Matthew obeyed, hoisting her further over him until his mouth had closed over a taut nipple.

“No,” she managed to say, “that’s not what I…oh…”

He suckled her br**sts in turn, using his teeth and tongue, playing, soothing. After pausing long enough to remove the rest of her clothes, he kissed her deeply. She yanked at his shirt, her fingers clumsy with agitation.

Matthew reached down to help her, pulling his shirt off and gently bringing her na**d chest against his. The warm friction of his skin sent all coherent thoughts tumbling out of reach. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Daisy crushed her mouth over his, hard and eager and passionate.

Her eyes flew open in surprise as she felt his smothered laugh against her lips.

“Have a little patience, sweetheart,” he whispered. “I’m trying to go slowly.”

“Why?” Daisy asked, her mouth feeling hot and sensitive. She touched her tongue experimentally to the center of her bottom lip, and his lashes lowered as he followed the tiny movement.

His voice had become raspy. “Because it will give you more pleasure.”

“I don’t need more pleasure,” Daisy said. “This is all I can possibly stand.”

He laughed quietly. Cradling the side of her face in his strong hand, he coaxed her closer. The tip of his tongue found the subtle indentation of her lower lip and lingered for a burning moment, causing her to inhale unsteadily. His mouth sealed over hers in a lush kiss, his tongue searching and stroking.

Gradually he lowered her to the ground onto his discarded shirt. The thin cloth retained the alluring fragrance of his skin, and Daisy luxuriated in the familiar masculine incense. Her eyes closed against the white glow of the sun as his body covered hers. He had unfastened the top of his trousers, the fabric brushing all along her tingling legs. Aroused by the sensation of being na**d against his half-clothed body, Daisy parted her thighs as he settled between them.

“I want to be part of you,” he whispered. “I want forever with you.”

“Yes, yes…” She tried to hold him with her arms and legs, wrapping him in her supple strength.

He entered her slowly, and where there had been soreness before, there was now only pleasure at the exquisite inner pressure of his body filling hers. Easing deeper in patient degrees, he resisted her efforts to hurry him. Daisy writhed and fought to take him in, panting in excitement and exertion, moaning as he caught her h*ps in her hands and forced her to be still.

“Easy…” His voice was wickedly soft. “Just a little patience.”

She needed all of him, now. Her body was throbbing, her nerves brimming with sensation. “Please…” Her mouth ached for the pressure of his, until she could barely form words. “I c-can’t just lie here while you—”

“Yes you can.”

He held torturously still inside her while his hands coasted over her body in artful investigation. Daisy twisted restlessly beneath him, her desire rising with each persuasive caress, her moans absorbed in the sensuous play of his lips. With every shift of his hardness inside her the heat danced higher, brighter, and she arched into him tightly, lifting against his weight.

Matthew relented with a muffled laugh, taking control of the rhythm as he courted her with long strokes. His body scalded hers, invading and pleasuring relentlessly. “There’s no hurry, Daisy.” His voice became husky and thick. “No reason to…yes, just like that…sweet love, yes…” His head dropped over her shoulder, his breath striking her skin. The muscles in his arms bulged as he sank his fingers into the ground on either side of her, as if he could secure them both to the earth.

Daisy felt like a wild creature, pinned against the grass by the primal rhythm of his hips. Her body caught and retained a tense arch, all her flesh seeking his, her senses focused on the shuddering satisfaction that began where their bodies were joined, spreading outward to the tips of her fingers and toes.

Matthew reached his own pinnacle, his body trembling in the slender circle of her arms. And as he laid his head on her chest, his breath fanning rapidly over her breast, the current of delight hummed through the place where she still clasped him.

Daisy knew he loved her…she could feel it in every thump of his heartbeat as it pressed against her. He had admitted it to Westcliff, and to Lillian, but for some reason he had not told Daisy herself.

To Daisy, love was not an emotion that should be approached in careful degrees. She wanted to throw herself into it wholeheartedly, with trust and pure honesty…things Matthew was apparently not ready for.

But someday, she promised herself, there would be no barriers between them. Someday…

CHAPTER 16

The Stony Cross May Day festival had been celebrated for centuries, beginning as a pagan celebration of the end of winter and the return of the soil’s fertility. It had evolved into a three-day event that included games, feasting, dancing, and every imaginable revelry.

Local gentry, farmers and townspeople all mingled freely during the festival, despite the protests from clergy and other conservative-minded people who said that the May Day festival was nothing but an excuse to indulge in fornication and public drunkenness. As Lillian remarked slyly to Daisy, it seemed the louder the complaints about the sins that occurred on May Day, the higher the attendance rate.

The oval village green was lit with torches. Farther off a massive bonfire sent gigantic plumes of smoke up to the cloud-weighted sky. It had been overcast all day, the air thick with humidity and charged with the promise of a storm to come. Luckily, however, the storm seemed to be kept in restraint by the pagan deities, and the festivities were taking place as planned.