He stepped closer, watching her blouse move with her increased breathing. This was wrong. It was a bad idea. It was a very bad idea.

Even as he thought it, he pulled her close and bent his head to hers. She grasped his arms, her nails biting in. This was new territory, and she wasn’t sure about it.

“Just relax,” he whispered as his mouth hovered over hers. “We all start out as novices.”

Her breath was racing, like her heart. “I guess...we do.”

“Life is all lessons,” he whispered as his tall head bent. His lips touched hers, softly, slowly, with a sensuous brushing motion that made her mouth follow his helplessly as he began to increase the contact.

Those nails were digging in, he mused. She had no idea what to do, and she was nervous. It was so earthshaking that he forgot her age and his caution. An innocent, with no idea about men and women and how they interacted. It was like rich, heady wine.

He drew her even closer and framed her head in his big, warm hands. “It’s like falling into fire,” he whispered.

“It’s...what?”

He smiled as his lips began to part hers. “You’ll see.”

She wasn’t sure that she wanted to see. Her life was complicated enough. This was going to be a major complication. But while she was thinking it, she was moving even closer, lifting her mouth, going on tiptoe to tempt him into something more satisfying than these brief little brushing contacts that made her ache all over.

His hands moved to her waist and pulled her against his powerful body, so that she could feel his long legs pressed to hers. Her heart jumped. She’d never been so close to a man. Her eyes were faintly worried as they met his.

“Softly,” he whispered, brushing his mouth slowly across hers. “Very softly.” He nibbled her upper lip and then her lower one, but her lips stayed primly together. He laughed, deep in his throat.

He bit at her full lower lip, not enough to hurt. “Open your mouth.”

“Wh...what?” she whispered, shocked.

His hands lifted her closer. His nose nuzzled hers. “Open your mouth. Let me taste you...”

She gasped, giving him the opening he’d been looking for. He twisted her completely against his powerful body, holding her there when she instinctively tried to jerk away. One lean hand smoothed her hips against his, much too close. He was aroused and she knew it. Even as she thought of pulling back, his tongue teased inside her mouth and began to arouse her in ways she’d never imagined. While he was invading her soft lips, his hands were sliding up her rib cage until they came to rest just under her small breasts, not quite touching, but so evocative that she found herself lifting helplessly toward them, reaching up to plead for something harder, more intimate, more fulfilling.