All About Seduction(83)
“As ready as I’ll ever be. ” Her voice sounded too shrill in the room.
“Ah, I’ve been ready since I saw you at the top of the stairs. You’re very tempting to look upon.”
He seemed comfortable with his words in the night. The low rasp of his voice curled around and touched a part of her that wanted more than this business arrangement. On shaking legs she stood and stepped closer to the bed. She no longer trusted her voice to sound normal.
Jack’s dark eyes watched her as he sat, bunching the muscles in his stomach, showing their form as they moved under his tight skin. He pushed the covers down to his thighs and exposed his instrument.
Caroline gasped. His thick shaft seemed much too large.
The back of her legs cramped as he lay back down, moved his hands away from his sides and gripped the mattress ticking beneath him.
Jack waited for Caroline to do more than stare with widened eyes. His body was eager, even as he wondered how pleasurable the sex could be for her when she treated it as only a means to the end of getting pregnant.
Caroline averted her face and stood still as a statue.
He sensed that patience would be of paramount importance. She seemed a woman who would need to be awakened slowly. To move too fast would be to risk losing her. And he could be patient, but this was all backward. Yet, he hoped he could turn it around, but he only had a day or so to get her to stop dreading their encounters. Whatever had gone on between her and Broadhurst, she was still naive and uncertain.
But as time stretched thin, he could see the war within her. That she wanted to flee was obvious.
The long case clock in the entry hall began to chime, its sound faint this far away. He silently counted, one, two, three. But the tolling of the bell jerked Caroline out of her stupor.
She gathered up the nightshirt to mid-thigh and put one knee on the mattress. Jack clutched the mattress under him tighter, resisting the urge to guide her as she swung over to straddle him.
The coolness of her inner leg against the searing heat of his skin startled him. She was poised above him as if afraid to bring their privates together.
He tilted up and brought the covers over her legs. “You’re cold.”
She made a small squeak and nodded. Then she brought her warm woman’s core against his pelvis. Gasping, he grasped the covers, wanting to touch her but honoring her demands.
The moment he had dreamed about and fantasized about was here, except as she moved it became an awkward farce as he fought to keep his hands to himself. Had he ever attempted this position without using his hand to guide his cock into a woman?
He tilted his hips back to give her a better angle, and then she was pushing onto him, her face a mask of concentration. His foreskin pulled back and back. If he hadn’t been so keyed up, it would have hurt. Instead it was a grating raw sensation. But if he was feeling discomfort, she had to be in pain. She was no more ready for him than he was ready to run a mile.
Disappointment and alarm cooled his blood. “Stop.”
She twisted her eyes wide, but pain etched her forehead. “Am I hurting you?”
“I’m hurting you. You aren’t ready for me.” No, she was dry as a desert. His hands hovered at her hips, ready to hold her pelvis against his until she had time to adjust.
She shook her head and shifted apart a little. “It always hurts.”
“It shouldn’t.” A rush of concern and anger burned through him. Had her husband never seen to her comfort?
She cast him a skeptical glance and then turned her head to the side. “We don’t have much time. The servants start stirring by four.”
She raised her bottom to begin the in and out. Excitement warred with his image of himself. He didn’t hurt women—at least not physically.
He lifted his hips to stay joined with her. “A minute won’t make a difference.”
But she was concentrating on moving, and damn, he’d looked forward to joining with her too long to be oblivious to the sensations. He groaned.
Only, as she moved in a jerky fashion, he was far too aware that she was trying to hide her pain. Her choice to not lean down on him made it possible to view her expression no matter how much she looked away. In the past he’d had his share of awkward moments, but this was beyond them.
She not only didn’t like it, she hated it. But she wanted a baby, and he’d offered to provide one for her. His breastbone ached as he tried to concentrate on the sensations, but he couldn’t entirely block her distress. Yet, he’d promised her she didn’t have to pretend.