A delicious shock flared through her body as he explored the yielding, warm folds of flesh with his erotic mouth. Shuddering uncontrollably, she gave herself over to his lavish sensuality.
Her head fell back in surrender as he savored her with his caressing lips and tongue. When she arched against him, he clasped her buttocks, giving her no opportunity to evade him. With exquisite skill he lapped at her slowly, thoroughly, his hot, rasping tongue stroking her in heated pulses, delighting the quivering, throbbing bud that was the center of her pleasure.
Her hands rose to his hair, desperately clutching. His mouth with its lazy suckling was driving her wild. "God… Nicholas… please."
"Oh, yes," he murmured against her hot flesh. "I will please you in every possible way."
He held her to him more firmly, his face pressed against her, his tongue delving inside her swollen cleft, sweetly ravishing.
Fire leapt from his mouth into her flesh, dragging a wrenching shudder from her. Her whole body was a hot screaming mass of desire. She writhed beneath him, whimpering mindlessly, until finally a shriek tore from her.
She climaxed again and again, a wild, rippling, seemingly never-ending series. Mercilessly he drew every last drop of excruciating pleasure from her quivering flesh, until she fell back, limp and helpless with exhaustion.
Satisfied, he stretched out beside her. After a long moment, he pressed a kiss against her temple. "You cannot fall asleep just yet," he murmured warmly against her ear. "We have only begun to obliterate your inhibitions."
Aurora stirred against him languorously, not wanting to move. It was scandalous, what he had done, but she couldn't bring herself to lament her wanton behavior. Instead she wanted more.
"I am not about to fall asleep," she returned in a voice still husky with passion. "I am simply being patient, waiting for you to undress. You have far too many clothes on."
His smile was so sensual, it made her heart turn over. "Your wish is my command, angel."
He started to undress, but Aurora took over. It was her turn to torment him.
Kneeling over him, she took off his garments, one by one, drawing out the moment. When he was nude, she sat back on her heels, marveling at his hard-muscled glory. His skin was golden in the sunlight, except for the paler flesh at his groin and upper thighs. He was brazen, naked male, all corded muscle and lithe strength. And he was boldly aroused.
"Now what do you mean to do with me?" he murmured, half taunting.
She returned her own taunting smile in answer. Holding his gaze, she reached for him, her hands cupping his hard, pulsing arousal.
His groan was soft and erotic in the quiet of the afternoon.
When he tried to pull her down to him, she released him abruptly and pressed her palms against his powerful chest. She intended to be the seducer this time. "No, Nicholas. You aren't to touch me. You aren't even to move."
Reluctantly he obeyed, holding his arms by his side.
Aurora leaned over him, feeling the strength of his muscles beneath her hands, his hot skin against her palms.
"You think you can make me burn?" he asked, his tone challenging.
"I know I can," she replied, feeling very, very powerful.
She bent to taste him, running her tongue over his silky, granite-hard flesh.
He arched against her mouth, as if in pain. "Aurora…"
"Be still."
She knelt there in the warm sunlight, attending to him, arousing him the way he had her. It was exciting, exhilarating. She was totally in control this time, driving Nicholas slowly mad with desire. In only a few moments, his breathing became erratic. She felt his hand clutch in her hair as he strove to remain still.
"Enough," he at last muttered roughly. "Have mercy. I surrender."
He caught her shoulders and drew her down to lie full length upon him. Her breasts lightly caressed his chest as she stared down into his pleasure-hazed eyes.
Aurora didn't protest as he lifted her up to settle her astride him. It was what she wanted, too. She drew a sharp breath as he lowered her onto his thick shaft, his slow, filling length impaling her, then sighed when she felt the heat of him inside her.
"Do you know how badly I want you?" he asked, his voice a hoarse rasp as he held her hips to draw her even closer, to push himself even deeper. "I want to bury myself completely inside you…"
Aurora arched her back, totally aroused. He was huge and hard and hot and filling her to bursting. Helplessly, she began to move, no longer maintaining the slightest measure of control. She rode him wildly, gasping, quaking against him, while her hips undulated in a mindless rhythm.
As her aching moans filled the air, though, his rough excitement grew to match her own frenzy. He arched up, driving into her. Aurora erupted, crying out with abandon as he forced jolt after tormenting jolt from her.
Her explosive heat shattered the last of his control. He whispered her name, fierce and low, and then let himself go, his body contracting in a wrenching, tearing release. When it was over, Nicholas sagged weakly back, while Aurora collapsed upon him, totally drained.
She lay there contented, bliss convulsing her senses. Nicholas had been right all along, she thought dazedly. She did have a hidden fire buried deep inside her. He had kindled it from the moment they had met.
She had not realized the depths of her need until now. Until knowing Nicholas, she had merely existed, pretending she could escape feeling a woman's desires, a woman's wants. And now she couldn't deny them. He filled her with a yearning so powerful, she ached.
A line from the journal floated into her mind: I belonged to him, a captive of his raw and untamed passion. That was how she felt about Nicholas. She was prisoner of his desire. Her physical need for him was like a sickness…
Aurora's contentment suddenly faded, while her throat tightened. Nicholas was doing everything in his power to bind her to him with chains of love, wooing her with his tenderness and his gentle-fierce lovemaking. He had made her a woman and now he was bent on capturing her heart.
Dear God, she didn't want to love him. Yet he was making it harder and harder to resist.
The constriction in her throat increased.
Before Nicholas, she had yearned for a passionless life. She had desperately wanted to avoid the pain of loving him and losing him.
Yet how could she wall herself off emotionally from him now, when he was so set on taking full possession of her heart? How could she withstand his vital force when he was so single-mindedly tearing away her defenses with his incredible passion?
How, she wondered desperately, could she quell her own relentless need and this painful, yearning ache inside her?
Their agreement to live only in the present held into their second week. During one of their morning rides in the forest, however, they ventured into a discussion that Aurora would have preferred to leave alone.
She had just set her mount at a huge log, an obstacle that even Nicholas was leery of. She cleared it with inches to spare but had him shaking his head in wonder at her bravado.
"Don't talk to me about the risks I take," he said dryly. "I would never be so suicidal as to hazard that fence riding sidesaddle."
She laughed, still feeling the exhilaration of her success, and patted her horse's neck fondly. "I don't believe you, Nicholas," she retorted as she resumed her place beside him. "From what I have seen, you aren't the least afraid of anything. You have no fear."
"Oh, no," Nicholas said with a twisting smile. "I have one very great fear."
"And what is that?"
"I'm afraid I will lose you."
Aurora fell silent, not wanting to tread such dangerous grounds. "You said we wouldn't speak of such things."