Mists of Velvet

smiled in relief, which faded when she felt the bedroom door press against her back. Rowan was forced to look at him as he loomed big and male over her.
    She tried to speak, to ask him where he wanted her for the divination, but he held a finger up to her mouth to silence her.
    “I’ve wanted to learn how you would feel in my arms. Taste on my tongue. I’ve wanted to learn your body, what you like, what makes you wet and moan. I want to know what it’s like to be so deep inside you that I can feel you pulsing around my cock.”
    She could hardly think as he reached out and touched her, pulling the quartz necklace from beneath the neckline of her dress.
    “I want to know what it’s like to have you naked beneath me, your eyes focused on me as I show you how much I want you.”
    She gulped and saw his gaze drop to the fluttering pulse in her neck. He inhaled and pressed his eyes shut.
    “I already know your scent; it clings to me. But what I don’t know is how you will smell when you’re aroused. When I’ve marked you with my scent.”
    “Keir,” she whispered, afraid to touch him, afraid that this last minute might have been a dream, and any second now she was going to wake up alone in bed, her body weak and chilled, her head hurting from the growing tumor.
    “All this time I have kept myself apart from you because I believed you feared me. I was afraid I would hurt you. My desire . . .” He lowered his head and nuzzled her ear. “My desire for you is so strong. It’s grown, and I’m so hungry for you, Rowan. Tell me, do you feel the same way? Have I guessed wrongly that the real reason you’re here tonight is not for a divination journey, but another sort of journey altogether?”
    She was literally trembling all over. Yes, he was right. She had come to him in the hope that he would show her passion. She wanted—needed to know—if he felt anything for her.
    “Have you come to share your body with me?”
    She blinked, and then she nodded like a mute idiot. She couldn’t speak. She was so damned nervous.
    “How long?” he whispered, and she heard the door lock behind her. His hands reached for her shoulders, and he smoothed his fingers down her arms. “How much longer will I have to wait to learn everything about you?”
    “Please,” she pleaded, and she hated the bit of fear she heard in her voice. She wanted him. Her body was crying for his, but her past would not give up its claim on her.
    His head lowered till his mouth was resting against her ear. “How long since you had a man inside you?”
    Rowan closed her eyes and allowed herself to drown in the sensation of his face pressed into her hair. “Keir,” she said huskily as his fingers brushed her hair over her shoulder, baring her neck.
    “Have you ever had a man kiss every inch of your skin?” He pressed his warm mouth against her neck. “Have you ever had him explore every part of you with his hands, his mouth, his tongue?”
    “Please,” she whimpered. But was it a plea for him to stop or to continue?
    She felt him reach around her hips for the hem of her dress. He pulled it up slowly, teasing her with the movements of his fingers and his breath against her neck. Her legs shook as he slid the lace from her shoulders and kissed his way down her arm until the dress fell silently to the carpet. She stood before him in her panties, watching as his gaze roved over her body. Instinctively she covered her chest with her arms.
    “Don’t.”
    His command was harsh—dark—and her nipples beaded tightly.
    “I’m going to look at you. Feel you. Taste you. And I can tell you right now that I’m going to love everything I feel and touch—and the taste of you”—his gaze lifted to her face—“is going to be ambrosia.”
    Nervously, she allowed him to pull her arms away from her body.
    “Perfect.”
    One word, said in his dark, passionate voice, was more powerful than any she could imagine. The hunger, the desire she saw in his eyes made her stand a little straighter, a little prouder of her body, away from which he seemed unable to look.
    “How long since a man has tasted your skin? Felt between your thighs, and made you come?” Never, she wanted to scream, but she could not. She could only gasp as Keir’s large hand cupped her breast. His hot palm pressed into her soft flesh as he rubbed his hand along her nipple, making it hard and beaded as it strained against his hand.
    “Tell me how long, Rowan.”
    She turned her face