He pressed his lips to hers again, whispering against them, “’Tis true I’ve waited for the right woman to come along…and now she has.”
Her heart thrashed against her ribs and her toes curled. She knew in her gut this was right. She didn’t know why she knew, which was as cliché as it got. She didn’t know how. She just felt it in her bones—in her heart—in her mind.
Rather than answer him, she reached up and cupped his jaw, letting her fingers roam over his chin, skimming her thumb over his lower lip, pulling him to her to place her mouth over his with a sigh.
And Jon responded in kind, driving his tongue between her lips, caressing hers with precise strokes, pushing the blankets away from her until she was naked, the firelight dancing over her skin.
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple visible when he sat up and unbuttoned his vest, pulling it and his shirt over his head.
His chest was just as she’d imagined, wide, thick, rippling with muscle, his nipples dusky and erect. Skin dusted in bronze stretched over his arms, strong and long.
Jon looked down at her, his sapphire eyes following the line of her neck, her collarbones, until he reached her breasts. His eyes grew dark, stormy, his body stiffening with tension.
“Aye, milady. You are everything I imagined. More,” he whispered into the room, his voice husky and deep.
Her cheeks flushed hot as her hands found his forearms, running her fingers over the muscled flesh, relishing his strength.
He lifted tentative hands, hovering over her breasts until she gripped his wrists and brought them to her chest.
Jon inhaled a sharp breath, running his fingers over her hardened nipples until she squirmed beneath him. Toni’s eyes closed as he explored, brushing kisses over her shoulder, down along her sides and back up again, until his lips were on the underside of her breast.
He flicked his tongue out, drawing it up over the full flesh until he reached the tight bud. When he placed his lips over it, enveloping it with his hot mouth, Toni bucked beneath him, gripping his hair in her hands as her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
Jon let his body fall flush to hers, sliding to rest at her side as he stroked her nipples, nipping, pulling, tugging, as the heat in her stomach grew and the ache between her thighs began to swirl with need.
Her hands went to his breeches, unlacing the front of them, inching them downward as he traced circles of wet-hot heat over her straining nipples. He lifted his lower body, allowing her to push his pants off until they were both naked.
Rising up, he pressed his forehead to hers, their noses touching as he reached for her hands and held them still. His breath came in short bursts, their chests crashing together. “I fear I may burst, milady. I may not know the ways of the flesh as well as I’d like, but I do know ’twould not be pleasurable for you if my needs came first. We must slow our pace. You must be the priority,” he said, almost as though it were an order.
An incredibly intoxicating, sensual order.
Arching into him, she ran her tongue over his lower lip and nipped it. “We should both be the priority,” she whispered.
If this was going to be his first time, and if it would be their last, she wanted him to remember. She wanted him to understand how much she was coming to care for him—that she’d always consider this time with him a gift.
“Show me, milady. Show me what you wish. I have these thoughts…running amok through my brain like a herd of wild horses, but I want for you to treasure this memory. So tell me, and I shall do your bidding.”
His tender words were a stark contrast to the powerful body lying so close to hers—so tender, she wanted to curl up next to him and stay in this moment forever, so tomorrow didn’t have to come and she wouldn’t have to make a choice she might regret.
Rather than give him direction, Toni decided whatever Jon wanted to do would end up pleasurable, so she pulled him close, placing a hand on his chest where his heart beat, and whispered back, “Do what your instincts tell you to do, Jon—do what your heart tells you.”
Jon clearly needed no more words as he hauled her close—so close, their thighs touched and her breasts crushed to his chest. He kissed her with abandon, without holding anything back, until she almost couldn’t breathe from it and the heat he stirred in her nearly boiled over.
Toni’s hands went to his back, roaming over the wide expanse, her body arching into him to get as close as she could, to feel every square inch of his naked flesh.
And then he was pulling his lips from hers and slipping down along her body until his mouth was at the place where thigh and hip met. He brushed a kiss over her skin, making her buck and sending ripples of pleasure along her heated flesh.