Chapter Thirty-One

A lyce protested when he lifted her off the floor. "Your back! Let me down, Hawk," she pleaded, but the obstinate man just shook his head at her.

The way he looked at her as he lowered her to the bed sent ribbons of heat through her limbs. She framed his face with her hands as he settled over her, not able to take her gaze from his. His eyes seemed to bore into her soul, robbing her of her breath and all sense, certain he could see clearly the impossible thoughts filling her head from her traitorous heart.

I want you! I need you! I love you!

She lifted her face to his when the intimacy of their locked eyes became too much, and she feared she would put voice to the words in her head. She licked his lower lip and then grabbed it between her teeth. He rewarded her with a growl deep in his chest that vibrated against her breasts where his body was pressed to hers, the surprisingly erotic sensation making her nipples tighten.

She wriggled beneath him and pushed on his shoulders. "I need to feel your skin against mine."

He pushed up from her so that she could sit upright and tug at her the shift that covered her from shoulders to shins. When she couldn't remove it quickly enough, he pulled her to her feet and tore the thin garment over her head to fling it into a darkened corner of the room. They were standing with the mattress pressed against the back of her knees. She stopped him with a shake of her head when he tried to push her back onto the bed.

"I want to see you," she whispered, the words barely there as her hands stroked slowly down his neck and over the expanse of his chest. Her fingers followed the trail made by her eyes as she took in every hard plane and dip in the muscles of his torso, swirling her fingers in the dark hair that covered his chest and tapered down to his abdomen.

His chest was rising and falling as she explored his body. She darted her eyes up to his when his breath hitched as her hands smoothed over the hard lines of his hip bones and a wicked smile curved her lips as she looked up at him through her lashes. She kept her hands on his hips as she lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bed, widening her knees to pull him closer to her.

He hissed when she pressed her lips to his stomach, tasting his skin and inhaling his scent. She nuzzled the crisp hairs there with her nose then tipped her head to the side to bite gently at the hard angle of his hip.

His hands circled around the back of her neck as his fingers drove into her hair. "Alyce," he growled. She wasn't sure if the one word was said in warning or worship. The growl turned into a groan as she slid her hand up his inner thigh to cup the weight of his balls and roll them between her fingers. She was mildly surprised and highly flattered by the urgency of his cockstand as it bobbed against his stomach as she nibbled at the line of his hip.

She grasped the base of his throbbing cock, circling her fingers around the impressive girth to squeeze as she ran the tip of her tongue up the hard length of him. Her confidence and boldness grew as he threw his head back.

"Fuck," he said in a deep guttural tone, pressing his hips toward her.

"Should I stop?" she asked, feeling mischievous as she raised her face to look at him.

"God, no," he pleaded as she dropped his head to look at her, his eyes dark and his breath coming in gasps.

She kept her eyes locked with his as she circled the head of his erection with her tongue. His hands tightened on the back of her head as he watched her take him into her mouth. Alyce watched the rapture that crossed his face, relishing the way his breath came quicker as her lips closed around him to slide down the length of him.

The musky scent of his skin and the heavy weight of him in her hands mixed with the salty taste as her lips stroked down his silky hardness was a headier aphrodisiac than she could have ever imagined. She moaned with pleasure in the power her hands and mouth had over this magnificent man.

"Enough," he growled, pulling her head away from him and tilting her face up to his for a ravishing kiss. His lips and tongue took her mouth possessively as he dropped to his knees in front of her. His chest was heaving when he finally tore his lips from hers.

"That was amazing, but I'm not ready for this to be over," he chuckled softly as he pressed his lips to a sensitive spot beneath her ear. "I would have been completely spent if those soft lips of yours stroked my cock one more time." He nipped her neck and then pushed her back onto the mattress.

Her body was burning with need, her skin tingling where his fingers touched as his hands skimmed down her body. She let out a soft moan as he cupped both her breasts in his hands, kneading them as she arched her back to press into him. She wanted to protest when his hands stopped their ministrations to slide over her stomach, but the words caught in her throat as he pushed her thighs farther apart and brought his mouth to her core.

There was no warning, no lingering caresses with his fingers, just his mouth on her, licking and sucking, and thank God for that! She didn't want him to be slow and sweet. She wanted him to possess her. She needed this, needed to forget about everything but him and what he was doing to her.

She brought her knees up to give him better access, crying out as laved his tongue over the sensitive nub hidden in the folds of her core. He sucked until she was panting, then he drove his tongue deep inside her and she arched against him as her hands grasped handfuls of the sheet and her head fell to the side.

"Oh, God," she panted as her vision began to blur and white-hot sparks of heat shot from her core through her languid limbs. She threw her head back, screaming his name as her body shattered with pleasure.

Then he was over her, pressing his mouth to hers. She could taste the essence of herself on his lips as his tongue tangled with hers. Her body was arching against him, wanting more of him, all of him.

She scooted herself up the length of the bed, and he followed her, raining kisses on her neck, her breasts, and her shoulders. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she rubbed restlessly against the hard length of his cock.

"I need you inside me, Hawk," she pleaded.

He wrapped one hand under her shoulder while the other slid under her back, then drove into her in one long, delicious stroke. When he was buried inside her, right where she needed him to be, she arched her back and pushed her hands in his hair as he brought his mouth to her breast, suckling hard.

He seemed to know exactly what she wanted and gave it to her. Every part of her quivered with the need for his attention as though her entire being was calling out for his. His arms wrapped tightly around her while he lapped and sucked at her breasts as his hips pulled back then thrust deep inside her again. She needed him to touch her everywhere, to consume her, forever.

His rhythm was relentless until he had stroked her into a frenzy. When she felt the pressure building low in her belly, she squeezed her muscles around him and threw her head back. His lips moved from her breasts to her neck as he changed his motion to a slow, deep rocking and his gaze locked with hers. The intensity in his eyes made her feel cherished and beautiful, and she never wanted to let him go. She clamped her muscles around the thickness of him inside her, pulsing as the excruciating pleasure increased to a breaking point.

Hawk pushed to his hands and arched his back, putting the perfect amount of pressure against her core as he continued to stroke against her throbbing muscles. She grabbed his arms and let out a cry as her body quivered and waves of ecstasy exploded through her body.

He came with her, throwing his head back with a deep groan before collapsing on top of her, and taking her mouth in one more searing kiss.

She could not say out loud what her heart was screaming, so instead, she kissed him as though her very life depended on her lips being pressed to his, telling him with every stroke of her tongue that she loved him.

They stayed like that until their breathing calmed, the length of his body protectively covering hers. She slipped her hands up his sides and gingerly curved her fingers over his shoulders, careful not to touch his back while she kept him pressed against her. She wasn't ready for him to move or say anything to her because her mind was a jumble of thoughts and emotions that threatened to break her, all of them centered around the fact that she could not marry Montworth after tonight.

She would rather be alone with the memory of Hawk for the rest of her life than with any other man.

Which meant she had to fight for her inheritance and prove she could protect Hawkspur without a husband to rule over her and her home.

She swallowed hard to stop the burning in her eyes. Now was not the time to feel sorry for herself. Now was the time to memorize every detail of this man so she could keep a piece of him with her even after he was gone.

Hawk pushed up onto his elbows to look down into her face. He gently brushed a strand of her hair off her cheek.

"Did you mean it?" he asked as his eyes stared searchingly into hers.

*

His heart sank when she looked at him in confusion.

She didn't remember telling him over and over again that she loved him while their bodies were intertwined, his arms holding her tight as he devoured her and possessed her. As he worshipped her body with his mouth, her fingers holding him tight against her, she was telling him with words what he was telling her with his body.

I love you, I love you, I love you…

He convinced himself that even if she didn't realize she had said the words out loud, that didn't mean she didn't feel them. But he wouldn't press her to say them now. If her head wasn't ready to admit what her heart already knew, he would wait.

"Did I mean what, Hawk?" she asked, bracing his face in her hands as she looked up at him.

He almost told her then that he loved her, but he wouldn't do that to her until he was able to back up his words with action, which meant convincing King Edward that he and the queen were wrong to think he needed an heir more than he needed Alyce.

"Nothing," he said with a small shake of his head.

"I want tonight to only be about us and nothing else." She reached her lips to his and kissed him gently. "I don't want to think about our duties or our obligations outside of this room."

"I am all for you this night, my lady," he said, nuzzling her neck. "As many times and as many ways as you desire."

She laughed as she tipped her head back, the bright, melodic sound filling the quiet of the night around them. Next to her soft moans and cries as they made love, it was the sweetest sound in the world to his ears.

They lay together on the tangled bedding, his arm and leg draped over her luscious naked body as they whispered secrets and stories from their past to each other, avoiding any talk of what the future held for either of them.

When their bodies started to ache and throb with need for each other, they made love again, slowly and sweetly. He explored every curve, every hollow, every swell of her body with his lips and his tongue. He memorized every sigh, every gasp, every cry.

One night would never be enough.