her waist, drawing her forward, almost to the edge of the chair.
It was so sudden—to be cocooned in a blanket one minute and in the next, naked and gaping down in shock and surprise at the head and hands determinedly easing her limbs apart. And when his mouth began to trace a sensual path over the top of her thigh, it was all Ariel could do to grip the sides of the x-chair and keep from tumbling off in a dead faint.
“What … are you doing?” she gasped.
“Proving how innocent your thoughts really were compared to mine.”
“Oh … Jesu …”
His mouth explored the silky flesh of her inner thighs, coming just close enough to the fiery delta of curls to feel her body stiffen in apprehension. He kissed the rounded softness of her belly and let his tongue play havoc with the indent of her navel; he kissed her breasts and enticed her hands to abandon their grip on the chair, to show him, by means of twining her fingers around the wet locks of his hair, where she wanted him to kiss her, where she wanted his mouth to roam next.
Each rolling, fluttering stroke of his tongue drew a soft hiss of pleasure; each wicked pull of his lips tautened her skin and sent needles of heat slivering through her body so that she could not have denied him anything, did not deny him anything even when his mouth took absolute possession of the glistening, pearly folds of her womanhood. Her back arched and her hair rippled in coppery flames. Her mouth gaped open in shock, in stunned surprise, as the first of many sweet, shimmering implosions responded to the sinful intimacy. She stared down at the top of his head, at the gleaming waves of hair she clutched so tightly, and she whispered his name, she gasped his name, she shuddered his name free on the writhing, curling spirals of heat that wracked her body on each knowing thrust of his tongue.
The brightest peak was yet to crest within her when she was lifted off the chair and carried to the wide, raised bed. Smaller peaks, breathless shivers, were racing through her limbs as she felt herself sinking back into the soft fur coverings. With shaking hands she tore at Eduard’s shirt. She peeled it up his back and, with his help, tugged it up over his shoulders, baring the incredible expanse of virile male flesh that was hers to explore. She did so eagerly, restlessly, skimming her hands over the sculpted muscles, running her fingers through the tangles of soft, thick hair that covered his chest. Not surprisingly, she had lost a good deal of her shyness somewhere between the rooftop and the hearth, and she dragged his mouth down to hers, kissing him with an open-mouthed boldness that demanded all the skilled expertise of his lips and tongue.
While Eduard kissed her, he loosened his braies and pushed them down over his hips. In a brief tumble of arms, legs, and glossy red hair, their positions were reversed long enough for him to kick the final encumbrances free, long enough for Ariel to rise above him and gaze in awe at the long, thick spear of flesh rising so proudly from the juncture of his thighs.
They rolled again, his body naked, warm, and hard as he pressed her deep into the bed of furs. His palms smoothed over her breasts, cupping the supple flesh as he drew it into his mouth and suckled each nipple to a crinkled tautness. Ariel arched her back repeatedly, feeling the tug and pull of his lips all the way down to her toes. His heat was between her thighs and she moved with frantic little whimpers to entreat him closer. She raised her knees and dug her heels