Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“This feels nice already,” she said. “We fit together, although you’re much bigger than me.”
“Indeed, I am bigger.”
Was he bemused, or just relaxed? Why was she so unsure what to do? She stared at his handsome, square chin as his fingers brushed across her cheek, then down her jawline. He tilted her head up until their eyes met. As he held the intimate contact, his knuckles traced along her neck, trailing down to her collarbone. She suppressed a shiver at the stirring contact. No one had ever touched her this way.
“Breathe,” he said softly.
She realized all her air had stalled in her chest as she experienced his caress. She let it out with an embarrassed smile.
“Do you think you’ll be all right?” he teased. “We’ve barely begun.”
“I’ll be all right, yes.”
He touched her so expertly, so easily, his fingertips rising over the curve of her shoulder to meander down her arm. His thumb brushed the side of her breast. She blinked and had to remember to breathe again.
Back up her arm. Across her shoulder. The sensation mesmerized her. This was not like spanking, the only other physical contact they’d shared. This was as soft as spanking was hard. Soft, but powerful.
He leaned to kiss her as he’d done earlier, brushing his lips over hers. She knew better how to react this time, closing her eyes and letting her mouth play against his. He opened his lips a bit, and she opened hers in response. She’d seen her mama and papa kiss like this when they believed they were unobserved. It was certainly something to do in private, for it was close and warm and luxurious. It seemed a way to lose oneself in another…
His hand opened on her back, large and hot through her shift’s fabric. He pulled her closer, his kiss gentle but intoxicating. From her back, his hand moved to her waist. Each place he touched her, she seemed to burn with the knowledge of it. He’s holding me. He’s caressing me.
Then, without warning, those hot, questing fingertips moved across the mound of her breast. She squirmed, surprised but not displeased. The pad of his thumb brushed over her nipple, and she broke their kiss, gasping at the sudden throb of sensation. She ducked against him as he touched her nipple again, this time tracing around it, bringing more exquisite feeling.
“Do you like that?” he asked.
She nodded, unable to conjure words. He kept on, stroking, teasing, circling with maddening skill until her whole body trembled.
“I’ve never felt anything like this,” she finally answered in halting breathlessness. “You’re very good at…touching me.”
“Thank you. I’m trying my best.”
He grinned. To him, this was play. Easy to do. She understood he was more experienced; in fact, his skill level compared to hers seemed unsporting. How was she to keep up? She ought to touch him too, but she could barely control her own reactions and emotions. She gripped his arm, the one tormenting her, and his caresses stilled. She didn’t want that, so she moved her hand to his chest instead, to the glistening, scratchy dark hair and tanned muscle.
“August…” She reminded herself that he was her friend, someone she had known and trusted a long time. “So this is what a wedding… What a wedding night is like?”
“More or less.” He watched her eke out another halting breath. “Though I fear to tell you, we’re only just getting started. If it’s too much for you, we can stop.”
“Just getting started? How much more is there?”
“A great deal more, but we needn’t do everything in one night.”
As he spoke, he moved his hand from her breast, down the front of her stomach, to the apex of her thighs. It was the part of her that felt heaviest when he caressed and kissed her. She’d rather understood he was going there next, but a fit of reluctance grabbed her. She clenched her legs together and met his gaze.
“I’m afraid of that. No, not afraid. Well, afraid of what you’ll do to me. No one…” She swallowed hard as he drew up her shift’s hem. “No one has ever touched me there.”
“Have you touched yourself there?”
His question surprised her. “No. Should I have?”
He threw back his head and laughed. She blushed furiously.
“I think,” he said, when he stopped laughing, “you will regret the time lost. Let me show you how it feels. I’ll be gentle. You may find it to your taste.”
The way he said taste was so seductive. So voluptuous, like flickering candles in the dark.
“I’ll touch you here to start,” he said, tracing the tops of her naked thighs. “Kiss me again, Lisbet. Yes, so sweetly…”
She let herself get carried away by his lips once more. His kisses were even more voluptuous than his words. Taste. Touch. Yes, so sweetly…
She gripped his shoulder and felt the tendons in his neck move as he leaned toward her. Strong. He was so strong. She was so vulnerable, and yet…