He shifted slightly, parting her legs and positioning himself so that his shaft probed against her privates. A pulse of that earlier excitement assailed her again, and she intuitively tilted her hips to him. He kissed her deeply until she was half delirious before penetrating her with slow, inexorable pressure.

She had heard enough whispers among married ladies to expect a stab of pain, but it was not so dreadful as she’d been led to expect. Any discomfort swiftly melted away beneath a stunning sense of fullness. Hadrian whispered her name, skating his lips over hers in a tender kiss. As he moved inside her, leisurely at first and then faster, she yielded to the instinctive urgings of her body, rocking her hips in rhythm with his. That blissful inner friction reignited the wild passion that she’d naïvely believed already sated.

Panting, she tucked her face into the lee of his shoulder, her tongue tasting his salty skin. Their intimate joining transcended anything she could ever have imagined in her sheltered innocence, for she felt connected to him not only in body but in soul as well. They were two parts of a whole, male and female, designed for each other as perfect mates.

As the sensual storm broke again, she clung to him as her anchor in the waves of pleasure. She was still blissfully adrift when he gave one final thrust, his body shuddering from the force of his culmination. Against her hair, he breathed her name in a hoarse groan, “Natalie.”

Utterly spent, she welcomed the weight of his body settling over her. It felt perfectly right to be entwined with him as their heartbeats slowed and their breathing returned to normal. But as passion ebbed and sanity returned, so did her awareness of their impossible dilemma.

Hadrian sensed the subtle change in her even before he opened his eyes. He couldn’t say exactly how he knew she was withdrawing into herself, the feeling was just there, twisting his gut. He wanted desperately to ignore it.

Lying in her arms, he inhaled the subtle fragrance of her hair and exulted in the womanly curves beneath him. The shattering intensity of their coupling still resonated in his cooling blood. When he’d come here to her chamber, he’d thought only to hone her desire to a fever pitch, not to consummate their relationship. But he was fiercely glad they had made love. It had been perfect in every way.

Except one. Natalie had not committed herself to him.

That knowledge made his chest tighten. She’d teased him, traded wits with him, craved him with such fervor that she’d given him the gift of her virginity. Yet it might not be enough to overturn her reluctance to wed him.

There had to be a way to convince her.

Disengaging their bodies, he rolled to the side to gaze into her face. She looked charmingly tousled, her dark hair tangled, her lips reddened from his kisses. Ah, those emerald eyes. Always candid, they held a combination of warmth, wonder … and distress.