Page 59 of Wicked Rivals
“Aren’t you the least bit curious?” he asked.
“Curious?”
“About what it could be like between us.” He reached up and trailed his fingertips down her cheek, and then to her neck. The touch set fire to her blood. “Just once. Trust me to show you how good it could be. Forget the wager and think only about this.” He tilted her head back and leaned down to kiss her. The simple press of his lips sent her stomach into wild spirals. When he pulled back from her, she tried to keep kissing him, but he spoke against her searching lips.
“Let me take you to bed, Rosalind. Let me make love to you. I know such things that will make you weep with pleasure. I want to show you what you have to look forward to as my wife.”
Would it be so bad to say yes?She wanted to feel that fulfillment of what his hands and mouth had promised her so often.
“Say yes,” he urged, his voice rougher now.
She peeped up at him through her lashes. His fingers still touched her neck, the hold firm but gentle. His eyes were dark and hot, and power emanated from his body as he waited.
The silence between them was charged with unspoken challenges and seductive promises. Finally, she uttered the word that would change her life forever.
“Yes.”
The fire in his eyes intensified. He freed her hands of the silk and slid his hands up her calves and thighs as he rolled her stockings off one by one and let them fall to the floor. Her breasts felt full and aching, nipples rasping against the white cloth of her chemise. She waited for him to shove her onto her back and mount her, but he didn’t.
“Move back, darling.” While she did as he instructed, he stepped back and unfastened the front of his breeches but did not remove them.
“Now, lie back and part those pretty thighs for me.”
Her heart raced. Slowly, she lay back, parting her legs. He crawled up the bed and knelt between them. The muscles of his chest rippled as he moved, and she stared at the light dusting of pale-gold hair along his pectorals. She ran one palm along his chest, feeling the silkiness of the hair before she trailed her hand down his abdomen. His muscles twitched at her exploring touch. She scraped her nails lightly across him, eliciting a groan from him and delighting in the fact that she would mark him as hers.
And here she was, tempted to explore every inch of this body. He was beautiful, masculine. His skin soft, but his body hard all over. A small knotted scar on his shoulder caught her attention, the old bullet wound. She’d once teased him about it. As she leaned over, she pressed a kiss to the spot, wishing she could make the pain it still caused him vanish.
Ashton kissed her forehead, then her cheeks, then her mouth. The sweet slide of his tongue against the seam of her lips entreated them to open. The man knew just how to kiss, sweet and seductive one moment, dominating the next. It kept her guessing, kept her riding on an ever building wave of unexpected thrills.
When he sat back on his heels, she ached for his warm hard body to cover hers again. He slid her chemise up to her waist and then farther up until she had to lift up for him to slide it off her. She folded her arms over her chest, covering her bare breasts.
“Don’t lose that fire and bravery now,” he said.
Terrified yet excited, she lowered her hands and lay back against the pillows.
“You are a goddess.” His reverent whisper stirred emotions inside her, ones that scared her, because they held hope for something she believed she couldn’t have.
“Does that make you a god as well?” she teased, smiling a little.
“In the presence of such beauty, I am a mere mortal.”
“And you wish to dominate me? Things never turn out well for mortals who compete with gods and goddesses.”
“Yet they continue to try, because the rewards are so tempting.”
He leaned over her again, kissing a sensual path down to her collarbone before nuzzling the swell of her breasts. He braced himself on one forearm and cupped one breast with his free hand as he explored their sensitive peaks.
He sucked one nipple between his lips and her hips jerked. It was so intimate, too much to bear. A frightening, exciting, unquenchable fire raged throughout her body.
She moaned his name and he growled in answer, the vibrations running along her skin and heightening every sensation even more.
“Please,” she panted. “I can’t stand it.”
He released her nipple long enough to chuckle before he teased and taunted her other breast with flicks of his tongue. She threaded her hands through his hair, tugging on the soft, silken strands.
“Harder!” he urged. “Tug harder.” And she did. The bite of pain was echoed when he nipped her breast. Sparks shot through her, straight to her womb.
Ashton kept moving down along her body, pressing kisses to her abdomen and hips, nibbling at her, making her laugh at the tickling sensations. It felt so good to laugh, to enjoy herself like this. But he didn’t stop. He placed his palms on her inner thighs and pushed them farther apart.
