Notorious Pleasures (Maiden Lane #2)(49)
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

He drew his shirt off over his head and doffed his breeches.

She’d seen naked males before. Statues, pale and entirely denuded of hair. A few living boys or even young men, their shirts removed for labor.

She’d never seen this man nude, though. He was brown all over. What she’d taken for skin tanned by the sun was instead naturally olive toned. His shoulders were wide and square, and in contrast to those unliving statues, there was hair upon his body. Sprinkles of it, dark and curling, from one brown nipple to the other, a bare patch between chest and belly and then a gradually widening line of dark hair from his navel to the bush about his genitals. The hair there was thick and black, and his penis rose ruddy and dark from it, a strange, foreign, male thing.

She looked and looked and felt herself clench internally at the sight, the wonder, of being free to inspect his nude body. She’d held that part of him in her hands, but she’d never seen it. It rose almost vertical to his belly but stood away from his body. Thick veins twined about its length, leading to a fleshy cap, swollen past his foreskin. It gleamed faintly in the candlelight, reddish purple and ready. It was the most magnificent thing she’d ever seen in her life—and the most frightening.

“Do you like it?” he asked, grasping himself.

She watched, mesmerized, as he pulled the skin down the shaft and then up again, cupping the head in his palm. Her eyes rose to his, and she could only speak the truth. “Yes.”

A corner of his mouth kicked up, though he looked far from amused. “Good. I’ve heard of virgins running screaming from the sight.”

She bit her lip at the word virgin.

“You are, aren’t you?” he said in a voice that in any other man she might think gentle. “A virgin?”

She nodded. A virgin. She was about to lose her virginity. This was wrong. This was a sin. This was—

“Don’t think,” he ordered. He stepped forward to place a knee on the bed, making it dip beneath his weight. “Don’t think, don’t wonder, don’t worry. Only feel.” He lowered himself, his hands on either side of her head, his body suddenly heating hers. “Feel me.”

And she did. He pressed his legs between hers, widening her thighs until there was a place for his hips, and settled himself on her. She could feel the rough hair of his legs sliding along hers, the hard slab of his belly, and above all, the hot iron rod lying across her mound.

She looked up at him as he lowered his head toward hers, murmuring, “Feel me.”

His lips were gentle but not soft. He inserted his tongue into her mouth, and she knew now how to suckle upon it, how to tilt her head so that their mouths fitted together perfectly. His hands were in her hair, pulling pins out, burrowing beneath the tresses to palm her scalp, and she realized suddenly that she could explore as well.

She lifted her hands along his sides, stroking, touching his warm skin. His back was smooth, a little damp now from his bath or perhaps the heat they made between them. She skated up and felt the muscles of his shoulders move beneath her palms. This was so intimate, so quietly special: to touch a man’s naked back, to feel him as he made love to her.

He muttered something and lifted away from her, breaking their kiss. He rocked to the side a bit and reached between them. She felt his fingers sliding through her maidenhair. Then he was pushing his penis against her folds, swirling the head in her wetness, pressing against her apex. She watched his face, seeing the grim set of his mouth, the slight furrow between his brows. Sweat shined on his forehead, and it occurred to her that though he’d no doubt done this innumerable times before, he was taking this time very seriously.

That gave her comfort.

Then he shifted and looked up, and at the same time she felt the tip of his cock at her entrance.

She gripped his shoulders in sudden doubt.

He ducked his head, catching her eyes. “Don’t think. Just feel.”

And he flexed his hips.

She expected pain, but there was only a strange sort of pinch. She panted, waiting for more—pain or pleasure, she wasn’t sure.

He slid a little way out and then farther in.

Her lips parted as she realized that he was not fully sheathed in her.

“Relax,” he whispered against the corner of her mouth.

He withdrew and shoved again, this time only a little more inside. The pinch had lessened, but the stretching, the pressure was still there, not a painful sensation, but not entirely pleasant either. He shifted then and brought her legs up, wrapping them about his waist. Suddenly there seemed to be more room. He slid partly out, his penis rubbing against her, and then shoved forcefully, his hip bones meeting hers.

She looked up at him, so full of his flesh. Was this all there was?

He seemed to understand the question in her eyes. He lay against her, his upper half braced away from her on straight arms. He smiled again, this time rather grimly, and grunted, “Feel.”

Then he slid against her, his penis slowly pistoning out and into her. She gasped. He did it again, his eyes watching hers, and swiveled his hips, grinding down on her.

“Oh!” With her hips tilted up, his body was hitting that spot exactly, each pull of his cock adding somehow to the exquisite sensation.

“Feel, my heart,” he whispered, and she saw that his eyes were glistening. Before she could speak he dipped his head to tongue her nipple.

She arched helplessly underneath him. His strong body guided and pleasured hers, his hips moving relentlessly, grinding down on that one special spot. It began again, a glistening heat between her legs, growing and spreading outward until she quaked and clutched at his shoulders. There was something else here as well. It was a terrible sorrow, a welling joy, as if all the emotion she’d ever held in check or pushed away was suddenly rising to the surface. She couldn’t control her face, couldn’t control her body. She was coming apart, and she’d never be able to pin herself back together again.

Griffin was making love to her, and she knew in that moment that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Here and only here would she ever be truly free. She held him close, terrified he would somehow stop and leave her behind.

But he didn’t. He gently bit down on her nipple and rocked against her faster and faster, sweat gleaming on his neck and on his chest, until she shattered under him. She opened her mouth in a silent scream, and he filled it with his tongue and lips, shuddering into her, continuing his ride, until he suddenly left her.

She felt the splash of warm liquid on her belly and opened her eyes. He was above her, his cock in his hand, his face relaxing from the sexual tension of before.