Only 06 - Winter Fire

breath for breath, touch for touch, hunger for hunger, until Case felt everything sliding away, leaving only her. He didn’t know he had undone the laces on her doeskin shirt until she tore her mouth free from his.
    â€œYou said just kissing,” she accused.
    â€œIt’s hard to kiss through doeskin.”
    When she understood what he was saying, her eyes widened. Her flushed lips and cheeks made the color of her eyes a radiant, clear silver.
    â€œI’m not wearing doeskin over my mouth,” she said, breathing unevenly.
    â€œI’m not talking about kissing your mouth.”
    She stared at him. His eyes were pale green fire against the heightened color of his skin. Each time his head moved, light shimmered over his short black beard like stars against midnight. His lips were red from the pressure of their shared kisses.
    â€œYou want to stop kissing, is that it?” she asked.
    â€œNo,” he said. “I want to keep on kissing you and kissing you until the honey flows and you’re as soft as I am hard and we…”
    With a sharp breath Case reined in his runaway tongue.
    Sarah waited, watching him with wide eyes. Both passion and wariness were in her expression. Passion was stronger.
    She was watching his mouth rather than his eyes.
    â€œThat’s the idea,” he said huskily. “Watch me. Watch us…kissing.”
    His lips and beard were silky against her ear, her neck, the pulse beating just beneath her skin. When his tongue probed the hollow at the base of her throat, her breath broke. He sucked on her skin, bit her tenderly, and shared the ripple of response that went through her.
    By the time her shirt was fully unlaced, she had no idea how it had happened. She knew only that the shirt was undone and her nipples were firm rosy crowns standing up against the thin muslin of her chemise.
    He bent down. His lips parted over one veiled nipple.
    â€œCase?” she asked uncertainly.
    â€œJust kissing,” he said, his voice deep.
    â€œBut I’m not kissing you.”
    â€œThere’s more than one way to kiss each other. Watch.”
    The sight of him nibbling gently on her breast made an odd, breathless feeling twist through Sarah. The stark contrast of masculine beard and fragile muslin somehow heightened the intensity of the caress.
    Slowly, deliberately, he licked the thin cloth that separated his tongue from her taut nipple.
    Sensations glittered through her like hidden lightning. Embarrassed, fascinated, held in a delicious net of pleasure, she watched the muslin darken beneath his tongue.
    Before she quite knew what was happening, the tip of her breast vanished into his mouth. As he had once seduced her lips, now he seduced her breast, stroking it with tongue and teeth.
    Her back arched instinctively, rubbing her nipple even more firmly over his tongue. He responded by increasing the sucking pressure until she whimpered and held him to her breast.
    When Case finally lifted his head, her chemise looked as though the muslin had dissolved away, leaving her breast naked to his caressing tongue. She knew she should be embarrassed to see herself so clearly, and to know that he was seeing her in the same way, but her flushed cheeks came from rising passion rather than shame.
    She loved watching him caress her.
    Delicately, repeatedly, he sipped at the tight pink crown. When his teeth closed tenderly around the nipple, she shivered and cried out sharply.
    He lifted his head.
    â€œDid I hurt you?” he asked, concerned.
    She shook her head.
    â€œYour eyes are as big as silver dollars,” he whispered.
    Sarah looked down at her breast.
    â€œWhat did you do?” she asked. “I’ve never looked like that, even on the coldest mornings.”
    â€œThis?” he asked.
    He touched her nipple with the tip of his tongue.
    â€œYes,” she whispered.
    â€œIt’s your body’s way of saying it likes being kissed. It’s kissing me in return.”
    â€œJust…kissing?”
    He made a rumbling sound of agreement.
    â€œOf course,” he said deeply, “if you wouldn’t mind, I would love to pet those pretty breasts while I’m kissing them.”
    She shivered at the look in his eyes—half-open, heavy-lidded, he was watching her breasts the way a starving man watched a banquet.
    â€œJust petting?” she asked in a small voice.
    â€œJust petting.”
    â€œWill it leave marks?”
    His