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

Nevertheless, he looked down at himself and had to agree with her assessment. His briefs did not look comfortable, not with the way his hardness was trying to press out of them. The fabric was stretched thin trying to cover the length of his rigid penis and he had to wonder how much longer they would be able to do so. Though he was not sure he wanted to remove them just yet.

Leaving them on was a mental boundary for him. The last barrier between him and the untouched channel between her legs.

Instead of answering, he stalled for time by running a hand up the inside of her thigh.

She shivered, letting her legs drift farther apart. “Everywhere you touch feels so amazing, like I’ve got electric currents running under my skin and your fingers are the conductors.”

“I like making you feel electrified.” He let his fingertip dip into the honeyed warmth of her passage and had to stifle a growl of pleasure. She was soft, silky and wet.

Everything he so desperately needed.

Neo’s fingers breached Cass’s vaginal entrance for the first time and her brain emptied in a red haze of desire.

Everything they had done so far was new for her, but this was in its own class. Having him touch her there made her feel like she belonged to him on a primal level. And although he was the one doing the touching, that didn’t stop her from feeling like he belonged to her, too.

A wholly alien sense of possessiveness washed over her even as she shifted again to give him better access to her most feminine place.

He touched her like he couldn’t get enough and that was more stimulating than the caresses themselves. It made her feel wanted for something other than her talent at the piano. For the first time in her memory.

This was no friend having pity on the hopelessly innocent. Neo wanted her and every touch of his hand or mouth showed just how much.

As did the erection seriously tenting his briefs. She wanted to see his male member, she really did, but couldn’t seem to remember how to make her mouth work to remind him of that fact. She couldn’t take her eyes off his body.

He chuckled, a dark and sexy sound that only increased the arousal pulsing powerfully through her body.

“How does this feel?” He pressed one finger inside her. She wondered how anything bigger was ever going to fit because she felt stretched with that single entry.

“Full,” she got out breathlessly.

“Do not worry. You will stretch to accommodate me.”

“Maybe.”

“Definitely.”

“You’re a lot bigger than your finger.” But that finger felt so good.

“You’ll be thankful for that later.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” she gasped out between panting breaths as his finger caressed her interior.

He pushed a little farther inside and she felt a flash of pain. Making a noise of dissent, she tried to arch away.

“Shh … relax. This is your hymen and it must be breached for our intimacy to be achieved.”

“I’m not a Victorian maiden. I know that, but it hurts.” It was unsettling the impact a little pain marring her pleasure could have on her. She would have to trust him to know what he was doing.

But she was acting on instinct, too.

“I want you inside me when the last barrier to my virginity is crossed.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

He smiled and nodded.

“As you wish.” He got up. “I need to get condoms.”

“Where are they?”

“In the guest room.”

He really never had sex in here. For some inexplicable reason, Cass was really pleased about that fact. Sex in his bed was for her and her alone. The newly developed streak of possessiveness in her nature rejoiced.

He was gone less than a minute, returning with a small box that he tossed onto the bedside stand. He’d already taken one of the small, square foil packets out of it and was tearing it open.

“Watch me. Next time, I want you to do this.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re bossy?” she asked even as part of her thrilled at his instruction. It wasn’t as if she wanted to look anywhere else.

“Demanding. Assertive. Pushy. Stubborn. Difficult. Perhaps bossy once or twice.”

She huffed out a laugh. “I have a feeling I’ll be using all those and more.”

“No doubt.” He pulled his hand away. “Now I make love to you, yineka mou.” The Greek in his accent was thick and strong.

She didn’t correct his semantics. She didn’t want to. Right now, for the first time, she needed to feel like they were making love. Even if it was just sex. Between friends.

And then, as impossible as it might seem, she realized in that moment it was because she did love him. She didn’t know how it had happened so quickly, or even if the feeling was real, but she felt a depth of feeling for him she had not felt in any form since her parents’ deaths.

And wasn’t this exactly what he had warned her against? Mistaking sexual feelings for real emotion? Only it did not feel like a mistake. And she had to wonder if the sex could feel so good and right for her without some emotion attached.

She wasn’t about to ask him, but it was a topic she would explore with some of her online friends. Ones who had more of a life than she did and might be able to give her the insight she needed.

For now, she just concentrated on how it felt to have Neo joining their bodies. It wasn’t all joy and yet rather than making her irritable as she’d feared it would, the pain felt even more intimate than the pleasure.

An indelible marking on her soul that would connect her to him for the rest of her life.

Though he was slow and careful entering her, it still hurt and tears leaked down her temples. He leaned down to kiss them away and whisper soothing Greek in her ear. She didn’t know what he was saying, but the tone comforted her and caressed the ragged edges of her spirit.

Once their pelvises touched, he stopped moving completely, giving her time …? She thought that must be it because the sweat beads formed on his forehead told their own story about the cost such patience had on him.

“I feel so connected to you,” she whispered as their gazes joined as intimately as their bodies.

His eyes closed and he whispered what sounded like no.

“No?” she asked, unaccountably hurt.