“Gerald!” Her heart took wing, soaring up. “It’s true? Why did I not know?”
“Because until it takes place, marriage in the aristocracy is a private matter. Elizabeth caused rumors to arise, but it is not the thing to announce the intention. I think a little superstition is mixed in, too, of the counting chickens variety. Publicly we are saying the Duchess of Illington is helping us enter society, and any false rumors of marriage must have arisen from that. I am a free man, Annie.”
“But the trouble it will cause!” The Illingtons were powerful and, by all accounts, vindictive.
“I’ll not concern myself with that now. I’m too happy to care. I didn’t deserve you should take me back, after the way I behaved. I was a knave to take you the first time, but I was under the strongest urges I have ever experienced.”
“Make love to me now.” She was tired; she didn’t want to talk any more.
“You’re sure?”
She gave a ragged laugh. “Nothing else will complete this day.”
The candles nearest them flickered when he tumbled her on to the covers. When she shuddered, he paused. “Are you cold?”
She shook her head. “I want you. That’s all.”
With a low growl, he set about making her his.
When he dragged his shirt over his head, she feasted her eyes on his powerful form. Then she put her hands to work, smoothing her palms over him, working down to the muscle standing proud, red and damp, more than ready for her.
He groaned when she caressed it, stroking down his length. She continued while he whisked her shift off and away.
“Lie down, sweetheart.”
When she did, she expected him to come down on top of her, but instead, he slid on to the bed and lay on his side, facing her. Her breasts tingled and rose to his touch, her nipples sensitively responding. With a groan, he bent and took one into his mouth. She pushed her breast into him, unable to resist his touch and caresses. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she gave herself to him.
While her aches and pains didn’t miraculously disappear, they receded as he adored her with his mouth and hands. He shaped her anew when he slid his hands up her side to cup her breasts, and down to stroke her stomach. She was already wet when he touched her thighs, and she opened to him readily. He slid a finger into her, no resistance meeting his probing.
“You feel wonderful,” he said. “Better than anything I could ever have imagined. Darling Annie, you have no idea how much I want you.”
She laughed in derision. “Do I not? I think I might. It’s the same way for me. I ache for you, my love.”
If he noticed the endearment, he didn’t comment on it, other than to grip the back of her neck and drag her close for a deep, devouring kiss. Still in the kiss, as he was stroking his tongue against hers, rousing her to more pleasure, he lifted her leg and draped it over his firm thigh, bringing their bodies into alignment.
His shaft found her crease, and slid along it, once, twice, until he entered her in a slide of pure bliss.
Thrusting deep, he slid his hand to her bottom and urged her against him, until their intimate hair met and they were joined as one.
The kiss turned lavish, open-mouthed passion replacing his careful caresses. Annie gave as good as she got, sucking on his tongue, groaning as her body opened for him. He withdrew and thrust.
He drove her body into spiky awareness. Thrills coursed through her, intensifying until she cried out into his mouth. Her inner channel gripped his cock as if determined not to let him go.
With a groan he rolled on top of her, urging her on to her back. “I need you,” he muttered before he went back to kissing her, angling his head to taste her from another angle.
He was as good as his word, powering into her as she lifted her legs to wrap them around his waist. Her back arched, and he followed her, curving his body around hers so he could carry on kissing her, his eyes half-closed. She watched him, her body responding to his every caress, his touch. His chest, now damp with sweat, connected with her sensitized nipples with every powerful stroke.
She had thought she was done, but she was wrong. Relentlessly he drove her up again. The ripples of arousal increased until she was crying out with every stroke, heedless of who might hear or what they might think.
At her height, when she could no longer hold back, she cried out, “I love you!” and then her body pulsed and throbbed, as he gasped and stiffened. His muscles stood out in high relief as he released his seed into her.
With a final, deep groan, he shuddered above her. As he collapsed, he curved an arm around her and rolled to one side, bringing her with him so they were still sealed together.