A throaty chuckle penetrated the fog of enchantment sheltering Bliss from the realities of the world. Somehow, Jamie knew what she’d been thinking, and he proved it by whispering, “This is only the beginning, Duchess. Only the beginning.”

Bliss murmured something senseless, still holding Jamie close, but when he suckled, she couldn’t help moaning like a person racked with fever. The sense of thrumming suspense within her grew in magnitude until it was nearly unbearable, but Jamie would not be lenient; instead, he traveled a path of soft kisses to the breast he had not yet won and submitted that tender softness to the same excruciating pleasure its twin had known.

Fairly delirious by that time, Bliss began to toss and writhe on the bed, even though the last thing she wanted was to escape this man’s persistent attentions. When he added a new element to her sweet torment by deftly working her drawers down to midthigh and then touching her in that place where no one had ever touched her before, the exultation was so great that Bliss’s reason fled. She tilted her head far back in utter abandon, while her heels dug into the mattress with the ferocity of her effort to raise herself to Jamie in proud acquiescence. Her hands left his hair to tear wildly at her drawers, which prevented the absolute vulnerability she craved.

Jamie was still absorbed in the breast he was enjoying, but with a husky, fevered cry of his own, he grasped the skimpy muslin bloomers in one hand and freed Bliss of their bondage with a single, swift motion of his hand. She heard them rip and did not care. Cool air washed over her bare skin, but instead of soothing her, it only increased her frenzy.

Round and round Jamie’s fingers moved in the moist warmth of her femininity, each pass causing Bliss’s hips to soar higher. Presently, he released her nipple from the pleasant teasing of his tongue and lips and began kissing her belly. The strokes of his hand grew slower and slower until she sank, quivering, to lie still on the mattress, terrified that he would abandon her before the mysterious pinnacle she’d been climbing toward had been reached.

“Oh, Jamie, please,” Bliss whispered, unsure of what she was pleading for, but so desperate to obtain it that begging was no longer beneath her.

His fingers shifted, so that he was holding her open, like a flower, exposing the bud hidden away beneath. When his mouth suddenly closed over her, the pleasure was so savage that Bliss flung her arms back over her head to grasp the iron rails of the bedstead in frantic fingers and gave a hoarse, lusty groan. Of their own accord, her hips began rising and falling, writhing and twisting from side to side, but Jamie followed, unshakable, drawing Bliss over the edge of a great precipice. Shuddering wildly, she soared on wings of ecstasy for long, breathless moments, then began to drift softly toward earth, where Jamie awaited her.