Page 144 of You Only Love Twice
He kissed her palm, lips skating up the inside of her wrist. Pain stabbed through his head, but he ignored it in favor of the sensation of her smooth skin beneath his lips.
Gemma arched her head back with a soft moan as he caressed the hollow of her collarbone. The thick heady rush of her pulse captured his attention, and he paused as his vision plunged into shadows, the hunger awakening within him with hungry teeth.
Obsidian hadn't been naive enough to think this could remain a gentle, teasing seduction—not when both of them had their demons—but he'd hoped he could control himself long enough to make this perfect for her.
"Kiss me," she said, pushing at his chest and rising to her elbows.
"You're so demanding."
Sliding his hand behind her neck, he captured the roughened exhale of her breath on her lips. Gemma's mouth opened under his, hot and eager. Every kiss they'd previously shared seemed to twist him into tighter knots, but this was no seduction she planned. She simply let him take, their tongues writhing against each other in abandon, her fingers curling into the lengths of his hair until a flare of pain ran through his scalp. Hungry. Rough. A little demanding....
His heart pounded in his chest as he grabbed her by the hips and dragged her against his erection. Alive. He felt alive and whole, as if a single kiss from Gemma could put all the pieces of his fractured psyche back together.
The hand against his chest grew insistent.
He spilled onto his back, and Gemma clambered astride in a cascade of skirts. Then they were kissing again, his fingers sinking into the rich, luxurious length of her hair, until she broke from his mouth and ventured lower. Soft lips grazed his jaw, his pulse. The sting of her teeth against his throat made him hiss as she bit him hard enough to bruise the skin. But it was the caress of her tongue against that mark that sent tingles shooting down his spine.
Obsidian captured her mouth again, hands cupping her face as he poured everything he had of him into the kiss. How had he ever thought he could deny what he felt for her? He might as well try and pull the moon from the sky as withstand the power Gemma had over him.
Gemma moaned, her thighs squeezing his hips as she rocked against him. "Sweet mercy, I want you naked. I want to lick every inch of your skin." Fingernails suddenly dug into his shoulders, leaving eight hard little half-moons imprinted there as she sucked in a stolen breath. "I want to bite you."
So do I. He drew her lower lip between his teeth and sucked. His shirt fell prey to her clever fingers, and Obsidian broke the kiss just long enough for her to push it from his shoulders.
Then it was her turn.
Hauling her hips against him, he ground her against his erection as he dragged her hair forward over one shoulder, just enough to catch a glimpse of the top button of her gown.
Gemma gasped, throwing her head back. Obsidian captured the curve of her breast in his mouth, the rasp of the lace scraping his mouth. He tugged at the buttons down her spine, one by one, cursing them under his breath. Small, fabric-coated buttons, each one catching in the eyelet as if they'd been devised specifically to frustrate a man's larger fingers.
To frustrate him.
"What's wrong?" she teased. "Thwarted by fashion?"
"Curse your goddamned Madame Lefoux." He finally had her gown undone, and spread both halves of it. "I'd rip it, but you have nothing else to wear."
And a penchant for her fancy gowns.
"That didn't stop you before."
"I was a little... frustrated."
"Do tell," she purred, biting the fleshy lobe of his ear.
"You know what you did to me in Vickers's manor." He pushed the sleeves from her shoulders. "You drove me half insane. All this skin I couldn't touch. Lips I didn't dare taste. You. Mocking me. Tempting me. You're the cause of my madness."
Gemma laughed, the sound spilling from her in a throaty echo as she peeled the sleeves over her hands. "You're impatient."
"I've not had you naked before."
"I was naked. You wouldn't look."
"Then consider me a fool. I didn't want to see what was right before my eyes." Yanking her gown down around her waist, he slid his palms up her ribs, capturing the generous curves of her breasts. They threatened to spill from her corset. The press of lace and silk was a riot of sensation against his fingertips, but nothing compared to the warmth of her skin.
Gemma wilted into the touch as if it was all she needed.
Pushing her right breast free of the clasp of her corset, he sucked her nipple into his mouth, using his teeth just the way she liked it. The strings on her corset were an impossible mess, but somehow he drew them loose, tugging each crisscrossed lace free until the corset settled around her hips.
He drew it over her head, and then her chemise, until she was wearing nothing but her stockings, with those red silk garters.
