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With the backs of his knuckles, he stroked the tender skin beneath her brsts and the fragile lines of her ribs, and then his palht as she felt hiently searching until she pulled aith a stammer and a shake of her head

He followed instantly, his ar around her back, and she heard the sound of his low voice in her thunder-filled ears Hisher hard-won control for the first tiainst the cool green silk, and she pulled at the layers of linen and broadcloth that covered him

“Julia,” he said, his voice ato stop me…for God's sake, do it now”

Feverishly she pressed her lips to his jaw and throat “I want to feel you,” she whispered “I want to feel your skin against mine”

Da flurry of effort, stripping off his coat, cravat and shirt As he reached for the opening of his trousers, her small hands pushed his aside He forced hi hotly as he felt the pluck and tug of her fingers on his clothing She was gravely intent on the task as she slipped the heavy buttons of his trousers through their neatly stitched openings

When the last button was freed, Dae of the bed to remove his shoes, trousers, and linens There was silence behind him, and then he felt the moist brush of Julia's mouth at the top of his spine He stiffened at the sensation, everychain of kisses followed the first, working from his neck to the middle of his back

Her arms slid around his shoulders as she held hiainst his naed back A silken lock of her hair fell over his shoulder She see a ainst his, her hands gentle on his skin She touched the contours of his chest and paused to feel the heavy thud of his heartbeat against her palhtly bunched muscles of his abdomen Damon's eyes shut hard as he felt the tith of his staff His shaking fingers carip until the pleasure threatened to overwhelm him

Turning, he pushed her flat on the bed, lowering his body over hers Eagerly she pulled his head down, tangling her fingers in his hair as she kissed hi his hands with her breasts, he covered the peaks with his hter points

Julia lifted against him, lost in the communication of their bodies In the last few silent er to herself, sha her body and soul to so herself even closer to hi tide of ecstasy

His hands and lipscurrents of sensation wherever they touched His knee pushed between hers, and she felt his fingers between her thighs, discovering the hint ofcurls Her eyes flew open at the inti from the bedside lamp She wanted to be hidden in the darkness

“Please,” she said in a faltering voice, “the light—”

“No,” he ainst her stomach “I want to see you”

Julia tried to protest, but the words were strangled in her throat as his head h the soft thatch of hair, licking deep to find the secrets beyond His tongue was hot on her flesh,

roan as if in pain…but it wasn't pain she felt; it was a rapture too piercing to co at first to push hi around his head in supplication She was seized by an endless shudder of pleasure, her senses unraveling in a white-hot glow

Damon lifted his head and slid his body over hers Julia arched and sighed, letting hiinal modesty now, pliant and open to his every desire There was a heavy push between her thighs, a forewarning of pain She bit her lip at the intrusion and wrapped her ar hiency that would startle her in laterat her with dawning incredulity

“You're a virgin,” he whispered

Julia's ar at the s in unconscious encouragement

“Why?” seee

Her eyes glittered as she looked up at him “I never wanted anyone before you”

Da lips It see was filled with all the blind yearning he'd felt in his adult life In a decisive h to rend her innocence She tensed in his ar a quick, shocked breath Damon hated the pain he caused her, yet he discovered a fierce satisfaction in possessing her as no ht, her sleek depths holding and wrapping him in intense heat He pressed a slow rain of kisses on her face,words of praise and desire as he tried to comfort her

Gradually Julia began to relax as she adjusted to the unyielding invasion He was gentle with her, his hands playing over her body in unhurried exploration She quivered as she felt hi in a slow rhythh her body Soe to lift high against him and take him even deeper inside He coht and sure within her until she was caught in another surge of delight She felt hi over the rounded flesh, and he made a low, tor, Daainst her until it seemed that their bodies had melded into one

Julia was intensely drowsy for a long time afterward as she rested in the crook of his ar them in peaceful darkness She was halfway in a drea in the warmth and texture of the man beside her

She was no longer the figure of mystery that teased the public's curiosity, or an actress reciting well-rehearsed lines from a play…she had been cut adrift froazed at the hard-edged profile of the e, her husband He would take over her life if she allowed it He would keep her safe and sheltered, and inundate her with so olden cage But she would never let anyone own her She had spent most of her life under her father's thuh

She would not lose herself in her husband's shadow as her uard the part of herself that she had struggled to nurture and preserve—and that meant any relationship with Damon was impossible

Chapter 6

Da himself in an unfamiliar bed The elusive scent of a woman's perfume emanated from the pillow beside hirant creaht came back to him, and he opened his eyes

He was alone in Julia's bed

Julia…she had never been more than a name to him, a shadow froly real He saw the flecks of blood on the sheet, and he was instantly riveted Wonderingly his fingers moved across the crimson ht be innocent He had never been with a virgin before, only mature women ere fully versed in all the aspects of passion Sex had always been a frolic, a casual pleasure, not the transforht Julia was the only woed solely to him

Why had she allowed hiiven to no one else? Certainly he was not the first man to desire her She was lusted after by every ically he searched for all possible reasons she had given hiinity, with so many unanswered questions still between them, and he could think of none