Rather long, narrow feet for someone who beat five two by an eyelash. The incongruity pleased him, as did the sight of fuchsia polish on her toes. Intrigued, he gingerly slipped from beneath her. The wide bed allowed room for him to reverse his position, so he could take a closer look. Never before, Gabriel realized, had he been aroused by the sight of a woman’s feet. But the graceful construction, smooth skin, and irrepressible polish necessitated attention. And salutation.

She shifted and lay back, sighing in unconscious pleasure. Gabriel grinned and set himself to his task in earnest. Soft, open kisses traced dainty ankles, anointed tapered legs. He lingered over the tender skin behind supple knees, the faultless sweep of thigh. As he cupped her lush bottom, his mouth lazily explored the hollow of her navel, suckled at the luxurious apex of perfect breasts. Languidly, masterfully, he sketched shallow creases with licks of wet fire, tantalized mounds with restrained greed. Complicated flavors burst on his tongue. Piquant, sharp, sweet, resilient. “Erin,” he sighed into her humid skin.

She emerged from sleep, damp and ready, into a morning shot through with sumptuous flames. Enthralled, she watched as he feasted, feeling the punch of release in shattering tremors. Her cry of satisfaction alerted him to her waking, but he paid her no heed. Before morning fully broke, he would memorize every valley, every peak. He would imprint himself on her, defying her to forget.

When she begged for completion, he denied her. Kisses singed her questing arms, rough licks of tongue sampled the hands he adored. Once he finished his journey of discovery where his mouth committed to heart lips and cheek and eyelids, he ranged over Erin’s twisting form and began a sensual voyage down the smooth skin of shoulders, the faint ridges of her spine, the shadowed cleft beneath her hips.

Finally, having mapped what no other man had, he covered himself and slid inside. In concert, he took her mouth and her body, parried and thrust with a recklessness that he couldn’t control. Discipline, restraint, control had no dominion. Only now. Only the glide of dewy skin, the violent tenderness of passionate kisses, and the race for more.