and she couldn’t think, not with this coiling and tightening and throbbing in her body, not with him so close, and his shoulder under her hand, and her legs, moving, curling around his. “It’s too much.”
A mutter. A curse. What had she done wrong now? Why did he have to be so complex?
“What do you feel?” he asked.
“I feel…everywhere…and it’s…It’s so…”
“Do you like it?”
“I want more. But I need it to stop too.”
She curled her arm around his neck, sinking her fingers into his hair, trying to pull him down to her, but he did not yield.
“The only way to stop it is to touch you more,” he said.
“Then I need you to touch me.”
“That’s what you want?”
“That’s all I want. Please, Joshua. Nothing else matters but that you touch me.”
“Oh, Cassandra,” he groaned.
His hand landed on her hip, firm and warm, and he slid it up her side, commanding a tide of heat beneath her skin. His breath and cheek were on her throat, his hair tickling her, and her own moan filled the room as he cupped her breast and burned her pulse with his lips.
She yanked off the blindfold, blinked in the half light, drank in the sight of that strong hand around her breast. His eyes were questioning, heated, and they imprisoned her own as he lowered his head and licked her nipple. Pleasure shot through her and she arched her back, digging her fingers into his neck.
“You will drive me mad,” she whimpered.
“That makes two of us.”
She tangled her fingers in his hair and hauled his face over hers.
“Are you going to kiss me now?” she asked.
“You have a preoccupation with being kissed.”
“Only by you.”
No sooner had she uttered the words than their lips met in a heated fury. He plundered her mouth with a hunger that ignited a passion so deep within her that it felt as strange as it felt right. His tongue tangled with hers, and she rose up into him, holding him against her, her hands newly wild. She fought with his robe and his shirt to get to his skin, and he did not help her, feasting on her mouth as though it was all he needed to live.
Until he abandoned her lips and kissed his escape over her jaw.
“More.” She grabbed his head. “I need you to kiss me.”
And this time she feasted hungrily on his mouth, not letting him leave her again. She wanted more and more—and his hand, oh heavens, his hand, jilting her needy breast in favor of her hip, her outer thigh, her inner thigh, and she parted her legs, hardly knowing what she craved, until he pressed against the persistent ache, right where she most needed his touch.
She fell away from him with a cry, struggling for breath, their eyes locked, his fingers stroking.
Stroking. Stoking the fire within her. Like a magician commanding the tides of pleasure.
He brushed his lips over hers. “I’m going to kiss you,” he whispered against her mouth. “As you never imagined being kissed.”
He slid away from her, and she tried to hold him, but he had his own plans, as relentless as those stroking fingers, changing her world. He dragged his hot mouth down her throat, to her breasts, attending to her nipples until she kicked with impossible pleasure. And then—Oh heavens! He slid his fingers inside her. Her senses began to crumble.
“Joshua! You…I…Oh.”
“Hush, sweetheart.” He breathed the words over her skin. “I haven’t finished kissing you yet.”
Unyielding, he burned a trail of kisses down her body, branding her with his warm mouth and soft-rough stubble, and she watched, dazed, as he parted her thighs with demanding hands, positioned himself between them. No, he wouldn’t. Not there, he couldn’t kiss her…
He did.
Pleasure spiraled through her. She arched off the bed. Her head fell back on the pillows. One strong hand pinned down her hips and still she writhed, seeking an escape from these exquisite sensations that must never, ever stop. His tongue was hot and strong and insistent, and his cheeks on her thighs were rough and soft, and her ache intensified, curling and swirling within her. She tried to move but he wouldn’t let her and she wanted it to stop and he wouldn’t stop and she wanted it to go on forever and it did, it did, and then the pressure was too much and bliss rippled over her, all the way to her eyeballs, all the way to her toes. He released her, as she arched