«Now?»
«Now. Just for a moment. Just a little bit. Just so you won’t be afraid. I won’t take your maidenhead, but you must lie very, very still.»
Jessica’s eyes widened as Wolfe’s fingers caressed her, parted her very gently, eased into her so slowly that she couldn’t believe it was happening at all.
And then she realized it wasn’t his fingers pressing into her.
«Dear God,» Jessica whispered.
«Yes. Dear God.»
Another shudder racked Wolfe as he eased a bit farther into the petal softness of Jessica’s body. He watched the center of her eyes expand into glittering blackness, tasted the unraveling of her breath against his lips, felt her hot, supple yielding to him, heard the small sound she made at the back of her throat as her nails scored sweetly on his arms.
«Am I hurting you?» he breathed.
The whimper that came from Jessica’s throat as her eyes closed wasn’t an answer, but the secret rain of her response was.
It took his breath away.
«Jessi, my sweet elf…»
Shaking, Wolfe threaded his fingers through her unbound hair until his hands were wholly tangled within the long strands. He wanted nothing more on earth than to flex his hips and bury himself in her sleek, yielding warmth.
What was making sweat break all over his body was the knowledge that Jessica wanted it as violently as he did.
«Look at me,» Wolfe said heavily. «I want to see you while we’re joined even in this small way. Christ knows it’s not enough, not nearly enough, but it’s all that can be. Look at me, Jessi. Let me see the passion in you.»
Slowly, Jessica’s eyes opened. She looked at the hard lines of Wolfe’s face, at his body drawn with restraint and glistening with sweat. His eyes were dilated with the same passion that was sending tongues of fire licking up from between her thighs.
Then he moved slightly, retreating and returning with exquisite care.
A burst of fire drenched Jessica in golden heat. Wolfe felt it, shared it, and moved again, caressing her with his whole body. She gasped and tightened her legs around his hips, instinctively trying to deepen the tantalizing union.
Wolfe’s fists clenched in Jessica’s long hair as he felt his self-control dissolving in the hot, secret rain of her body. He knew he should withdraw completely from her heat, but he couldn’t force himself to. She was everything he had ever wanted, and he had wanted her much too long.
Telling himself it would be the last time, he moved again, tormenting both of them with the incomplete union.
«Does this hurt you?» he asked through his teeth.
Jessica shook her head even as she wondered at the harshness in his voice. Heat shimmered through her, making her gasp.
Breath hissed out of Wolfe as he felt passion ripple through Jessica to his own flesh just within her. Sweat gathered and ran down his spine. He knew he must draw back before the sweet violence overcame what was left of his restraint.
«You have nothing to fear from a man inside your body,» Wolfe said through clenched teeth. His own need knotted and twisted within him, wrenching him until he wanted to cry out with anguish. «Do you hear me, elf? You have nothing to fear.»
Jessica’s breath unraveled. Her hips moved rhythmically as pleasure peaked and ebbed and peaked once more.
«Stop,» Wolfe said. Tremors jerked through him at each melting of her body around him. «Jessi — stop!»
«I’m sorry. I can’t. I — Wolfe.»
He saw her teeth sink into her lower lip as she fought the fulfillment that was taking her. He brushed his open mouth over hers as he moved very slowly within her.
«Never mind, elf,» he breathed into her mouth. «It’s all right. Don’t fight it. Let me feel your pleasure.»
Wolfe’s hand moved between their bodies, capturing the silky bud. He felt the splintering, shivering heat that washed through Jessica to him. The abandon of her response took him to the breaking edge of his control, and he hung there, shaking, while she clung hotly to him, silently begging for more of him with each sultry pulse of her pleasure.
«There’s such fire in you,» Wolfe whispered.
«You’re killing me, Jessi. You could take every bit of me without pain and you must know it as well as I.»
Heavy-lidded eyes opened and watched Wolfe as he teased the sensitive flower that had opened for him. Passion burned as deeply in her glance as it did in her body.
«All I know is that you are not the same as other men,» Jessica said.
«In this,» he moved his hips, «I am no different.»
«Dear God,» she whispered. «Again.»
«What?»
«Do that again. Please, Wolfe. Again.»
With a whispered curse that was also a prayer for strength, Wolfe moved within Jessica once more and at the same time caressed her with his fingers.
She made a low sound as a network of sensation raced through her, leaving ecstasy shimmering in its wake. She gave herself to the tender ravishment and to the man who had called passion from her depths. With each sensual peak shivering through her, she kissed him, whispering to him, telling him the only truth that mattered.
«You are…my Lord Wolfe.»
Her words became part of the blood hammering through Wolfe’s veins. Feeling and hearing the silky climax unravel Jessica was burning him so softly, so completely, that he didn’t know he was wholly afire. A shudder went through him at each touch of her mouth, but her words were even more seductive, telling him what he had always known and never wanted to face.
«I will take…no other man…into my body.»
Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s hot back to the rigid muscles of his hips, seeking his very different flesh, finding it. With exquisite care, she drew her nails over him.
«Make me yours, Wolfe…only yours.»
Jessica’s name was an anguished cry against her throat as Wolfe’s control broke. He drove completely into her, changing her body in a sweeping, irrevocable instant.
Her breath tore as she was filled to overflowing. He was so deeply inside her that she felt the pulses of his release as clearly as she felt her own heartbeat. She put her arms around his shaking body and held him, kissing his eyes and cheeks and the corners of his mouth until he had the breath to speak once more.
«Now you are mine, Jessi. Only mine.» As Wolfe lowered his mouth to hers, he whispered, «May God have mercy on my soul.»
«Wolfe?» Her arms tightened around him. «What’s wrong?»
«It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve burned for you so long that Hell has nothing new to teach me. But I have new things to teach you, Jessi. Heaven and Hell combined.»
Before Jessica could say anything more, Wolfe sealed her lips with a kiss that claimed her mouth as completely as he had claimed her body. Then his hips moved powerfully and she forgot everything but his heavy presence within her.
Pleasure coursed through Jessica with each thrusting motion Wolfe made. Her body tightened and tightened until she couldn’t breathe, yet still Wolfe moved in sensual rhythms over her, against her, within her, setting fire to every bit of her, burning her alive.
She tried to speak but could think of no words, much less shape her tongue to form them. All she could say was his name, and she said it again and again as he ripped the world away, leaving her nothing to hang onto but him.
Forerunners of savage ecstasy clawed through Jessica, drawing her body into a shivering arch. She gasped at the unexpected sensations. They were more acute than anything she had ever known, almost frightening in their intensity.
«Wolfe?»
«You’re feeling it now, aren’t you?» Wolfe’s voice was as dark as his eyes watching her. «You wanted this, Jessi. You’ve wanted it since you were fifteen. And since you were fifteen, I’ve wanted to give it to you.»
Jessica gasped and her eyes widened with surprise as sensual lightning transfixed her, arching her into Wolfe’s driving body. He laughed and bit her neck hard enough to leave passionate marks.