As the Devil Dares (Capturing the Carlisles #3)(97)
“I don’t understand,” she whispered, frustrating him to no end because she hadn’t answered him. “You wanted that partnership so much…”
“You were right about my father,” he admitted softly. “I’m never going to be able to prove myself to him. All I can do is live the life he wanted for me, which wasn’t one of wealth and power. He wanted me to be happy, to marry the woman I love and create a safe and loving home for her and our children, just as he’d done for us.” His voice choked. “Marry me, Mariah, and give me that life.”
Her eyes glistened, and he feared she might cry. “You hurt me, Robert,” she whispered, barely a breath on her lips.
“I know.” He soberly tucked a stray ebony curl behind her ear. “I can’t ever make up for that. All I can do is promise that I will never knowingly hurt you again.” He dropped his hand away, his eyes staring pleadingly into hers. “Can you forgive me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
That single word warmed through him. Then she sent his heart somersaulting—
“I will marry you.”
He captured her mouth beneath his as joy filled him, hungrily kissing her with all the love and desire inside him. Her arms wrapped tightly around him, as if she were afraid he might slip away from her even now. But she had nothing to fear. He would never let her go.
“Minx,” he purred, lowering his head to tongue her throat and the pulse beating wildly there.
She whispered as she blinked back tears of happiness, “Make love to me, Robert.”
With a groan of desire, he seized her lips in a blistering kiss, and to his delight, she met his mouth eagerly and with equal passion. He rose up on his knees to strip out of his coat and waistcoat, neckcloth and shirt…Damnation! He would have to leave the bed to remove his boots and breeches, and letting her out of his arms was the last thing he wanted to do.
Before he could move away, Mariah rolled onto her stomach beneath him and gestured toward the row of tiny buttons down her back. “Undress me?”
“Anything you want,” he promised as his fingers worked loose the buttons, only to open the dress to find a stay and chemise beneath. He groaned in frustration. Women wore too many damned layers.
“What I want…is you, Robert,” she panted out. “The only man…I will ever give myself to.”
His cock flexed, already straining hard against the tightly fitted material of his riding breeches. Giving up on attempting to unlace the stays, he grabbed her skirt in his hands and pulled it up her legs, revealing her stockings and smooth stretches of thigh beyond their lace edges, the round curves of her bare buttocks and hips above.
She tensed. “What are you doing?”
“Making love to you,” he answered huskily.
Unable to resist her siren song a moment longer, he slipped his hand between her legs to stroke her from behind. She moaned with a shudder at the unexpected caress.
“That’s nice?” he murmured into her ear as he leaned forward to cover her with his body.
“Oh that’s wonderful,” she sighed as he dared to take another caress, this time deeper than before.
He smiled against her ear, marveling that she was already wet and slippery, her body quivering with arousal. As he fluttered his fingers against her, she shivered and fisted the coverlet in her hands with a whimper. She shifted her hips to spread her legs wider, and he groaned at her wanton invitation. His minx was no passive flower. She was brazen and bold, and he loved her for it.
“Robert,” she whispered and tried to raise her hips from the mattress, in an attempt to roll over to give herself to him.
But he wanted her too badly to wage the war with skirts and breeches that rolling her onto her back would entail. He needed her. Now. He grabbed a pillow and shoved it beneath her hips, raising her bottom into the air.
She glanced warily over her shoulder at him as he unbuttoned his fall and freed himself from the unbearably tight breeches. Her eyes widened as she realized what he intended. “But we— Can we?”
“Deliciously so,” he assured her in a rakish murmur. “Like this.” He gently nudged her thighs apart and settled himself between them, sliding his cock down against her feminine core from behind. He drew a deep breath and lowered his hips, sheathing himself completely in her tight warmth, his hips resting fully against her round buttocks. He groaned against her neck. “Sweet Lucifer…just like this.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he gathered her close beneath him and made a teasing plunge and retreat with his hips. The movement drew a soft oh of surprised pleasure from her and had him longing to stroke inside her like that again. A pulsing sensation cascaded through him, all the way down to his toes curling inside his boots. To be able to hold her this close while being so deep inside her—exquisite.
He whispered her name around the knot of emotion in his throat and placed a delicate kiss between her bare shoulder blades, not ceasing in the gentle rocking of his body into hers.
“Please, Robert,” she pleaded, attempting to wiggle her bottom against him to beg with her body to give her what she needed but not finding enough room. She shook with frustration. “Oh, please…”
With his arms sliding low around her waist to keep her tight against him, he shifted back onto his knees and brought her up onto all fours. She gasped in surprise, then sighed with pleasure as he grasped her hips and stroked powerfully into her.