Miss Winthorpe's Elopement (Belston & Friends #1)(57)
He looked up at her, still standing where he had left her, the firelight outlining her body through the lawn of her chemise. She was watching him. Her eyes travelled slowly over his body. He could feel her gaze, like the touch of fingers, on his shoulders, his chest, his stomach and lower. Then she removed her glasses, holding them tightly in her hand, and closed her eyes.
He stood up and took them from her. ‘Would you like me to put out the lights?’
‘Please.’
He set them on the table beside the bed and blew out the candles, one by one, until the room was lit only by the fire. ‘There. Now we are both a bit blind, and there is nothing to be afraid of. Remove your shift, and climb into bed.’ He removed his trousers, hung them over a nearby chair, then threw back the covers and climbed in himself.
She waited until he was settled, and then quickly stripped off the last of her clothing, draping it over the end of the bed and going around to her side. Her movements were slow and sure, for she had believed him when he said he was near blind. But he could see her well enough: the hair, pale as moonlight, trying and failing to hide her full breasts, slim waist and soft, round hips.
She climbed into the bed, and he threw the covers back over her and pulled her close to bring her forehead to his lips. She trembled a little and so he said, ‘Do not worry. I will do nothing tonight that will alarm you. We can wait until we are home to be more intimate. But I wish very much to touch you.’
‘And kiss me again?’
‘Once or twice.’
‘I would like that. Very much.’ And she turned her open mouth to his.
He kept his movements slow and gentle. His tongue stroked hers and traced the edge of her teeth, and his hands massaged her neck and her shoulders, making her muscles relax and her body melt into his. He let his hands slide lower down her back, and cupped her to him as he thrust his tongue into her mouth.
Instinctively, she parted her thighs and tried to get closer still, until he had to stop for a moment, to remind himself that he meant to go slowly, and not take what she was offering.
He pushed away from her, rolling her on to her back, and she moaned, reaching to bring him close to her again. He pulled himself up to kneel between her parted legs, and let the covers fall away so that he could watch her as he played with her breasts. If she had been shy of him before, she had forgotten it, and looked up at him with love-drugged eyes as he stroked her, catching her lip between her teeth as he teased her nipples, and stroking her own hands up the sides of her body to squeeze his hands on her, encouraging him to be less gentle.
He took her permission and kneaded and pinched, until she was writhing on the bed, her hips bucking as her body begged to be loved. The sight was making him dizzy with lust and painfully hard.
He fell upon her then, pushing her body back on to the bed, and burying his face against her breasts, letting his teeth do what his fingers had, and sliding his hands between her legs to stroke her, gripping her thighs and spreading them wider, sliding his thumbs up to part the hair and find her most sensitive places. He could feel her heart, beating under his cheek, and waited until he was sure that it must be near bursting it was so loud. And he lifted his face from her breast and swore to her that it would be ever like this between them, if she would trust him and let him love her as she deserved. Then he thrust, filling her with his fingers.
She was hot and tight, and he imagined the feeling of sliding into her body, night after night, and waking to her sweet smile, day after day, knowing that she would always belong to him. And he heard her cry out and collapse against his hand, sated.
He released her and slipped up her body to kiss her upon the mouth again, and she gasped and laughed. ‘That was magnificent.’
He rolled off her, and said, ‘That was just the beginning. Here, turn over and let me do up your hair.’
‘My hair?’
‘To give me something else to do with you.’ He reached out and pulled the length into a messy braid. Then he wrapped it around her to tease her breasts with the end. ‘For if I do the things I am thinking of, we will get no sleep at all, and you will have a most uncomfortable ride tomorrow.’
She yawned. ‘That sounds very wicked.’ And then she settled back into him, grinding her hips against him, and driving him one step closer to insanity. ‘But I am very tired. Perhaps you may show me tomorrow.’ She yawned again. ‘I think I shall very much want to reclaim my garter.’
‘I sincerely hope so.’ And he lay back against the pillows and cradled his wife’s body to him for a night of delicious agony.
Chapter Seventeen
The next day, Penny watched her husband dozing on the other side of the carriage. He said he had not slept well, but he did not seem overly bothered by the fact.
She, on the other hand, had had an excellent night’s sleep. Her body could remember every kiss and every touch from the previous evening, and it woke hungry for more. The feeling was aggravated by the gentle rocking of the carriage. She was excited enough by the prospect of the new home that her husband had described to her. But the nearness of him, and the promise that they would be alone together from now on, left her nearly overcome.
Adam started awake, and looked out of the window, smiling and pointing to a marker that he said indicated the edge of his property.
He leaned his head out of the window of the carriage, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. Then he looked sheepishly back at her. ‘You will find it embarrassingly sentimental of me, I’m sure. But I find that the air smells sweeter in Wales than anywhere in England. And is not the quality of the sunshine brighter than that in the city?’