Desires of a Baron (24 page)

He dropped back down to his knees in front of her and hesitantly, brought both of his hands to her bare shoulder and locking eyes with her, trailed his fingers down her soft, pale skin. Excitement built within him as his fingertips moved over the softness of her chest. He reached the peak and she sucked in a breath, making his own catch.
She must like that.
He brushed his thumbs over her nipples again then brought his hands down to the under-curve and tested their weight.

Reluctantly, he released them. With his hands at least. There was little hope of him ever removing his eyes from those two perfect globes.

He moved his hands down her abdomen until his thumb brushed the patch of curly hair just below her waist. He flushed and moved his hands back up her body with a slowness that almost drove him insane as he neared her chest.

With a sureness he didn’t feel, he cupped her perfect mounds of flesh and gave them another gentle squeeze.

She arched her back, pushing them more firmly into his hands. His eyes shot to her face.

She was biting the edge of her lip, her skin flushed.

He squeezed them again, a fraction harder.

Her hands flew to his shoulders, the tips of her fingers digging in. Blood pounding in his ears, he released his hold on her and brought his fingers to the hardened tips. He closed his fingers firmly around the tips, eliciting a gasp from her. He did it again, with a little more pressure and a strangled gasp was her response, her hands gripping his shoulders tighter if such a thing were possible.

Giles released her body and covered her hands with his as he took to his feet. He was considerably taller than her and at his full height her face was somewhere in his chest. For but a moment he wished it was the other way around. Pushing away the thought, he brought his hands back to her chest and idly brushed the tips with his thumbs.

“
Do you like it when I touch you here?” He couldn’t say why, but her answer was important to him.

She relinquished her teeth’s hold on her lip. “Yes, Giles. I like it when you touch my breasts.”

Her words were almost his undoing. He gave her breasts one final squeeze before letting go and taking a step back to regather his wits or this would be over too fast and as one fellow had mentioned at White’s that left the woman disappointed. He didn’t want Lucy disappointed.

Just the idea of disappointing Lucy cooled his ardor. But not too much.

Closing the space between them again, he brought his lips to hers and kissed her mouth. Then her chin. Then her throat. Then he dropped to his knees again and kissed the top of her chest. Then scattered kisses down her sternum. When he reached the bottom, he turned his head just slightly to the left and scattered kisses below her left breast. He turned the other way and this time used his parted lips to press open-mouthed kisses to the skin under her right one.

She nearly melted in his hands.

Without removing his lips from her skin, he gripped her hips, stood and carried her to the bed and pulled away from her just long enough to divest himself of his clothing, then came back to join her. Settling himself between her parted thighs, he brought his mouth back to her chest and pressed open-mouthed kisses over and around her left breast while using his hand to explore the right. He’d squeezed and held, tested the firmness, then circled and rolled her budded nipple.

Beneath him, Lucy bucked and arched her back, offering him more. Greedy man he was, he took what was offered and kissed and touched every inch he could until he couldn’t take it any longer. It was time. He couldn’t wait a moment longer to be inside her. To join with her in a way that no other ever would.

Kissing his way back up to her mouth, he repositioned his lower body and moved the tip of his erection over her soft, warm, womanly flesh. He stilled and bit the inside of his lip. It was too soon. He released a breath and mentally recounted the scale of C Major, then resumed his pursuit of her opening.

When he found it, he was on the brink of spending and shoved inside as fast as he could, then stilled and fought to regain his breath and composure.

Lucy’s once labored breathing had slowed, presumably due to his lack of attention on her breasts. He’d have to rectify that.

Keeping himself still buried inside her, he kissed and nipped and licked and tasted her until she was writhing beneath him once more.

“Ready?” he whispered.

Her only response was to clutch his shoulders.

He accepted that as a yes, and began to move inside her.

The feeling was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. It was a mixture of pleasure coupled with an intense pressure that drove him to move faster and harder in hopes of relieving it.

Then suddenly everything from the painful coil of pressure just above his waist to the images in his mind exploded as his muscles tightened and released in waves of numbing ecstasy.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lucy twisted her fingers into the counterpane and tried to regain control of her breathing.

She’d known that Giles would touch her breasts.

What she hadn’t known was that she’d enjoy it.

She hadn’t the first time she was touched there. It had felt cold and mechanical. Forced and humiliating. Sam had just tugged her bodice down until her small, pert breasts were exposed, made some glib remark about how “they’d do”, then groped and pinched at them until they hurt.

Then he’d flipped up her skirt and poked around between her legs for a few seconds before he’d found what he was looking for then pushed into her like she was some tried tavern wench and moved in and out, grunting for what felt like an eternity before letting out something akin to a battle cry directly in her ear.

Giles hadn’t done any of that. His touch had been far more gentle and his kiss... She already knew it had the power to make her knees buckle with the mere brush of his lips. She’d never have imagined that she’d buck and twist and writhe like a madwoman under him, though!

Surely, he must think her a wanton.

The object of her thoughts sweetly kissed her cheek then separated their bodies. She immediately felt at a loss without him there.

He stood next to the bed and lifted the counterpane just a little higher than his waist. Taking his cue, she quickly crawled under the covers and waited for him to join her.

A moment later he was at her side and she rested her cheek on his broad chest.

She hadn’t been afforded the same opportunity to look at his body and under lowered lashes, she let her gaze travel over what was uncovered.

Just as she’d imagined from his stature, his shoulders and upper arms were thick with hard, rounded muscles. As were his lower arms, his abdomen and chest. In fact, everything she could see of his that was exposed above the covers pooled at his waist looked like it had been sculpted from marble. Except perhaps the thick mat of curling hair that covered the center of his chest and made a line down his stomach.

Her fingers itched to touch it. Would it be as crisp and coarse as it looked? Or would it be soft and silky like the hair that covered his head?

“Something wrong?”

She jerked. Had he been watching her? “No. Should there be?”

“Your eyes are open.” He reached down to the covers that were resting at his waist and pulled them up to cover the exposed skin of his abdomen and chest.

“
Sorry,” she murmured, closing her eyes.

“
Don’t be sorry.” He lifted his right hand up to cup her cheek and idly rubbed his fingertips along the edge of her jaw. “Did you enjoy it?”

Was he talking about the view she
had
been enjoying until he covered himself or what they’d been doing
before
? She nearly laughed. He was a man. He’d meant their former activity. “Of course.”

His fingers stilled. “Are you sure? You didn’t call out my name and jerk my hair like the other ladies do.”

She went rigid.
Other ladies?
She’d never pinned him as one who frequented other ladies’ bedchambers. Perhaps she’d been wrong on that score. Somehow his hold didn’t feel quite as comforting as before and she moved to free herself.

He let her go.

Lucy pulled her arms out from under the covers and moved them on the top of the counterpane, trapping her safely under its shield.

Seemingly oblivious to her rapidly fading joy, Giles rolled onto his side and ran the back of a single finger the length of her arm, starting at her wrist and ending at her shoulder. “Lucy?”

“Hmm?”

He lowered his hand to the bed. “Was it that unenjoyable?”

It hadn’t been until he’d mentioned
other
ladies
. Which was ridiculous for her to even be upset over. Gentlemen were expected to be experienced in such matters before marriage. She’d just thought he was different for some reason. “It was all right.”

“
All right?” he echoed quietly. “Can I have another chance?”

A cutting retort was on the tip of her tongue. She repressed it. “How about tomorrow, instead?”

He blanched. “Did I bungle it that badly?”

“
No. You did just fine until you mentioned your other lovers.” She couldn’t believe she’d just said that, but since she had, she felt relieved. It was better to just say it than to hold onto it and let it fester, wasn’t it?

If Giles’ slack jaw was any indication, he couldn’t believe she’d put voice to her feelings, either. “My other
what?
”

Lucy closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. “Please forgive me for saying anything. Can we just go to sleep?”

He pulled her right hand away from her face. When she didn’t immediately open her newly uncovered eye to look at him, he pretended to pry it open. “There aren’t... I haven’t...” He cleared his throat. “You’re it.”

“
But you just said that the other ladies call your name and pull at your hair while...” she waved a hand through the air— “you know.”

“
Not
mine
,” he burst out, his already wide eyes nearly bulging.

Lucy furrowed her brow. “Then whose?” And how did he know of such?

Giles rolled onto his back with a groan. “At White’s. The men... They speak of relations with the women they bed.”

“
They do?” she practically squealed.

He nodded, then reached for her hand. “I won’t.”

She squeezed his in return, her heart slamming in her chest at his declaration that he’d never talk to others about their private moments. “I know you won’t.” Without relinquishing his hand, she rolled onto her side to face him. “I’m sorry that I misunderstood.”

“
Don’t be,” he mumbled. “I’m the one who said it and ruined everything.”

“
You didn’t ruin everything,” she assured him, although it had certainly tainted the moment. There was no need to mention that, though. She moved closer to him and kissed his cheek. “I enjoyed it very much,” she whispered in his ear.

“
Are you sure?” He let go of her hand and rolled on his side to face her. “There are other things I can try... Things you might like better.”

She had no idea what those could possibly be. “Giles, I said it was enjoyable and I meant that.”

“Yes, but you didn’t—”

She cut him off with a kiss.

A kiss that he quickly took control of.

Framing her face with his right hand, he held her mouth to his and parted his lips. He drew her bottom lip into his mouth and gently raked his teeth over it. He ran his tongue over the place he’d just nipped and she gasped his name.

Without warning, he rolled her onto her back and settled on top of her before sliding his hands down to her swollen breasts.

She loved having his hands touch her thus and pushed her breasts into his palms, her nipples tightening to hard points against his palms.

Giles released her bottom lip and kissed down to her ear. “Trust me?”

“
Yes,” she breathed. “Always.”

Dropping kisses along the edge of her jawline, he released her left breast and brought his hand between her legs.

Surely he didn’t plan to touch her
there
. She tensed slightly at the thought.

“
Relax,” he murmured between openmouthed kisses.

She tried. Unsuccessfully. “Can you just...”

“No. Not yet.”

She wanted to groan. She hadn’t minded his earlier invasion. In fact, that part had been surprisingly more enjoyable than she remembered. But having him aimlessly touch her there was sure to be uncomfortable.

She forced herself to focus on his caress of her breast and push away the thought of what he was about to do. He was her husband after all, it was his right to do with her body whatever he wished without complaint from her.

So focused on trying to enjoy his touch to her breast she didn’t realize he’d touched her most intimate area until one long, blunt-tipped finger hit something deep inside of her.

She gasped at the intrusion.

It hadn’t been uncomfortable, far from it, actually.

He did it again. This time she was more prepared and noted the way a small shower of hot sparks flew through her midsection.

He thrust again and again and each time the spray of sparks was hotter and traveled further. He paused a moment and added a second finger before resuming his movements.

Lucy’s hands flew to his shoulders for purchase as her body bucked and her hips moved to match his quickening thrusts. Hot, thick tension coiled in her midsection, growing tighter with each movement.

Giles murmured her name against the side of her breast and she gasped her response, moving her hands to the back of his head to hold him there as whatever this pressure was only intensified and pushed her higher and higher, closer to the edge of an unknown that seemed to linger just beyond her reach. A moment later, he stilled for a brief second and when he thrust in again it was with his erection.

He gripped her shoulders tightly and rocked his hips, finding a steady rhythm that only intensified the dizzying sensation inside her as he pushed further inside of her than he had a moment before.

Then suddenly with one swift, deep thrust a dam burst and she was pushed over that edge as her breath hitched on his name and hot euphoria rushed over her from head to toe.

Gasping for breath and clutching Giles as if he were a lifeline tossed to a drowning woman in the Thames, she had just enough wherewithal to realize he, too, was in the throes of experiencing whatever pleasure had just overtaken her and took delight that it was her body that could bring him to completion.

“
I love you,” he panted between gasps for air.

“
I love you, too,” she choked.

“
You do?” he rasped, lowering himself to rest just above her with his elbows on either side of her.

“
Of course I do,” she said with a shaky laugh. “Wasn’t it obvious earlier when I got so upset at the thought of having to share you?”

Giles pressed his forehead to hers. “You’ll never have to share me, and if anyone tells you otherwise, you be sure to tell them that I’m taken.”

“And so am I.”