ballroom.
"Because my being with you is no one's business but ours." Pulling out his shirttails, he slid the fine linen down his shoulders and arms.
She smiled at his polite cavil. "And what a pleasant business."
"Soon it will be. I'm sorry for all the delay." His answering smile was intimate, as though it were specially bestowed on her. His trousers joined his clothes on the carpet.
The sight of him nude momentarily took her breath away. "I appreciate your understanding," she replied in what she hoped was a normal tone of voice.
His smile broadened. "It's not as though I had a choice."
"Or I, as it turns out." He was utterly splendid, like some Dionysian god: tall, bronzed, his musculature perfectly modeled, his erection monumental. "Would you think me terribly forward if I said I need that"—she lifted her hand pointedly—"right now?"
"If you wouldn't think me boorish if I agreed."
She shook her head. "I'd say benevolent."
He was already reaching for a condom; as he tore the packet open, his penis surged higher.
She squirmed, her body opening in readiness, a frisson of anticipation rippling through her vagina. "I find this unnerving," she breathed, her gaze on the prodigious size of his erection. "I'm not usually—"
"I know," he said on a suffocated breath, sliding the rubber sheath over the swollen crest of his penis, an incredible lust beating at his brain. "I haven't done this for anyone."
Her eyes flared.
"You can't feel much with these," he muttered, moving closer. "You see how much I want you."
"A mutual obsession, Lord Redvers ."
A flicker of understanding registered in his eyes at the use of his title; she was distinguishing the act from the irregular circumstances. "Perhaps it's the pineapple ice making us reckless."
"I wish it were so simple."
"But then I don't want it simple." With the extraordinary state of his arousal, he wasn't in the mood for brevity tonight, nor for any form of simplicity.
"Now are you sure you don't want to slow this down?" He moved between her legs with a casualness she found intriguing, as though he'd done this often enough to feel no awkwardness in a conceivably awkward situation.
She lightly touched his rampant penis. "Do you?"
"It was my last politesse."
"Before?"
"Before I give in to this insanity."
"No need to be polite on my account."
He grinned. "Where have you been all my lifer'
"Perhaps waiting for this."
"I'll be coming in then," he whispered, his voice husky with desire, and gently spreading her thighs wider with a brush of his hand, he slowly entered her. Conscious of his size, he invaded her with caution, gauging her receptivity. But even with the vulcanized rubber condom exerting more friction, his progress was one of ease.
As his enormous length filled her, as he plunged deeper into her throbbing tissue, every pulsing nerve quivered in expectation. Could one die of lust? she wondered. All sensation centered in the shimmering heated core of her body, and she lifted up to draw him in more deeply.
As if he needed encouragement witl \ the rapacious urgency burning through his blood, spiking through his brain. His hands on her hips tightened and once he was completely submerged and she was flushed and trembling, saturated, he withdrew marginally against her whimpering protest, only to sink back in, deeper still.
She cried out, the sound echoing in the shadowed room.
His muted groan gave indication of an equally feverish response and, sliding his hands under her bottom, he drew her closer, impatient to possess her completely.
Sweeping her hands down his back, she traced the taut curve of his flexed buttocks, exerted pressure with her palms, lifted her pelvis against his weight . . . and exhaled in a low exultant sigh.
The enticing sound added inches to his erection. Her eagerness was enchanting, his own vaulting need so fierce the rhythm of their desire soon turned to an unbridled flux and flow that brought them quickly to a tempestuous,