The almost full moon pulled the earth around, climbed the clouds, and slid down the other side, to the west. The dawn peepings of birds stirred upon the pinkening, silver air.

A sleeping man rolled over and settled his face against a fair, warm arm. A sleeping woman pulled her pillow into the deep curve of her shoulder, bent a bare knee toward her nose.

The man snored lightly and shifted onto his stomach, and a lock of silver hair caught in his nose, fluttering as he breathed, tickling him distractingly.

The edge of a long, tanned hand scratched at his nose, tried to brush the nuisance away. But his breath fluttered it again, still caught, still tickling. He snuffled, then roused, felt something warm covering his fingers, and opened his eyes groggily to see what it was.

His wife.

He grinned at the sight of a single rose-tipped breast half covering the back of his hand. Her other breast was buried beneath her, she too was half on her belly, one knee drawn up high, presenting a beautifully turned hip, but hiding her feminine secrets.

He smiled crookedly. She likes to hog the bed, he thought, looking at all the space she had taken and how she had somehow pushed him in their sleep far to the edge. How adorable is that. Her little habits were what he loved most about her.

The smile dissolved from his face as he remembered how she had cried last night. He carefully extracted his hand, rolled onto his side, and braced his jaw on a palm.

His eyes leisurely traveled the length of her, several times. Tiny toes, delicate ankles, shapely calves. He remembered glimpsing them before, but never as freely as this. Her hip was round, and her waist femininely lean.

Tens of memories flitted through his mind of the time he had been barely conscious in Nightshade. Viola, you saved my life. Viola, I made you cry. Viola, I must leave soon.

He looked at the window where pink-gray light crept over the side of the drawn, thick curtains and suddenly felt an emptiness unlike any he had ever felt when leaving a woman’s bed.

Last night’s pleasures, for him, had been different from anything he’d ever experienced before, yet his body sprang to life now at the sight of her, an insatiable hunger roared into him. He leaned to drop a light kiss on her ribs, then on that pale hip. He placed a much more lingering one in the curve of her waist.

A small hand came down and swatted unconsciously at him. Then she flopped over, facing away from him, with her top leg pulled up high as before.

His heart went crazy and moisture erupted on his brow. She was small, exquisite and, innocent, she had no idea of how maddening his desire for her ran.

He released a pent-up breath and slid down low on the bed, ran his tongue along the soft parts of her, closed his eyes and breathed against her skin, knowing he was probably taking unfair advantage right now while she slept, but he couldn’t stop himself, he was so deeply aroused that his body felt it would burst.

Her skin tasted sweet, and smooth like daisies and maybe a little of himself and it drove him wild. He followed the contour of her leg, his hair brushing against her thigh, recalling how he had almost exploded when he slid into her warm, sleek sex.

It felt almost inevitable after the weeks of growing intimacy between them, like something that had been building quietly all along.

He kissed her everywhere but found himself avoiding the one spot he wanted to taste the, waiting for her to wake up so that he could kiss it, too. He traced the ridges of her body, the firmness of her hip, her thighs, ass, calves.

She stirred awake when he lightly bit her and with a start she looked back over her shoulder at the man behind her, biting her, making her dream of a rat licking and nibbling at her.

Vague, predawn light caught in his silver, aroused eyes as he braced up and searched her face for permission to continue what he had been doing to her while she slept.

His face still carried the sexiness of sleep and his lips were holding a faint gorgeous smile. Her eyes were drawn to it, sensing that those lips had just explored her skin in every part she felt warm and moist. Her startled eyes lifted to meet the dark swirling pools of silver, and she couldn’t believe the kind of need bordering on agony she found in his scorching gaze. She would have never imagined a man could feel this kind of raging passion if she hadn’t felt it just from his gaze. It made her heart leap and her pulse thundered in anticipation.

"S-Seb?" she stammered softly. Slowly she eased her leg down, realizing how seductive her pose had been and that he had undoubtedly been awake for some time biting and_was it licking?_her body. What was he, Zoe’s dog?

"Y... you woke me up." She murmured, looking at him and trying to hide the light blush coloring her face.

"I meant to, love," he whispered, holding her captive with his gaze.

She rolled backward slightly, bracing up on her elbow, his eyes dropped to the peak of her breast, which curved into view, then return to her face.

She felt his warm palm travel from the small of her back, around her ass, along the back of her calf, gently tucking her knee back up as it had been before. And all the while his eyes never left hers.

"I want to know your body like a man should know his woman’s body, amor." He breathed.

She suddenly became sharply aware of all the places where her body was wet, where his tongue had trailed as she slept, where her skin now cooled as it dried.

She shivered involuntarily, then slowly hid her breast behind her upper arm, not quite knowing how to hide the rest of her, or if she wanted to even hide it from him.

Mesmerized by the raw hunger burning in his gaze, Viola watched in fascination as Sebastian dipped his head to her hip. His eyes slid closed in pleasure as he pressed hot, open-mouthed kisses along the pale curve of her skin. A deep, rumbling groan of passion vibrated from his throat.