“I thought you said you weren’t nervous,” he said.
Was he smiling? Linley wasn’t certain.
“It’s not nerves.”
Patrick bent down and kissed her. Gently.
Linley lifted her mouth to meet his, figuring she should at least follow his lead until she got the hang of this lovemaking business herself. She threaded her fingers into his dark hair, played down the chords of his neck, and then pressed her palms flat against the hot, bare skin of his shoulder blades. Linley had never touched a man like that before. She had never known the feeling of her bare skin against his—but she liked it.
She ran her hands down his back, then up over his shoulders, and around to his chest. Linley felt Patrick’s heart drum against her palm. She pushed at his chest, urging him back onto his knees. He straddled her, kneeling, and she sat up in front of him.
Patrick watched as her fingers fumbled at the waistband of his trousers. He did not help her undo them, but waited until she unfastened the buttons and pushed them open at the front. He expected her to try to pull his trousers down over his hips. Instead, she slipped one of her hands inside the fly.
Linley marveled at the feel of him in her hand. She couldn’t see what it all looked like, but, thanks to Elgin and his marbles, she had a general idea. She grasped him firmly, feeling Patrick’s body straining against her. She watched as he threw his head back, wordlessly encouraging her. Linley moved her hand and wrist. Clumsy at first. Unsure how to go about it.
Patrick moaned. It was all he could do. He couldn’t move, or think, or breathe. He only felt, and what he felt was magnificent.
When he recovered from the novelty of her little hands on him, Patrick reached down and took hold of her cotton nightgown. He pulled it up her body, forcing Linley to turn him loose so he could get it over her arms. He lifted the garment over her head and let it fall beside them.
Realizing she was completely naked, Linley clasped her hands to her chest, trying to cover herself.
Patrick gently pushed her hands away, guiding her down onto her back against the rough blanket that covered his sleeping pallet. He replaced her hands with his, palming her small breasts in his large, warm hands.
“Someday I’ll teach you to love them as much as I do,” he said, sliding his hand ever so gently across her chest.
Patrick stroked her nipples with his fingertips, marveling that no one else ever touched her like that before. Only him. There was something to be said about that, but he did not want to think too much. Patrick intended to focus all his attention on her. To concentrate on making this the best it could possibly be.
He dipped his head down and took one entire breast into his mouth. Patrick knew Linley liked that. He remembered the way she squirmed and moaned at the sensation before, buried in the tall grass when they should have been watching for tigers.
Linley squirmed then, too. She might have even moaned, but was so wrapped up in the moment that she could have recited the Lord’s Prayer and not heard herself. Patrick idly stroked her nipple, back and forth, back and forth, and then drew little circles around them with his tongue. When she thought that was too much, he went even further, using his teeth to tug at them. To draw on them, making Linley arch her back and whimper.
“Don’t you like that?” he asked, his breath a hot whisper against her skin.
“You know I do.”
Patrick smiled, and then pressed a quick kiss against her breasts. He lifted himself up to meet her face to face. Even in the cool, moonlit room she was flushed. Patrick felt the heat radiating off her body. He leaned down and blew softly across her collarbone, the base of her throat, and the sensitive space just below her left ear. Patrick’s lips retraced his steps, traveling down her neck, over her collarbone, and then up the other side of her throat. He nipped at her with his teeth. Softly enough not to hurt her, but just firmly enough for her to feel it.
Linley moaned. Her lips pursed tight against her own teeth. She rolled her head as he kissed and licked at her neck. He sucked on her earlobe. Everywhere his mouth went Linley’s skin grew hot in his wake. Finding his waist blindly, she pushed his trousers down over his hips, urging him to wriggle out of them.
Patrick did as she asked, lifting off of her enough to let her get his trousers down to about mid-thigh. He kicked them the rest of the way off without much effort.
Now they were both naked, skin to skin, bare thigh against bare thigh.
Linley ran her hands over every inch of him she could reach. She groped for him, for the spot where she touched him last, and when she found what she searched for, wrapped her fingers tightly around his erection.