Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
In that moment, he found a thousand things that he loved about her.
Very slowly and gently, Zachary lifted her chin and kissed her. He kissed her long and lingering, with all the aching tenderness in his heart, and she laid her trembling fingers against his cheek and began to kiss him back.
Her soft lips parted with only the slightest urging from his probing tongue into her mouth, and then she gave him hers.
He teased her, tormented her, offered himself to her by thrusting deep with his tongue, then retreating and thrusting again and again, until Elizabeth was clinging to him, her mouth moving back and forth over his in passionate surrender to the wild, erotic kiss.
“I want to experience the strange passion you stir deep inside of me. I know so little of men despite I want to give myself to you. I need you to teach me.”
Shivering and tentative, she pressed her form into him, her full breasts flattened against the cotton of his shirt. Shyly, she moved her hands up his chest and without guile, her fingers continued upward until they stroked the dark hair at his nape.
Zachary placed a gentle finger beneath her chin, and she vibrated with the nervous energy of a doe ready to leap though the forest thicket. Stunned by the force of the need pulsating through his blood, he had to stop this madness before it went any further.
She moaned.
“I understand your fears, Elizabeth.” He remembered her fear after the ball. He must take his time with her.
She dragged her palms from his neck.
“There is a bottom of society that has evil intent…that wants power over another human being. That is not the relationship between a man and a woman. The person who drugged and took advantage of you should be hanged. I would kill anyone who tried to harm you. I treasure you, Elizabeth, honor and cherish you. At any time, if you want me to stop, I will. If you want to cry, we can hold hands.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
His hand took her face and held it gently. His thumb brushed the wetness away. He slipped his hands into her hair and brought her closer.
There was nothing more that Zachary desired to do but kiss her. He waited for her to bolt, would understand immediately–he intuitively knew her thoughts.
The lantern sputtered then breathed its last, leaving them in a swath of blazing moonlight.
He felt her yielding and then restrained himself, for he needed to keep his head.
Yet images of her in his arms, the silk of her gown and what lay beneath wreaked havoc with his senses.
She was his, always would be, and he liked that fact.
His body heated like fire as her soft curves melted into him.
“We are soon to be man and wife. By some strange fate, our destiny is sealed.
Elizabeth’s fingers turned white as she curled her fingers into his shirt.
She felt Zachary’s naked longing, his eyes upon her, consuming her.
The air between them sizzled in a wordless clash of far-reaching desires and fears, carrying them beyond friendship, beyond human bond and any other passion.
That missing part of her life, that isolated part of her that desperately needed and begged for her soul to become one.
He wanted her.
Zachary jerked her into his arms and his mouth swooped down to capture hers.
Her heart hammered in her ears, while she gave herself freely to the hunger of his kiss.
His arms moved around her, and he groaned.
When she clasped her arms about his neck, she inhaled a mixture of soap and earthy scent—Zachary’s scent.
He pushed her back until she bumped against the wall. His mouth skimmed her jaw, down her throat, his teeth grazing her ear and his day’s growth of beard rough against her skin.
Husband and wife.
A part of her told her that she should stop, that she should think this through, but the other voice in her head drowned her out. She wanted him more than she could breathe.
He had referred to her defilement as trifling and rose grateful for his patience and compassion. What he offered was sunshine and hope, raising her out of the world of shadows and pain.
Elizabeth gasped when he gathered her into his arms, and carried her and then stood her by the bed. Slowly, he pulled the pins from her hair and let the thick mass fall to her hips.
“How long I’ve desired to touch your unbound hair. Like a golden mantle of silk.”
With no opposition from her, Zachary reached behind and unfastened a row of buttons, pushing her dress away.
She shivered as the ivory gown glided down her body and pooled at her feet.
Naked now, Elizabeth covered herself with a veil of her hair.
He moved her hands to her sides, sweeping her hair away, her nipples grazing the soft cotton of his shirt.
“You never need to cover yourself. Not with me.”
Trapped in a whirl of heady arousal, she watched, intrigued as he shirked out of his shirt, reveling in the lean muscularity of his chest, arms and shoulders.
Lower down on his abdomen his navel was circled with dark hair, muscles flexed and relaxed with the flow of his movements.
Her heart twinged with the scars he’d received from the Cheyenne.
She longed to run her hands across his skin, to glide her fingers over every muscle and sinew and scar of him. Pulsing heat spread between her legs.
“The men?”
“They’ve long gone home.” He growled and strode to the door and kicked a chair beneath the handle and then pulled the shades.
Elizabeth moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.
He watched her with hunger in his eyes. A slight sheen lit his body, sleek and strong, without the excess bulk of other men of her acquaintance.
He finished shedding his pants and her eyes widened, her gaze riveted to his manhood… impressed and a little frightened.
He picked her up, laid her on the bed, scanning his eyes over her nakedness.
“I apologize for this primitive room. If I had better, I’d give it to you. Someday, I promise you a mansion.”
“I don’t need—”
“You are truly lovely,” he drawled, and a strange, delicious tension scorched below as he devoured her with his eyes, touching her everywhere.
He lay next to her, the heat of his body running down the entire length of her, and…
keenly evident, his manhood pressed against her thigh, and the barely controlled power wound in his body.
Elizabeth closed her eyes not quite understanding how things were meant to be.
How would they fit? She had seen stallions in Missouri… but this was something different.
He drew Elizabeth up beside him and stopped. She opened her eyes.
Zachary took her hand and placed it on his chest. She ran her fingers over his scars and tenderly kissed some of them. The strong pulse of his heart drummed beneath her palm.
“We are two to be made one by what is sacred. We will take our vows in a couple of days. It is not a careless pledge I make.” From the rich timbre of his voice, her heartbeat to match his pulse.
“I warn you from here to the end, we will always be faithful to one another. We will never betray the other.”
Elizabeth was mindless to his warning, so lost was she when he used his thumb to circle her nipple.
She raised her fingertips to trace his jaw and trailed them down his neck, entranced by the sensual feel of his firm skin and the silky texture of his hair.
She memorized everything about him, sensing his vulnerability and reached up to stroke his cheek.
Unable to resist, she kissed his throat and then his shoulder.
Zachary shuddered. “How many times have I conjured this in my mind?” He pulled her body until her breasts pressed firmly against his chest, and her thighs tangled with his own.
His hand wandered down her waist, drawing intricate patterns, moving downward to stroke her thighs. She trembled beneath his caresses.
Her curiosity of him was just as searching.
Her finger followed across his belly where his muscles rippled, hard and lean.
She’d dreamed of this, touching him, absorbing the beauty of his body with her fingertips, lightly tracing the dark furring of hair running down his chest, and down to where his maleness lay.
She circled around it, never touching him there and heard his intake of breath every time her exploring fingertips drew close.
She reveled in the power she had over him and raised her eyes to his.
They were a darker shade of blue now, darkened with passion, hard and penetrating.
“You are playing with fire,” he growled against the curve of her shoulder, but his words were lost as he took her mouth and then seared a trail down her throat and shoulder.
A warm hand closed over her breast, caressing in circles then capturing a nipple and squeezing it between his fingers before trailing to her other breast.
“If at any time you want me to stop–” His voice was thick.
He looked so severe and concerned beside her. “I trust you.”
He crushed her to him, his hands exploring the hollows of her back and down over her hips.
Automatically, she curled into the curve of his body.
Her breasts tingled against the muscles of his chest. His hands and lips were everywhere, the gentle message sending currents of desire through her.
His mouth moved to her breast, his tongue caressed her sensitive, swollen nipple.
“Do you like that?”
“Yes.” She arched toward him.
His hand seared a path down her abdomen and onto her thigh. He stroked there, and she groaned pushing her hips into his hand. His palm sought the warmth of her woman’s mound, circling her wet cleft. She writhed.
Urging her thighs farther apart, he slid his fingers deep into her. Again and again, came the probing of his fingers, the pleasure coming pure and explosive. She breathed in deep soul-drenching drafts.