Weddings of the Century: A Pair of Wedding Novellas(50)
Her head tilted and the heavy tiara pulled loose and fell to the carpet, jerking sharply at her hair. When she winced, his crushing grip eased and he began stroking her head with one hand. His deft fingers found and soothed the hurt. She didn’t realize that he was also removing the pins until coils of hair cascaded over her shoulders.
He buried his face in the silken mass, and she felt the beating of his heart and the soft exhalation of his breath against her cheek. “Dear God, Sunny!” he said with anguish. “You are so beautiful. So painfully beautiful.”
Yet his expression was harsh when he straightened and turned her so that her back was to him. First he unhooked her sapphire necklace, throwing it aside as if it was a piece of cut-glass trumpery. Then he started to unfasten her gown.
She opened her mouth to object, but before she could, he pressed his mouth to the side of her throat. With lips and tongue, he found sensitivities she hadn’t known she possessed. As he trailed tiny, nibbling kisses down her neck and along her shoulder, she released her breath in a shuddering sigh, all thoughts of protest chased from her mind. Potent awareness curled through her, pooling hotly in unmentionable places.
When the gown was undone, he pushed it off her shoulders and down her arms. The rough warmth of his fingers made an erotic contrast to the cool silk that skimmed her flesh in a feather-light caress, then slithered in a rush to the floor, leaving her in her under things. Instinctively she raised her hands to cover her breasts, stammering, “Th-this is highly improper.”
“You have forfeited the right to talk about propriety.” He untied her layered crinolette petticoat and dragged it down around her ankles. Then he began unlacing her blue satin corset. Stays were a lady’s armor against impropriety, and she stood rigidly still, horribly aware that every inch of her newly liberated flesh burned with life and longing.
Then, shockingly, he slid his hands under the loose corset and cupped her breasts, using his thumbs to tease her nipples through the thin fabric of her chemise. It was like the time he had caressed her when he thought her asleep, but a thousand times more intense. Unable to suppress her reaction, she shuddered and rolled her hips against him.
“You like that, my lady trollop?” he murmured in her ear.
She wanted to deny it but couldn’t. Her limbs weakened and she wilted against him, mindlessly reveling in the waves of sensation that flooded through her. The firm support of his broad chest, the silken tease of his tongue on the edge of her ear, the exquisite pleasure that expanded from her breasts to encompass her entire being, coiling tighter and tighter deep inside her....
She did not come to her senses until he tossed aside her corset and turned her to face him. Horrified by her lewd response and her near nakedness, she stumbled away from the pile of crumpled clothing and retreated until her back was to the wall. “I have never shirked my wifely duty,” she said feebly, “but this... this isn’t right!”
“Tonight, right is what I say it is.” His implacable gaze holding hers, he stripped off his own clothing with brusque, impatient movements. “And this time, I will have you naked and in the light.”
She could not take her eyes away as he removed his formal garments to reveal the hard, masculine body beneath. The well-defined muscles that rippled beneath his skin. The dark hair that patterned his chest and arrowed down his belly. And the arrogant male organ, which she had felt but never seen.
She stared for an instant both mortified and fascinated, then blushed violently and closed her eyes. No wonder decent couples had marital relations in the dark, for the sight of a man’s body was profoundly disturbing.
A Vienna waltz was playing in the distance. She had trouble believing that under this same roof hundreds of people were laughing and flirting and playing society’s games. Compared to the devastating reality of Justin, the outside world had no more substance than shadows.
Even with her eyes closed, she was acutely aware of his nakedness when he drew her into his arms again, surrounding her with heat and maleness. Her breath came rapid and irregular as he peeled away the last frail protection of chemise, drawers and stockings. His fingers left trails of fire as they brushed her limbs and torso.
She inhaled sharply when he swept her into his arms and laid her across the bed, his taut frame pinning her to the mattress. Though she tried to control her shameful reactions, she moaned with pleasure when his mouth claimed her breast with arrant carnality.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not lie still as he caressed and kissed and tasted her, the velvet stroke of his tongue driving her to madness. His masterful touch abraded away every layer of decorum until she no longer remembered, or cared, how a lady should act. In the shameless turmoil of intimacy, she was tinder to his flame.
She was lovely beyond his dreams, and everything about her intoxicated him. The haunting lure of wild violets, her tangled sun-struck hair, the lush eroticism of removing layer after layer of clothing until finally her flawless body was revealed. Her lithe, feminine grace wrenched his heart.
Yet side by side with tenderness, he found savage satisfaction in her choked whimpers of pleasure. His wife might be a duchess and a lady, but for tonight, at least, she was a woman, and she was his.
This time there would be no need of lotion to ease their joining. She was hotly ready, and she writhed against his hand as he caressed the moist, delicate folds of female flesh. Her moan gave him a deep sense of masculine pride, dissolving the aching emptiness he had known in their inhibited marriage bed.