Lord of Raven's Peak - Catherine Coulter [103]
He thought he couldn’t hold on much longer. His hands were all over her now, tangling in her hair, pulling her back so he could kiss her breasts.
He rolled over atop her, coming up to catch his breath, for surely if he didn’t, he would spill his seed on the woolen blanket and not deep inside her. His chest heaved and he shook with his need to come into her, but he held himself still, aware finally that she’d stopped squirming against him and was lying there beneath him, waiting, wanting him. He drew her legs up and brought his mouth down to her, his fingers tightening on the soft flesh of her thighs, knowing vaguely that she would be bruised, but not caring, for she was arching upward, and keening softly into the darkness, calling out his name, again and again, and the wanting in her voice, the urgency and fervor, made him feel things he’d never before known existed.
He gently closed his hand over her mouth when her cries erupted from her throat, giving her the freedom to yell if she wished to without the others in the outer chamber hearing her.
And when he was stroking her with his mouth, easing her and calming her, she was tugging at his shoulders, urging him upward, and he came up to his knees and then guided himself into her. He closed his eyes at the feeling of her, the smallness, the eagerness of her to bring him closer and nearer to her.
“Merrik,” she said, and clasped his back to bring him even deeper. He couldn’t hold back, though he wanted to. Once, then again, he came deeply into her, then nearly withdrew until he was shuddering with the frenzy of his need, then he was heaving over her, crying out, his arms stiff as he held himself over her, and she said his name again and again, accepting him, taking all of him, and he didn’t want it to stop, ever.
They lay close, her right leg over his belly, her cheek against his heart, her hair damp from her urgency, fanned out over his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head, tightening his arms around her. “You give me passion,” he said. “I wish I could have seen your face when you reached your pleasure.”
Her knee moved downward just a bit until she covered his groin. The scent of him was rich and dark in the night air, filling her nostrils, and her scent was mixed with his.
“Cease your movement or I will take you again. You must be sore from me, Laren.”
She leaned up a bit and kissed his chest, his shoulder, his throat. She sucked at the pulse in his neck, then kissed his mouth. “It was a man who struck Erik.”
He stilled. She came up onto her side, her fingers smoothing the hair on his chest, lightly stroking him.
“How do you know this?”
“I remembered that he stood over me, smiling in triumph. I wasn’t completely unconscious. He stood there, Merrik, saying nothing, just smiling. He didn’t try to help me, he did nothing save smile that loathsome smile. It’s just that I can’t see his face, yet I know he was pleased that I was there, pleased because I would be blamed for killing Erik and none would suspect him. I cannot be certain that he did murder Erik, but it does seem likely, does it not?”
“You are certain?”
“Aye.”
He cursed then, soft and long, and she felt the tension coming into his body and hated it. She should have waited to tell him, but now it was too late.
“Oleg and I learned very little today talking to each of our people. But you know something,