Shield's Lady

shoulder. I can barely feel it. All I want to feel now is you. By the Ship’s Fire, Sariana, I’ve waited too long for this night. Too long for you.”
    “It’s only been a few days, Gryph. We still hardly even know each other.” Her fingers drifted curiously across his chest, stirring the crisp hair that angled down to a point that disappeared beneath the waistband of his trousers. He shuddered and she was enthralled. There was a heady sense of purely female power in knowing she could make him respond like this. She touched him again, this time gently grazing his flat nipple with the tip of her silvered nail. Gryph drew in his breath and his hand tightened on her wrist.
    “You don’t understand and I can’t explain it to you now,” he said roughly. “In the morning you will know what tonight means. Come closer, Sariana.”
    She obeyed with a shy eagerness, the skirts of her gown flowing across the bed as she nestled against his side and put her head tentatively on his uninjured shoulder. His hand twisted urgently into her hair, loosening the brown-gold mass until it was free of the sleek style in which it had been bound.
    “So warm and soft and mysterious.” Gryph lifted a handful of her hair and inhaled deeply. “I want to know all your secrets, Sariana.”
    Sariana felt his hard, muscled tension, felt the heat of his body reaching out to envelop her. “You’re the one who is mysterious, Gryph. I don’t know you very well and I’m not at all certain I understand you.”
    “But you want me,” he stated.
    “I…I think this is what I want. Gryph, this is all so new to me.” She felt a faint twinge of uncertainty that momentarily interfered with the wonderful sense of discovery and excitement.
    “We have much to learn about each other, lady, but the learning starts with this.”
    He caught her mouth with his own and Sariana gasped at the urgency of his kiss. Behind it lay an unfathomable pool of dark isolation and aloneness, a bottomless spring of masculine need. It blotted out everything, including the flash of uncertainty she had felt moments earlier. Now all that mattered was bringing light into that darkness. The only light she had to give him was herself. Sariana trembled but she didn’t pull away as Gryph deepened the kiss.
    She was still adjusting physically and emotionally to the compelling feel of his mouth when she felt his hands on the fastenings of her gown. She flinched when he began to undo them impatiently. Some of Sariana’s growing desire was again halted by a tingle of confused uncertainty. Somehow, in the fantasies she had been indulging of late, she had imagined a slower, more sensual prelude.
    “Be careful,” she whispered softly. “You’ll ruin the dress.” She didn’t care about the dress, but his implacable intensity was a bit unnerving. She wanted to slow him down.
    “To the Lightstorm with the dress. Do you think it matters?” He tugged at the bodice and it came free to her waist. The finely woven chemise she was wearing beneath the gown was revealed. Her flowering nipples pushed upward against the thin fabric.
    Gryph groaned and rolled onto his side. He eased Sariana onto her back and stripped the gown completely off her in one swift movement. Then he pushed up the hem of her chemise and peeled off her stockings. His calloused hands were rough on the soft skin of her thighs.
    A moment later Gryph yanked the chemise up over her head and Sariana was suddenly nude. He stared down at her, drinking in the sight of her small, full breasts as he ran his hand along the curve of her thigh.
    It was all happening too quickly. A belated sense of caution was mingling with her growing confusion and Sariana began to doubt the wisdom of her earlier decision.
    “Gryph, wait. You go too fast for me. I need time. Please.”
    His eyes were wild, tormented seas in the shadows of the room. “I wanted to give you time but I can’t. Don’t you understand, Sariana?”
    She shook her head slightly, wondering at the desperation she thought she heard in his voice. It was hard to imagine this strong, controlled man being desperate about anything, let alone the beginning of a brief romantic affair.
    “No, I don’t understand,” she admitted. “Please don’t ruin this for me.”
    “Sariana.” He made a strangled sound under his breath, a shattered exclamation that was half curse and half plea. It seemed to contain as much anguish as desire, and Sariana was instantly seized with a