Taking more steps backward, Tanon laughed, goading him to follow. Suddenly her left foot crossed over her right and she fell backward on her rump. Gareth rushed to her trying to keep his grin from spreading over his face as he reached for her. No one laughed outright, and Tanon was grateful for that while she closed her arms around his neck and flashed her dimple at him. “I win.”
Leaning over her, Gareth lifted his brows and then laughed. “What a devious woman I married.” Sweeping her to her feet, his laughter faded into a smile so heated, Tanon almost kissed him right there in front of his villagers.
“Wyfyrnhas been slain,” someone called out. When Tanon turned toward the crowd Madoc lifted his cup to Gareth first, and then to her. She smiled at him and he smiled back, not looking anywhere near as dangerous as he had a se’nnight ago.
“Dance with her now,” Adara called out.
“Non,” Tanon tilted her face to Gareth’s. “Take me home.”
Gareth almost lifted her in his arms to get her to his cottage faster, but he knew her courtly manners would protest. So he curled his fingers around hers and pulled her toward the crowd, shoving Alwyn out of his path.
The moment they were away from the villagers, Gareth hauled her into his arms, lifting her off her feet.
“My, but you’re eager,” she giggled nervously.
“You’ve no idea.”
He reached the door and pushed it open with his foot, then slammed it shut the same way. He began to kiss her even before he set her feet on the floor. She clung to him, her heart battering against her chest with excitement and a spark of fear. Her nerve endings sizzled. She felt alive and on fire. The urgency in his kiss and in his hands as they worked to untie the thick belt at her waist, seized the breath from her lungs. His tongue plunged deep, laving her mouth with long, masterful strokes. Her belt dropped to her feet. His broad hands splayed across her waist and then quickened her breath as they cupped and caressed her breasts. Her nipples grew hard under his hot palms. He squeezed them gently between his thumb and index fingers. Grasping her bottom lip between his teeth, he surged the full length of his stiff erection against her.
The size of him sent a spasm to Tanon’s core. Needing satisfaction only her instincts understood, her legs opened wider. Shamelessly, she rubbed her hips against his and scored her fingers through his hair. She had wanted to touch him this way since the day she watched him fight at the tourney. She had ached to feel his strong heartbeat beneath his bare skin. Needing to run her fingers over his lean muscles, she cast the last shred of propriety she possessed to the wind and tugged at the leather laces of his shirt. She tore his shirt away, groaning inside his mouth. She didn’t realize he’d lifted her skirts until she felt his rough hands on her skin caressing her buttocks and gliding her up and down against him.
Wanting to look at her while he stripped her, Gareth broke their fevered kiss and pulled her gown over her head.
She stood before him naked, cloaked only by her hair.
The raw, torrid need in his eyes was so arousing when he raked his gaze over her body, she felt a zap of yearning hit her core.
His lips parted seconds before they sank to take her nipple into his mouth. He swirled his tongue over the sensitive bud and then sucked deeper. Tanon rolled her head back, burrowing her fingers through his hair, dragging him closer.
She felt bold. Feverish. Each salacious stroke of his tongue threatened to ignite her into flames. With an instinct born of primal desire, she slipped her hand between their bodies and traced her fingers over his arousal, sensually caressed in leather.
Gareth’s control finally shattered. Grasping her hands, he shoved her back against the wall. His eyes impaled her. Something wicked flared within their indigo depths. “If its gentle you really want, Tanon,” he breathed against her face. “I’ll treat you like a sprig of heather.”
“Non,” she panted, aroused beyond endurance.
His slow, lusty smile convinced her that she made the right choice.
He wanted to take her untried body slowly. But her wanton kisses shredded his control until nothing remained.
He bent his mouth to her throat and spread his tongue over her pulse, whetting his appetite with a taste that fevered his blood.
Tanon groaned beneath his ravenous mouth, but his assault continued as he moved down her body. He flicked his tongue over the peak of her coral nipple, making her body quake in his arms, then bent his knees before her and kissed her soft belly. The rough stubble of his jaw pricked her flesh. His hot breath set fire to it.
He spread her legs with a scandalous lick that made Tanon gasp and her muscles jolt. She tried to pull away, but his broad hands splayed across her thighs, holding her immobile while he tasted her in the most intimate way. He paused to suckle the bud at her tender crest. The masterful savagery of his mouth, his teeth, and his tongue, drove her pelvis upward offering herself to him more fully. When she lifted her foot to his shoulder, he rose up, curling his fingers under her thigh. He used his other hand to free himself of his trousers.
“This is going to hurt…a little.” A titillating smile caressed his lips. He brought his index and middle finger to his mouth and moistened them with a tantalizing brush of his tongue.
Dipping his hand between their bodies, he caressed her engorged apex, stroking and petting her until she began to shudder in his hand. He covered her mouth with his, kissing her harsh gasps from her lips as he thrust himself into her.
Tanon cried out as her pleasure ebbed, a bolt of pain shot through her at the unfamiliar intrusion.
“Aye.” His voice, a guttural tangle of desire and ecstasy. “Feel it. Enjoy it.”
So close to the zenith of her release, it took only a few more tender strokes of his fingers to make her climax. A shuddering spasm closed her muscles tighter around his rigid flesh. She cried out, and with one last powerful surge that lifted her feet off the floor, they found their release together.
Spent, Gareth pulled Tanon into his arms and carried her to the stream. He washed the evidence of her lost virginity away with tender fingers, kissing her face while he promised he would not take her again this night.
“You are a brutal beast.” She snuggled against his chest as he carried her back inside.