The cloth moved gently down Jessica’s arm. For long moments, the scented cloth lay over the sensitive inside of her wrist, where life pulsed softly beneath fine-grained skin.
«Most men,» Wolfe continued as he smoothed the cloth over her palm and fingers, «aren’t drunken or cruel. They take no pleasure in a woman’s pain.»
Jessica watched Wolfe with wide, intent eyes.
«Any man worthy of the name knows his own strength,» Wolfe continued. «He knows that women are more delicately made, more slow to burn with passion; but once a woman burns, there is no fire to equal it, not even a man’s. She will share that fire generously with a careful partner.»
«Despite the pain?»
«An aroused woman feels only pleasure when she holds a man inside her body. That shared fire is the sweetest kind of burning. For both of them.»
«Fire without pain,» Jessica whispered, remembering.
A wave of desire went through Wolfe, but nothing of his response showed as he turned away to rinse the cloth once more.
«Yes,» he said, as he bathed Jessica’s other arm. «Fire without pain.»
Motionless, she watched Wolfe with clear, steady eyes, loving the black angles of his eyebrows, the slightly shaggy thickness of his hair, the bottomless indigo twilight of his eyes, and the sharply defined peaks of his upper lip.
«When the fire is finally quenched,» Wolfe continued, drawing the cloth down Jessica’s arm, «there is the serenity of lying together in the dark and knowing you have found your true mate. There is a rightness in being joined that goes all the way to the soul. There is power as well, the power of being able to summon ecstasy at will. It’s a godlike power. It’s the power of creation, of life itself.»
«Have you —» Jessica’s voice broke as sadness overwhelmed her. When she spoke again, it was a bare whisper. «Have you known that with a woman?»
«I’ve had lovers. Surely that doesn’t surprise you.»
«I wasn’t talking about your penchant for duchesses.»
Wolfe looked up from the slender fingers he wanted to kiss and saw tears magnifying Jessica’s eyes until they were extraordinary gems.
«What are you trying to ask me?» Wolfe said.
She closed her eyes and whispered, «Have you lain in the darkness with your true mate and felt the rightness of it all the way to your soul?»
«If I had, I would have married. Yet I know that kind of closeness can exist between a man and a woman.»
Jessica started to ask how Wolfe knew if he had never experienced it, but the answer came from her own knowledge.
«Caleb and Willow.»
«Yes,» Wolfe agreed. «Caleb and Willow.»
Sadness caught in Jessica’s throat. «Is — does — that is — oh, blazes,» she said despairingly, unable to order her scattering thoughts.
Wolfe’s thumb pressed lightly against her lips. «Slow down, elf. You’ll get yourself tied in knots again. Would you like more brandy?»
«I’ll get muzzled,» she muttered beneath his thumb.
He smiled gently. «I don’t think so. You’ve had only a teaspoon or two.»
When Wolfe started to get up from the bed, Jessica’s hands closed around his powerful wrist.
«Wolfe? What if — that is — do only people like Willow and Caleb find pleasure in — in touching?»
A slow, very male smile was all the answer Jessica needed.
«You don’t have to be a paragon, if that’s what you mean,» Wolfe said.
«Would you —» Jessica’s voice broke. She took a deep breath and held onto Wolfe’s wrist as though it were a lifeline. «Touch me. Teach me.»
Wolfe’s eyes widened, then narrowed in response to the elemental tightening of his body. «I won’t take you, Jessi. That would make annulment impossible. I’m the wrong husband for you. You’re the wrong wife for me. Lying with you would be the worst mistake of my life.»
For an instant, Jessica’s nails bit deeply into Wolfe’s wrist. Then she released him and lay back with her eyes closed, too ashamed even to look at him any longer.
«Sorry,» she said tonelessly. «For a moment I forgot what you thought of me. You should have let me go to the wind. It would have been kinder. But then, you haven’t felt kindly toward me since the night I ran to your room after Lord Gore attacked me.»
«Jessi, you aren’t thinking at all,» Wolfe said. His fingers went from Jessica’s pale cheek to the soft curve of her mouth. «Or have you decided you want to be pregnant?»
Her eyes flew open. They were dark with fear, haunted by nightmare.
«Don’t panic,» he said calmly. «I said I wasn’t going to take you. I meant it. We’re just wrong for each other as man and wife.»
«I can’t let you go. I’m sorry, but I can’t. The thought of lying beneath the likes of Lord Gore…» Revulsion rippled visibly through Jessica’s body.
«Not all lords are brutal sots.»
She simply shut her eyes and shook her head. Candlelight twisted and ran through her hair like threads of fire. Wolfe’s fingertips traced one of the long locks so softly that Jessica didn’t feel his touch.
«There are young, handsome, decent lords in Britain,» Wolfe said, lifting his hand. «I’ll see that Lady Victoria finds one for you.»
«I would sooner marry the wind than suffer a man’s touch.»
«And ahalfbreed is somehow not quite a man, is that it?» Wolfe asked harshly.
Her eyes flew open in astonishment. «I never said that or anything like it!»
«Didn’t you?» Wolfe leaned over, flattening his hands on either side of Jessica’s body. «First you ask me to touch you, then you say you’ll never suffer a man’stouch.AmI not a man?»
«But you are so much more than other men,» she whispered. With trembling fingertips she traced the black line of Wolfe’s eyebrows and the fierce brackets on either side of his mouth. «So much more…»
Wolfe couldn’t prevent the primitive shiver of response that went through him at Jessica’s words, at her touch, at the emotion in her eyes.
«Jessi,» he breathed, shaken. He turned his head and kissed her fingertips, then spoke before he could think better of it. «There are ways of touching that will give you intense pleasure, yet leave you still a virgin. Do you understand me?»
Slowly, she shook her head, watching him with luminous eyes.
«I can give you ecstasy without taking your maidenhead,» Wolfe said simply.
Jessica’s eyes widened.
He smiled. «Oh, elf, the look on your face…»
«Is such a thing possible?» she asked, ignoring the heat creeping up her cheeks.
«Quite possible. There will be no pain for you, no risk of pregnancy. You will be a virgin still.»
«How can that be?»
Wolfe bent down and brushed his lips against Jessica’s ear. «I’ll show you, but you’ll have to help me.»
«How?»
«I’ll show you that, too.»
13
Very gently, Wolfe’s fingers slid into the wild, silky depths of Jessica’s hair. He rubbed her scalp slowly.
«You have wonderful hands,» she said, sighing. «They quite unravel me.»
Smiling, Wolfe traced the rim of Jessica’s ear with his tongue. She made a startled sound as sensations coursed through her, leaving a trail ofgoosebumps on her arms.
«Such a tiny cry,» he said. «Did I frighten you?»
Jessica shook her head and watched him with heavy-lidded eyes. The scent of roses curled up from her unbound hair. Wolfe’s nostrils flared as he took in the scent.
«Tell me how it made you feel,» he murmured.
«Is that how you want me to help you?»
«That’s one way.»
«You made me feel shivery and yet very still at the same time,» Jessica said, watching Wolfe. «I think a rosebud must feel that way at the first touch of the sun.»