When he finally raised his head it was to reach above her. A light burst on. Even though it was soft and soothing, her eyes squeezed shut. When she opened them again, she found him looking down at her indulgently.
“What—what just happened?”
She hadn’t intended to speak. Certainly not to say something that moronic. But she had, her voice deep, husky and nothing like she’d ever heard it.
Expecting ridicule to enter his gaze, his hypnotic eyes only turned serious. “No idea. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. But if I have to guess, I’d say...magic.”
Relief swamped her. He didn’t consider her bewilderment an act, or stupid. And he felt the same way.
She exhaled in relief. “In the absence of any other explanation, I’d have to agree.”
Yet now with the madness-inducing arousal sated, embarrassment started to submerge her.
What had she done?
She sank deeper into what she now saw was an oversize, dark green and gold silk brocade couch, acutely conscious of their state of undress, of every inch of his flesh that was still pressed into her most intimate parts.
As if attuned to her needs, as he’d seemed to be from the start, he rose off her, slid to the ground and kneeled beside her. After forcing his unabated erection into his pants, he retrieved her panties. Navigating the high-heeled shoes he’d left on her, he slid the panties over her shaking legs, caressing and kissing his way from her foot up. Her senses had ignited all over again as he fitted the damp garment back on her hips. And that was before he pressed a hot kiss on her core through the fabric, and almost blew out any fuse left intact in her brain.
As she struggled to deal with the new blow, he rearranged her skirt over her legs, then eased her up to a sitting position. He was so tall he was on her same level even on his knees. Before he pulled her bodice up, he cupped her heavy breasts in his large palms and saluted each gloriously sore nipple with a soft kiss. Every string holding her up gave. She slumped forward against his endless chest.
He received her weight with a shuddering groan. Then after a final kneading caress, he scooped her breasts back in her bra, rearranged the bodice over them, reached behind her and pulled her zipper up.
Brushing her hair back, he cupped her jaw and claimed her parted lips. He drew back, pausing for a moment before he came back over her, plundering her lips and body.
Deepening their kiss, he rose and pushed her back against the couch. When he finally tore his lips away, her head was swimming and her body had ignited all over again.
“It’s actually physically painful to stop ravishing you.” His teeth gritted. “I thought taking the edge off would cool us down long enough for us to get introduced. Seems I was wrong.”
“Ellie.” Her name left her in a rush as he moved to gather her to him again. Her heart would burst if he resumed kissing her. “My name is Ellie.”
“Ellie.” He frowned as he sat back, repeated the name as if tasting it. Then he shook his head. “It doesn’t suit you.”
“Why, thanks!”
His lips pursed at her sarcasm, an imperious eyebrow raised in disapproval. “How could your parents see the glorious baby you must have been and give you such a nondescript name? Ellie? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“My parents actually gave me a pretty lofty name. I extracted a nickname from it as everyone thinks it makes me sound like a character from a medieval play.”
“I take back my condemnation of your parents if they gave you a distinguished name. What is it?”
“Eliana.”
His eyes suddenly grew soft. “Eliana. God has answered.”
He understood the meaning of her name. He was the first one to ever do so.
He took her hand, pressed his lips in her palm. “Now, that is you. You must have been their every prayer answered. As you are the answer to my every fantasy.”
Her blood blazed as it rushed to her cheeks. “You’re poetic, too? Isn’t it enough you’re...all that?” She made an encompassing gesture, then rushed to splay a hand over his chest as he surged toward her. “We aren’t anywhere near introduced yet, and if you touch and kiss me again I—I...”
“You’ll catch fire again.”
She turned her head against the couch. “I can’t deal with the way I did the first time, so give me a chance to...”
A gentle finger on her chin brought her eyes back to his. “I thought I was imagining it before, but you are shy.”
“Pretty laughable, I know, after...after...”
“You went up in flames in my arms?” he completed for her again. “I find your shyness no such thing. But I felt it even through your mind-blowing response.” She hid her face in his chest, felt his chuckle rev below her cheek. “Don’t be even shier now. You affected me the same way, minus the shyness part. Meu Deus...the way you surrendered to me, as if you couldn’t help yourself, as if I’d overwhelmed you.”
“No ‘as if’ about it. You more than overwhelmed me.” She burrowed deeper into him, arousal mingling with relief as he crushed her harder in his embrace.
So this was what desire was all about. This was what had been missing all her life. Him. She must have felt him out there, have instinctively known that accepting anything less, with anyone else, would be shortchanging herself.
Out loud, she whispered, “So this is the kind of crazy attraction that drives people to commit insanities, huh?”
His beautiful lips curved. “Delightful insanities.”
She couldn’t have put it better. “Yes.”
“But even in my insanity, some fail-safe mechanism kicked in and pulled me back from possessing you without protection.”
She gaped at him. That hadn’t even crossed her mind!
Then the enormity of the whole situation hit her. Hard.
He smoothed a hand over her flaming cheek. “I only did so for you. Another unprecedented thing for me.”
“You mean you usually don’t consider your...partner?” she croaked, reeling with belated shock at her own folly.
“I usually consider my partner and myself. This time I only considered you. This was so out of the blue, progressed with such blinding speed...at the last moment I thought you might not even realize what you were risking. So even though it was beyond me to stop pleasuring you, I had to protect you.”
“Oh...” She found no words to express what she was feeling. This was...huge. He could have just taken his pleasure, but he hadn’t. He’d put her safety before his own carnal needs. Her hands squeezed his arm in gratitude, loving the sheer power her fingers felt beneath them. “Thank you.”
He gathered her tighter to him and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Anything for you, minha beleza, anything at all.” He drew away to look down at her. “But now that I’m not about to have a heart attack with arousal, I will procure all precautions, and props.”
Props? The word ricocheted in her imagination as he leveled the full force of his gaze on her.
“Give me your promise.”
“Wh-what promise?”
“That you’ll spend the night in my arms.”
“Oh...”
She really had to stop saying that!
“Then after this night, the next night. And the next.”
Throat closing