She was so beautiful in the glow of the fire, her hair radiant and lush, her skin gleaming like a pearl. He kissed her again, and she ran her hands and fingers through his hair, over his neck, and inside the collar of his shirt, her warm flesh teasing his.

Trailing his mouth down her body, he found her breast once more, eagerly devouring her nipple as she arched up into him. “Tobias.”

Every time she said his name, a thrill shot through him. There was a stark intimacy in the way she said it or perhaps in the way she touched him and looked at him. He couldn’t precisely remember when she began to command his thoughts, but it had happened wholly, and he didn’t want to return to before.

He’d planted his knee between hers as he leaned over her and kept his other foot on the floor. She clasped his waist and pulled while he felt her rise from the chaise, her body seeking his. Finding the hem of her night rail, he lifted the garment to her hips. He gently caressed her thighs, then her mons, delighting in the shivers that twitched across her flesh. She moaned as he stroked across her sex, his fingertips sliding over her soft crease.

Moving beneath him, she gripped his waist and his neck. “Tobias, please.”

She seemed to know what she wanted or at least that she wanted something. He did not want to disappoint her.

He lifted his head and kissed the side of her throat beneath her ear. Slipping his finger inside her, he whispered, “Is this what you want?”

“Yes.” She pulled on his hair and guided his mouth to hers. Sealing her lips against his, she kissed him over and over, teasing him with her tongue. “More.”

His body shook with need as he stroked into her, pressing his finger deep until she jerked up, gasping into his mouth. Her muscles clenched around him, urging him to move faster. He alternated between massaging her clitoris and pumping into her, meeting her thrusts with his own.

Her cries grew as her body arched more frantically beneath him. He could feel how close she was, and he wanted to send her blissfully over the edge into oblivion. Tearing his lips from hers, he moved down, pushing her night rail up to her belly. He put his mouth on her sex, his tongue flicking over her clitoris as he plunged his finger into her sheath.

She let out a string of unintelligible words as her body began to shudder. Her thighs quivered around him as he licked over and into her sex, parting her flesh with his fingers. Her muscles clenched, bearing down around him as she let out a high, keening cry. He reached up and touched his finger to her mouth. She sucked him between her lips, and his cock responded, twitching against his clothing, desperate for release.

Gradually, she began to quiet, her movements slowing. She released his finger, and he glanced up to see her casting her head back against the chaise. He kissed her thigh, her hip, the slope between her belly and her sex.