Rising before her, he lowered her onto the bed and pressed his palms into the mattress on either side of her head. Her hair spread out over the sheets like a silken mass. The strands glowed like spun gold in the light from the fire. He ran his fingertips over the glints of color and the varying shades intermixed in the thick pelt of her hair.

She stared up at him, her eyes aglow with trust. It humbled him that she offered him what she’d never granted another man. That she had such faith in him staggered him.

She stretched and twisted beneath him before raising her arms invitingly. Gently he gathered her hands, kissed her knuckles and then lowered them back down to her belly. He slid his hands up her arms, caught her sleeves and slowly pulled them over her shoulders, baring the creamy flesh.

Unable to resist such a temptation, he bent down and kissed the top of her shoulder and teased a line to the curve of her neck. Chill bumps broke out over her skin and danced beneath his lips. He chuckled softly when he took the lobe of her ear between his teeth and she shuddered violently.

“You have a wicked mouth, warrior.”

“I’ve only just begun.”

He pulled at her dress until it hung precariously over the tips of her breasts. He held his breath, and his body tightened like the string of a bow. His cock swelled and pushed hard against his trews, straining to be set free and find her sweetness.

He cursed under his breath and clenched his jaw in a frantic effort to maintain control. For several long seconds, his chest heaved as he breathed in and out.

“Is something wrong?”

He yanked his gaze down to see the worry in her eyes and he kissed her, long and leisurely, to chase the fears away. “Nay, lass. Nothing is wrong at all. Everything is right. Just right.”

He left her mouth, nipping lightly at her chin on his way back to her chest. He paused just above the valley of her breasts and then nuzzled into the hollow, taking the hem of her bodice over the tips.

Her dress gathered at her waist and he stared down at the pebbled nipples, a delectable pink, so taut that they beckoned his mouth—an urge he was powerless to fight.

He licked one bud and she cried out, her voice hoarse and thin. She gripped his shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh.

She bowed underneath him when he found her other nipple and sucked it strongly into his mouth.

She was so taut, straining upward, her fingers dug so tight that she looked to be near pain. When he loosened his hold on her breast, she whimpered and stirred restlessly beneath him.

“Shh, lass, ’tis just beginning. Be at ease. Let me love you.”