More Blazing Bedtime Stories: Once Upon a Mattress by Julie Leto, Leslie Kelly Page B

his long hair, tugging him down her body. Lucas could no more refuse than a starving beggar could turn his back on a feast. He pushed her back onto the bed, dropped to kneel between her legs, and buried his face in her bare stomach. Licking, biting lightly, he worked his way up, rubbing his cheek against the under-curve of onebreast. He again ordered himself to be careful, to go slowly and not hurt her, even though a primal need urged him to be rough and hard. Fast and demanding.
    He managed to keep himself under control, although he didn’t know how. Nor could he say for how long he’d be able to, either.
    “Please, do it!” she ordered, sounding frantic as she tugged at his hair and arched toward his mouth.
    Patience was a virtue, but his was never strong when the moon was full. He groaned before moving his lips to one perfect tip, covering it, sucking hard, swirling his tongue around the pretty silver ring. He tasted warm metal and warmer, sweet skin.
    “Yes,” she said with a deep sigh.
    While tasting one, he plucked the ring on the other breast with his fingers. She hissed when he increased the pressure, tightening her fingers in his hair to keep him where she wanted him, urging him to suck deeper, to tweak harder. Her legs twined around his waist, the core of her landing unerringly on the long ridge of his rock-hard cock. She instinctively thrust toward him.
    Lucas groaned and thrust back, taunting them both. The musky, feminine smell of her overwhelmed his senses. He had to close his eyes and breathe her in, memorizing her scent, imprinting it on his brain and in every cell of his body.
    “More. Give me more, Lucas.”
    He wanted to. God, did he want to. But as he opened his eyes and saw his own dark, swarthy hand against her pale skin, already reddened under his aggressive touch, something—some strong, deep instinct—made him stop. He couldn’t take her until she knew. Couldn’t claim her fully until she was aware of how much of herself she was giving.
    All of herself. Forever.
    With strength he didn’t know he had, Lucas pulled back, thrust a frustrated hand through his hair, then rose to his feet. “I didn’t come here to get some kind of payback.” He staggered away, watching as she gasped for breath and slowlybrought herself back under control. “You were unconscious not long ago.”
    It took a full minute, then, finally, her voice shaking, she said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” Not meeting his eyes, she grabbed her top and pulled it back on, covering that beautiful body.
    Good. He didn’t know if he could have kept up his resolve for another minute if she hadn’t.
    “I’m not the type to go around jumping on strangers.”
    “We’re not strangers.”
    She didn’t respond, not trying to argue. How could she? Something inside her had to be reaching out, responding to her heart’s instinctive knowledge that he was part of her world—her real world, the one she’d been denied since childhood.
    She’d recognized him, known him, at first sight, too. Now that she’d been in his arms, there could no longer be any doubt.
    “You’re hurt,” he explained gruffly, seeing that she was shaken by his decision not to take what she had offered.
    “I’m okay, really,” she said, a forced smile appearing on her mouth as she tried to put things back on more normal footing. She was good at it, hiding her reactions, any hurt feelings. Queenly, in fact, in how easily she moved past the moment and brought the temperature back from blazing to merely burning. “A kiss of gratitude, that’s all it was.”
    “Sure.” Uh-huh. Right .
    She flushed, then squared her shoulders and changed the subject. “So, is playing hero part of your job description?”
    “I’m no hero. And you’re not going to be as appreciative when you see that I kicked in your front door.”
    Surprisingly, she laughed. “There’s a key under the mat.”
    “Are you determined to be attacked?”
    “I