the room with a soft light that allowed them to see one another but kept the world out. When he lifted his hand to the pins that held her veil to her hair, she curled her hands against his chest and waited quietly. He took it off with care, and she saw it float to a gentle rest on the table.
“For our daughter,” he said quietly, and owned her heart all over again. “She will not have to marry in secret.”
She kissed him this time, this man who loved her and who she loved until it hurt, her fingers fisting in the silken, wavy hair that was just long enough to grip and that he’d get cut before they left. Mouth hot and wet, he thrust his own hands into her hair. Pins fell to the floor, her curls escaping her mother’s loving creation for Tazia’s wedding day.
Straining on tiptoe, she met him kiss for kiss, and when he swept her up into his arms, she sipped and sucked and licked at his lips until they tumbled into bed. The weight of his body on her own was unfamiliar, the scent of him in her every breath. And his smile, it was the most wonderful thing she’d ever seen. “I don’t know how to do this either,” he murmured against her mouth.
Nerves snapping into laughter, she touched fingers to his lips. “Neither do I. What will we do?”
“There’s probably a manual,” he said seriously.
“Probably.” She reached for the collar of his tunic, her fingers trembling. “How hard can it be?”
Stefan’s own hand slid up her stomach to lie on her breast. “Let’s see,” he murmured as her heart kicked.
Feeling scandalous, she tugged at his tunic and he pulled it over his head to throw it aside. When his eyes dipped to her own fitted top, she lifted her hands and undid the two hidden zips, then raised her arms. Reaching down, he stripped it off her in a single smooth motion. She brushed her hair off her face afterward to find his eyes on her breasts.
Those breasts were cupped in insubstantial black lace, the pretty underthings a gift from Mina. Her best friend had bought the set for Tazia on her own wedding trip and kept it until now, cheerfully optimistic that Tazia would one day find her own perfect mate and marry.
And she had.
That perfect mate bent to press a kiss to the creamy, never-exposed-to-sunlight curve of her breast, and she shivered . . . and realized he was trembling. His big body was held in fierce check, his hands gentle. Utterly undone, she clasped his face in her hands and kissed him with all the passion in her heart.
Warm muscle and strength, he gave her control, but then his hand closed over her lace-covered breast and neither one of them had any control. She didn’t remember how they got the rest of their clothing off, but oh, it felt wonderful to have his skin against her own all over, to have his mouth taste her secret places, to taste him in turn.
They probably rushed everything, but they’d been waiting so long that patience was a futile hope. Locked together, their bodies connected on the most intimate level and their breaths one, they completed the final bond that made them husband and wife.
“Perhaps not a technically assured performance,” Stefan murmured afterward, “but I have no complaints. What does my wife say?”
Feeling loose and soft and pleasured and his, she said, “That we should do it again.”
They took it slower this time and it was just as good as the first fury. And this time, they remembered to fill the bath with water so that Stefan could redirect his energy, hoping it would work. As for the broken furniture, splintered kitchen counter and crushed ceiling fan, he would ’port it all away and they’d pay for the mysteriously missing items.
Luckily, no one had reported the noise of the destruction, the neighboring rooms apparently empty at this time of day.
The most important thing was that even in the throes of passion, Stefan had directed his Tk outward, not at her. “Silence did that at least,” he said. “It gave me the skill to make sure I never inadvertently hurt you.”
She sighed and shuddered as he stroked his hand over her body from breast to thigh, his eyes intent—as if he was drinking in the sight of her. She did the same in turn, his body beautiful in its strength and grace.