Guy’s expression changed, his gaze sharpened. He inclined his head in mute acknowledgment and brought his mouth down to hers, but this time his lips were hard and firm, demanding in their pressure and Petra felt herself rising to the challenge of this kiss, her fingers tangling in his hair as she half lifted herself against him, pressing her mouth into his, opening her lips again for his tongue, even as she pushed her own into his mouth for her own exploration. She was barely aware of how it happened but suddenly she was lying on her back on the sofa, Guy kneeling on the floor beside her. His hands were on her body, sliding the blouse from her shoulders, baring her breasts for his kisses, long leisurely strokes of his tongue over the soft mounds, kissing her erect nipples, lightly grazing the aching points with his teeth. There was a moment when he raised his head, looked a question even as his fingers teased her nipples. There was a moment when she nodded silently to the mute question, and then she slipped into a world where only sensation ruled and her body’s responses were both strange to her and utterly right.

Her hands helped him as he undressed her, barely lifting his mouth from hers until finally she lay naked on the sofa, aware of the soft cool of the leather beneath her as he came over her, kneeling astride her, lifting her legs onto his shoulders so that his hands had free access to the soft moist folds of her sex. Her body leaped beneath his touch and she gripped her bottom lip between her teeth as his finger slid within her, delicately probing, sending waves of hot sensation darting through her belly. The single thrust of his penis when he finally entered her seemed to fill her to the full and she lay still, not breathing as her body grew accustomed to the strange invasion, to expand around him, and when he started to move, slowly, gently, within her she moved to his rhythm without conscious will.

He left her body suddenly and she felt bereft, hanging on the brink of something but she wasn’t sure what, and then she felt his fingers again bringing that strange hovering sensation to fulfillment and waves of pleasure swept through her belly and loins, leaving her weak and smiling.

Guy slid off the sofa and bent to kiss her. “How do you feel?”

“Strange and wonderful,” Petra responded, still smiling. She reached up to touch his face. “I didn’t know what to expect the first time.”

“I didn’t hurt you?”

She shook her head and struggled to sit up. “Not in the least. But I expect I lost my maidenhead years ago. I’ve been riding astride since I was fifteen, except hunting or in Hyde Park. Oh, and I have a bicycle in the country.”