Part 23 (1/2)

He let his gaze drop to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and her nipples tightened in response. Stars, she was eager, available, responsive. What more could he want?

But she was a virgin, and some of his ardour cooled.

”Are you sure?” He raised his gaze to hers.

”Yes.” Standing, she began to unwrap her sarong.

”I'll do that.” He strode around the table, placed his hand on hers. ”You can change your mind at any time.”

”I won't.”

She sounded so sure, so sensual that he yearned to encourage those banked embers in her eyes to blaze into a frenzied fire. But she'd also said that she'd wanted a body and then had hidden in her quarters for months. So he had doubts. As if sensing she could banish the last of his hesitation, Dora reached her arms around his neck, brought her mouth to his, searing him with her lips, her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressing against his chest in a s.e.xual a.s.sault that made his senses, reel.

His savage reaction to her had him taking her mouth with a rough fury. She gasped. Dora tugged him closer, molding her mouth to his, pressing into him, giving as much as she took.

d.a.m.n, the woman could kiss. She poured her desire into their fused mouths, stroking a need in him to have her naked, right there on the conference table. ”A bed...

would... be better.”

”I want you here. Now.” Her hands dropped to his loincloth, fumbled with the knots.

138.

As bold as she sounded, her hands trembled. He clasped his hands on her waist, lifted her to sit on the table. His hips spread her knees wide and all the while he kissed her.

Her fingers gave up on the knots, stroked up and down his back, rus.h.i.+ng him, urging him to hurry, to make love to her, as if she feared he would change his mind. He might have come to his decision quickly, but now that he was holding her, kissing her, the only thing that could make him leave would be if she sent him away.

Remembering that this was her first time battled with his need to pour himself inside her. With her legs straddling him, her scent enticing him, he had difficulty holding back. She'd waited a long time and endured much to arrive at this point and he wanted their lovemaking to be memorable. No, he wanted their time together to be the most spectacular experience in all her three hundred years of life Perhaps a tall order. But Zical was up for it. Oh, yeah, he was up all right and burning hard.

He pulled his mouth from hers. ”We need to slow down.”

”Why?” Part breathless, part demanding, part sultry petulance, her demeanor told him that she might have read every s.e.x manual ever written, but knowledge and experience could be two very different things.

”Dora, your body hasn't made love before. The fit might take some getting used to.”

”I'll be fine.”

”I'm not aiming for fine. I' m aiming for sensational.”

Dora giggled. Brazenly, she reached beneath his loincloth to stroke him. ”I'd say you've already reached the mark.”

Placing his hand over hers, he pulled her back. ”Not yet.” He set her hands on the table, then threaded his fingers through her hair. ”I want you to remember every kiss, every caress.” Coming his fingers though her hair, he stroked ear, palmed her jaw and watched her pulse throb in her graceful neck. His voice turned husky. ”Since we skipped the entire seduction process, let me make it up to you. Yes?”

”Yes.”

She tried to brush her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against him, but he leaned back just enough to keep them apart. Frustrated, fascinated, she leaned her head into his hand and released a sigh. ”You smell good I never knew the sense of smell could be so... enticing.”

”For both of us,” he agreed.

Trailing his fingers down her neck, tracing her collarbone, he held her gaze.

Antic.i.p.ation flared in her eyes as he ever so slowly dipped closer to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

He'd intended to caress and stroke and fondle with his hands to excite her, but once her fullness filled his hands, he lifted a breast to his mouth and took the tip between his lips. Sucking gently, he heard her gasp.

139.

”Oh... oh. Ah... I didn't know... I never imagined... that I could feel... so good.” She threw back her head, arched into his mouth. ”More, please.”

Amid all his failures, Zical was glad he could give her what she asked for. Without hesitation, he gave her more.

Chapter Thirteen.

Dora thought if lovemaking was a flavor, it would be peppered and ambrosial. If lovemaking was a color, it would be paprika red. If lovemaking was a scent, the fragrance would be pungent spice with a finely sharpened texture, both creamy and steamy. And if a sound, lovemaking was pure unadulterated sizzle.

Every sense contributed to her spiraling emotions as Zical's expertise seduced her with one level after another of skillful stimulation. She tried and failed to quantify and identify each element. But like a finely cooked meal, or a masterful opera, the end result was so much more than sum of the components that a.n.a.lysis failed her.

She morphed into a creature of sultry senses. Her pulse accelerated, her loins throbbed. Primitive mating urges took over and she arched her spine, thrusting her breast deeper into Zical's mouth.

Exquisite impressions zinged from her nipple to her core as heat from his mouth streamed into her. His tongue laved the tip, feathering her with wondrous care, even as his teeth nipped her sensitive flesh and kept her squirming.

Every nerve ending in her body was focused on her nipple, his tongue. She demanded more, her other breast jealous for his attentions. Sometime during his erotic kiss, he untied her sarong leaving her open and so ready for him to enter her. But he had yet to move on to her other breast, and she finally understood what it was like to want him to keep doing exactly what he was doing, yet contradictorily to advance to the next tier.

When her nipple grew so sensitive that a moan escaped her throat, Zical finally released her flesh, only to give the exact same treatment to her other breast. Knowing what he was about to do, antic.i.p.ating the rippling pleasure, had her reaching for him once again.

And again he grasped her wrists and placed her palms on the table's edge. She recalled that Rystani custom dictated that only the males touched, not the females. And Zical was all proud Rystani male. He obviously adored taking charge, setting this unbearably slow pace, and she would let him.

She didn't want to remind him that she wasn't born a Rystani woman. She didn't want to remind him that she was anyone but the current woman of his desire.

However, holding still while he laved her nipple when she longed to skim her palms along his back, brush her lips into the cords of his neck, twine her legs around his waist, and tug him into her took more self-control than she'd believed possible.

141.

Since actions were denied her, she attempted to urge him to go on. ”You feel so good.”

”Mmm.”

He kept right on caressing her nipple with the tip of his tongue, paying little attention to her words. Dampness pooled between her thighs and her synthari required touching. When she tried to slip her hand there, Zical released her breast.

”Don't move,” He placed her palms flat on the table.

”Wh-what are you... thinking?”

”That you need to hold still.”

She lifted her palms. ”No one could hold still with-”