Page 69 of Single Desire
She blinked. “What?”
His smile widened. “It wasn’t so very long ago, my pirate queen, that you confided you loved to dance naked around the fire. I admit, this is a sight I should like to see.”
Maura smothered a groan. Alec laughed and shrugged free of his shirt. “You are discharged of the request,” he told her. “At least for today.”
He shed his clothing with equal haste to those he’d shed from her. Maura’s pulse began to pound as he bore her to the bed. A push and his trousers slid down his legs.
Sunshine spilled through the windows, bathing him as it had bathed her, and for a mind-shattering instant he stood there, the sunlight behind him gilding his frame.
It left nothing to the imagination.
Her heart tripped. Her mouth went desert dry.
Alec McBride, Duke of Gleneden, was not a man one could ever ignore. There was about him an intensity of presence that commanded attention, whether one willed it or not. From the very first time she spied him at Lord Preston’s masquerade, towering over all others, she had experienced that pulse of sheer, explosive energy.
Nude, the man was even more impressive.
His form was perfectly proportioned, all sleek, fluid length as he stretched out beside her. Her heart bounded forward. Alec’s desire was…well, just as impressively—just as abundantly—proportioned. Oh, yes, she was well aware when that element of his desire sprang taut and free against her belly. Indeed, she sucked in a breath of shock.
Alec’s smile faded.
“Look at me, Irish.”
Maura’s cheeks were fiery hot. Her gaze trickled to his. With his thumb, he traced the shape of her mouth.
“I told myself I didn’t want you, Irish. I told myself that I didn’t need…this.”
He shocked her by pressing the ridge of his hips against the flat of her belly.
Lean fingers slid beneath her hair, curling around her nape. “I was a fool, Irish. I was wrong. So very wrong.” His voice plummeted to a whisper. “You stir me. You torture me. You slay me.”
Each word might have been an echo of her own.
He kissed her, slowly at first—oh, so slowly! And then with mounting fervor—with fevered hunger, a soul-blistering kiss that left them both vying for air.
“You are exquisite.”
Alec’s hand climbed the rise of her ribs. Laid claim to one breast, toying with the peak, splaying his fingers wide. With a muffled exclamation, he fed her nipple into his mouth.
Shivers washed over her skin. Her breasts puckered and swelled. He allowed no embarrassment, no time for anything but sweet, sheer sensation. Her fingers shaped the back of his neck, coiling in his hair.
Alec raised his head. His eyes were burning.
His hand trapped hers, bringing it down…down ever more. Maura’s heart plunged into a frenzy. Her gaze ventured the very same path. The tips of her fingers raked the hair-roughened plane of his chest. His belly. Clear to the mass of dark coarse hair that surrounded his shaft, thrusting. His hand engulfed hers. With the pressure of his fingers, a subtle tightening, he closed her fingers around him…Maura was stunned. Her eyes widened. If anything, he swelled harder. The knowledge that she aroused him so was heady. Thrilling. Yet spinning through her mind was the question of how she…how could they…
And then even that was lost when he touched her, there between her thighs, a bold possession that sent a shock of sensation deep in the pit of her belly. He traced the lips of her channel, executing a rhythm that drove her half wild. He circled the secret little nugget buried within her nest of curls. In some distant part of her, she was stunned; it was as if her body searched for this blatantly erotic caress.
Her lungs emptied in a rush. “Alec,” she gasped. “Alec—”
His mouth trapped hers. “It’s all right, sweet. Let me. Let me touch you. Let me please you.”
Maura writhed. She melted against him. Around him.
“Aye, lass, that’s the way. Don’t hold back. Just let it happen. Just…let it happen.”
Her breath sheared. Something inside her gave way. Swamped with sensation, her body pulsed its release. She was dimly aware of crying out.
When sanity returned, Alec was braced above her.
