CHAPTER ELEVEN
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His lips teased, caressed, and stroked against hers. The overwhelming need to taste her and touch her was undeniable.
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The slide of her tongue against his was an explosion of cinnamon and pure desire. His hand fell to her thigh and kneaded her leg. Heated muscle burned through the thin cotton of her dress. He slid his hand up and down as her legs softened and fell apart.
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His thumb teased her inner thigh, the heat of her core burning. She uttered a small, needy sound. Her tongue slipped into his mouth, her wet heat sliding against his own. She tilted her head just a little and drew him deeper into her mouth. She kissed him lightly, then returned to a deeper, more intimate kiss filled with lips and tongue and teeth.
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He never knew intimate touch like this could be so addictive, but then again, it might have been because she wasn’t just anyone. She was Sophia.
His hand trailed up her waist. He cupped her trim lines, delighting in the silken feel of skin beneath her loose clothing. She put the kitten on the ground and it trotted back to its food bowl. He vaguely wondered where she’d found food for it when her hands rounded on his bare shoulders. She splayed her fingers and plowed them into the hair at the back of his head, tugging him closer.
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His thumb traced her nipple. The hardened point was clearly evident through her dress. She moaned and sucked in a shaky little breath and his thumb pad brushed over the sensitive peak.
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His veins heated when she flinched a little at the contact, but then she leaned more fully into his touch and he palmed her breast, claiming the tissue and caressing and massaging and teasing.
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The hand on his shoulder dropped to trace over his biceps. A featherlight touch that ignited his desire even further. Her hand slipped to his pec and traced his nipple just as he touched her. It was his turn to offer her a full-body shudder. Her full mouth smiled as though she liked his reaction and she kept kissing him.
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Her tongue slicked against his, danced and stroked. Her light touches became less hesitant, more insistent, and her fingers traced over his chest as though she couldn’t get enough of his skin and his muscles. She could have all of his body. He’d gladly give it.
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The material was too much of a barrier. He had to touch her, skin to skin. He slipped his hand beneath the hem of her dress. She didn’t stop him.
Her kisses became more insistent, her touch more urgent. She leaned towards him, letting her thighs fall apart. His fingers slipped up her thigh. He traced her heated skin, slowly, slowly working his way over her silken thighs.
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He allowed his fingertips to glide across her inner thigh where her skin was softest and the heat from her core was like a furnace, and the desire to slide his hands to that part of her and cup her intimately was one he fought.
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His hand shook as he traced where it had been moments before, but this time there was no material beneath his touch, and he cupped her breast without any teasing. Her flesh filled his palm. There was no obstruction of a bra and he kneaded her delicate flesh and rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
She broke their kiss and trailed her wet mouth down his chin to place a kiss over his heart. She flattened her tongue and laved his flat nipple. The difference between her dry, heated breath and her wet, heated mouth made his heart more than pound.
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It raced.
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His arousal ignited. His shaft pressed against the uncomfortable zipper on his jeans so hard, he was sure it would leave an imprint. If he wore his cloak, there would be no obstructions, but then again, he didn’t want to be wearing anything.
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She pulled away, her pupils blown and eyes glazed with desire. “I want you to make love to me, Liam. Take me. Please. Take me now.”
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He didn’t need to be asked twice. She lifted her arms and he drew her dress upward and freed her body, leaning forward to capture first one breast and then the other with his mouth. He worked the turgid peaks with his lips and tongue, suckling, sucking, tasting, laving.
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She led his hand to cup between her legs. The heat there was intense. He slid his finger along her slit over the material of her underclothes, marveling at her trust to allow him to touch her in her most intimate spot. He eased his fingers beneath the elastic of her panties, then drew them down her legs and away from her body.
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She was gloriously naked before him. He let his eyes roam the beauty of her body, letting his arousal build.
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Her smile almost undid him. “Are you going to touch, or just look?”
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He splayed his palm between her breasts and eased her back into the chair. “Oh, I’m definitely going to touch you and it will be something you will never forget.”
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He was honored she would show herself like this to him. Truly it was a gift. “I’m counting on it.”
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He wrapped each of his large hands around her thighs and parted her legs further to allow for his large shoulders. He knelt before her as though he was at Danu’s shrine. An explosion of heat and cinnamon caressed his face as he first kissed her folds and suckled.
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She jerked, but he held her securely in place. Both hands plowed through his hair as he began to taste her, first licking along her slit and then sucking the sensitive nub that made her jerk and jump. He liked being able to elicit that reaction in her. He did it again and again until she panted and gasped and begged for more.
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He laved the length of her intimate crease, sliding his fingers through her wet folds before finding her heated entrance and easing inside. She gasped and shuddered as he worked her with his fingers and paid homage to her clit.
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“Oh my God. Liam! I’m…” She made the sexiest noise as she came. He eased his fingers in and out, satisfaction washing through his as her internal walls spasmed with her climax.
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Her eyes were half closed and she was lax in his arms as he scooped her up and took her upstairs. He was blind to the printed daisies as he laid her atop the covers and then covered her with his body.
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He kissed her mouth, her breasts, and then between her legs. He couldn’t get enough of her skin, her flavor, her fragrance. Her. There would never be enough of her.
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“More. I need more.”
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It would be his pleasure to comply with her wish. She undid his zipper and freed his erection, tugging his jeans down to mid-thigh, but he couldn’t wait any longer. She gripped his cock and guided him to her entrance where he sank into her welcoming body. He groaned and stilled for a moment at the rush of having her body surround him.
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“So beautiful.” She said that to him. She clasped his cheeks in either hand and kissed him and tilted her hips and then he thrust inside of her. Glorious pressure built. Almost too much to bear. He pushed up on his arms either side of her shoulders and stroked inside her body, pumping harder and faster. She called for him, praised him, cried for him, and then his body was falling apart and was soaring in the most beautiful explosion of connection.
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Her soul surrounded his and he could see what sort of person she was. What she’d built herself to be. The choices she’d made in desperate circumstances, and he knew there was much, much more to life than he’d ever given it credit for.
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When he came back to his body, he eased from her own and fell to her side, gathering her against him, knee to shoulder. He kissed her and dropped his head, replete and complete and so, so satisfied.
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There was a hand on his side and the bandage around his middle fell away. Her body went rigid as she sucked in a quick breath. “What the fuck, Liam. How could your wound be healed?”
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He jerked awake, running his hand over the smooth skin of his stomach. All signs of the gunshot wound were gone. She jolted away from him, eyes wide and panicked. She gathered up the sheets and covered her beautiful body as a pain so deep slashed through his heart.
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She licked her lips. “What the fuck are you, Liam? Because from where I’m standing no mortal man heals like that!”
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