Weddings: the Brides: The Shy Bride / Bride in a Gilded Cage / The Bride's Awakening

“My pleasure.” And it was, undoing the crisp navy trousers and pulling them down her legs.

He had to stop and look, soak in the sight of her sprawled out on his bed in nothing but her panties.

“Incredible,” he said.

She shook her head. “Now, I know you are lying. You told me I had bird legs.”

“I was teasing.” With a shake of his head for her ignorance, he pressed his body down onto hers, reveling in the feel of naked flesh pressed against naked flesh. “I was picturing them wrapped around my torso while I pleasured you.”

“You weren’t.”

“I was.”

“Like this?” she asked in an innocent tone, completely belied by the mischievous sparkle in her eyes. Her legs wrapped around his hips, her calves hooking over his thighs.

“Exactly like that.” He took a deep breath and held it while keeping his body rigid. “Careful, pethi mou. I am in grave danger of reaching the goal long before the game is over.”

“A Casanova like you?” she teased. “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe.” No matter how embarrassing he might find it, that was the truth.

“I like affecting you that strongly.”

“I, too, like it.” And to prove how much, he began to kiss her again. This time, caressing her with his lips all over her face and down her neck.

Her legs’ hold on his hips broke as he continued his oral caresses down over her satiny shoulders and lower to her breasts.

Her breathing, which had grown rapid and shallow, hitched. “Oh, oh … Neo … yes. I like that.”

He would have laughed if he had any air to make the sound, but he didn’t feel like laughing when his lips closed around one delicately pink peak and she cried out with shocked delight. He felt like giving the victory chant. She was so incredibly responsive. To him.

Every one of her reactions belonged to him and him alone. As did she.

No matter how temporary his possession, it pounded through him as a primitive, fierce drumbeat. She was his.

He nibbled, suckled and licked her nipple and the soft mound surrounding it, like she was a particularly tasty ice cream cone, until she was making incoherent sounds of need. And then he moved to her other petite breast and gave it just as much attention.

Her hands went from caressing him, to burying in his hair, to pulling his hair, as she bucked her hips in an ancient if unconscious plea.

No matter how much he wanted to give in to that silent demand, she wasn’t ready. Not yet. But she would be.

He was going to drive his sensual little virgin out of her mind with carnal delight.

With that goal firmly entrenched in his mind, he moved down her torso, his lips and tongue caressing and tasting the salty smoothness of her skin. She writhed under his ministrations, making incoherent demands when he tongued her belly button. His hands were busy revisiting every spot his mouth had already been.

He played with her breasts, but it wasn’t until he pinched and teased at her hard little nubs that she tried to arch up off the bed. He laughed in victory-filled pleasure against her smooth stomach and slid his mouth lower. When he reached her hot pink panties, he stopped with his teeth on her waistband.

Everything in Cassandra seemed to go still. She stared down at him. Their eyes locked as he made silent promises and she reeled from the message he knew she could read in his gaze. He was going to make this the best first time she could possibly have.

She deserved the most incredible experience he could give her. She wasn’t just a one-night stand; she was his friend. And her innocence was not merely a powerful aphrodisiac, it was a great responsibility as well.

With a jerk of his head, he tugged the small scrap of lace down. Blatant desire tinged by virginal uncertainty washed over Cassandra’s precious features. She canted her pelvis so that he could pull off her last piece of clothing over her hips.

In other circumstances, she might be shy, but in this, Cassandra was tantalizingly open.

Pretty brown curls were revealed to his hungry gaze now that her panties were on the floor with the rest of their clothes. The natural feminine mystique was a nice change from the waxed, shaved and tweezed nether regions he’d been exposed to over the past few years.

He ruffled the curls with his fingertips and she bit her lip on a moan.

He smiled. “Sensitive?”

“Yes, but …”

He brushed his hands down her legs, stopping with them clasped around her ankles. “There are so many things your body can feel that I look forward to showing you.”

“And will you feel them, too?”

She was smart, his sweet little Cassandra. “Yes. Giving you pleasure will turn me on so much I won’t be able to stop—”

“Pounding into me.”

The earthy words coming from her prim mouth were almost enough to send him over the edge. “You are dangerous, pethi mou.”

“That’s good to know.” And indeed, she did look proud of herself. Then she dipped her head, looking up at him through her lashes in a gesture he was coming to recognize as her default in uncertainty. “You won’t really pound. Not at first, will you?”

“Sweetheart, I will never hurt you. Not even accidentally. I will be so careful with you, you will beg me to hurry.”

“That could be fun.” Her words were all bravado, but the relief in her lovely features told its own story.

“Yes, I think it will be.”

“You know what else would be fun?”

“Many things. What did you have in mind?” he asked, enjoying himself in a way he never had in bed with a woman.

“You. Naked.”

“You are a delight.”

“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear that. Now, strip.”

“I have already stripped, or hadn’t you noticed?”

“Don’t be smart. You know what I want.”

“Ah, you wish equal disrobing?”

“Well, you’ve just got those small briefs left and they don’t look like they’re very comfortable.” She did her best to appear like his comfort was all that concerned her. Of course, the innocent hunger in her eyes sort of ruined that.