Love Everlasting by Flora Speer Page B

my lord.” Her grey gaze did not waver.
“Tell me how I can help you.”
    “Begin by kissing me.” He lowered his mouth
to hers. “And don’t fight me. Trust me, Julianna.”
    His mouth met hers and after a moment he felt
her response, fearful at first, then warming to the caress of his
lips on hers. She moved beneath him and he slid a little farther
into her tightness. She gave a soft cry as he filled her. Then she
gaped at him in amazement and he knew she had never before that
moment been completely possessed by any man.
    “Royce, this is all so strange.”
    He thought it fitting that she used his given
name for the first time at the very moment when he made her
his.
    “Have I hurt you?” he asked, wishing she’d
tell him he felt wonderful inside her. But not yet; he knew better
than to expect that kind of excitement from a near virgin.
    “No,” she said thoughtfully, “there’s no
pain. I was a little uncomfortable at first, but now I’m just
feeling very full. You are so huge.”
    “Thank you for the compliment.” He smiled at
her, but he knew he couldn’t last much longer. He had restrained
himself to ridiculous lengths and now his body, tightly encased in
her moist heat, was demanding immediate completion.
    “Royce, I need to move.” Julianna sounded as
desperate as he felt. “I cannot lie here quietly.”
    “Move all you want,” he said. “Do whatever
you want. Scream if you like.”
    “Oh, I could never scream. It’s just that I
want - I want something more.” She wriggled beneath him while he
bit hard on his lip to make himself remain still until she had
accommodated herself to his presence. “Royce, please, what’s
happening to me? I never felt this way before. Not ever.”
    “I’m glad to hear it.” He reached down
between them to caress the place where their bodies were joined.
Julianna did scream then, not in pain, but in the first stage of
the pleasure he wanted to give her.
    Royce finally released the tight reins he’d
held on his passion and began to stroke into her, harder and
faster, until he felt her convulse around him and heard her cry out
his name. And at that glad sound he soared with her to the pinnacle
of a joy so intense it left him shattered and humbled.
    For a long time Royce lay sprawled across
Julianna’s body, too stunned by what had occurred between them to
make the attempt to separate himself from her. He knew he ought to
remove his weight from her. He was crushing her into the mattress.
Yet he could not summon up the strength to move. He wanted to
remain as he was, still partly embedded in her moist warmth, still
breathing in the tangy fragrance of her perfume.
    “Royce?” Her fingers roved over his head,
threading through his hair, caressing his face. Royce moaned softly
and her hands stopped their pleasing movements. “My lord, are you
ill?”
    He wanted to joke that he was dead and
happily so, but he caught himself just in time. Julianna was likely
to take him seriously.
    “Not ill,” he murmured. “Nor dead, either.”
To prove his point, he pushed his hips against her, feeling his
member beginning to stir to hard life again. So soon. So
easily.
    He wasn’t certain whether it was the
remaining mysteries of Julianna’s lovely body, which were still
waiting to be thoroughly explored, or the deeper, possibly darker
mysteries of her mind and heart that made him ache to possess her
body and soul, to know her completely, to probe every fascinating
crevice, every moist opening, every secret thought and hope and
dream of her innermost heart.
    He raised his head to see her lying beneath
him with her eyes closed and her lips parted, absorbed in her
body’s reaction as she tentatively thrust to meet his growing
hardness. He saw a woman married for more than half of her life,
yet deprived of passion, or even affection, for all of that time. A
sensual woman, easily roused to hot desire.
    He kissed her warm mouth, caressed her
exquisitely sensitive breasts,