But as the hunger built, the driving need became more urgent, and the kiss changed, his tongue exploring her mouth and capturing her sighs as he demanded more.
His hands skimmed up her back underneath her T-shirt. The hook of her bra was released. She gripped his shoulders, overwhelmed by sensation as he cupped her breasts, playing with the responsive nipples until she was sobbing into his mouth, the tight peaks yearning for more.
He lifted his head, his eyes dark and unfocused. ‘I want you naked, Kasia.’
The gruff request shimmered across her skin, and the ache in her breasts intensified, the hot spot between her thighs throbbing.
She nodded, no longer capable of coherent speech.
Stepping back, he lifted the grubby T-shirt over her head, disposed of the bra.
She folded her arms over her chest, desperately self-conscious.
‘No,’ he said as he captured her wrists. ‘Do not hide, you are so beautiful.’
She felt beautiful as she forced herself to relax, to let him pull her arms gently away from her body. The morning sunlight gilded his chest, making her aware of the bunch of muscle.
The huge erection stood proud under the loose cotton pants and her mouth watered as she imagined seeing him naked and fully erect. But to her surprise, he sank to his knees in front of her. Undoing the buttons on her shorts, he watched her as he drew the denim down with her panties. His rough hands slid down her legs, stripping her bare with exquisite tenderness.
She stepped out of her shorts at his direction, the need charging through her system as he blew across the triangle of curls, then pressed his face into her sex.
She gripped his shoulders—so broad, so solid—to steady herself as he opened her with his thumbs and licked.
She shuddered, her ragged panting filling the tent as he lapped at the very heart of her. He held her firmly for the shattering exploration. Licking, sucking, discovering the root of her pleasure and ruthlessly exploiting it.
At last he captured the swollen nub of her clitoris and suckled.
The climax broke over her, the waves battering her body. She collapsed over his shoulder, the afterglow like an impenetrable cloud of bliss.
‘More,’ he grunted, as he stood, lifting her.
Within seconds, she lay on the bed as he stood over her, blocking out the sunlight. He shucked his pants.
Her gaze devoured his nakedness, her tender sex melting at the sight of that massive erection—even larger and harder than she had imagined.
‘I need to be inside you,’ he said, as he covered her body with his.
‘Yes,’ she croaked.
She wanted that thick length inside her. Wanted to recapture the glorious oblivion.
Hooking her leg around his waist, to leave her open to him, he angled her hips.
The pinch of pain made her stiffen as he thrust deep. She choked off a cry, struggling to absorb the overwhelming feel of him, lodged so fully inside her.
He swore, every sinew of his body going deadly still. She couldn’t read his features, cast into shadow by the dazzling sunlight, but she could feel his shock.
‘You were untouched?’ he said, the question coming out on a tortured rasp.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I should have told you.’
‘Yes, but it is too late now,’ he said.
She didn’t know what he meant. Was he angry with her? But he didn’t sound angry, just stunned.
He touched her cheek, cradled her face.
‘Am I hurting you?’
It did hurt a little, he was so large and hard inside her. But she didn’t want to lose the connection.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I want to feel the pleasure again.’
He buried his face into her neck, pressed his lips to the sensitive skin under her ear, and circled her breast with his thumb. Teasing, tempting, until the tendrils of sensation returned.
‘You must tell me if it hurts,’ he said as he grasped her hips, anchoring her to him.
The arrows of sensation darted into her sex, devastating and demanding, echoing the same relentless rhythm as he drew out and sank back.
He rocked his hips, further, faster, nudging a place deep inside her, triggering a new tsunami of sensation.
Kasia sobbed. The storm was so much stronger and wilder this time, whipping at her skin, making every pulse point ache.
The pleasure overpowered her, battering her body and making her heart swell. She clung to him, the only solid object in the storm—just like before, her staggered mind cried, when he had cocooned her as the sandstorm had raged.
She screamed as he drove her over that final ledge and she plunged into the abyss, exquisite joy bursting everywhere.
She heard him shout as he collapsed on top of her, and his seed spurted into her womb.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
Raif struggled to control the vicious punch of his heartbeat, and forced his fingers to release their death grip on Kasia’s hips.
Shame and horror galloped on the heels of groggy afterglow as he withdrew from the tight clasp of her body and she flinched.
He had climaxed inside her, he had not intended to do so. But even as he grasped the humiliation of that, far worse was the knowledge that as soon as he had plunged into her to the hilt, and destroyed her virgin state, he had bound them both to a solemn covenant they could not break.
Why hadn’t he taken the precautions he always took, to research a woman’s background, to ask her the questions that would protect them both?
Because he had been desperate to have her, to claim her, something had been driving him as soon as he had stepped from the water this morning and seen her watching him, her eyes dazed with arousal. Maybe even before that. Had it been driving him as soon as he had spotted her, standing by her Jeep, her amber eyes sparkling with fear and defiance? Or as he had clawed his way back from the nightmare, coaxed by her soft voice and soothing fingers?
However, the beast had been awakened, and the destruction it had wrought—on his life, on hers—could not be undone.
Where he would have expected panic or even resentment, all he felt now was numb and strangely ambivalent about the inevitable repercussions.
Lying on his back, he stared at the ceiling of the tent, the rich fabrics, the dappled sunlight. Everything looked as it had when he had woken an hour ago, but now his whole life, and hers, would be different.
He had played with fate too many times before, he had known the risks always, had been so careful to guard against them, but with Kasia it had never even entered his head. Was that significant? Was there some comfort in knowing their fates had already been sealed?
‘Is everything okay?’
He turned to find her watching him, her hands clasped against her breasts, the rings on her fingers glinting.
The surge of renewed yearning was unmistakeable even as his mind reeled with the implications of what had just transpired. He examined her artless expression, looking for signs of duplicity.
Had she planned this? To trap a prince? The broken-down Jeep, the gunshot, the long night as she’d helped him through the