Chapter 32 #2
Kassandra gasped in surprise as he swept her in his arms and carried her through the door, standing ajar, just as she had left it.
He kicked it shut and set her down in the middle of the floor, then moved to the fireplace.
In a matter of minutes, tiny orange flames were licking at the dry kindling and logs piled high upon the grates.
Stefan rose to his feet and shrugged off his drenched outercoat, his fingers working at the buttons on his sodden waistcoat.
“Take off your clothes and we’ll dry them in front of the fireplace,” he murmured with his back to her.
With a deep laugh he removed his boots and poured the water from them into a bucket, before setting them aside, then draped his dripping garments over a chair near the fire.
That left only his breeches. He turned, unfastening the row of vertical buttons, but stopped at the stricken look on Kassandra’s face.
She was still standing in the middle of the room, a small puddle forming around her feet.
Kassandra’s skin fired hotly at his startled expression, and she lowered her eyes, embarrassed.
She felt like such a fool! With him undressing, she could not quell the hint of fear that this was all a dream.
Scarcely a week had passed, and now suddenly everything was so different between them.
Things were happening so fast! She needed some time before… before…
She blushed bright pink, so lost in her confused thoughts, she didn’t hear him walk up to her. She started as he gently lifted her chin, his eyes searching her own.
“Kassandra, we have all the time in the world,” Stefan murmured soothingly, as if he had read her mind.
“There is no need to rush things. When you are ready, we’ll both know it.
It’s enough for now that we love.” He bent and tenderly kissed her flushed cheek.
“If you’d like, I shall turn my back and close my eyes as you undress,” he offered with a playful smile, “and I’ll leave these on.
” He glanced down at his breeches. “Agreed?”
Kassandra nodded, blinking back the tears swimming in her eyes as Stefan walked to the fireplace and leaned his muscled arms on the mantel.
She cast off his cloak and undressed quickly, peeling off layer after layer of soaked clothing, her riding coat, wide skirt, petticoat, chemise, boots, stockings.
She hung everything on the other high-backed chair, and propped her boots beside Stefan’s.
“Why don’t you wrap yourself in a fur, my love,” Stefan suggested, sensing she was near him. It was all he could do to keep his eyes closed, knowing what a fetching sight she must be. He was determined not to betray her trust, despite the burning ache in his loins. “There are plenty on the bed.”
Kassandra’s gaze darted from his face, his striking profile highlighted in the glow of the flames, his eyelids tightly shut, to the bed.
She ran across the floor and seized a soft fur, whirling it around her shoulders and clutching it to her body.
She turned from the bed, and was about to tell him he could open his eyes, but the words died on her lips.
Her heart pounded wildly as her gaze traveled along the powerful length of his body, from the broad span of his shoulders, the muscles firm and knotted, his black hair falling to just below his nape, to the sculpted definition of his back, tapering to a slim waist, banded with muscle.
His breeches, wet and molded to his lower body like a second skin, did little to hide the taut outline of his buttocks and the strength of his thighs…
Kassandra shivered, a rush of liquid desire tingling from her scalp to her toes. These were the thoughts of a woman, and here she was acting like a frightened child.
This was not a dream. Stefan was real, of flesh and blood… He was her love, the air she breathed. She didn’t need more time to tell her that. She needed his arms about her, the warm pressure of his lips upon her own, his touch…
“Stefan?” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. She tensed as he turned, her breathing shallow, her lips parted. His bronzed body was outlined in an aura of flame, magnificent, virile, and she could not tear her eyes away.
Her hands loosened their hold on the fur and it drifted along her skin to the floor, the whisper-soft sensation exciting her beyond measure. She moaned faintly, crying out in yearning for this one man. She stretched out her arms, wanting him, wanting him…
For a moment Stefan could only gaze at her, mesmerized by the startling vision she made.
Her porcelain beauty was awash in gold from the warm sunlight streaming through the windows, her damp hair clinging to the lithe curves of her body and down her back, streaking across her high, pouting breasts.
She swayed slightly, and something winked and sparkled between the tempting hollow, the jeweled locket he had given her.
Diamonds, rubies—they paled beside her loveliness, he thought fleetingly. She was the rarest jewel, with facets of fire-gold and cream, brilliant amethyst and palest rose, goddess, woman…perfection. And she was his.
He walked slowly toward her, his eyes capturing her own, holding them in thrall.
He reached out for her, their hands entwining, and drew her against him, his breath catching in his throat as her hardened nipples grazed his chest. Yet he held himself back, gazing down into her face, searching.
Only a few moments ago she had shied away from him, confused, uncertain.
He had to be sure she wanted him as much as he wanted her…
Sensing his inner turmoil, Kassandra lowered her head and trailed a line of kisses across his chest to just left of his breastbone, where she pressed her lips fervently to the beating of his heart.
“Love me, Stefan,” she murmured, her breath hot against his skin. “Love me…”
He groaned, her words unleashing within him an explosion of raging desire. In one fluid motion he lifted her in his arms and laid her upon the bed, the pale cream of her body in striking contrast to the glistening furs beneath her.
Kassandra rolled languidly onto her side, watching with intense fascination as Stefan stripped off his breeches.
Emboldened by her love, she traced her finger along the dark swath of hair trailing down his taut belly, past sleek, narrow hips, to end in a mass of black curls between sinewed thighs.
His erect manhood seemed to leap against her hand and she gasped in surprise, falling back onto the furs.
Stefan chuckled lustily, gathering her into his arms as he lay down beside her.
“I warn you, my lady,” he whispered in her ear. “To touch a man so can only bring about the most dire consequences.”
He gently bit her earlobe, as if to emphasize his words, then it was he who gasped when Kassandra’s hand tentatively touched his pulsating hardness once again.
Her fingers wrapped around him, unsure at first, but growing bolder as she slowly caressed him, reveling in the silken feel of his skin, the satin smoothness, the crispness of the curls nestled there.
He moaned against her ear, his breaths panting, ragged, and she marveled that she could pleasure him so.
She began to stroke him faster, innately sensing that she could please him still further, only to start when he suddenly drew her hand away.
“Enough, my love,” he whispered hoarsely, pushing her back down upon the furs. He knelt above her, his muscled thighs straddling her hips, his throbbing shaft pressed against the silken mound between her legs. His flint-gray eyes, inflamed with passion, seared into her own. “Now it is my turn.”
He bent over her, supporting his powerful weight with his hands, and tenderly kissed her forehead, her eyelids, his lips brushing against her gold-tipped lashes.
His kiss became possessive when he sought her lips, demanding, drawing the breath from her body as his tongue savored the recesses of her mouth, tasting its sweetness, lingering there.
When Kassandra’s arms instinctively wound about his neck, returning his impassioned kiss, he forced them down above her head, gripping her wrists gently with one hand while his other hand stroked her breast.
Kassandra sharply inhaled as his nails lightly raked across her hardened nipple, until she thought she might scream from the delicious sensations pouring through her body.
Each time she arched her back, her hips moved beneath him, stoking a fire deep within her belly as the tip of his hardness pressed urgently against her.
Suddenly Stefan released her wrists and shifted his weight, pushing her long legs apart and kneeling between them.
His hands were everywhere, caressing, teasing, his mouth, hot, insistent, capturing first one rose-tipped crest, then the other, while his fingers explored the silken cleft of her womanhood, entwining in russet curls.
He knew she was ready, but he wanted to push her still further to the brink of ecstasy.
He bent down and cupped her buttocks, his tongue delving into her where his fingers had been only a moment before.
There was a wildness to his movements, an urgent intensity, matched only by Kassandra’s driving need. She writhed against him, trembling, calling his name, pleading for him to stop, pleading for him to linger, pleading for what she knew was to come.
Then Stefan was above her, knowing she could wait no longer, knowing he could wait no longer to possess her. As he plunged into her, she cried out her pleasure, tears of rapture stinging her eyes, her jagged breaths melding with his own.
She felt storm-tossed, buffeted, adrift in a raging sea of delirious sensation, then she was hovering above it for a blinding instant, hovering…
until she dove back down into the boiling sea.
Wave after wave of furious ecstasy crashed in upon her, crashed in upon Stefan, drowning them in all-encompassing delight.