Again the Magic (Wallflowers 0.5)(82)

“Presumptuous indeed,” Livia told him with mock sternness, holding the sheath in the palm of her hand.

“Have you ever seen one before?”

“No, although I’ve heard of them.” Her blush heightened. “It seems like an odd idea…and not especially romantic.”

“Neither is an unwanted pregnancy,” Gideon said frankly, pulling back the covers as he joined her on the bed. “I wouldn’t mind getting you with child, but not if you’re unwilling.”

The thought of carrying his baby…Livia looked away from him, unable to keep from wishing for things that seemed likely never to happen. Gideon brought her beneath the bed linens with him and kissed her gently. “Do you want to try it this way?”

“I suppose so,” Livia said doubtfully, holding the rolled-up sheath up to the lamplight and staring through the near-transparent membrane.

She felt Gideon shake with suppressed laughter. “It won’t hurt,” he said. “And you may appreciate the fact that when a man wears one of these, it takes much longer for him to cl**ax.”

“Does it? Why? Because you can’t feel as much?”

“That’s right.” He smiled wryly. “Rather like trying to eat supper through a table napkin.”

Livia gave him the sheath. “Don’t wear this, then, and we’ll do it the usual way.”

Gideon shook his head decisively. “I don’t trust myself to do that anymore. It’s becoming impossible to withdraw at the moment that I most want to stay inside you. Here…help me put it on. You should try everything at least once, I always say.”

Bashfully Livia followed his murmured instructions and unrolled it along the taut length of his erection, adjusting it to form a shallow pocket at the head. “It seems rather tight,” she said.

“It’s supposed to fit this way, or it will slide off.”

Letting go of him, she lay back on the mattress. “Now what?”

“Now,” he said, his body covering hers, “I’m going to make love to you the way I’ve imagined doing for five nights.”

Livia’s eyes half-closed as his head lowered to her br**sts, his tongue swirling in intricate patterns over her skin. He took her nipple into his mouth and worried it gently with his teeth and licked until it was engorged and darkened. Then he moved to her other breast, treating it in a similar fashion until she was moaning and writhing beneath him. He made love to her with tender skill, attentive to every twitch and shiver of response. Pausing briefly, Gideon reached for something at the bedside. She heard him fumble with the lid of a jar, and then his hand slid between her thighs to distribute a satiny film of cream. His gentle fingertip slid through the soft folds, then circled the entrance of her body.

“Gideon,” she said in agitation, “I’m ready now.”

He smiled as he continued to play idly with her. “You’re too impatient.”

“I’m impatient because I’m ready…oh, why do you always have to take so much time?”

“Because I love to torment you.” He bent to kiss her throat, while his fingertips combed through the wet thatch of curls. Willing herself to endure the teasing exploration, Livia reached upward to the spindles of the headboard and gripped the hard, slender cylinders of wood. Gideon knelt between her thighs and applied more of the slippery unguent, his fingers reaching deep inside her.

Livia was finally reduced to begging. “Gideon, please do it now, please…”

Her words were cut off as he entered her carefully, filling her until she groaned in relief. “Is it all right?” Gideon asked, bracing his forearms on either side of his head. “It’s not uncomfortable, is it?”

Livia pushed up at him for answer, her body teeming with pleasure. Smiling down at her passion-taut features, Gideon rested his thumb lightly on the sensitive bud of her sex, and stroked her as he began to move in deep, rocking thrusts, and she was lost in a tide of bliss…

“Livia,” he said a long time later, cuddling her against his chest while he played with the fine locks of her hair. “What if I decide not to return to New York?”

Her mind went blank. Wondering if he had just said what she thought he had said, she got up from bed and lit a lamp. Gideon remained on his side, the sheet draped loosely over his hips.

Returning to bed, Livia rolled to face him and pulled the sheet up beneath her arms. “You’re thinking of staying in London?” she asked. “For how long?”

“At least a year. I would run the London office and develop business for us on the continental market. I would be as useful here as I would be in New York, if not more so.”

“But your entire family is in New York.”

“Another good reason to stay here,” Gideon said dryly. “It has become clear that a period of separation will be to their benefit as well as mine. I’m tired of acting as the family patriarch—they can damned well learn to muddle through things on their own.”

“What about the foundries, and your business properties—”

“I’m giving McKenna the authority to make any and all decisions in my absence. He’s proven that he’s ready for the responsibility—and I trust him more than I do my own brothers.”

“I thought you didn’t like London.”