Seduction in Mind by Susan Johnson Page A

when she said "I've been ready for you since yesterday," her voice trembled at the last.
    He smiled. "And I've been wanting to take out these hairpins since the first time I saw you at Leighton's," he told her, reaching up to lift one of the ruby pins from her tousled hair.
    "You were much too arrogant at Leighton's and last night. I told myself I wouldn't do this," she said on a small caught breath as a tress of her hair tumbled onto her bare shoulder.
    He reached for a second pin. "And here we are."
    "Lost to all shame."
    He stood arrested for a flashing moment, the jeweled pin between his fingertips.
    She smiled. "I didn't mean it literally."
    He looked relieved.
    And she laughed. "So you're aware of respectability."
    Amusement flickered in his eyes. "Only from a distance."
    "You were actually worried."
    "Not worried, thinking," he replied, pulling out the second pin. "Such moral integrity is offputting."
    "You mean you wouldn't be able to perform?"
    He chuckled. "No, I didn't mean that."
    "Because you always do."
    Pulling out two more pins, he shrugged faintly. "I'm not about to answer that."
    "As long as you perform for me, I'm content."
    He tossed the pins in his hand onto the sheet and ran his fingers through her loosened hair. "No problem there," he assured her. Sliding his hand under her chin, he lifted her face. "How many times do you want it?"
     
    The grass was cool on her back even through the sheet, and she trembled as he gently eased her thighs open. He was kneeling between her legs, his broad shoulders blocking out the sun, his lean torso limned by the light, and there was no explanation for the intense, fevered lust she felt. Nothing in all her past that would serve as a reference—not one lover, not one husband, not a hero from the pages of a book had ever made her feel such mindless desire. It was as if he exuded some potent allure, or cast a magical spell and, mesmerized, she was in thrall.
    But he had more than bewitching allure, she realized, gazing at the enormity of his upthrust erection lying flat against his stomach. And she ached with longing to feel him deep inside her.
    There was no question of his sexual accomplishments, nor of the reason he was so much in demand. Neither could she begrudge the legions of ladies in his wake. Like them, she'd been given the benefit of his virtuoso talents.
    And like them, she wanted more.
    He seemed to understand, or perhaps his emotions were in accord, for he entered her short moments later with a soft apology for his impatience, gliding in with a silken friction that touched her to the quick, overwhelmed her senses, gave credence to the phrase
lost to all reason
. And when at last he filled her completely, when she felt as though she couldn't breathe for the size of him, when ravishing sensation strummed outward from her tautly stretched tissue and pulsed through her body, she sobbed from the sheer, sublime, overwrought pleasure.
    "Don't cry," he whispered, terrified he'd hurt her.
    "I'm—not…" she sobbed, her hands hard on his back.
    And then he understood and put away his brief apprehension and did what he did so well—what made him vaunted, pursued, cherished by females far and wide. He made love to her as though she were the first in his heart—in the world—taking care to please her, knowing how to please her, going slowly when she wished it and not slow at all when she wanted more. And when she came that first time—quickly, as she had before—and melted around him, the sun on his back and the heat of ardor merged in an uncommon feeling even he was forced to recognize as rare.
    "You don't have to be so polite," she breathed, knowing he'd withheld his orgasm.
    "It's not politeness." His voice was low, hushed, the warmth of his breath caressing her cheek. "It's a fucking game…"
    She could feel him hard inside her, the smallest of tremors beginning again, rippling, shimmering up her stretched tissue. "I'm pleased you came back…"
    "Not as pleased