"Nay." He rolled on top of her. "Hush," he commanded when she opened her mouth.
He kissed her. She pressed herself into the mattress, but he lengthened the kiss. She wriggled as though to sidle out from beneath him, rocking their bodies together. Pleasure shot through him. Marcus ended the kiss, breathing hard.
"Elise," he whispered hoarsely, "you are not discouraging me."
She ceased.
Marcus slipped a knee between her legs. "I am a fool," he said. "I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you. You know that."
He reached between them and drew apart the folds that protected her sex. He feared, at first, she would resist in earnest and he would be forced to spend yet another night without her, but an instant later, she wrapped her arms about his neck. Marcus touched her in heated strokes. He breathed deep of her scent filling his nostrils, stroking, petting until, at last, she cried out and buried her head in his shoulder. He trailed a long, moist kiss from her ear to a breast, taking the hardened nipple in his mouth.
"Marcus," she groaned.
He continued to tease her while settling himself between her legs. He probed for entrance into her body, aware of the sudden rise and fall of her breast, the subtle tension in her. His body tensed in response, hungry for the resistance. The tip of his shaft slipped into the moist opening.
"You're ready for me," he rasped, and in one swift motion, thrust.
Her nails pierced the flesh of his shoulders. She stiffened. Marcus stilled, waves of pleasure radiating from his groin. He took a shaky breath and focused on her face. His mind instantly cleared at sight of the drawn brow and hard lines around her mouth.
"Bloody hell," he cursed. "I hurt you."
"No," she denied so quickly he wouldn't have believed the pope had he said she spoke the truth.
"You may be no porcelain doll," he muttered, "but you aren't to be misused."
"You don't understand—"
"I understand well enough." He began to lift himself off her.
Elise held fast to his shoulders. "You do not, but it doesn't matter. If you will just continue, it will pass."
He frowned. "If you think I could misuse you—"
"Good Lord." She rolled her eyes.
"What in God's name has possessed you this evening?" he demanded, feeling frustration grow and himself soften.
"You, I thought."
Marcus blinked. He stared at her face for a moment, then dropped his gaze to her breasts. The nipples no longer stood erect. He lowered himself so that his chest brushed the soft peaks. They instantly stiffened. He hardened. He shifted slightly, gasping as the tight passage closed in around him in a hold he hadn't recalled since—Marcus froze, jerking his attention back to Elise's taut face—since he'd bedded Jenna on their wedding night. She'd been the only virgin he'd ever had, but the memory remained vivid. However, there had been no maidenhead with Elise. She had been married, had a child. She was no virgin.
"Elise," he said in a low voice, "how long since your husband bedded you?"
Her stricken look and the sudden moisture in her eyes told him all he needed to know.
"Love," he said, lowering his mouth to kiss her.
She turned her head aside. "Please."
Marcus kissed her neck instead. Not the kiss of passion he would have given her a moment ago, but a gentle, reassuring kiss.
"The man was a fool," he muttered, and moved inside her, slowly this time.
Her hold remained firm, but she shook her head slightly, refusing to look at him. Marcus lifted his weight from her, withdrawing slowly, then entering again with a quick but shallow thrust. He didn't mistake her tiny intake of breath, then the rise of her body to meet his next thrust. He pulled away, while running his tongue along the edge of her ear. When he thrust again, Elise wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed her cheek, the corner of her mouth, then coaxed her to him, kissing her full on the mouth. She wound a leg around his calf and he thrust hard and deep before realizing the action.
He stilled. She opened her eyes. He saw no fear, only the question, Why have you stopped? He was a fool. Marcus moved again and again and again, until her arms tightened around his back and her walls closed around his shaft as she cried out in her pleasure. When the blinding light of climax shot through his body, he poured himself into her and knew he would never let her go.
Elise sat at Marcus's desk in the library and stared at the wanted notice in the Sunday Times dated the weekend he had been in London.
American-born Elisabeth Kingston wanted for murder is believed to have perished at sea off the coast of Scotland. A ten-thousand-pound reward is offered for information leading to the whereabouts of her body. Anyone with information contact Drew Cummins, Attorney at Law…