“Take what you want,” he whispered against her ear. “Without fear. Without regret. Simply take what you want. What you feel you deserve.”

She did deserve this. She was owed this a thousand times over. The hundreds of times she’d been sneered at, told she wasn’t good enough, would never be good enough. Well, here was a man who thought she was more than good enough. He was on fire for her. For her. No one else. The thought was empowering, and she unbuckled his belt, pulling the leather strap out of his belt loops. Then she went straight for the button and zipper of his pants.

She was gaining momentum, gaining in eagerness. She wanted to see him. Wanted to feel him. She had never come so close before…had never even wanted to before. But now she wanted. As she cupped him through the fabric of his underwear, she wanted.

He hissed in pleasure at the feel of her small hand fondling him. Her touch was awkward and unsure, as if she were afraid to touch him yet her desire was overriding her fear. And for a brief moment he wondered if she should be afraid. If they both should be. He feared only two things in life. His own failure and his own hubris. Were either of those coming into play here?

He didn’t think so. He prayed not.

Her hand slipped inside the material of his boxer briefs, wrapping around his painfully hard shaft. All outside thoughts flew away. He could only focus on the moment and all he could think about was that it had been so long since he had been touched by a woman. And far longer since he had been touched by a woman like her. She was so open, so pure, so curious. He ground his teeth together as she stroked him, discovered him, shaped her hand to him however she liked.

“You’re so hard…and so hot. Are all men so hot?” she asked.

The question stilled him inside, tried to calm his racing heart with its importance. He suddenly realized…

“That’s right…you’ve never done this”—he indicated their nearly joined bodies—“before?”

She looked suddenly frightened, her lip going between her teeth and her eyes wide with worry.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“It does matter,” he insisted strongly.

“Please…please don’t stop. I don’t want this to end.”

He absorbed that a moment. “Why would it end?” he asked her. “Do you think I will suddenly stop wanting you? After all the barriers this desire has knocked down, do you think the idea of one more barrier will suddenly make me come to my senses?”

“I don’t want to take that chance,” she whispered. She gnawed at her lip a moment. “I’ve never had sex before. I’d never even been kissed until you kissed me. No one wanted me because I was a—”

“Half-breed,” he finished for her. “I see. I am clear enough in my thoughts to tell you that something like that will not stop me from wanting you, will only make the craving stronger. To think I will give you what no one else has…it makes me burn ever hotter with need.” He gave her a hard look. “But are you sure? This is all so sudden and—”

“Yes! I’m sure!” she hastened to say.

He chuckled. “Very well then. Let’s proceed. You may resume stroking me,” he said intently, “and I shall resume stroking you.” With those words he slipped two fingers inside her, making her gasp. He scissored his fingers inside her, stretching her as much as he could, the touch serving a dual purpose for him. To give her pleasure, and to make her ready for him.

Meanwhile she was stroking him in earnest, eager for the feel of him, wanting to learn everything about how to please him. He pressed a kiss to her mouth and said, “Easy, little dove. We have all the time in the world.” It wasn’t true and they both knew it, but it did slow her down a little.

“Take off your pants,” she said. “I want to feel all of you.”

“Likewise. This dress must go. I would see you free of everything save your skin.”

They came apart and each undressed swiftly. She laid back on the carpet once she was naked and held her arms out to him, demanding he return at once. He wanted to, but he needed a moment to drink her in. She was so small, so petite and so pale compared to him—she made him look practically tanned up against her. Her ivory skin was broken up only by a thatch of gray curls at the apex of her thighs and the two lightest pink nipples on her full breasts.

“You’re beautiful,” he uttered, running his hand down over that white skin from shoulder to hip to ankle.

“I’m not,” she argued, a pink blush appearing on her cheeks. She lifted her hand to cover it up, but he stayed her.

“Don’t. There’s no need to hide from me. Your blushes please me. Your shyness delights me. Your courage astounds me. Now come and kiss me. Let me find my way inside of you. I find it is the place I most want to be at present.”

“Oh. I’m so glad,” she whispered fiercely. It made him chuckle. “I like it when you laugh,” she said. “It’s such a nice sound.”

One he wasn’t prone to making. But he found his heart felt infinitely lighter around her, making it come much more easily. For her. Only for her. His life and his crimes were far too serious for levity to enter any other part of his life.

And that thought made him hesitate. She didn’t know what he was. Didn’t know what his crimes were. He should tell her now, so she would know the monster she was thinking of bedding. That would be the right thing to do. The unselfish thing to do. He opened his mouth to say something, but she filled his parted lips with her mouth and her tongue and all of his words flew away. Far too easily, he thought. But he did not want this to end. Not just the sex, but the part where she didn’t look at him with contempt. He selfishly did not want that to happen.

Not yet.

Kamen kissed the side of her neck. Her shoulder, her breast. He moved on to her belly, her navel, her curls. There were clearly many things she had not experienced, and he was determined to be the one to introduce her to every pleasure she deserved. He kissed the inside of one thigh and then the inside of the other. The smell of her tickled his senses. Strawberries and sex. Her arousal was sharp and he hungered for her. Holding her thighs apart, feeling her fingers clutching the strands of his hair, he touched his tongue to her. He licked her and she gasped. He found her clit with his tongue and toyed with it in quick little flicks and slow, sensual teases. His tongue danced against her highly sensitized flesh. She moaned with ecstasy, her hands in his hair steering him to what pleasured her most. He heard every sigh and whisper. Every hint of passion. He chased it all down until she was crying out in long, sustained moans of pleasure. Then, when she was nearly at the top, he sucked her clit into his mouth and sent her shooting over like a burning star in the night sky. She cried out her pleasure loud and long and he thrust his fingers into her to feel the spasms he had created from the inside.