Chapter 19 #3
She could feel the movement of his head as he nodded. With the back of his fingers, he touched her cheek, letting his hand fall down to her neck. “We will marry.”
“Yes.”
He exhaled deeply, as though he had been holding his breath.
“Do you know that from the first moment I saw you, I have been enchanted with you? From that time forward, there has been no other woman in my thoughts, in my dreams. And it is my belief that for the rest of my life there will be no other woman for me.”
“My darling.” She threw her arms wide around his neck. “I love you so very much.”
“And I, you,” he affirmed, and with the tip of his finger, he brought her face to his and kissed her. Somehow within that kiss, the blanket fell away from her shoulders. But neither of them seemed to care.
Cool air swept over her torso, but only for an instant before he covered her with the warmth of his body. His hands caressed her up and down, over her back, around to her waist, up to her breasts.
“You are so beautiful, so womanly.” He grabbed hold of the blanket, and taking a scarce moment, he spread it beneath her. Then he eased her to the ground, pausing briefly to gaze at her. “So very beautiful.”
“As are you.” She smiled and caressed his chest in much the same manner as he was doing to her.
He captured her hand, kissing her palm. While an earthy sensation spread throughout her, he grasped that hand and the other, pulling both over her head while he positioned himself at her side.
He massaged her everywhere, paying particular attention to her breasts, as though they were an altar upon which he would worship.
She squirmed beneath him. “That feels good,” she whispered. “I have dreamed of our coming together again ever since that one morning. In truth, I think I have been waiting for this all my life.”
“I too.” He bent to suckle again a ripened breast. Over to the other, back and then across her chest, up and down, he kissed, as though he dare not miss a single inch of her.
“Please, Swift Hawk, please.”
“Please what?” He paused to glance up at her.
“Please let me touch you too. I yearn for the feel of your skin beneath my fingertips. For I would know your touch and commit this to memory.”
As he looked at her, his countenance filled with an emotion that bordered on hunger, yearning…
love. Briefly he shut his eyes as though whatever emotions were filling him were too much for a mere man.
When he gazed at her, she could have sworn his eyes appeared a little wet.
“I would deny you nothing.” He let go of her hands.
At once, she ran her fingers over his chest, down to the muscles of his slender abdomen, up to his chest to each of his tiny nipples. He sucked in his breath when she touched him there. She rejoiced in the excitement of feeling him shudder; it was as though she felt what he felt.
“I like that.”
“I too,” he agreed.
“Oh, Swift Hawk, love me.”
“I intend to.”
His fingers reached down past her navel, and farther downward they ranged, until they found the secrets of her femininity.
She said, “I want more of you than I had last time.”
He sent her a questioning look.
“I want it all. If you are to reach your…pleasure, sir, I would have you do it as a part of me.”
He groaned.
“Please, Swift Hawk, I can barely stand being this close and not having all of you.”
“Yes, I understand. But we will go slowly. This is really your first time. And I would not hurt you, if I can help it. Still, there is more we can do.” Coming up onto his knees, he knelt over her, peeling away her pantalettes over her hips, down her legs and finally tossing them to the side.
He didn’t touch her, not at first. Instead he gazed at her everywhere, and then murmured, “Last time, we did not have the honor of looking upon one another as we made love. And so then I did not see the womanly perfection that I behold here before me now.”
She giggled slightly. “How you exaggerate, I fear. There is no perfection in my body.”
“If it is not so, you show me the mark that mars it.”
She smiled. “Far be it from me to point out my every weakness.”
He grinned back at her. “Do you see? You cannot do it, either.” Glancing up at her, he whispered, “Spread your legs.”
It was the last thing in her mind to deny him anything. She pulled them wide.
He reached for her then, his fingers caressing her at the junction of her legs, while he sat slightly away from her and watched her, watched her face, her hips, her every movement.
It was in her mind to feel embarrassed. But she didn’t. Instead she felt urged to give him all of her that she could, and she sensed herself growing wet beneath his devotion. However, she wanted more, and she said, “You have the advantage over me.”
He gazed up at her. “Do I?”
“I fear it is so, my love. While I lie here before you, naked, you are yet clothed.”
Her objection was instantaneously remedied, and he pulled his breechcloth from around his waist.
It was Angelia’s turn to draw in her breath. “Swift Hawk, it is my understanding that you are to fit yourself within me.”
He grinned. “I am glad that you know the facts of life.”
“But how can it be so? I am afraid you are too big.”
He laughed, though what he found funny about that remark was beyond her. “We will take it very slowly. Do not fear, for you are built for this. But it might hurt, this your first time.”
“I have heard that it always hurts.”
“You have heard incorrectly then. After the first few times, it should feel like it did that morning.”
“Really?”
He nodded, and without further argument, he bent toward her. He kissed her breasts then swept his kisses downward toward her belly, past her navel, his lips ranging lower even still.
Briefly, his fingers tangled with the protective hair, there at the junction of her legs and then—
She jerked upwards.
“Swift Hawk! What are you doing?”
He glanced up at her briefly, but there was no apology in his gaze. “I am ensuring that you will enjoy this, your first time.”
“But—”
“I will have this moment,” he said.
So strongly had he uttered these words, Angelia recognized the fruitlessness of her argument. Instead, she let her gaze encompass his, though with her eyes she did beg him to desist.
He continued, “Lie back, let me have my way, and experience it, for I think you will like it.”
With one further, pleading look, she did exactly as he said.
Placing her legs over his shoulders, he commenced to love her in an oh-so-wonderful way.