She reached up to touch his sensual mouth with her fingertips. "You said you wanted to forget," she reminded him, her voice soft. "Nothing exists, before or after this moment."

"So I did." Tender flames warmed the depths of his eyes.

He had beautiful eyes. Eyes that took possession of her wherever they touched.

He took a step closer then, bringing their skin in contact. The heat from his body leapt into hers, shocking, scalding.

Aurora trembled at the erotic sensation, feeling her breasts graze his chest, and below, the hot, throbbing maleness of him press against her stomach.

"Have you never wondered what it would be like to lie with a man? To feel his hard flesh deep within you?" Nicholas bent his head, his lips kissing a path along her cheekbone.

Yes, she had wondered, Aurora reflected dizzily. In the most secret corners of her heart, she had dreamed about a nameless lover who could rouse her to passion -

"But if you had," he answered his own question, "you could not properly admit it."

That brought a faint smile to her lips. "No. A lady would never admit to such things."

"No, never. But if you ever have wondered… now is the time to indulge your curiosity." Capturing her trembling hand, he enfolded it around the throbbing shaft of his manhood. "Touch me, love. Feel my flesh…"

Holding her breath at the alarming size of him, she accepted his bold guidance, learning the unique feel of him. The smooth velvet skin of his phallus. The granite hardness. The swollen marble head. The soft curling hair and heavy sacs beneath. He really was not so frightening. Not any longer. If she were honest, she would admit she found the differences in their bodies thrilling. His sheer masculinity called out to everything feminine in her.

His hands rose to her breasts then, cupping their lush swells. Aurora closed her eyes and sighed. How expert he was, she thought dazedly. His hands were a murmur against her body, his fingertips gliding over her flesh, fanning over her breasts in deepening strokes.

"You are enchanting."

He was the one who was enchanting, Aurora thought, unable to resist the exquisite languor that had stolen through her limbs. He had bewitched her.

Voluntarily her mouth sought his while she moved closer, straining to feel his flesh against her. A gratified murmur sounded deep in his throat.

He kissed her for the space of a dozen heartbeats, his lips at once soothing and arousing. After a while, though, he lifted her in his arms and settled her on the bed, then followed her down to lie beside her.

His eyes half shut, his gaze sensual and compelling, he began to stroke her aching breasts again, his palms rubbing the tautened globes, his fingers kindling arrows of impossible rapture in her tight nipples.

Aurora surrendered fully to him. It was magical to lie in his arms like this, to breathe in the warm, masculine scent of him, to feel his incredible touch. Then he bent his head, savoring her stiffened nipple with his mouth, and her breath lodged in her throat.

She wanted him, she realized. Wanted to experience the spark and fire between a man and a woman that he had shown her once before. His tongue flicked over the rosy bud, rasping slowly, before his lips closed to suckle the swollen crest. Aurora arched against the scorching heat of his mouth, her hands blindly seeking his hair.

He wanted her also, she knew it. She could sense it even before his erect manhood stirred heavily against her soft belly.

And then his wonderful, teasing fingers slid down once more between her moist thighs.

"You're wet for me." His voice was husky. "Your body is flowing with honey."

It was true. Her feminine cleft was sleek with wetness, her body aching shamelessly for him. She said his name, in a voice that sounded shaky, as he stroked the soaked bud. She should have been scandalized by his brazen passion, by her own wantonness, but all she could focus on was the magical caresses of his fingers and mouth.

She was trembling with desire by the time he left off arousing her breasts and shifted to cover her with his body. Sparing her most of his weight, he settled between her thighs and began kissing her again, holding her attention. She was hardly aware of his intentions until he began easing the velvet smooth head of his manhood inside her.

When she tensed, he kissed her more deeply, his tongue penetrating her mouth like his shaft was doing. Not allowing any resistance, his powerful thighs kept her own thighs parted as he slowly, slowly sank lower, pushing forward with inexorable pressure.

Aurora stiffened, gasping for breath. She felt sure she could never accommodate his enormous size, and yet her body was opening for him, stretching painfully, his alien hardness filling her…

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to catch her breath.

He was not moving now. "Look at me, sweet siren." There was tenderness in his eyes as he gazed down at her.

She lay rigid, feeling excruciatingly full of him. "It… hurts."

He kissed her temple. "Only the first time. The hurt will go away and all you will feel is pleasure." His gaze plunged deeply into hers. "Trust me."

Incredibly, she did trust him. He lay completely still, waiting for her to grow accustomed to his impalement and the feel of his thick member deep inside her. Eventually she felt a blurring of the edges of her pain.

He brushed back a tendril of hair from her cheek. "Better now?"

"Yes." It wasn't unbearable now. The burning had lessened.

After another long moment, she stirred her hips, tentative, testing. The discomfort was definitely fading.

He feathered a kiss at the corner of her mouth as he withdrew, but when he carefully slid upward once more, she felt the rise of heat in her again. He kept up the slow, deliberate rhythm, coaxing her with his hard body, until hot, urgent longing began to clamor inside her.

The hunger was as timeless as man and woman. She whimpered feverishly, her nails digging into his shoulders as she instinctively matched his rhythm. He squeezed his eyes shut like a man in pain, his breathing rough as he moved inside her, thrusting gently into her melting flesh.

When she was on the brink of climax, he reached down between their bodies to find the engorged bud of her sex. Stunned, she arched against him, straining, crying out as the shattering, burning tumult broke within her.

Nick captured her wild moans with his mouth but never stopped, using all his skill to prolong her ecstasy as wave after wave of rapture convulsed her slender body. When she bucked and writhed against him, he clenched his teeth, striving for control, trying desperately to keep his savage need in check as he lay buried deep inside her.

It was too much. A great shudder moved through his frame as Nicholas at last let himself fill her with the hot desire that he'd felt for her from almost the first time he saw her. A hoarse moan ripped from his throat as he plunged into an endless raw pleasure so intense it seared.

Finally it was over. He was shaken as he lay there in the darkness, yet eventually consciousness returned. When he felt her trembling beneath him, a fierce tenderness engulfed his heart.

Easing his weight to the side, he pulled the covers up over them and drew her into his arms. His body wrapped around her, warming her, calming her.

They lay there together, weak in the aftershocks of pleasure. After a long moment, he lifted his head.

In the firelight, she looked like a wanton angel, with her tangled cloud of hair, her pale ivory skin, her lush lips swollen and wet from his kisses.

It was amazing that she should have such an effect on him, Nicholas thought absently. She was physically inexperienced, totally virginal, and yet making love to her had created a tumult of feelings inside him that were entirely unexpected. The fierce sweetness of it had possessed him totally.

Perhaps the marriage vows they had spoken meant more than simply a cold business arrangement, bonding them together in ways he had never intended.

Wife. The word was strange, engendering even stranger feelings of longing and need. He wondered if he would leave an heir, if they had made a child. A son… or a daughter. The thought brought an odd ache to the vicinity of his heart.

As if she could sense his bewildered reflections, the woman in his arms stirred. She was watching him, Nick realized, her luminous blue eyes searching. Desire knifed through him again, sharp and insistent, but he clamped down on his lusts, reminding himself of her virginal state.

"Are you all right?" he murmured, pressing a kiss on her forehead.

"Yes." A sigh whispered from her. "That was… wonderful."

A smile touched his mouth as a fresh wave of tenderness flooded him. "I'm gratified you think so."

"Was that… was I… a disappointment for you?"

He lifted an eyebrow in surprise. "Quite the contrary, siren. I've never experienced lovemaking quite so delectable." At her slight frown of skepticism, he gave a soft laugh. "It's true. Perhaps you're too inexperienced to recognize the fierce control I had to exercise, but it was all I could do to keep from ravishing you." He leaned forward to brush a kiss on her nose. "I could make love to you all night long… but I suppose I must show some consideration for your innocence and let you sleep."

A look of sadness passed over her face, and she reached up to touch his mouth with her fingers. "I really don't want to sleep. If this is my only night with you, I want it to last as long as possible."