“No one will know,” she interrupted, running her hands down his waistcoat. He shuddered under her touch. “No one but us. Only for us.”
This man, this gentle giant, was entirely under her thrall. He wanted her; his blown pupils and the ridge of his erection pressing against her hip made that abundantly clear. And she wanted him, more than she wanted to live in fear of what could go wrong.
She cupped his cheeks, savoring the coarse hair of his beard, her fingertips skimming his sharp cheekbones as they reached his temples, and she removed his glasses, folded them, placed them on his desk behind her. “Archie,” she said, kissing his chin, “let me feel strong.”
He searched her face for another moment, a soft furrow between his brows. Then a tether snapped, because he was kissingher, but the word seemed far too innocent for what he was doing. His lips pushed hers wide and his tongue demanded entry, sliding against hers until her knees were putty. Thank god for the desk and his heavy forearm to hold her up, because she was lost to him, lost to the pleasure he was pulling from her, giving and taking until she lost track of where she ended and he began.
“I told you what I’d do if I had a second chance.” His voice against her neck sent goosebumps erupting beneath her shirtwaist. “I’d strip you down and make you come until you couldn’t stand anymore. God, but I don’t think I can wait that long.”
His hips pressed flush against her, the pulsing heat of his cock on her belly sending her wild with arousal, but not close enough to give her the friction she craved. His fingertips skimmed along her jaw, down the column of her throat, to her collar. “I want to tear this from you, Marigold,” he purred. “I want nothing between us.”
With a whimper, she started tugging at the tiny mother-of-pearl buttons down the placket of her shirtwaist, releasing them with trembling fingers before she went to work on her corset cover, the ribbons and lace that seemed so important when she’d purchased the bloody thing now taunting her.
He wantedher, with no embellishments or ornamentation.Her, for all that she was, for all that she wasn’t yet.
Finally, she’d released enough of the corset cover buttons that he could reach her corset, and his large hand dragged down her throat and over the front of her, plumping her corseted breasts before pulling the lace tie of her chemise free.
“Christ,this body has been taunting me.” He was kissing her collarbone now, hot, wet kisses down the length of her sternum, over the swell of her breasts. With a tug and groan, he had her chemise open, and he pulled the corset down enough to expose her nipples. “Fuck, you’re more beautiful than I thought you would be.” He held the globes in his hands, thumbs sweeping over the tightly furled nipples, and she gasped, let her head fall back, arched into his touch.
He took her tacit invitation and swirled his tongue around one nipple, then the other, pulling them both even tighter and sending her core clenching around nothing. She shifted, spread her thighs wider, desperate for relief from the building tension between her legs.
“Ah, are you aching, beautiful?” he crooned, pressing his knee into the fabric between her legs. “You’re writhing against me. Wanting me so badly.”
“Yes,” she whimpered, “Don’t tease me.”
He hummed, razed his teeth over one peaked areola, and a broken cry fell from her throat. “I’ll make you come. Didn’t I promise I would?”
She gasped when he gripped her hips and lifted her, as though she weighed nothing, onto his desk. He hoisted her skirts around her waist, holding her gaze as his hands drifted up the expanseof her legs. Her thighs parted—her conscious mind controlled nothing at this point—and he stepped between them to grind his hard erection, still bound by his trousers, against the gap in her drawers.
They both moaned, the friction so necessary it seemed more imperative than breathing. His hot palm cupped her mound, stroked along the heat of her slit through the fine linen. “Christ, so wet. Is this all for me?”
She nodded, her breath catching as one thick digit slid through the gap, then inside her. He pumped as though he had all the time in the world, leisurely thrusts that drove her wild. She clawed at his shoulders, his upper arms, uncertain if she still possessed knowledge of any language besides pure animal want, lust,need. Her eyes opened to see his, his pupils widened until only a slim ring of icy blue remained. She’d give him anything he wanted in this moment.
No. She could ask for, and take, what she wanted. She’d no longer be a passive participant in her life, starting now.
“I want you to taste me, Archie,” she managed. “Like you said you would.”
He leaned around her and swept the contents of his desk to the floor. She heard glass breaking and pulled in a breath.
He stilled. “I’ll clean it up tomorrow.” He paused to kiss her, his tongue sliding against hers. Another kiss as he guided her to bear her weight on her elbows, then bent to untie her drawers and slide the two pieces down her legs.
Then he fell to his knees like a supplicant in church.
What a profoundly erotic image he created, pushing her thighs gloriously wide, his curls disheveled and eyes blazing as he stared at her exposed flesh like it was worthy of worship. She wanted to press her legs together but resisted, breathed past the anxiety that threatened to claw at her throat.
“Yes?” He pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh above her stocking, and she nodded. “Give me the words, love. Tell me.”
“Yes,” she said, her voice a rasp. “Please.”
“Anything for you.” He licked along the crease where her belly met her thighs and growled deep in his chest. “But this is just as much for me.”
He spread her lower lips with his thumbs, teased her swollen clitoris with flickers of his tongue until it was pulsing, her climax barreling towards her. But then he pulled away, licking along her cleft and stopping short of the bundle of nerves. She moaned, ground against him, dug her fingers into his hair.
“What do you need, love?” he purred against her inner thigh.
“Make me come,” she gasped, and he chuckled.
“You’re not even asking, you’redemanding.” He put his lips over her swollen nub and sucked, enough to make her gasp and writhe but short of pushing her over into ecstasy. “And I promised to do anything for you.”
