Elizabeth Lowell (20 page)

With each complete circuit of her body, an inch of previously hidden skin was revealed. Both the cloth and her skin had an elusive fragrance that was a compound of herbs and wildflowers and warm femininity that made his head spin. When he could bear it no longer, he bent and kissed the smooth band of flesh he had just unwrapped.

The feel of Ty’s lips skimming below her collarbone made Janna tremble. She slid her hands into his thick hair and rubbed his scalp, smiling when she felt the answering movement of his response.

After a few moments the temptation of her still-covered breasts overcame him and he resumed unwrapping the long length of cloth.

Gradually the pressure of her bindings eased as more and more layers of fabric were removed. As always, the relief was exquisite. She arched her back, trying to make the unwrapping go more quickly, eager to be able to breathe easily once more, to be free of the cloth restraints.

Ty refused to be rushed, for he was finding an unexpected, intensely sensual pleasure in the slow revelation of Janna’s body. As the turns of fabric moved down her chest, the first curves of her breasts were unveiled. There were long lines of red pressed into her skin, legacy of the tight bindings. He smoothed his thumb over the lines as though to erase them, then brushed his lips over the marks and traced them with the tip of his tongue.

Eyes closed, she made soft sounds of pleasure as he soothed her skin. She was still breathless from the unexpected caress of his tongue when he arched her back, lifting her so that the cloth could unwind beneath her. He circled her body once and then twice, three times; and then the unwrapping stopped again. But instead of gently lowering her to the ground as he had before, he held her suspended over his powerful forearm, the graceful line of her back like a drawn bow.

Slowly Janna opened her eyes and saw Ty staring at her as though what he saw was totally unexpected.

And it was. He never would have guessed at the presence of full, firm curves and lush pink tips hidden beneath turn after turn of tight cloth.

“Ty?” she whispered, not understanding why he was so still, so intent. “What’s wrong?”

He looked up and her eyes widened at the harsh lines of his face.

“Don’t ever,” he said distinctly, “punish yourself like that again.”

Before she could speak he bent over her breasts and soothed each mark that had been left by the cloth, working from the first smooth swell of flesh toward the deep pink crowns. The feel of his tongue laving the small marks the bindings had left was indescribable. She wanted to twist slowly in his arms like a flame, offering every bit of her breasts to his mouth.

When he came to the margin between the satin of her skin and the velvet of her nipple, he circled her with exquisite care, ignoring her startled cry and her broken breath and the fingers tightening reflexively in his hair.

And then Ty could bear the temptation no longer. He took Janna’s offering into his mouth, sucking on a velvet nipple until it was tight and hard, and still he tugged on her with slow, sensual rhythms that made small cries ripple from her.

When the nipple could be drawn out no more, he slowly released it, admiring the taut, glistening peak. He cupped the breast in his hand and made tight circles with his palm, rubbing the hard nipple as he bent and caressed her other breast with lips and tongue, drawing her out, shaping her, pulling sensuously until her breath was quick and broken with the lightning strokes of sensation streaking through her body.

Dizzy, breathless, lost in a hushed, shimmering world she had never known existed, Janna felt pleasure expand and burst and radiate through her. Ty felt it too, the flush of sensual heat spreading beneath her skin, the small movements of her hips as she sought the pressure of his body, the tiny cries when his teeth and tongue brought new heat to her.

Finally he lifted his head, releasing the nipple he had so lovingly shaped. She whimpered very softly, wanting more of the pleasure that had grown in her with each movement of his mouth. She opened her gray eyes and looked at him with silent pleading.

“More?” he asked, smiling, his voice as heavy as the blood beating in his veins.

Janna shivered helplessly as Ty’s hand closed over one of her breasts and slowly pleasured her.

“Yes,” she whispered.

He smiled, enjoying her open response and the growing flush of arousal beneath her skin. “Where else would you like to be kissed?”

The shocked look that came to her face told him that she had never thought about such things.

“Never mind, little one,” he said. He circled the erect tip of each breast with his tongue and whispered, “I’ll think of something.”

With a speed and power that surprised her, he turned and lay on his back and in the same movement lifted her, puffing her over his body like a living blanket. When her hips pressed against the hard ridge of flesh that waited impatiently beneath the thick cloth of his pants, he made a low sound of pleasure-pain.

Not understanding, Janna pulled away. Ty’s legs parted and her own legs sank between his. He moved quickly, lifting his legs just enough to trap hers beneath, twining his legs with hers at the ankles, forcing their bodies into an intimate match, hard against soft, consummation no more than a few layers of cloth away.

“Unbutton my shirt,” he said in a thick voice. “You’ll like the feel of my bare skin against your breasts. And so will I.”

The slight movement of her body when she reached for his collar button made her hips rock against the hot cradle he had made for her between his legs. He groaned in a kind of exquisite agony, for he had never needed a woman so much as he needed Janna at that instant.

“Again,” he whispered. “Move against me just once more. Just once.”

Hesitantly she moved her hips against him again, feeling the hard bulge of his erection like a brand against her abdomen. The sound he made deep in his throat could have come from agony or undiluted pleasure. His hand came between their bodies. Unerringly he found the most sensitive part of her and pressed, rocking his hips slowly beneath her. The sudden heat that radiated out from his hand made her gasp. His name came from her lips in a husky, urgent, questioning cry.

“Yes,” Ty said, his voice low and thick. “You can feel it, too, can’t you?” Gently he released her ankles and lifted her into a sitting position astride his waist. Her breath caught and her hips moved helplessly as he teased her nipples again with his fingertips. “It’s going to be good. It’s going to be so damn good. Unbutton my shirt, sugar. I want to feel your hands on my bare skin.”

With fingers that trembled, Janna undid the buttons on his shirt. She had seen him naked before, but it hadn’t affected her one-tenth as much as watching his powerful body emerge from the shirt. In the dusk, the curling pelt of black hair was very distinct, as was the dark center line of his body where the hair narrowed to pencil width and vanished behind his belt. The heat and resilience of him were as alluring as his dark smile. With catlike pleasure she kneaded the muscular flesh she had so often bathed or medicated but had never caressed.

And she had wanted to.

She realized that now. She understood that her hands had quivered to know every texture of him, the satin smoothness where skin stretched over muscle, the power inherent in him, the thick silk of his chest hair, the finer silk of the hair beneath his arms, the flat disk and hard nubbin of his nipples.

Just as she had become lost in the discovery of her own body beneath his mouth, she became lost in the discovery of his body beneath her hands.

Ty watched her through eyes narrowed with passion. Her transparent pleasure in exploring his body was violently exciting to him. It was unlike anything he had ever known. It put him on an exquisite rack and pulled him in two conflicting directions. Part of him wanted to grab her and thrust into her and end the pulsing ache of his body.

And part of him wanted to keep his hands off her and learn more about himself and her and the sweet torment of being suspended between anticipation and ecstasy.

Again and again Janna’s fingers combed through the hair covering Ty’s chest, tracing his nipples and then following the quickly narrowing pelt down to the cold of his belt buckle. She knew that slim line of hair would continue down his body for a hand span and then radiate out into a thick, curling thatch. She wanted to see that too, to run her hands over him without any boundaries on the touching. She wanted that so much she couldn’t breathe.

Not stopping to think or to question, she reached for his belt buckle.

“Not yet,” he said huskily, grabbing her hands and pulling them back up to the safer territory of his chest. “It will be too quick that way. I want to enjoy you first.”

“I thought you had enjoyed me,” she whispered, bending to kiss his hands.

His smile made her heart turn over. “Just part of you, sugar. There’s some very sweet territory I haven’t unwrapped yet, much less enjoyed.”

He reversed their positions with one of the swift, powerful movements that always caught her off guard but no longer frightened her. Whatever came next, she was certain he would be careful with her. She lay quietly, watching him as he knelt at her feet and removed her knee-high moccasins and his own boots with quick motions. He tugged open his belt but left his pants untouched.

When he unfastened Janna’s belt she trembled.

“It’s all right,” he said, kissing her lips. “I won’t hurt you.”

She took a shaky breath and nodded. “I know. It’s just...”

Before she could explain that she had never been naked in front of anyone, it was too late. Her ability to speak deserted her as leather slipped from the buckle with an easy movement of his hand. Without the belt, her oversize men’s pants slid easily from her body, and with them her underpants.

When Janna lay completely nude before Ty, his breath came out in a slow, unraveling groan.

“It’s like seeing a satin butterfly emerge from a mud cocoon,” he whispered, running his fingertips over the pale curves and velvet shadows of her body.

When he reached the dark delta at the base of her torso, she made a surprised sound and moved as though to evade his hand, pressing her legs together reflexively.

“Easy, little one,” he murmured, kissing her lips. “I know you’ve been hurt there but I won’t hurt you. I know how delicate you are, how soft, how warm. Even you don’t know how soft you can be or how warm. Let me show you.”

“What d-do you want me to do?” Her voice broke as she shivered in a combination of nervousness and surprise at the presence of Ty’s fingers searching gently through the dense triangle of hair that shielded her most sensitive flesh.

“Don’t be so stiff. I won’t hurt you,” he murmured. He kissed her coaxingly until her lips parted and he could love her with slow, deep strokes of his tongue. He lifted his mouth and whispered against her lips. “Open your legs just a little, sugar, just a little. I’ll be very gentle.”

His voice became a husky sigh of triumph and discovery when she relaxed enough to allow his fingertip to skim over the soft, hot folds between her legs.

“Just a little more,” he whispered, caressing her, seeking the heated well of her femininity, finding just its soft, burning edges. But it was enough. It told him that her blood was running as hotly and hungrily as his own. He probed lightly and was rewarded by a hint of the smooth, sultry sheath that awaited him. “My beautiful satin butterfly,” he said huskily. “So hot, so sleek. Open a little more for me, butterfly. I won’t force you. I just want to love all of you. Let me...”

Janna tried to speak but her voice broke over Ty’s name. The gliding, skimming caress of his finger had changed into a gentle penetration that took her breath away. He bent to her mouth and his tongue echoed the tender movements of his hand between her legs. The heat and tension that had been gathering deep within her body flared suddenly, wildly, claiming her in a gentle convulsion that took her wholly by surprise.

But not Ty. He had been coaxing her toward just such a minor peak of ecstasy since he had first discovered the sensuality hidden within her body. He repeated the twin, gentle assaults on her body, his tongue gliding over hers in a deep kiss as his finger slid between her legs in a slow, teasing dance of penetration and withdrawal that brought soft whimpers from her throat. Passion shimmered and burst within her again, heat and pleasure overflowing.

She moaned softly as he withdrew from her sultry center and caressed the bud of her passion with fingertips still slick from her own response. Heat speared through her, tightening her body. She cried out into his mouth and her hips moved beneath his hand, asking for something she had never known. She sensed his hesitation, felt as much as heard him groan, and bit back a cry of protest when he withdrew his caressing hand.

“Hush, little one,” he murmured, freeing himself of his clothes in a few swift movements. “It won’t be long.”

“Ty?”

“I’m right here,” he said, gently pressing her legs farther apart, making room for himself.

Delicately he teased the nub he had coaxed from her soft, humid folds. She trembled and her knees flexed instinctively, allowing him greater access to her body. Her passionate response spilled over him as he probed her softness with his own aching flesh. The moist, welcoming heat of her body was unmistakable, a silent command that he come deeply within her. But she was so tight that he was afraid of hurting her.

Shivering with the harshness of his self-imposed restraint, Ty began taking Janna as gradually as evening took the day. Her eyes opened in sensual surprise and she looked up into the face of the man who was slowly, so slowly, becoming part of her. Each time the pressure of him within her became almost painful, he sensed it, withdrew, and gradually came to her again.

The exquisitely gentle penetration made waves of heat gather and burst within her, showering him with her pleasure. She heard him groan and push more deeply inside and then felt the harsh tension shaking his body as he forced himself to stop.

“You’re a virgin!”