Page 19 of Texas Honor

He bent slowly, letting his gaze fall to her parted lips. She could smell the heady fragrance of his cologne now because he was so close. There was mint and coffee on his breath, and he had strong white teeth; she could see them where his chiseled lips parted in anticipation of possession. Her breasts throbbed, and she noticed a tingling, yearning sensation there.

“Your skin is hot,” he whispered, tracing her cheek with his fingers as he tilted his face across hers and moved even closer. “I can feel it burning.”

Her hands were on his arms now. She could feel the powerful muscles through the white shirt that he’d worn with a tie and jacket when they went to pick up Lillian. But the jacket and tie were gone, and the shirt was partially unbuttoned, and now the overwhelming sight of him filled Mari’s world. Her short nails pressed into his skin, bending against those hard muscles as his lips brushed over hers.

“Bite me,” he whispered huskily and then incited her to do it, teasing her mouth, teaching her.

She knew nothing, but she wanted so desperately to please him so that he wouldn’t stop. This was magic, and she wanted more.

Her mouth opened and she nipped at his firm lower lip, nibbling it, feeling its softness. He laughed softly deep in his throat, and she felt his hand move from her cheek to her shoulder, down her arm to her waist. While he played with her mouth, his fingers splayed out and then moved up, and the thin fabric of her flowery shirtwaist dress was no barrier at all as he found her rib cage and began to tease it.

This was explosive. Mari trembled a little because she was catching fire. He hadn’t been kidding when he told her he was a good lover. She hadn’t dreamed of the kind of sensations that he was showing her. She hadn’t realized how vulnerable she was. Her mind was telling her that it was a game, that he didn’t mean it. He’d said so. But her body was enthralled by new feelings, new pleasures, and it wouldn’t let her stop.

“Oh,” she whispered unsteadily when his tongue began to taste the soft inner surface of her lips.

“Open my shirt,” he whispered against her warm mouth. He drew her hands to the remaining buttons and coaxed them until they had the fabric away from him.

She put her hands against hard muscle and thick hair and gasped at the contact. She’d never touched a man this way, and he knew it and was excited by it.

He bit her lower lip with a slow, ardent pressure that was arousing. “Draw your nails down to my belt,” he murmured against her parted mouth.

She did, amazed at the shudder of his big body, at the soft groan her caress produced. She drew away slightly so that she could see his face, could see the lazy, smoldering desire in his green eyes.

“I like it,” he told her with a husky laugh.

She did it again, lowering her eyes this time to watch his muscles ripple with pleasure as she stroked them, to watch his flat stomach draw in even more with a caught breath. It was exciting to arouse him. It gave her a sense of her femininity that she’d never experienced.

Meanwhile, his hand was moving again, this time up her rib cage. Not blatant but subtle in its caress, teasing lightly, provocative. It reached the outer edges of her breast even as her nails were tenderly scoring him, and his fingers lifted to touch around her nipple.

She shuddered, looking up at him with the residue of virginal fear in her wide blue eyes. Her hand went to his hairy wrist and poised there while she tried to choose between pleasure and guilt.

“Have you ever done this before?” he asked, his lips against hers.

“No,” she confessed.

Odd, how protective that made him feel. And how much a man. He brushed his lips gently over hers. “Lillian isn’t fifty feet away,” he whispered. “And we won’t do anything horribly indiscreet. But I’m as excited by this as you are, and I don’t want to stop just yet. I want to touch you and feel your reaction and let you feel mine. Mari,” he murmured, tracing a path up her soft breast, “I’ve never been the first. Not in any way, even this. Let me teach you. I promise you, there’s not the slightest danger. Not right now.”

“Oh, but I shouldn’t...” She was weakening and her voice betrayed her.

“Don’t feel guilty,” he whispered over her mouth. “This is love play. Women and men have indulged themselves this way since the beginning of time. I’m human. So are you. There’s no shame in being hungry.”

He made it sound natural. It was the seducer’s basic weapon, but Mari was too outmatched to care. She arched toward his fingers because she couldn’t help herself. That maddening tracing of his fingers was driving her to her limits. She wanted his hand to flatten on her body. She wanted him to touch her...there!

His teeth nibbled at her lower lip, catching it in a soft tug just as his fingers closed on an erect nipple and tightened gently.

She cried out. The sound would have penetrated the walls and door, but he caught it in his mouth and muffled it, half mad with unexpected arousal. Her cries and her trembling were driving him over the edge.

Somehow he had her on the sofa, flat on her back with his heavy body half covering her. Her dress was coming undone, she could feel the air on her bare skin, and her bra was all too loose, and his hand was...there.

She shuddered and her eyes opened, hazy with passion. Her mouth was swollen, her cheeks red, her upward gaze full of rapt wonder.

His big hand flattened over her soft breast, feeling the tip rub abrasively on his palm as he caressed her. His thumb circled it roughly, and she shuddered all over, her breath sighing out unsteadily like his own.

She wanted him to kiss her some more, but his eyes were on her dress now. He peeled it slowly away from the breast he was touching, moving her bra up so that he could see the pink and mauve contrast and that taut little nub. It was as if he’d never looked at a woman before. She was beautiful. Sweetly curving and high, and not too big or too little. Just right.

She felt as if she were watching from a distance. Her eyes wandered over his absorbed expression, seeing the veiled pleasure there, the wonder. If she was awed by him, so was he awed by her. He was touching her like some priceless treasure, taking his time, lovingly tracing every texture.

He took the nipple between his thumb and forefinger and felt its hardness. He looked up into her fascinated eyes. “If I put my mouth on you, you’ll cry out again,” he whispered softly. “And Lillian might mistake the sound and come hopping.”

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