Hiding her smile, she turned until her back was presented to him and then she began untying the sash at her waist. She glanced over her shoulder to find him watching her with avid fascination.

“I have need of your help, husband.”

His hands shook against her nape as he unfastened her dress. When he’d undone enough that she could step from the folds of the material, she let it fall to the floor so that she stood in only her undergown.

Turning so that she faced him once more, she reached up and threaded her fingers underneath the straps over her shoulders. Then she hesitated before pulling ever so slowly until they eased over her shoulders and down her arms.

The neckline caught at her breasts but with a gentle tug, it slid over her nipples and fell into a pool at her feet.

“Now shall I attend you, husband?”

“Oh aye, wife. Aye, indeed.”

She slid to her knees in front of him, her hands gliding down the sides of his legs. She memorized every swell, the bulge of his muscles, the uneven puckers of scars, new and old.

Then she tilted her head back and stared up at him. “Show me what pleases you.”

“God’s teeth, but you’re beautiful, lass. Your eyes shine like a thousand sunsets. And your mouth, so perfectly formed. I cannot wait another moment to feel such sweetness around my flesh.”

He grasped his straining erection with one hand and cupped her nape with his other before guiding himself toward her mouth. Such intimacy shocked her, though it shouldn’t. After all, he’d loved her thoroughly with his own lips and tongue until she’d been senseless with pleasure.

The idea that she could make him just as insensible thrilled her. She licked over her lips in a nervous gesture just as the tip of his cock brushed against her mouth.

“Open for me, lass. Take me inside your heat.”

His husky drawl drifted over her, bringing her body alive with the images his request invoked. She was alternately nervous and excited. And restless. She wanted to rub her body against his and purr her satisfaction like a cat being stroked.

She parted her lips and tentatively took him on her tongue. His fingers rubbed impatiently at her nape and then threaded upward into her hair.

Growing bolder and more confident in his reaction, she slid her lips farther up the base, taking more of him into her mouth. ’Twas a sensation like she’d never imagined. She shook from head to toe, her body tight and aching with need.

Letting her instincts guide her, she began to suck lightly, using her tongue to further torment him. His taste was wholly masculine and a hint of musk danced through her nostrils.