with his teeth.
Without warning, her body splintered apart in glorious pleasure again, this time so intense she couldn’t even get enough air to scream. He didn’t stop the intimate kiss, but he gentled it, bringing her prolonged ecstasy that went on and on even as his finger pressed more insistently against that thin membrane of flesh inside.
Until, as she floated on a cloud of sensual bliss, she felt the sharp sting of pain and realized he’d broken through the barrier of her body. With his finger.
“What? Why?” she asked, the hazy peace cracking a little.
“It hurts less.” He gently withdrew his finger before placing a single soft kiss against her nether lips.
It felt like a benediction.
He moved off her and she saw him grab a corner of the sheet from the floor to wipe his face and hand before he rejoined her on the bed.
Demyan pulled her body into his still-very-aroused one, his expression very satisfied. “You are beautiful in your passion, Chanel.”
“We... Aren’t you going to...”
“Oh, yes. But only when you are ready to begin building toward climax again.”
She didn’t know what he meant, but he showed her, after cuddling her and telling her how amazing and lovely she was. After his touch and nearness once again began to draw forth need to be joined with him.
When he finally pressed inside her, she cried for the second time that night. He didn’t look in the least worried he’d hurt her, though. In fact, his expression was one of understanding overlaying utter male satisfaction.
She didn’t begrudge him one iota of it, either.
He might have had a debacle with his first virgin, but he’d made this one’s initiation into intimacy unbelievably good.
Once she started to move against him, his control slipped its leash and his passion turned harsh and exciting. She screamed her pleasure this time even as his body pounded into hers, and his shout was loud enough to make her ears ring.
Afterward he was quiet, his expression impossible to read. “You’ll want a shower.”
“Couldn’t we shower together?” she asked.
“Your bathroom isn’t meant for shared intimacies.”
She hadn’t been propositioning him, couldn’t believe he thought she had any energy left for that, but she didn’t say so.
While she was in the shower she tried to go over what had happened, but couldn’t figure out why he’d withdrawn and wondered if he’d even still be there when she came out.
HE WAS, THOUGH, and he’d remade the bed with fresh sheets.
“Thank you,” she said, feeling unsure.
“We will be more comfortable sleeping on clean bedding.”
That one small word washed through her like life-giving oxygen. We. He’d said we.
Before she could remark on it, or say anything at all, he started toward the bathroom. “I’ll have my shower now. Get in bed.”
“You said you were only bossy in the bedroom.”
He stopped at the doorway to the bath and looked at her over his shoulder. “We are in the bedroom.”
“Why don’t you just admit you have oldest-child syndrome?”
His expression turned somber, though she didn’t understand why. “Noted.”
She would have teased that wasn’t an admission, but Demyan disappeared into the bathroom.
Chanel didn’t understand what was going on with him, but he wasn’t leaving. She’d take that as a good sign.
Did he regret the implications toward the future he’d made before they had sex? Was he realizing now that he’d gotten his rocks off how ludicrous they’d been?
Maybe he thought she’d try to hold him to his words as if he’d made promises. She wouldn’t.
Perhaps she needed to tell him that.
She crossed the room, but when she tried the door to the bath, it was locked.
She let her hand drop away. Okay, then.
Maybe she just needed to go to bed. Any talking could happen in the morning.
After only a few moments’ deliberation, she opted to wear pajamas to bed. The mint-green jersey knit wasn’t exactly sexy, but it was comfortable.
She was still awake when he joined her some indeterminate time later.
He didn’t pause before pulling her into his arms, though he made a sound of surprise when his hands encountered fabric. “Why are you wearing this?”
Because she’d needed a barrier between them, a level of armor, even if it was just her favorite pair of pj’s. “Why not?” she answered rather than admit that, though.
“Because I prefer naked skin and I think you do, too.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never slept with another person,” she replied a tad acerbically.
“Perhaps it is for the best tonight. You will be too sore tomorrow if we make love again in the night.”
“Oh.” He still wanted her?
That was good, right?
“Do not sound so disappointed. We will make love again. Many times.”
As promises for the future went, that was one she could live with. “I’m glad.”
They were silent for several seconds before she offered, “Thank you for making my first time so special.”
“I lost control.” And there it was.
What was bothering him. She knew it.
“I liked it.”
“I could have hurt you.”
“But you didn’t and I think it would have hurt me if you hadn’t lost yourself just as badly as I did.”
“Yes?” he asked, as if the concept was foreign to him.
“Absolutely.”
“I am very glad to hear it.” He’d turned out the light, but she could still hear the smile in his voice.
“Go to sleep.”
“Your wish is my command.”
She would have said something sarcastic about that blatant fabrication, but her mouth didn’t want to work and she slipped into sleep, comforted by their banter.
* * *
Chanel was astonished by how easily she grew used to sleeping with someone else.
Not to the sex, though. She wasn’t sure she’d ever grow used to the level of pleasure she and Demyan found in one another’s bodies.
He was bossy in bed, just like he’d told her, but it was all targeted toward her enjoyment. Every directive, every withholding of one instant gratification for something more was so that her final satisfaction was so incredibly overwhelming, she lost her mind with it.
But the sleeping together, that was different. That was all-night-long intimacy of another sort.
She, who had never even cuddled a bear in bed, found it difficult to sleep now when Demyan’s arms weren’t wrapped around her, his heartbeat a steady, comforting sound against her ear.
Hence her yawning this morning as she crunched the new data, despite three