A Whisper of Disgrace(31)
‘Definitely,’ she said truthfully, and it was obviously the right thing to say, for he gave a satisfied nod before picking her up in his arms and carrying her over to the bed.
She felt the soft mattress dip beneath their combined weight, and as he lowered his head to kiss her, she was aware of his practised fingers removing her underclothes until she was as naked as he was. He kissed her with a passion which left her breathless—as if he was making up for lost time, and under the sweet and relentless torment of his tongue, Rosa moaned with pleasure.
His hand was on her breast, his fingers tiptoeing their way down over her belly, and suddenly her own hands were exploring him and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. She revelled in the hard planes and muscular lines of his body, which were so different to the fleshy contours of her own. She thought about what had happened on the plane and she wasn’t sure how fast these things were supposed to move, but they seemed to be happening very fast indeed. For a moment Kulal pulled away from her to tear open a little foil packet which was lying on top of a cabinet next to the bed—and maybe he saw her confusion because in the midst of stroking it on, he gave a satisfied smile.
‘I told you that I had everything prepared for our honeymoon.’
He moved over her and she could feel the wetness between her thighs and the slight resistance as he started to push inside her. For a moment he stilled and she prayed that he wasn’t going to stop, so she sank her lips against his shoulder and grazed at his skin with her teeth. And the simple gesture seemed to flick a switch somewhere deep inside him as, with a low growl, he began to move.
It wasn’t anything like how she’d thought it would be. She hadn’t realised that it would feel so … intimate. That the joining of their flesh would make her feel so incredibly close to him. She was pliant in his arms, content to let him lead and to learn from him, so that when he lifted up her thighs she wrapped them around his back. And when his hands slid beneath her buttocks to pull her even closer, she gasped aloud at the sensation of his deeper penetration.
She knew what an orgasm felt like, but the one she experienced now was magnified by the sensation of Kulal deep inside her body and his mouth exploring hers in the most sensual of kisses, his fingers tangling luxuriously in her hair. Sensation ripped through her like a forest fire as every pore of her body seemed alive with a blissful kind of awareness. She felt her back arching helplessly beneath him and dug her nails into his back as the incredible spasms ripped through her. It took a while before she opened her eyes to find him watching her, black eyes narrowed with every sweet thrust he made. And then those eyes became wild and hectic, his movements increasing before he made a guttural cry and slowly came to a shuddering rest on top of her.
For a while she felt dizzy and overcome by the most delicious wave of torpor. Her fingers crept up to his shoulders and began lazily to knead at the flesh there. She wished that she could capture that moment and bottle it, knowing that if she could it would sustain her for the rest of her life.
‘You were a virgin,’ he said at last, breaking the silence.
‘Yes.’ A pause. She prayed that would be enough because she didn’t want to break this delectable mood, but his dark eyes were hard and questioning and, reluctantly, she shrugged. ‘I told you that on the plane.’
Kulal rolled away from the cushioned curves of her body and shook his head. He remembered the first time he’d ever had sex, at the age of sixteen—and afterwards the palace maid had given him a hand-rolled cigarette. He remembered the way the rough tobacco had scorched its way down into his lungs and he had never smoked since, but now he found himself wishing that he could inhale some of that sickly sweet smoke and make himself dizzy.
‘I didn’t believe you,’ he said slowly. ‘You certainly didn’t act like an innocent.’
‘Blame the drink.’
‘And what else do I blame, Rosa? Or should that be “who”?’ He lifted her chin with his finger and the green and gold flecks in the depths of her eyes looked bright and vivid. He saw the uncertainty which flickered across her face, that strange vulnerability which appeared when you least expected it, and he shook his head in disbelief. ‘You’re twenty-three years old and you’ve never had sex with a man before today?’
‘I thought we’d just established that.’
‘I’m asking why.’
‘And do you always subject your lovers to questioning, straight after …’ She thought about how best to phrase it. She knew that people called it ‘making love,’ but there’d been no love involved in what had just happened, had there? ‘Straight after having sex with them?’ she finished baldly.