It was not merely seduction. He felt it as an attempt at dominance, and his immediate instinct was to throw her off. He had to resist the need to use his greater weight to roll her beneath him and teach her who was master.
But Cassidy began to kiss him, and his struggles vanished in waves of pleasure. Her kisses fell like gentle rain on his brow, his eyelids, his cheekbones, his chin. If she mastered him this one time in love play, it was by means he had no will to resist.
She made him feel. Sight was unnecessary. Cassidy made him forget he’d ever possessed that sense, that he was less than whole, perfect, without it. His entire body took the place of his eyes.
Taking obvious delight in his reactions, Cassidy worked her way down the column of his neck and licked the hollow below his collarbone. She rubbed her cheeks and hair across his chest, all but purring. Her slightly callused palms made light circles on his belly, each circle lower than the one before.
His nerves sang with anticipation of the most intimate touch, but again she surprised him. Surprise was far too faint a word. Her mouth closed over him, and he nearly shot up from the bed.
Milena had done that often, and well. He hadn’t expected it of Cassidy. But her explorations were filled as much with curiosity and wonder as with the wish to please him. She made the private caress her own. He held himself still on the bed, fighting to keep from taking her then and there.
But she wasn’t done with surprises. She moved above him, straddling him with her thighs to either side of his, and cupped his face in her hands.
“Is it all right… if we try it this way?” she asked.
He bit off a mildly mad laugh. “Yes,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
She needed no further encouragement. Her moist heat eased down to enfold him, and she braced her hands on his shoulders. He moved, urging her into the same rhythm. He massaged her breasts, felt the tension in her arms and back as she rode him. She was strong, and beautiful, and he had nothing to fear.
It was a strange thought, and it fled his mind instantly. Cassidy leaned over, brushing her nipples across his chest and veiling him in a curtain other thick hair.
He couldn’t hold back. He lost himself, but she followed an instant later, breathing a deep sigh of fulfillment against his mouth.
“That was nice,” she said, “Wasn’t it?”
He pulled her flat atop him and kissed away the perspiration on her brow. “More than nice,” he said, and meant it.
She nestled her head in the curve of his shoulder. “There must be… lots of ways we haven’t tried yet.”
How could she fail to notice that his body was readying itself for another experiment? “Perhaps,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck. This was the time to explain, when they were both content with the lassitude of repletion.
“Cassidy—”
“I hope we can make a baby,” she said, her voice muffled. “Our baby I’d like that, Braden.”
His throat grew very tight. “We’ve only just married.”
“I know… that’s what you always planned, for me and Quentin. But I want one, with you. Your child.” She stroked his chest. “I still have a lot to learn, but—”
“Cassidy.” He gripped her arms. “I owe you the truth about myself.”
“Braden—if it’s about Mikhail—”
“It is, but not in the way you think. Mikhail… is not my son.”
She sat up. “Not your son?”
“I will never be a father. I am… incapable of siring a child, Cassidy. Do you understand?”
Her breath stopped for too many heartbeats. “But… Mikhail—”
“He was Milena’s child,” he said roughly. “Not mine.” Bile was acrid in his mouth. “A human did what I could not.”
“A human?”
“Milena and I were together for almost six years. In all that time, the only child she carried was another man’s. Do you know what a bastard is?”
“It means that the child’s mother and father weren’t married.”
She knew that much more of life than he expected. “Yes. Milena was still married to me when she had the human’s baby.”