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And saw, beneath the dark fan of her lashes, the silver track of tears shining like the beach in moonlight.
His chest froze. “Lass…Did I hurt you?”
She drew a shuddering breath. “No.”
Her pale fingers uncurled from the bedpost. Lowering her arm, she dragged the heel of her palm across her eyes.
His heart sundered. Catching her wrist, he replaced her hand with his lips, soothing her tender skin with his kiss. Tasting salt.
A choked sound escaped her throat. She turned to him, curled into him, in a trusting, nestling move that ripped him apart.
He gathered her close, cursing himself, smoothing a shaking hand down the long, silken fall of her hair. “Was it so bad, then?”
Her head moved against his chest. She lifted her face, her blue eyes lambent, glowing, setting his heart on fire with relief and…something else. Something he had no words for or experience of.
“It was that good,” she said.
“There’s more,” he promised hoarsely. “Better.”
Beneath his hand, her small shoulders stiffened. Straightened. “Yes.”
He’d never heard a braver assent.
Or a more discouraging one.
For all her passionate nature, he knew she had not enjoyed her previous experience of sex. Horrible, she called it. He should have taken her when he had the chance, before she had a chance to remember, before he looked in her face and saw her tears, before he gazed in her eyes and found them blue and shining with promise like the sea at dawn.
“Lass—” Longing and frustration roiled inside him. He had claimed to know her. But at this moment, he barely recognized himself. “What do you want of me?”
“Oh.” A rosy blush swept from the freckles on her collarbone to the roots of her hair. “You will think me foolish. Selfish.”
He thought her adorable.
“Inexperienced,” he said. “And ill-used. Tell me what you want.”
“Would you—” Another blush, deeper than before. Anticipation licked along his veins and tightened his groin. Her eyes met his, defiant. Beseeching. “Would you hold me?”
He almost groaned. Human females.
“I am holding you,” he pointed out.
“Yes.” Her gaze skittered over the rumpled bed, the smooth silks tangled with the sleek, dark fur of his pelt. “Never mind.”
Comprehension forced its way into his lust-fogged brain. “In bed, you mean.”
She swallowed; nodded. “I know it’s not fair. You must think—You must expect—”
“I did not ask for anything but your honesty, lass.”
And if her honesty resulted in a miserable night for him, he reflected wryly, he was well-served for his lies.
She bit her lip. “You don’t mind? Won’t it be hard?”
“Hard as a rock and stiff as a mast,” he assured her, grinning when her eyes rounded. He trailed his knuckle along the curve of her jaw, coaxing her head up, inviting her smile. “It’s not such a terrible fate, to sleep with you in my arms.”
She smiled tremulously. He felt almost rewarded for his sacrifice.
But he knew, in his heart and in his stones, he would get no sleep tonight.
