"So soft." Jared laced his hands through Olympia's hair, tearing it free of its precarious moorings. He took great fistfuls of the stuff and clenched and unclenched his fingers in it. "So exquisitely soft."

Out of the corner of her half-closed eyes Olympia saw her little white lace cap float softly to the carpet. The sight of it filled her with an extraordinary sense of abandon.

"Oh, Jared, this is beyond anything," she exclaimed, enthralled with the emotions that were cascading through her.

"Yes, my sweet siren." Jared's voice had darkened and roughened with passion. "Beyond anything."

He launched a trail of scorching kisses down her throat, forcing Olympia's head back over his arm. When he found his path blocked by the prim, pleated frill of her chemisette, he swore impatiently.

"I cannot bear this torture much longer." Jared tugged quickly at the tapes of her gown. "If I do not have you very soon, my lovely Olympia, I shall no doubt wind up in Bedlam, a broken man."

"I understand." Olympia began to unfasten his shirt. "I, too, feel as if I shall be driven mad by this powerful emotion."

Jared gave her an odd smile as he lowered the bodice of her gown to her waist. "Then we have no choice, do we? We must save each other from insanity tonight."

Olympia got his shirt open and gazed, entranced, at the sight of his bare chest. She shook her head slightly. "I am not certain that we can save ourselves. Perhaps we are already lost, Jared."

"Then so be it." Jared untied the strings of the cambric chemisette and let the garment fall to the carpet alongside the white lace cap. He went very still as he looked down at her breasts.

Olympia blushed under his heated gaze but she made no attempt to cover herself. Indeed, the knowledge that he wanted her so intensely only served to make her bolder. She splayed her fingers against his hard chest and then lifted her hands to his shoulders.

Jared inhaled deeply and let out his breath in a low groan. He lowered his head to kiss the high, taut crowns of her breasts as she traced the contours of his back.

"I like that very much." Jared closed his good eye and drew her closer until her breasts were crushed against him.

"Do you?" Olympia stroked him. "I like it, too. You feel so wonderful, Jared."

"My God, Olympia."

As if driven by some force he could no longer defend against, Jared moved. His hands wrapped around Olympia's waist. He lifted her, turned, and seated her on the edge of the desk. Olympia's skirts fluttered delicately.

"Jared?" Surprised to find herself sitting on the desk, Olympia raised questioning eyes to Jared's face.

"Sing your sweet song to me, my lovely siren." Jared pushed Olympia's gown up above her knees. He parted her legs with his hands and stepped between her thighs. "I want to be lured to my doom."

"Jared."

Olympia was still adjusting to the very strange sensation of having him standing between her legs when Jared put his hands on the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. She clutched his arms and stared at him, not certain how to react.

"Never fear, my beautiful siren." Jared kissed the curve of her shoulder. "You will tell me when you are ready."

Before Olympia could ask him what he meant by that, his hands skimmed along the inside of her leg all the way to the soft, hot vulnerable part of her that had suddenly been opened to him.

Olympia stopped breathing when she felt him touch the unguarded core of her body. An excruciating sense of urgency radiated outward from the place where his fingers connected with her womanly flesh.

"You are already wet," Jared said. "As warm and soft as southern seas." He withdrew his fingers and touched them to his lips. His smile was slow and deeply sensual. "You even taste of the sea."

"Do I?" Olympia gripped his upper arms and held on for dear life. She wished very badly that she knew what to do next but she was lost.

"Yes. Exciting. A little salty. Incredible."

Jared put his hand back between her legs and carefully eased one finger into her.

Olympia shuddered. "Jared. I do not know what to say."

"You need say nothing at all, my sweet siren, until you are ready to sing for me."

She did not know what he meant but she did not have the strength or presence of mind to ask for clarification. The feel of his finger inside her was so wondrous and strange that Olympia could not stop trembling in reaction. Her legs tightened instinctively around him.

"Come. Sing for me, my beautiful siren." Jared drew his finger slowly back out of her, watching her face as she moaned softly. "Yes, just like that. Again, my lovely one."

He touched her with the tip of his thumb and Olympia shivered and gave a soft, whimpered moan.

"Bloody hell, but I love your song." Jared removed his hand reluctantly from between her legs.

Olympia opened her eyes slightly, wondering why he was no longer touching her so intimately. She needed the feel of his hand there in that secret place. She was certain that nothing else could ease the great, aching restlessness she was experiencing.

"Jared?" She looked down and saw that he was fumbling with the opening of his trousers. "Please, I want you to touch me again."

Jared gave a choked laugh that ended in a groan. "I could not stop touching you now if all the fiends in hell were at my heels."

Olympia saw him ease aside the front of his breeches. She stared in shock at the sight of his heavy, erect manhood as it came free of the confining fabric.

"Mr. Chillhurst."

Jared rested his forehead on hers. His mouth curved with wicked sensuality. "Could you possibly think of it as a variation on that peculiar island wedding custom you once mentioned to me, Miss Wingfield? I realize that this particular phallus is not made of gold, but it is the only one I've got."

With a shock Olympia recalled her naive discussion of golden phalluses. She did not know whether to laugh or collapse in mortification.

"Perhaps it is just as well it is not made of solid gold, sir," she managed to say. "It is very large, after all, and would no doubt be worth a bloody fortune. Someone might attempt to steal it."

Jared's answering chuckle became a hoarse exclamation. "You mock me at your peril, siren."

She moistened her parted lips and looked up at him from beneath heavy lashes. "Do I?"

"Yes." Jared pulled her legs wider apart and wrapped them around his waist. He stepped close and fitted himself to the opening of her soft, wet passage.

If Olympia had been shocked at the sight of his male member, she was truly stunned at the feel of it pushing against the unguarded gates of her body. At the same time, the sensation seemed to be precisely what she had been craving.

"Yes, please." She clutched at his shoulders.

"My God." Jared cupped Olympia's buttocks in his hands, held her steady, and started to ease himself slowly into the portals of her womanly passage.

Olympia closed her eyes and concentrated intently on the strange feel of him as he entered her.

Excitement mingled with a delicious trepidation as Jared began to fill her. She could not believe that her body could adjust itself to his but that was exactly what seemed to be happening.

The fit was extremely snug, however, and not altogether comfortable, even if it was causing ripples of pleasure to course through her.

"Damnation." Jared suddenly stopped.

"What is wrong?" Olympia opened her eyes. Jared's face was as hard and unyielding as stone. But she had never before seen a stone that was beaded with perspiration, she thought. Beneath her fingers his muscles were like bands of steel. "Are you all right?"

He searched her face with an almost desperate expression. "Olympia, you said you were a woman of the world."

She smiled dreamily. "I am, sir."

"I thought you meant that you had some experience of this sort of thing."

"Not personal experience." She touched his cheek gently with her fingertips. "I believe I have been waiting for you to teach me, sir. You are, after all, a skilled tutor, are you not?"

"I am a madman." Jared's single-eyed gaze was fierce. "Olympia, are you very certain you want me?"

"More than anything," she whispered.

"Then I wish you would hold on to me with all of your strength while I find my way through the storm to the safe harbor inside you."

Olympia nearly melted beneath the heated words.

She could find no verbal response so she tightened her arms and legs around him and urged him closer.

Jared's palms were strong and firm around the soft curves of her bottom. He used his grip to hold her carefully still while he thrust himself swiftly and relentlessly into her softness.

Olympia stiffened and opened her mouth to cry out in astonished surprise. Jared covered her lips with his own, stifling her startled protest.

When he was lodged to the hilt, he went rigid. He did not move except to lift his mouth cautiously from hers.

"Are you all right?" he got out in a husky whisper.

"Yes." Olympia swallowed and gingerly unclenched her nails from his back. "Yes, I believe so."

"Show me. Sing for me, siren."

Jared began to move very slowly and very gently within her, never quite leaving her body before returning to sheath himself once more.

Whatever pain had been caused by his entry was soon extinguished as the flowing heat returned. Olympia clung to Jared as he drew her deeper and deeper into the sultry waters of passion.