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“And hunger?” He moved slowly, then faster, then slowly again. “You want this?”

“Yes.” The affirmative was a whisper. She was surprised she could speak.

“It’s pleasure?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Good.” His fingers left her and he straightened and stepped back away from the bed.

“Let’s hope you’ll soon know so, for I can’t wait any longer.

” He drew off the leather gauntlets and threw them aside.

“Santa Maria , I want to feel you.” He touched her breasts, his long fingers light and gentle on her flesh.

A shudder ran through him. “I told you,” he whispered.

“I knew it would be like this.” His callused palm cupping her breasts was nearly as hard as the leather of the glove, but it was infinitely different.

His flesh was warmer, vibrant with life.

“Your skin is like nothing I’ve ever touched before.

It makes me—” He threw back his head, drawing in a great breath as if starved for air.

“I’ll show you how it makes me.” He pulled her to a sitting position on the bed and began to strip off his clothing.

She crouched on her knees on the bed, her arms crossing her breasts in an attempt to still her trembling. “You’re undressing too?”

He didn’t look at her as he pulled off his boots. “As quickly as possible.”

“Giovanni never undressed when he took my moth—” She broke off as he cast her a stormy glance.

“I can’t help comparing you. He was my master.

Now you’re my master. My acquaintance is not so large that—” She stopped, her eyes widening as his rampant arousal sprang free when he pulled off his black hose.

She swallowed and moistened her lips. He was not like Giovanni at all.

Naked now, Lion was all iron muscles and brawny power.

The triangle of springy dark hair thatching his chest ended in a V before it reached the flatness of his stomach, but another thatch surrounded his manhood.

Where Giovanni was soft and flabby, Lion was taut and muscular. Where Giovanni was small, Lion was—

“You see?” Lion asked softly as his gaze followed her own. “This is what you do to me. Looking at you, touching you…”

“I see.” She couldn’t keep her gaze off him. She stated positively, “You won’t fit, you know.”

He chuckled. “I’ll fit very well. A woman’s body is marvelously accommodating. After the first time it won’t even hurt.”

She had grave doubts his assurances would prove true but, since there was clearly nothing she could do, it would be foolish to worry about possible pain until it happened.

Besides, she was still feeling the tingling urgency between her thighs that tempered her fears with curiosity and excitement. “You look very…strong.”

“I notice you don’t call me handsome.” He threw the hose aside and stepped forward. “I know well I’m an ugly bastard. But, as you say, I’m strong as a bull and that can be of use in such jousts as this.”

“You’re not ugly.”

He smiled cynically. “You learn the arts of flattery quickly. However, sweet words are futile when I have a mirror to look into each morning.”

He didn’t believe her, Sanchia realized. “No, truly, I do not—” She broke off as he knelt on the bed facing her. He was so close her nipples brushed the thatch of hair on his chest.

He cupped her face in his hands as he gazed down at her with an expression that hinted at anger. “I don’t want this. I have no liking for taking virgins.”

“Then don’t do it.”

“Easy words.” His hands moved down to her shoulders and began to knead her flesh with yearning tenderness. “I must do it. From the moment I saw you I knew I must have you like this.”

“Not from the first moment. Only when you saw me in the bath and found I wasn’t as ugly as you thought.”

“Cristo , must you always argue with me?” His hands tightened on her shoulders. “I like you better when the only sounds you make are gasps and moans.”

Obediently, she kept silent. What was he waiting for? she wondered. She could feel the unbearable tension gripping his body and yet she also sensed reluctance.

“And don’t look at me like that.” He shook her.

“I don’t want to hurt you, dammit. It will bring me no pleasure, but I must…

” He pushed her back on the bed and moved between her thighs.

His arousal nudged against the center of her womanhood as he muttered, “One stroke and it will be over.” He covered her lips with his palm. “One stroke…”

He drew a deep breath and lunged forward.

Pain. White hot. Lightning swift. Her cry was smothered by his hand but her eyes widened with shock and agony as they gazed up at him.

“Close your eyes,” he commanded roughly as he eased farther into her tight passage. “Don’t look at me.”

Her lids fell and she was in darkness. The pain was fading, and she was conscious only of an exquisite fullness and a sense of something lost that had been found.

She could feel the soft prickle of the hair dusting Lion’s thighs brushing the smoothness of her own and heard the harsh sound of his breathing above her.

He was still, filling her completely but not moving.

“It’s done.” His palm petted her, smoothing her around him.

“Dio , you’ve taken all of me. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to do it.

You’re so tiny…” His finger began to press and circle that bewitching place he’d fondled before.

A hot shiver ran through her and she could feel the muscles of her stomach clench.

A moment before she had felt pinned, staked to Lion’s body and content only to accept, but suddenly now she felt the need for something more. “May I…move?”

He froze. “I cannot stop.” His voice was savage with frustration. “I’ll try to hurry but I cannot promise.”

“That wasn’t what I meant. I wished only—” She broke off as he drew out and then plunged forward.

Pleasure streaked through her. This was what Lion had meant, she thought dazedly as he began a wild, pounding rhythm.

This must be the pleasure men felt when they fornicated with a woman.

She wished Lion hadn’t condemned her to darkness.

She would have liked to watch his face to see if he was feeling the same pleasure as she.

Yet he must be enjoying her body for he was shuddering, trembling as he moved, his breath coming in sharp gasps that resembled sobs.

The intensity of his need filled her with a heady excitement and increased her own hunger tenfold.

It was as if he were feeding her his frustrated desire for completion and somehow making it her own.

He was petting her again, his big hands trembling, urgent. “Take me,” he muttered. “Help me. I want all of you.”

He sounded like a man in agony, she thought with a rush of maternal tenderness. What must it be like to feel desire with such overwhelming intensity? She clenched around him and heard Lion give a low groan.

“Sweet…That’s right. Hold me. Only a little longer.”

She tried to hold him but he was too wild, out of control, almost lifting her from the bed with the force of his thrusts. She was suddenly conscious of something building within her, growing stronger with every movement. Something…strange, coiling toward fever heat.

Lion was moving her, shifting her, trying to take more of her. The hotness pouring through her was a clear stream of pure desire. Then the stream merged with Lion’s until there was only one river, one entity striving to reach…to reach what?

Then she knew!

The knowledge broke over her in a release of rapture that left her gasping and shivering in the shimmering aftermath.

Lion cried out thickly as if strangling on a surfeit of pleasure.

The silence in the room was broken only by the crackle of burning logs in the fireplace and Lion’s harsh breathing above her.

“May I open my eyes now?”

She heard his breathing become arrested and then he muttered a low curse beneath his breath. “Gran Dio.” Then he was moving off her. “Of course you can open your eyes. Why the hell shouldn’t you?”

Her eyes opened to see him striding across the room, the muscles of his tight buttocks rippling as he moved toward the washstand.

Slowly she sat up and gave a wistful sigh.

He was angry again. She wished she’d been allowed a few moments more to enjoy this odd sweet languor before having to gather herself to try to understand what was troubling him.

“Because you told me you didn’t want me to look at you. ”

“That was because I didn’t want to see your—” He broke off and kept his gaze averted as he dipped a cloth into the water in the basin and wrung it out. “I didn’t mean you had to keep them closed. Have you no sense?”

“I don’t know you well enough to always know what you want from me,” she said simply. “I thought perhaps it made your pleasure greater if I didn’t distract you by looking at you.”

“No, it wasn’t that.” He averted his gaze as he turned and came back to the bed carrying the damp cloth. He sat down on the bed and moved the cool cloth between her legs. His gaze remained fixed on the cloth as he asked in a low voice, “Does it still hurt?”

“There’s a little soreness.” She shrugged. “I thought it would hurt much more. You’re right; a woman’s body is very accommodating.”

“Yes.” His hand moved caressingly and she could feel the warmth of his flesh through the coolness of the cloth.

“I’ve never known a body as sweetly accommodating.

You’re so small it was like handling a child and yet you’re a woman here.

” He abruptly threw the cloth aside, pushed her back on the bed and stood up.

“Sleep. I won’t want you again tonight.”

She looked at him in surprise. “I didn’t think you would. Giovanni never took my mother more than once a day.”

“Then I fear your lot will not be as easy as that of your mother.” He moved back to the hearth to stare into the depths of the fire. “I told you I was different.”