Tempting Fate by Kerrigan Byrne (best free ereader .TXT) 📕

skin unique to her sex. Coating him in the slick leavings of her desire. The moisture he’d need to make his way inside of her.

He gazed down at her angelic face, suffused with sheer, incredible wonder.

How did a woman like this exist? How was it possible that he’d not only found her but somehow events had unfolded in such a way, that she was now beneath him, legs spreading wider in unmistakable invitation.

Lowering onto his elbows, he framed her head with his forearms, plunging his fingers into her hair and cradling her scalp from the hard floor beneath the coverlet.

Arching his hips back slightly, it didn’t surprise him that the crown of his cock found the entrance to her body without aid, nudging against the moist kiss of taut skin there.

He watched every twitch, every tiny change or tightening in her lovely features. Examined her for fear or pity or any long-suffering.

Not trusting what he found.

The pillows of her lips were plush and red, swollen from his kisses. Her eyes were dark and gleamed with a passion that went beyond permission and into the realm of demand. The color in her cheeks was high and the barest sheen of moisture glinted at her hairline.

I love you.

He wanted to say it as he entered her.

But men in bed were often men in love, and he worried the sincerity would be lost.

It would be cruel to tell her if he was still expected to leave her. If she still needed to marry another in order to fulfil her responsibilities.

That didn’t change the truth, however, so he allowed the words to flood him as he pressed forward, breaching her body in slow, excruciating increments.

Encountering a barrier almost immediately, her gasp paralyzed him, as did the shadow of pain pinching her features.

When he would have withdrawn, she seized him, wrapping her arms around his torso and visibly bracing herself. “No. No. Just… ignore my pain.”

“I could never ignore your pain,” he contended. “We don’t have to—”

She stopped him with a kiss so tender and certain, he forgot any doubt, until the connection of their bodies was the only sensation he could feel.

“I was made for this,” she reminded him, adjusting the angle of her body in a way that pressed the breath from his lungs. “My body is crafted to accept a man. You. I’m asking you not to prolong either of our discomfort. Please. Just—”

Her voice broke on a sob as he thrust forward, impaling her as deep as he could, which seemed to be barely over halfway.

A sweltering slew of expletives burst from him as he held himself utterly still with trembling limbs. He cursed the cruel God who made this the most incredible bliss he could have possibly experienced…

And a terrible sort of discomfort for her.

Her nails bit into his back, and he welcomed the pain, wishing he could take it all from her. Because pain had become his friend over the years. Had often been the only way he’d known he was still alive.

But it didn’t belong in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he groaned, pressing his forehead to hers.

She said nothing, only breathed with him as he’d once taught her to do until he could feel the gradual give of her intimate muscles as her body accepted him inside.

In Gabriel’s experience, desire and privation had been his only drive. An emptiness he tried to fill with a fortune nearly consumed him, because with every acquisition, every time he reached for a fantasy… the reality always left him disappointed.

But this. This. Her.

Even though her body only sheathed half of him, the sensations suffusing him were far superior to anything he conjured on the lonely nights he’d spent dreaming of exactly this moment.

With her gentle sigh of relief, her muscles released further, welcoming more of him inside.

“Try again,” she urged softly.

He withdrew, gasping at the hot ripples of her intimate flesh as it gripped at his retreating cock, as if reluctant to let him go. He sank in again, gaining a bit more ground. Then again. And once more, until he’d seated himself as far as she seemed to be able to take.

After only those handful of motions, they were both panting and sweating, their chests heaving against the other.

He was inside her. A part of her. Locked within her body and her embrace.

Never in his life had he dared to hope. Christ… He wanted to savor the moment, but a drive as ancient as humanity itself, took his body away from his heart.

Ecstasy overtook pleasure as he found a slow, rippling rhythm with his hips, not withdrawing much at all, merely rocking against her.

Her lips moved with words he couldn’t hear over the roaring in his ears, so he dropped his head to her shoulder, releasing a shuddering breath. Fighting the rapture already clawing up his spine.

Her soundless whispers of encouragement never permeated the words that created a percussion to his every thrust.

Gold hair. Blue gaze. Soft smile. Scents. Blooms. Spice. Herbs. Slick musk. Smooth flesh.

He felt like a prisoner set free. Or perhaps better, like a warrior invited home.

Home.

That word had never meant anything to him until now.

Welcoming the mindless lust threatening to take over his emotive thoughts, Gabriel found the slick sounds their bodies made incredibly erotic, and he had to focus on keeping himself sane.

Lifting onto his hands to check on her, he nearly lost his rhythm at the sight. If she’d been breathtaking before, looking at her now was like trying to gaze at the sun.

He marveled as she seemed to lose control of her limbs, writhing beneath him, twitching and trembling, clutching at him with artless demands. Her hand smoothed down his back, lower, to shyly explore the curve of his ass, pressing him forward, deeper.

Without thought, he repositioned a bit, his cock finding some deep-seated place inside her that peeled her eyes wide.

“There,” she gasped. “Don’t stop.”

He would never. Instead, he accelerated his pace, deepened his strokes, driving himself home. Inside of her, he could feel