Sacrifice by Lora Leigh

response.
    Her fingers fumbled at the belt for
a second before the loose knot came free, allowing the edges to fall apart
until they draped enticingly over the swollen curves of her breasts.
    Her nipples ached, burned for
relief. The weight of the gold rings that pierced them was more pronounced, an
erotic little pain that reminded her of the rasp of his teeth against the
sensitive points.
    “Take it off,” he ordered again,
watching her from beneath lowered lids.
    “You take it off.” She was
breathing so harshly she could barely say the words.
    That smile. It flashed again,
slightly crooked, a bit boyish.
    He was having fun. That knowledge
was nearly as strong as the arousal. He was having fun with her. Had anyone
ever had fun with her? She was sure they must have, but she had never felt the
knowledge that they were like she did now.
    “A dare.” He appeared to approve.
“I think I can handle that, Kimber…” He caught her ankles, pulling her to the
edge of the bed with a quick movement. “But can you?”
    She expected another of the hard,
hungry kisses he destroyed her mind with. Expected him to consume her. Instead,
he destroyed her.
    He rested his forehead against
hers, staring into her eyes, allowing her to see the shifting color, the unchecked
emotion, the essence of him as his hands moved to her shoulders and began to
slowly, gently ease the silk from her.
    “Jared…” Chills of pleasure raced
over her body, making her shiver at what she saw, at what she felt.
    She blinked back tears, and yet
didn’t understand why they welled in her eyes, why she felt shaken to the very
core of her being.
    “Your eyes are darkening, baby,” he
whispered roughly. “I can see the heat rising within you; see the need growing
to a fever pitch. Do you know what that does to me? How hard it makes me to
know I can turn those pretty green eyes almost black with hunger?”
    The silk slid over her hands as she
lifted her arms, pooling about her hips as she raised her hands to his face.
Her fingers touched his lips. Trembled. They were warm, not moist or slick but
like heated velvet against her fingertips.
    She whimpered, her lips parting
with a soundless cry as his eyes darkened in turn. Stormy. Like the turbulent
center of a storm she feared she would never survive.
    She shuddered then as his hands
moved as well, cupping the swollen weight of her breasts, his fingers rasping
over the hard nipples and sending flares of white-hot heat spearing to the
depths of her pussy.
    She was burning alive. She could
feel the blood racing through her veins, boiling with the intensity of
sensation building within her. A touch shouldn’t do this, she screamed
silently. It shouldn’t wrap her, not just in pleasure, but in an emotion that
terrified her.
    “I could touch you forever.” His
lips moved against her trembling fingers, his breath a caress she felt clear to
her soul. “You’re like hot silk and satin, as seductive as sin itself, Kimber.”
    His head lowered then, turning to
brush her fingers against his chin, to nudge them aside as he sought her lips in
a kiss so soft it was like the caress of fairy wings against hers.
    “Touch me, baby,” he whispered the
heated plea against her lips. “Touch me, Kimber, like we’ll never touch again…”
    Like he was touching her.

Chapter Twelve
     
    Each touch was another layer of
emotion, of pleasure. It was an unspoken vow, a memory Jared knew he would
never be free of.
    He watched her eyes; the dark green
depths were liquid with her rising passion and the heat and hunger filling her
body. Her face flushed, her lips becoming fuller as he nipped at them.
    “Are you going to tease me to
death?” she asked him huskily as he bent to her, his hands smoothing over her
shoulders, her back. Had he ever touched anything or anyone as soft as Kimber?
    “It would be my pleasure,” he
growled, restraining his smile at her soft expulsion of laughter.
    “That wasn’t what I meant,”