«Caleb,» Willow said huskily.
He looked up, afraid he would find fear in her eyes. Instead he found fire.
«Will you…kiss me the way you did this morning?» she asked.
Slowly, Caleb’s hands tightened, lifting Willow from the water until one of her breasts brushed against his mustache. He felt the shivering that went through her, tightening her nipple until it nuzzled against his lips. His tongue flicked out, circled her, drew her in, loved her until her breath broke and her fingers dug heedlessly into his shoulders. He smiled and closed his teeth around her with exquisite care. She gasped as she arched against him, twisting slowly, knowing only his mouth and the wild singing of passion deep within her body.
Caleb ached to tangle his fingers in the dark gold at the apex of Willow’s thighs, to test the sleek depths of her, to know if she needed him as much as he needed her. But when he had touched her like that before, she had panicked and begged him to stop. Now she was on her knees in front of him, astride the clenched power of his thighs, her hips moving with the rhythms of his mouth on her breast. Now he couldn’t bear to have her turn away.
His teeth closed gently on her velvet nipple once more, making her cry out with pleasure. He released her and looked at the transformation passion had wrought in her body. Her breathing was as rapid as his, her creamy breasts were flushed with heat and the loving marks of his mouth, her lips were red, trembling, and her pupils had dilated until her eyes were nearly black.
She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
«C–Caleb?»
He closed his eyes because he could not bear to look at Willow any longer without touching the silky flesh hidden between her legs.
«I–I want — more. But I don’t know — what.» Willow shivered with soft violence. «Help me, Caleb. Helpme.»
His eyes opened and a stillness came over him as he realized that Willow was telling the simple truth. She was stretched on a rack of passion and had no idea how to find release.
«The kind of touch you want from me made you panic once before.»
Caleb saw the moment of understanding break over Willow, saw her shudder and close her eyes. For the space of a long breath they remained closed. Then she took her hands, put them over his, and slowly pulled them down her body, drawing them from her breasts to her waist, skimming the deeply indented curves of her torso. Just below her navel, she lost her courage.
«Stay with me,» Caleb said against Willow’s mouth when she would have lifted her hands from his. «That way I’ll know you want it, too.»
Her hands rested over his as he slowly eased his palms down her body, seeking the womanly fullness of her hips. The frail cotton of herpantelets was little barrier to his touch. He filled his hands with her round curves and squeezed. She gasped and shivered violently.
«Frightened?» he asked softly.
«It feels…strange.»
«Bad?»
«No, it just makes me ache in the oddest places.»
«Does it? Where?»
Willow’s breath thickened into a soft moan as Caleb’s big hands flexed again, making her very aware of the luxuriant flare of her own hips.
«Is that where you ache?» he asked, smiling slightly.
She shook her head.
«Where, honey?»
Willow bit her lip and looked at Caleb, torn between passion and embarrassment. «Don’t you know?»
«I’m beginning to think I don’t know much about you at all,» he admitted in a low voice. His hands flexed and his whole body clenched at the passion coursing visibly through Willow in response to his touch. «Where does it ache, little one? If you’re too shy to tell me, take my hand and show me.»
For a moment, Willow didn’t think she had the courage to do even that. Then currents swirled and tugged at her, sending a glittering burst of sensation through the pit of her stomach, leaving behind aredoubted ache. She took one of Caleb’s big hands and slowly brought it from her hip to her navel and from there to the warm, water-washed triangle at the apex of her thighs.
«There?» Caleb asked softly.
Willow tried to look at him but couldn’t. She closed her eyes and nodded. His palm covered her as his long fingers sought the opening in thepantelets and curled down between her legs, gently seeking her softest flesh, finding it, holding her so close that not even the seething waters of the pool came between them. Her breathingunravelled in a low moan. Instinctively, she tried to protect her tender flesh by closing her legs. It was impossible. She was kneeling astride his thighs, balancing herself by holding onto his shoulders.
«Easy, little love. I won’t hurt you.»
Willow barely heard Caleb’s low voice. His hand was moving slowly, both soothing her and increasing the sensual ache. Bright splinters of sensation raced up from his touch, driving away her uncertainty, leaving only a stark pleasure that shortened her breath. Then she felt the tender probing of his finger and stiffened as though he had laid a whip across her bare flesh.
«Caleb.»
He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, forcing himself to withdraw from the sleek feminine heat he had just discovered. But he couldn’t force himself to release Willow completely. She felt too good against the palm of his hand, too soft, too hot. Nor could he prevent the languid, caressing movements of his fingers that made her even softer, hotter. Without meaning to, he probed very lightly. She shuddered but didn’t withdraw.
«Do you want me to stop?» Caleb asked, his voice rough with passion and restraint.
Willow’s only answer was a moan as something deep inside her tightened and then tightened again, making her body twist slowly against Caleb’s touch.
«Willow?»
«I don’t know the words for what I want,» she said raggedly. «But I like having you touch me. I like feeling you against me…inside me. Do you like it, too, being inside me?»
Caleb fought a silent, savage battle with his body. All that enabled him to keep his self-control was the near certainty that Willow wasn’t what he had thought her to be.
«Yes, I like it,» he said almost roughly. «But I thought you didn’t. You went stiff.»
Willow heard the hunger and restraint in his voice, and something more, an uncertainty she had never heard before from him. She looked at Caleb with luminous hazel eyes.
«I couldn’t help what I did,» she admitted. «Being touched like that…»
«Did I hurt you?»
She shook her head. «It was just unexpected.»
«Did you like it?»
«Yes,» Willow said. «It sent heat all through me, everywhere, but especially where you’re holding me now. I love your hands, Caleb. They’re a beautiful fire on my body.»
He tried to speak but couldn’t. A hammer blow of passion shook him, taking him right up to the edge of ecstasy and leaving him there, shaking. He had never lost control with a woman, but he was a heartbeat away from it now.
«Hold onto me, Willow. Hold on hard. I’m going to touch you again. There’s something I have to know.»
Willow started to ask what Caleb meant, but the movement of his hand took her breath away. Tenderly, relentlessly, two fingers pressed into her tight, sleek center. Her nails dug suddenly into his bare shoulders. At first Caleb thought he was hurting Willow. Then he felt her shiver, felt the sultry pulses of her pleasure. He smiled through clenched teeth and probed lightly, seeking her depths. He was barred from them by the taut, frail barrier of her maidenhead.