The firelight was blocked by his broad shoulders, casting a vast shadow that completely enveloped the Princess in his breath and his silhouette.
A powerful feeling of being captured, suppressed, with nowhere to escape, drowned the Princess.
His scorching, urgent breaths were like wind carrying sparks, gusting over and over against the sensitive hollow of her neck and collarbones.
The new, coarse stubble on his chin scraped, whether intentionally or not, against the most delicate skin of her neck, bringing shivers that mixed slight pain with a strange tingling numbness, making her scalp prickle.
His kisses were no longer the light touches from before, filled with cherishing and tenderness.
They had become clearly predatory bites and suckles, winding all the way down along her slender neck, lingering in the hollow of her collarbone, leaving one damp, scalding mark after another. Every kiss was like a stamp, declaring his ownership; every suck carried a devouring heat, igniting unfamiliar flames beneath her skin.
Desire had completely taken command of this young and powerful body, and it had clouded those eyes that had once been clear and resolute.
Karl began dealing with the delicate, complicated silk ties on the front of the Princess's nightgown eagerly, even with a trace of roughness.
His fingers were a little clumsy from excitement, yet extraordinarily persistent, and his breathing grew heavier and hotter, spilling over the Princess's chest and raising a fine layer of gooseflesh.
"No..." When the first tie was pulled open and cool air suddenly invaded, the Princess finally recovered a trace of voice from the numbness brought on by the double impact of desire and shock.
That voice was weak, trembling, and choked with tears, more like an instinctive, powerless whimper.
She began pushing at his solid chest with those pitifully slender arms of