Chapter 2 #2
His breath heaved in and out of him, covering her with its warmth, and her own rough breathing joined his.
Gray eyes sharp with hunger, his gaze moved over her face, along her neck, to the swell of her breasts pressed tightly above the neckline of her bodice, barely hidden by her fichu.
She hadn’t been this wet before, not without even a single touch.
And yet she was afire with it, bright and edgy and craving sensation.
“Your body desires me,” he said on a growl. “But I need your heart in accordance. Tell me this is what you want, that I am what you want.”
“I do want this. You are what I want.”
His mouth crashed down onto hers. It wasn’t the careful exploration from back at the carriage.
This was need and demand, a beast claiming its prey.
She surged into him, kissing him in return with the same ferocity.
His lips were insistent, ravenous. He swept his tongue into her mouth to lick and savor her.
“Can’t get enough of your taste.” Ezra’s voice was a feral rasp. “Like nothing I’ve ever known. I want to devour you whole.”
“Feast, then.” Never had she wanted to be consumed as much as she did at this moment.
His hands were in her hair, unpinning it heedlessly so that the long dark honey tresses spilled down her back. He wrapped the length around his fist and tugged, pulling her head back. Her neck was bared to him.
“Is this how a lamb feels before the wolf attacks?”
His eyes were bright and keen. “What do you know of wolves?”
“Old tales say the last wolf was killed in Humphrey Head two hundred years ago.”
He smirked. “Old tales lie just as much as they tell the truth.” Looking down at her through his lowered lashes, he said huskily, “You don’t seem much of a meek lamb. More of a vixen.”
“Are wolves and foxes friends?”
“This wolf would very much like to be more than friends with this fox.”
He bent his head, and scraped his teeth over the sensitive flesh of her throat. A shiver of pleasure chased through her body. She gripped the wide width of his shoulders to hang on as tightly as she could.
He reared back to shuck his greatcoat, throwing the heavy garment to the ground.
With equally impatient movements, he pulled off his full-skirted green coat and leather waistcoat.
He put his pistols atop a rickety table, then removed his baldric slung across his chest. He wore only a rough piece of red cloth around his neck instead of a gentleman’s stock, which he tugged away to reveal his corded neck.
Then he was in his billowing shirtsleeves.
Jessica helped him to pull the serviceable linen off.
“Oh,” she breathed. “Oh, my.”
She’d known men of many shapes and sizes, including those who made their living through the strength of their bodies.
Dockworkers, boxers, farmers. None of them came close to the beauty of Ezra’s form.
He was densely muscled, from the sculpture of his pectorals to the ridges of his abdomen, and the taut brawn of his shoulders and arms rippled with power.
A generous covering of dark hair adorned his torso, descending in a line to his waistband to disappear below.
The thick shape of his hard cock pressed against the fall of his breeches.
Jessica’s hand immediately went to it. She pressed her fingers around his heavy length, as best she could through the buckskin. He snarled in response.
“You have put aside your pistols, sirrah,” she murmured, “but you are still armed and dangerous.”
“And likely to go off in a moment. I need inside you.”
“I doubt I can take such a monster.” For he was indeed massive, and it was with a mixture of fear and excitement that she contemplated having such size within her.
“I’ll make you ready.”
When his fingers went to the lacings at the back of her round gown, she brushed them away. “The dress stays on.”
He looked at her with a question in his eyes, but thankfully didn’t press her further.
“How do you want it?” he asked in a rough purr.
She considered. None of her prior lovers had ever asked that question. “Nothing feeble or indecisive. Strong. Forceful.”
“Rough, then?” His eyed gleamed.
Her breath snared. “Rough.”
“If there’s anything I do that you don’t like, tell me.”
“Will you stop? Even in the heat of things?”
“There’s no pleasure in it for me if you don’t feel that pleasure, too.”
She stared at him for a moment, before answering, “I will tell you. But right now, I have no intention of stopping you. In fact, I insist we continue at once.”
He made a low rumble, then hauled her against him, his chest forge-hot.
With long, deep, searching strokes, he kissed her.
He plucked off her fichu before his hand dipped beneath her low bodice to stroke her breasts.
His fingers far more dexterous than she would have believed for such a large hand, he found her nipples and teased them into even harder points.
She moaned as he pinched them, one after the other.
And then in an instant she was on her back, amongst the piles of blankets.
He stretched above her, kissing her with commanding ferocity.
Settling between her parted legs, he pushed his hips into hers, placing the ridge of his cock exactly where she wanted it.
She ground into him, bursts of gleaming pleasure building at the place where they rubbed against each other.
“Wish I lived in a palace,” he rumbled. “I’d take you there.”
“I don’t need…a palace,” she gasped.
“But a palace bedchamber is amply furnished with couches and tables and any number of delectable places where I could fuck you. As it is, I have to make do with just my bed.”
“A bed is sufficient,” she managed. “I’ve a feeling you’ll rise to the occasion.”
“Indeed, my lady Jessica, I have risen to new heights.” She moaned as he punctuated this statement with a thrust of his hips.
She could already feel a climax building from just this alone. But when she pushed herself up against him, he pulled back.
“Not yet, jewel,” he murmured, edging down her body. “There’s more I want.”
Her skirts and petticoats were shoved about her legs as Ezra knelt down between them. He stroked his hands up her stocking-clad calves and then higher, lifting her skirts even more as he moved. The look on his face was nothing less than predatory, his eyes almost shining with hunger.
“Vixen,” he rumbled. “You knew precisely how you teased me, back at the carriage, revealing these magnificent legs in these pink stockings.”
“They’re rose, not pink.”
“The color of the deepest, most private part of a rose. But that view at the carriage was too brief. I’ll take my leisure now.”
“I thought you were feeling impatient.”
“Not too impatient to linger over these.” He skimmed his hands along her legs, heat from his palm soaking through her thin stockings, tracing over the clocking that curled from her ankle up her calf. His warmth seeped into her skin when he reached her bare thighs.
God! She was shaking, as if she were a virgin from the schoolroom and not an experienced woman of eight and twenty years. She had to master herself, control this desire for him before it burned her to cinders.
She could take command of this moment. She would lead the dance.
Jessica reached down to untie her garters and kick off her buckled shoes, but his hand stopped her.
“Leave them on,” he said darkly.
She propped herself up on her elbows to see him better, his expression sharp with animal ferocity.
He bent low to run his open mouth along her legs, ankle to thigh.
Shivers chased through her body at the feel of his lips on her legs, his breath on places that never received a man’s entire attention.
He was reverent with her, touching and kissing up and down her legs until she shook.
“The feast must continue.” With gentle insistence, he pushed her skirts up even farther.
Her sex was now bared to him. He stroked through the triangle of dark curls above her drenched slit. A deep growl reverberated through him and traveled into her body.
“Look at your exquisite cunt.” His silver gaze was fixed on it, and he licked his lips. His country accent deepened as he spoke. “Wet and ready for me.”
He covered her entire mound with his hand. A faint tremor ran through him, while heat poured into her from this simple touch. It seemed as though he was readying both of them for his attentions, as if he was just as shaken by what was happening as she.
When he stroked two broad fingers between her sex’s lips, she arched up. She protested when he pulled his hand away, but he held his slick fingers up in victory as her arousal dripped down them.
“This is for me.” He stuck his fingers into his mouth and gave them a long, thorough lick, his tongue deft.
“All for you,” she gasped.
“You taste like…”
“Like…?”
His brow furrowed. He seemed to struggle with a riddle. Then he shook his head. “The meal I’ve been waiting to devour my entire life.”
She could have sworn that Ezra had intended to say something else, but he’d thought better of it. Even so, the answer he had given summoned forth another rush of dampness in her sex.
“If you’re hungry, sirrah, don’t wait to begin your meal.”
“It’s Ezra,” he rumbled. “You need to call me by my name when I fuck you senseless.”
She sucked in a breath. “Fuck me, Ezra.”
His smile was quick but ferocious. “As my lady vixen wishes.”
He put his mouth directly on her cunt. He sucked at the whole of her, coating his face in her arousal.
One long swipe of his tongue, from her entrance to her clitoris, had her bowing up with a scream.
He repeated the movement, swirling his tongue around her opening, finding where she needed him most. At the same time, he sank two fingers into her passage to locate the spot deep within her that was ripe and aching.
“Oh, God,” she moaned. “Yes, like that.”