Page 20 of Fairy Tale Husband

“Wait.”

She groaned in dismay, knowing that wasn’t what she’d meant, that she’d only said it to keep him from leaving her side. Everything was so mixed up. So confused. Words didn’t make sense any more. Nothing made sense.

Except forJake.

“You want me to stop?” His voice sounded strained, urgent. “Don’t play games with me, damn it!”

Her head shifted restlessly against the sheets. “No. Don’t stop.” Finally the words came out right, fervent in their demand. With an aggression that amazed her, she pulled him back into her arms, shifting to accommodate his weight. “Don’t ever stop.”

His mouth found hers, absorbing her whimpered pleas before slipping downward. He anointed her rounded contours with his tongue, savoring each gentle dip and curve as though it were an exotic spice. His touch left behind a trail of insidious devastation as he explored places never seen by a man, let alone kissed. And all the while a burning need licked at her. She trembled helplessly when Jake fed that fire, building it higher and brighter and hotter. Desire became a ravenous hunger unlike any she’d ever known, ahunger she’d do anything tosate.

“Jake!” She sobbed out his name, begging for that ultimate gratification.

“It’s coming, sweetheart. Ipromise, it’s coming.”

Still his hands played, tripping along nerves stretched to the brink. As though sensing she’d reached the end of her endurance, he positioned himself between her thighs. For an endless moment she lay spread beneath him, trembling helplessly on the verge of some great cataclysm. Then he drove into her with one surging thrust.

He tensed as he absorbed the shock of her innocence, his eyes blazing like golden flames through a tumble of black hair. “What—”

“It’s all right,” she tried to reassure. “Please, Jake!”

Didn’t he understand? The pain of his taking was nothing in comparison to the urgent need his possession had sparked. She smoldered with it. Desperate to convince him, she rocked her hips upward in silent appeal, begging for the completion hovering just out of reach. He wanted to pull away, she could tell, and she watched helplessly as he fought an inner battle, struggling to subdue the most powerful of nature’s urges.

It was a battle he had no hope of winning.

“I can’t,” he muttered. “Heaven help me, Ican’t.”

He shut his eyes, fighting for restraint, fighting to make her passage as painless as possible. But restraint was also beyond him. The breath exploded from his chest and he drove into her heat. “Forgive me, elf,” he gasped out the words. “I never meant for this to happen.”

They rode the crest together, out of control and not caring. It was a magical experience, amelding of heart and body and soul. And just as the sun loosened its full glory on the pair of lovers, they found sweet deliverance within its circle of golden light.

Wynne couldn’t tell how much time passed or how long they lay entwined in each other’s arms. With the sating of their passion, sanity slowly returned. Jake recovered first.

“You were a virgin,” he accused, rolling free of her embrace.

Suddenly self-conscious, she tugged the sheet around her. Not that he seemed terribly concerned about modesty. “I didn’t think you’d notice.”

“You didn’t think I’d...” Outrage battled disbelief. “Take my word for it, Inoticed!”

“Does it matter that much?”

He came off the bed, snagging his robe from the floor as he did so. “We discussed this last night at the Montagues’,” he said, thrusting his arm into the terry-cloth sleeve. “I told you flat out that I didn’t want to be married to a virgin.”

“You’re not. At least, not anymore.”

His scalding invectives brought a rosy glow to her cheeks. “Don’t split hairs with me, lady. Damn it all, Idon’t want to be saddled with a virgin. Iwouldn’t know what to do with one.”

She lifted onto her elbows and gave him a mischievous grin. “What you just did suits me fine. And as I keep pointing out, it’s no longer an issue.”

“That’s not what I meant!” His anger simmered visibly, like heat roiling in the desert air. “You lied to me. You said you’d been engaged three different times.”

“I didn’t lie. Iwas engaged three times.”

“And not one of them... They never.. .?”

“Not one of them,” she confirmed. “Ever.”

“It staggers the imagination.” He planted his hands on his hips and grimaced. “That doesn’t change the fact I need an experienced woman. Ineed someone who’s willing to admit in open court that I... That we...”

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