When Cale took Raven in his arms, he could feel there was none of the compliance in her body that had been there earlier. She was stiff and dry, and his task was a hundred times more difficult.
“You have to relax, Raven,” he murmured.
“I am trying!”
He was tempted to give up then and there, but he knew it wasn’t going to get any easier. So he took his hands off her and put them on the pillow on either side of her head and settled himself in the cradle of her thighs. Then, with his mouth alone, he began to woo her with kisses. Small, sweet kisses on her eyebrows and cheeks. He traced the shell of her ear with his tongue and was satisfied to feel her shiver.
He kissed one side of her mouth and then the other and finally teased her lips open with his tongue. Then he began to mime the sex act with long, slow thrusts. He felt her body melting beneath his as the stiffness left her. Her hands found their way into the hair at his nape, and he felt his own passion rising.
Cale forced himself to tether his need, to hold his desire in abeyance while he concentrated on Raven. His hands formed fists as he forced himself to go slowly. His mouth moved from her throat to her collarbone and inched down to her breast, where he once again suckled a rosy nipple.
Her hands clutched at his shoulders, and her body began to undulate beneath him. He figured it was okay now to touch her with his hands. He started at her waist, with just a little pressure on either side, but one hand found its way up to cup a breast and shape it for his mouth, while the other forayed across her belly and down to tease the nest of curls between her legs.
He felt her tense and moved his hand away again, down to her soft inner thigh where the flesh was silky and warm against his callused fingertips.
He teased his way back up again until he found the tiny nubbin that he knew could bring her ecstasy. He was careful, soft and gentle as he had never been with another woman. Because he knew she was afraid. Because he wanted her to feel pleasure, not pain. Because he wanted her ready so she would never feel the thrust that finally made her his.
His mouth returned to hers and, as his fingers probed her, he could feel that she was slick and wet and ready. But he wanted her distracted. His hands sought out her breasts, and he caressed them and caught the nipples between his fingers with just enough pressure to cause a ripple of both pleasure and pain.
He took that moment to push himself a little way inside her.
He felt her stiffen and try to break their kiss, but he sucked hard on her lip and then slid his tongue along the underside of her upper lip until she gasped with delight and resumed the kiss.
With her hands clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging painful crescents in his skin, he thrust with all his might.
It was over quickly. He was through the barrier and seated to the hilt. He caught her cry of surprise and pain with his mouth, and held himself still, taut with need, until her body acclimated itself to his. He felt the slow easing of tension in her belly and thighs. He released her mouth to croon soothing words to ease her over the shock of his intrusion.
“Are you all right?” he asked at last.
“I feel . . . strange,” she admitted.
“Does it hurt?”
She furrowed her brow as though she were considering the matter. “Not exactly. I feel . . . full.”
It also felt right, Raven admitted to herself. It had hurt. She couldn’t deny that. But the greatest pain was over now, and she instinctively knew that it was a passing thing, never to be endured again. Which gave her the courage to say, “Are you done now?”
Cale smiled. Then he laughed. “No, sweetheart. I’m not done.” He sobered. “But if you want me to stop now, I will.”
Raven had some idea of the sacrifice Cale would be making if he quit what he was doing. His body was rock hard, his muscles tense, his body poised for action. She was glad he had asked, but she wasn’t about to stop now.
“I want to experience everything,” she said.
“Everything?” he asked with a wolfish grin.
She smiled back. “Everything.”
He moved slowly inside her. It was as exquisite as it was exciting. Raven sought out Cale’s mouth and kissed him with all the feeling she had for him. He returned the pleasure.
As he moved inside her, as his fingertips caressed that special spot between her legs, Raven responded with increasing ardor. It was as though her body knew what it wanted and sought it out. Her breasts arched to his hands and mouth, and her hips drove upward to meet his thrusts.
She could feel the urge to do . . . something . . . to find . . . something, but she wasn’t sure what it was.
Cale knew where he was going and wanted Raven there with him. He wanted her to feel everything he felt, the rising excitement, the need for release. So he teased her and taunted her and aroused her for far longer than he had ever done with another woman.
He was rewarded in his moment of extremity by feeling her convulse around him. It was something he had never felt before with a woman, something so powerful, so overwhelming, that he cried out with the tormenting pleasure of it.
Raven was caught in the throes of an ecstasy so profound it sucked the breath from her. She gasped for air as the blood pounded in her temples and her body squeezed and tightened around Cale, capturing him as he planted his seed in her. Then she was floating, her body not quite earthbound, and she realized she did not want to return to firm ground.
Cale rolled over and pulled her into his embrace, keeping her snug against him. Their sweat-slick bodies were chilling quickly, and he pulled the quilt up to cover them both. Before she could find the words to tell him about the powerful feelings she had experienced, he was asleep.
Raven didn’t worry. There would be time enough when they woke to talk about what had happened between them. She looked forward to the exhilarating experience of making love to Cale again. She would turn to him and he would kiss her and it would happen. Only next time there would be no pain.
She snuggled under his arm and closed her eyes, confident for the moment of what the future held for them.
Sometime later, a sharp knock on the door woke them both. It was shoved open before they had time to do more than sit up in bed.
“Well, well,” Orrin said. “What have we here? Two lovebirds, I see. Time’s up, Cale. I want my daughter back.”