Such things were beyond him, apparently.
He knew when she climaxed, because she closed her thighs on his head in an apparent attempt to smother him, and thrashed and howled and raked at his scalp with her nails.
And he gloried in it.
She had barely recovered when he fought free, levered over her and flipped her onto her belly. Then, with hard fingers on the flesh of her hips, he lifted her, found her entrance and drove home.
Thankfully, her howl was muffled by the coverlet, else Bronson might have thought he was killing her.
Her body was so wet, so tight, so utterly perfect, he nearly lost consciousness with the pleasure of it. But that would have been a crime. He was determined to experience the fullness of this woman, this joining.
Dev fucked her, hard and wild, a passionate pummeling that drove them both higher and higher. She came again, which nearly destroyed him, but he held the disaster off by remaining still as her body closed on him in manic spasms.
He was determined to make this last and he tightened his body to resist the oncoming tide.
The sound of flesh slapping flesh filled the room, echoed off the walls, conjoined with their cries and sighs and pleas.
Shards of dizzying ecstasy stabbed him with each thrust, shivers of glory walked up his spine and heat coursed in his veins. His pulse pounded in a thundering tattoo. Lights swirled before his eyes. His breath came out in hard pants as he drove her, drove himself closer and closer to the precipice.
When she cried out and came again, he could no longer hold back. His body took over, leaving his mind far behind, but he was aware of a brilliance rising in him like a wave, taking him, subsuming him and catapulting him into a sea of bliss.
She came with him, meeting his thrusts with those of her own, matching his cries with hers. They were together in this, utterly together. But it was not only a physical thing, a co-mingling of flesh. It was something more.
Something he’d never known before.
Something that should have frightened him, but did not.
He collapsed beside her as he recovered, his lungs working like a bellows. She rolled onto her side and caught his gaze, flashing him a grin.
“I liked that too,” she said.
He opened his arms. “Come here.”
And this time, she did.
She curled up against him and toyed with the hair on his chest and made a noise that might have been a sigh…but it wasn’t.
With a trickle of amusement, he realized she was humming.
He peered down at her. “Are you humming?”
“Am I?”
“I do believe so.”
“Oh. Sorry. I do that sometimes, when I am happy.”
“I don’t mind in the least.” And then, “Are you happy?”
“I am.”
Yes. He was happy too. Perhaps that was what the strange, unfamiliar feeling was.
Happiness.
How discomfiting.
It was completely at odds with the whole of his experience.
Other than his mother, no one had ever made him “happy.” No one had ever really tried.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about it, so he ignored his disquiet and simply enjoyed holding her.
“I’d always wondered,” she murmured.
He wrapped a finger in one of her curls. “Wondered what?”
“Why people did it. You know, when it was painful.”
Ah. That. “Was it painful?”
She popped up and braced herself on his chest. “Not in the least.” There was a tinge of surprise and delight on her face.
“I’m glad.”
“Me too.” She huffed a breath and dropped back down on him, a wonderful weight. “I see now why people become foolish enough to fall in love and get married.”
He didn’t understand the annoyance that slashed him at her words. Falling in love was foolish. And as for marriage, he’d never given it much thought, other than to accept it probably wasn’t for him. He’d always been far too independent to conjoin his life with another’s. And poor. He’d been too poor to consider it.
“People wed for many reasons, I suppose.”
“You’re right. Charles wanted me to marry for money.”
Dev stilled. “For money?” The Paddington fortune was beyond dispute.
But Tildy snorted. “Charles has been gambling.”
Oh blast. The scourge of young bucks.
“He hasn’t lost the estate yet, but the creditors have come knocking.”
“Is that why he decided to marry you off?”
“I suppose. Or to make sure I was taken care of when the floor caves in.” Another sigh. He longed to comfort her, but didn’t know how. “But I cannot marry a man I do not desire. Especially now.”
“Why especially now?” But he knew.
She grinned up at him. “Because now I know how good it can be.”
“Ah! So you desire me?” Of course she did.
“The instant I set eyes on you, I felt it.”
“That soon?”
“Did you desire me the instant you set eyes on me?”
“You looked like a drowned rat.”
She put out a lip. “So you didn’t?”
“I absolutely did.”
“Even though I looked like a downed rat?”