His lips slid along her sensitive skin and he nipped. He moved to the other shoulder and that strap fell as well. Gently, he inched the front of the chemise down, exposing her breasts. Her nipples were already tight. He spread his hands over both mounds, his palms warm and possessive. He seemed to examine the contrast between his dark hands framing her white skin. High on his cheekbones color flamed. Anna imagined her pale pink nipples peeking between his callused fingers, and her head fell back as if weighted.
He lifted her breasts and squeezed.
She pushed herself into his hands. She could feel his gaze on her face, and then he stripped the chemise from her and lifted her to the bed. She watched as he swiftly removed his clothes and he lowered himself beside her. His hand smoothed across her naked belly. She raised her arms to draw him to her, but he gently caught her wrists and placed them by her head. Then he slid down her body until his head was level with her belly. His hands were on her inner thighs, and he pressed her legs apart.
“There’s something I’ve always wanted to do with a woman.” His voice was black velvet.
What did he mean? Shocked, she resisted. Surely he didn’t want to look there? It had been different this morning when she’d been half asleep. Now she was fully awake.
“It’s not something a man can do with a whore,” he said.
Oh, Lord, could she do this? Expose herself so intimately? She craned her neck to look at his face.
His gaze was implacable. He wanted this. “Let me. Please.”
Blushing, she lay back, surrendering to him and his needs. She let her knees fall open, feeling almost as if she were offering a gift of love to him. He looked down as her legs widened, then widened more until he was kneeling between her outstretched thighs, her most private places exposed. She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch him examine her.
He didn’t do anything more, and finally she couldn’t bear the waiting any longer. She opened her eyes. He was staring at her body, at her woman’s place, and his nostrils flared, and his mouth curled in a look so possessive it was almost frightening.
Anna felt her opening contract in reaction. Liquid seeped from within her. “I need you,” she whispered.
Then he truly shocked her. He swooped down and swiped right across her wetness with his tongue.
“Oh!”
He looked up at her face and slowly licked his lips. “I want to taste and tongue and suck you until you’ve forgotten your name.” He smiled carnally. “Until I’ve forgotten mine as well.”
She arched and gasped at just his words, but his hands were on her hips now, holding her down. His tongue searched through the folds of her femininity, each rasp going straight to her center. He found her clitoris and licked.
And she lost her mind. A long, low moan broke from her lips, and she twisted the pillow on either side of her head with her fists. Her hips bucked. But he wasn’t going to be kept from his objective. He relentlessly tongued the nub until she saw stars and shamelessly shoved her pelvis into his face.
Then he drew her clitoris between his lips and sucked gently.
“Edward!” His name keened from her as a wave of warmth flooded her body, rolling all the way to her toes.
He was up and over her, his penis invading her, before she had time to open her eyes. She shuddered and clasped him as he pounded against oversensitive flesh. And she felt the wave rising again, carrying her endlessly on its crest. Her thighs quivered helplessly open, and she ground her pelvis up against his hardness. He responded by hooking his arms beneath her knees and pushing her legs toward her shoulders. She was as open as possible, exposed and held down as he loved her. As she took all he had to give.
“God!” It burst from his lips, more a guttural than a word. His great body was shaking helplessly, and he stiffened against her.
Her vision fractured into tiny rainbows as he drove his hard flesh into her softness again and again and again. She gasped. She never wanted this moment to end, they were linked right now, in body and in soul.
Until he slumped over her, his chest heaving in enormous gasps. She ran her hands over his buttocks, her eyes still closed, trying to make the intimacy last. Oh, how she wanted this man! She wanted to hold him like this tomorrow and fifty years hence. She wanted to be by his side every morning when he woke, she wanted his to be the last voice she heard before she fell asleep at night.
Edward shifted then and rolled to his back. She felt the cool air brush her damp skin. One lean arm bundled her close to his side.
“I have something for you,” he said.
She felt a weight on her chest and picked it up. It was The Raven Prince. She blinked back tears and stroked the red morocco cover, feeling the indentations of the embossed feather beneath her fingers. “But, Edward, this was your sister’s, wasn’t it?”
He nodded. “And now it is yours.”
“But—”
“Hush. I want you to have it.”
He kissed her so tenderly she felt her heart fill and overflow with emotion. How could she continue to deny her love for this man? “I-I think—” she began.
“Shh, sweet. We’ll talk in the morning,” he murmured huskily.
Anna sighed and snuggled against him, inhaling his sharp, male scent. She hadn’t felt this blissfully happy in years. Maybe never.
The morning would come soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-One
Aurea and the old woman shared the crust of bread before the little fire. As Aurea swallowed the last bite, the door flew open and a tall, bony fellow came in. The wind blew the door shut behind him.
“How fair you, Mother?” he greeted the crone.
The door opened once more. This time a man with hair standing on end like the fluff of a dandelion entered. “A good evening to you, Mother,” he said.
Next, two more men stomped in, the wind whistling behind them. One was tall and tanned, the other plump and ruddy cheeked. “Hello, Mother,” they cried together.
All four men sat by the fire, and as they did, the flames blew and flickered, and the dust swirled and spun on the floor around their feet.
“And have you guessed who I am?” The old woman grinned toothlessly at Aurea. “These are the Four Winds, and I am their mother….”
—from The Raven Prince
Anna was dreaming of a black-eyed baby the next morning when a masculine voice chuckled in her ear and woke her.
“I’ve never seen anyone sleep so deeply.” Lips brushed from her earlobe to her jaw.
She smiled and snuggled closer, only to find that there wasn’t a warm body next to hers. Confused, she opened her eyes. Edward was standing by the bed already dressed.