Free Affair of Honor by Stephanie James

In an swift, smooth movement he slid his palms down the curve of her hips, pushing the remainder of her clothing all the way to her ankles and off the bed. In one long, sweeping stroke she was suddenly and completely nude.
    Brenna’s eyes opened to find him drinking in the sight of her as his fingers went to the buttons of the blue shirt.
    “No, let me,” she managed, struggling to a sitting position and finding the buttons with fingers that trembled from passionate excitement.
    The tawny lashes feathered his cheeks as he let his own hands fall aside. Ryder sat very still as she worked at the fastenings of the blue shirt. But when she slipped her palms beneath the open edges to find the curling hair that covered his bronzed chest, he muttered her name a little violently and caught her wrists.
    “Brenna, my golden-eyed witch, you’ll drive me crazy if I give you free rein! I want this to last all night!”
    “I’m the one who will go crazy if you try to make it last forever,” she protested huskily. “I… I need you too badly.”
    She bit off the words, a part of her astounded by them. She had never truly needed a man in quite this way. This was different than mere affection tinged with sexual attraction. This was different than the time in graduate school when she had thought she was truly in love. This was different than the way she felt toward Damon. She needed Ryder Sterne and she ached to please him.
    “Do you, Brenna?” he growled in his dragon’s purr. “Do you really need me?”
    “More than anything else in the world,” she answered with an honesty that would have surprised her in another context. She lifted her lashes and the gold in her eyes met the silver in his. He groaned in satisfaction and a kind of relief. She knew in that moment that the strange hunger in him was finally and completely unleashed. He made no further protest as she fumbled with the remainder of his clothes.
    “You’re beautiful,” she breathed in wonder as he finally lay naked beside her. With delicate, questing fingertips she traced the shape of him, moving across the contours of his smoothly muscled chest, down to the flat stomach and over the muscular shape of his hip.
    Unable to resist, she bent to kiss the center of his chest as her hand clenched a little aggressively into the hard male buttock. Instantly his fingers wrapped themselves in her hair and he pulled her forcibly up to find his mouth.
    “We’ll make the next time last,” he promised thickly against her mouth. “This time I’m not going to be able to play the gentleman!”
    “Ryder!” His name was choked from her as, his hands still entwined in the depths of her bittersweet-chocolate hair, he moved, shifting her firmly onto her back. He sprawled heavily across her, his thigh pinning hers as he quenched his thirst at her mouth.
    “I’m sorry, sweet lady,” he muttered against her lips as he held her face cupped fiercely in his excitingly rough palms. “I meant to play the gallant lover but I can’t. Not this first time with you. All I can think of now is making you mine completely and absolutely. Do you understand? I can’t be sexually sophisticated tonight and impress you with my charm and gallantry. I want you too badly!”
    Brenna couldn’t answer. Her own passion was running too high and her senses seemed to swim. Her nails dug compellingly into his shoulders and she arched her hips against the pressure of his body. It was the only response she could manage.
    It was enough. With a violently tender exclamation Ryder slid his palm over her breasts, down the small contour of her stomach, and found the tangled thicket below. He forced her legs gently apart with his knee and let his probing fingers discover the intimate secret of her.
    When she writhed beneath him at the touch, he whispered her name hoarsely and pressed the hard strength of his body testingly against her thighs.
    “Please. Ryder, please!”
    “My God, sweet lady!”
    He lifted