Lion's Bride - Iris Johansen [70]
“Stop looking at me,” he said roughly. “I can’t let you go now. It’s not my fault that you’re a virgin. You’re the one who came to me: It will be over in a minute.”
“I didn’t ask you to let me go.”
“No, you just lie there so tight that I know I’ll hurt you if I so much as breathe.” He glared down at her. “I told you to leave me. Now all I can do is get it over quickly and then—” His hips plunged forward.
Pain. Invasion. Fullness.
“I told you.” He moved again, in, out. The pain was receding, and she was beginning to feel that tingling heat she had known before. “Why do you never listen to me?”
“Be silent,” she whispered. There was something here…more than lust…She felt part of something more than his body. It was most strange. “Something’s happening. Do you not feel it?”
He went still and looked down at her. A multitude of emotions flickered over his face before it became impassive. “No.” He brought her hair between them so that it would touch him with every movement. He began to move slowly, deeply. “This is the only thing I feel. This is all that matters.” He reached beneath her and cupped her buttocks, bringing her up to meet each thrust. “Isn’t it?”
She gasped as he touched the quick. She reached out blindly and grasped his shoulders. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think.
Tension.
Thrusting.
Building.
She wanted to scream but she had no voice.
He was the voice.
He was motion and passion and…everything.
“It will be over soon,” he muttered.
Was that supposed to comfort her? She didn’t want it to be over. Yes, she did. She could not bear this tension.
He was moving faster, deeper.
Release.
She lunged upward as the waves of tension shattered.
He was still moving, she realized dimly. Didn’t he know the world had just ended? She tried to tell him, but she was too weary and shaken.
He cried out, his arms tightening around her.
Never mind, he had found out for himself.
“You should not have come to my chamber.” He stroked her hair. “It was foolish.”
How curious that his awkward touch could be both rough and infinitely gentle, she thought drowsily. “I couldn’t stop you any other way.” She nestled closer. “You’re very large, aren’t you? I feel very small lying next to you like this….”
“You still shouldn’t have come here. Now it’s too late. I may have killed you.”
“I feel very much alive.” It was an understatement. She had never felt more gloriously, joyously alive in all her life. How odd that a simple animal act could bring boundless happiness. “And if you’ve killed me, it was with pleasure.”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
He was not about to relinquish the thought, she realized. He would gnaw at it until he devoured all this wonderful contentment. She would not have it. She raised herself on one elbow and looked down at him. “And you’ll brood and mutter until you drive me mad. I came because I feel a fondness for you and did not want to see you dead. It was my decision and you are free of guilt.” She grimaced. “Though I know that you will not believe me. You seem to prefer being tied down by guilt. Well, I’ll not be one of the burdens tethered to you. I’ve no liking for chains of any sort.”
“A child can be a chain.”
“True, but it’s a bond that I’d welcome just as I welcome my bond with Selene. I’ve no desire to be alone in this world. The difference between a slave and a free woman is that a free woman has choice. There’s no more precious gift on this earth.”
“Such passion.”
“And I’ll not listen to your mockery.”
“It’s not mockery. I envy you. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt passion for anything.”
“Sweet Mary, what is it you’ve just shown me? You do everything with passion. Now, if you cannot speak cheerfully, be silent.” She glimpsed his expression of astonishment before she lay back down and put her head in the hollow of his shoulder.
“I am guilty. You cannot change that by—ouch! You bit me.”
“I said, be silent.”
He was silent and then began stroking her hair again. “Silence doesn’t alter truth.” He stiffened warily, then relaxed when