Page 92 of My Hellion, My Heart
“Your bare skin against my bare skin, anywhere, feels better than good, Irina.” He kissed her again, this time pushing into her mouth with his tongue, searching for hers and claiming it.
Irina flattened her hands against his back, feeling an openness between them that not only made her heart throb and swell, but also caused a flood of heat lower, in the most private part of her. She worked her fingers over his shoulders, feeling the intermittent patches of smooth skin and rough, places that had been terrorized that she now only wanted to pay reverence to. He had been through such darkness and pain, and even now the past haunted him. Tried to pull him back and finish what it had started.
Irina wouldn’t let it. She wouldn’t lose him.
Wriggling her body out from beneath his, she rolled upward, her eyes falling to where her hand rested against his side. The glimpse from a few feet away on the ship in flickering gaslight was nothing compared to the gruesome canvas of pain and torture that she saw now. Irina did not make a sound, studying the undulating, shiny swatches of pink and red scar tissue. Some scars were raised and others were deep gouges. Some were so dark, they still looked bruised, as if they’d been lacerated again and again. Irina’s heart ached with compassion for the agony he’d endured.
Henry shifted instinctively as if to conceal himself, but she stalled him.
“Please don’t,” she whispered, meeting his eyes and seeing the pain and shame there. Her voice broke on a stifled sob. “Don’t you know how beautiful you are, Henry? These scars are part of that beauty. And your strength. Every one of them is a sign of the remarkable man you are. Without them, you wouldn’t have survived and you wouldn’t be here, in my arms.”
Irina placed her lips to the center of a livid scar that ran from his right shoulder to his spine. He stiffened under her touch, but did not pull away. She moved her mouth to another and then another, accepting each of them, loving each of them. She wanted him to know that she lovedeverypart of him. Even the parts that carried hurt and sorrow. She only sought to take it away…to erase…to heal.
“I love you so much,” she whispered, kissing her way to his shoulder. “And I’m so sorry for every second of pain you felt. If I could take it away, I would.”
“You already have,” he rasped.
Irina rained kisses over his cheek and rejoined her lips to his. The kiss started out gentle but then shifted into something more impassioned, more volatile. There were no barriers between them now. No secrets, no fear. Only love.
Henry moaned his pleasure into her mouth and she took it, making it a part of her own. This would not stop—theywould not stop—until they had come together in the most human and intimate way. Irina knew this, and as she felt the heavy weight of his body against hers, she was ready.
Swiftly, Henry rose from the bed, standing to discard his trousers and smalls. Irina caught a healthy glimpse of the places she’d explored with her fingertips before he returned to her, and her breath fizzled deliciously in her throat. Every magnificent inch of him rippled with lean muscle and sinew. Bolts of heat shot through her limbs, making them tremble as Henry prowled toward her from the foot of the bed, kissing a burning trail up one leg and then the other.
“I love these long, gorgeous legs,” he told her in a hoarse whisper. “For weeks I’ve imagined them wrapped around me, holding me close when I’m deep inside you. When I’m part of you.”
His provocative words made everything inside her dissolve, and by the time Henry had climbed his way to her mouth, every nerve ending was on fire and Irina was a writhing mass of need.
“Henry,” she whispered as he hovered over her to lick a path down her throat. Again, he took one hardened nipple between his teeth. His tongue suckled and soothed while his teeth pinched with just enough pressure to make Irina arch her back and gasp.
“Now,” she managed to say. His hand dropped to the hot, aching crux of her.
“Are you ready, my heart?” he asked. His clever fingers moved skillfully against her, making her center feel liquid. She thrust her hips against his hand, wanting more of him, wanting all of him, and through her heavy lids she saw him grinning rakishly. “Yes, I believe you are.”
“And are you?” she returned, feeling bold.
Henry gripped the back of her thigh and hitched it up against his hip. He moved forward, nudging her legs apart and opening her to him.
“That is a question you need never ask again,” he said, the hard tip of his arousal pressing against her nub. A tingling shock branched out, lightning arcing through her.
“I will want you, in every possible way, until my last breath,” he said, his voice pulling lower as he angled himself at her entrance.
At his first true push, even as patient and hesitant as it was, Irina tensed. Of course, she knew the basic steps, knew that he would seat himself inside of her, but…then what?
“Stop thinking,” he said, bracing himself over her, one hand settling over the pulse at her throat. “Just feel.”
His thumb caressed her there, his fingers softly kneading the back of her nape. He looked directly into her eyes. He was so close, he could have kissed her, but he didn’t. Irina nodded and relaxed her muscles. She trusted Henry more than anyone, and though he wasn’t the paragon she’d once imagined him to be in her fantasies, she’d come to learn he was better. He wasn’t a fantasy. He was real. He was her truth. And he washers.
Henry edged forward, never taking his eyes from hers as he pushed inside, thrust by gentle thrust, easing himself into her welcoming heat. His lids grew heavy with passion, the muscles along his jaw jumping as he held himself still within her.
“I…” Irina said, the pressure filling her and making it hard to breathe. She couldn’t fathom taking another inch of him inside. She thought of her earlier question and wanted to laugh at the incongruity. With a breathless giggle, she asked it again. “Surely there’s not more?”
Henry’s serious expression broke, and his mouth twitched into an arrogant grin. “A bit more, my sweet, but I want to be certain you’re ready.”
Laughing softly, she wrapped her hands around the back of his neck and pulled his lips to hers. As she kissed away that infuriating grin, Henry thrust forward again. Irina yelped into his mouth as bright pain lanced through her lower abdomen.Oh.That was what he meant by ready.
Henry held himself still again, and this time when he spoke, it wasn’t with playful arrogance. “Is it too much?” He was gritting his teeth against some anguish.
Irina winced against the discomfort, but hoped it wouldn’t last. Already she could feel the throb of something more insistent beginning to take over.
