Diana Palmer Collected 1-6: Soldier of Fortune / Tender Stranger / Enamored / Mystery Man / Rawhide and Lace / Unlikely Lover

“Are you sure you want to marry me?” she asked.

“Don’t worry so,” he told her, bending to kiss away the frown. “Yes, I want to marry you. I’ll still want to marry you in the morning, too. That was no lie to get you in bed with me.”

Part of her had thought that, and she lowered her eyes to his collar.

“Second thoughts?” he asked.

Her fingers toyed with the buttons on his shirt. “I’m afraid.”

“Yes, I imagine so,” he said matter-of-factly. “The first time was hard for me, too. I was nervous as a cat.” He laughed.

“I can’t imagine you being nervous,” she said.

“It was forever ago. But I haven’t forgotten. I’ll go slowly.” He bent and touched her mouth with his, very gently. “I just want you to remember two things. The first is that there are no set rules in this—it all depends on what pleases the people involved. Will you try to keep that in mind?”

She swallowed. “Yes.”

“The second thing is that I’m not superhuman,” he said softly. “Inevitably, there will come a moment when I lose control absolutely. Hopefully, I can bring you to that point before I reach it. But if not, I’ll make it up to you afterward. Okay?”

“It all seems so mysterious,” she whispered, as if even the night had ears.

“It won’t by morning.” His gaze went slowly over her, from head to toe and back up again, and his breathing began to change. “Rosebud,” he muttered softly as he suddenly swung her up into his hard arms.

She relaxed a little and burrowed her face into his warm throat. He smelled of expensive cologne, and she loved the strength that made her seem so light in his embrace.

He laid her down on the bed gently. She expected him to start undressing himself or her immediately, and she lay there uneasily, a little frightened.

But he sat down beside her and laughed gently at the look on her face. “What are you expecting, I wonder. That I’ll strip you and take you without preliminaries?”

Her eyes filmed. “I’m sorry….”

He touched her mouth with a hard finger. “Think about how it was on the beach, when I bent you back into the sand and kissed you, here.” His fingers traveled down to her soft breasts. “And you threw back your head and moaned and begged me.”

Her lips parted as she remembered vividly the sensations he’d aroused.

“That’s how it’s going to be now,” he said, bending to her mouth. “Except that this time I’m not going to let you go.”

His mouth opened hers with practiced ease, and his warm, callused hands were on her bare back, caressing it slowly and confidently, while all her inhibitions melted slowly away.

Seconds later the dress began to ease away from her body, and she felt his lips follow its downward movement. But she couldn’t protest. The fires were burning again, and she moaned as his mouth covered her breasts, nipping at them with a tender pressure that was more arousing than frightening. His mouth followed as the dress merged with her tiny briefs and then was swept downward along with them. Shockingly, she felt his lips on her thighs, on the soft inner skin of her legs, and her body moved as the edge of his teeth followed the same path. Incredible, she thought through a fog of anguished desire, incredible that people could survive this kind of pleasure!

She wasn’t even aware of what he was doing anymore: she was all sensation, all aching hunger. Her eyes were closed, her fists clenched beside her arched neck as his mouth searched her hips and her flat stomach. At the same time he was lazily divesting himself of his own clothing, making it so much a part of his seduction that she didn’t even realize he’d done it until finally he slid alongside her and she felt him.

Her eyes flew open and went helplessly down the length of his body before she realized what she was doing. And then it was too late; she couldn’t look away. He was glorious. Absolutely the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen, tanned all over without the slightest streak of white, as if he’d sunbathed in the nude all his life.

And meanwhile his hands touched her in a new intimate way. She started to draw away, but his mouth opened hers and his hands began a soft, tender rhythm, and soon she was weeping helplessly against his lips.

In seconds she was trembling and pleading with him. He moved, dragging his aching body into a sitting position against the headboard, his dark eyes glittering with frank desire. He lifted her over him and guided her, his body rigid with self-control, his face hard with it.

She gasped at the contact and her hands clenched on his shoulders as she found herself looking straight into his eyes.

“You do it,” he told her huskily. “That way you can control the pain.”

She started to argue, but she knew that it was becoming unbearable for him. She swallowed down her fear, closed her eyes, bit her lip and moved. She caught her breath and tried again.

“Help me, Eric,” she begged, guiding his hands to her hips. “Please…oh!”

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” he ground out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry….” His fingers contracted as his body began to fight his mind. The hunger was exploding in him. He began to tremble, his hands clenched. “Dani…!”

She opened her eyes at the new note in his voice and looked at him. The sight of his face took her mind off the pain. She watched him, fascinated. His eyes opened and found hers. Then his body seemed to take control away from his mind. His face changed, his breathing changed, the movements of his body intensified as she stared into his wild face. He arched and his face contorted, and all at once she realized what she was seeing and blushed wildly.

He was still for an instant, then he shuddered. His eyes opened slowly, looking into hers. His body still throbbed, his breathing unsteady and strained. His hands on her hips became caressing.

“I thought…you were dying,” she whispered.

“I felt as if I were,” he whispered back. His voice trembled, like his body, in the aftermath. His eyes searched her face. “You were watching me. Were you shocked?”

“Yes,” she confessed, but she didn’t look away.

“Was it bad?” he asked.

“Yes. Until I started watching you.”

He brought her fully against him, still a part of him, and held her gently, with her face against his damp chest. “I think that was what pushed me over the edge,” he murmured. “I saw you watching me and my head flew off.”

“You looked as though you were being tortured to death.”

“And you can’t imagine pleasure so intense?” he chided her gently. He laughed, but it wasn’t a taunting laugh. His hands caressed her back. “When I’ve rested for a few minutes I’m going to watch it happen to you.”

“Will it?”

“Oh, yes. You just needed a few more seconds than I could give you. The second time,” he added, easing her away from him, “always takes longer, for a man.”

She looked into his eyes. “You’re my lover now,” she declared.

He looked down where they were still joined. Her eyes followed his and she blushed furiously.

“I’m still your lover,” he told her. His hands pressed against her thighs, dragging her even closer, and all at once something happened that even her inexperienced body understood immediately.

He laughed softly. “Yes, you know what’s going to happen now, don’t you?” he growled. He shifted, easing her down onto the mattress as he loomed over her.

“Now,” he said hotly, blazing with renewed passion. “Now watch what I’m going to do to you. Look!”

Her eyes dilated as she watched him. But the sensations were unexpected, and she cried out helplessly, her body lifting toward him as if it recognized its master.

“Shhhh,” he hissed, smiling as her face began to contort. “Yes, you’re going to feel it for me this time. I’m going to make you feel it, just as it happened to me. Yes, Dani, yes, yes…!”

She throbbed with a new rhythm. She moved and twisted and tried to throw him off, and tried to bring him back; she cried and pleaded and bit and whimpered and finally threw back her head and moaned so harshly that she sounded as if every bone in her body had snapped suddenly. And then it was all free fall. Bonelessness. Purple oblivion.