Despite the temptation, he would not take her standing up like this, not their first time. He tumbled her onto the bed and climbed atop her. He teased her mons with his fingers until she began to make the little sounds he had learned meant she was close to the edge. Then he quickly positioned himself between her legs.
“This may hurt,” he warned, his voice strained from the effort to refrain from plunging inside at once.
“I’m strong.” Her desire-glazed eyes held his. “I hope we can do it again in the morning. Before I leave.”
God.His hips bucked without conscious thought, and he buried himself inside her wet heat. He froze and held perfectly still to give her a chance to adjust to the new sensations.
Her legs wrapped around him, as strong as he’d imagined. “Is that it? Have we finished already?”
He smiled. “No. There’s more.”
At first he moved slowly within her, giving her body time to get used to the invasion. When her hips began to match his rhythm, urging him deeper, his strokes grew faster, more urgent.
When he knew he could not hold out much longer, he dipped his hand between them, putting the fresh intelligence he’d gathered to its best use.
She arched her back and shuddered with pleasure a bare moment before he jerked free from her body and spent himself in his hand.
He cleaned with a handkerchief, then bundled her beneath the covers and into his arms, chest to chest, their legs entwined. Tonight, there would be no need for nightclothes. The heat generated between them was more powerful than any fire.
She nestled against him, fitting perfectly against his body.
He held on tight, willing himself not to sleep so that he could remember her heartbeat against his, the weight of her breasts on his chest, the feel of her silken legs entwined with his. The sigh of contentment that escaped her lips when she fell asleep in his embrace.
How could he drift away when the only place he wanted to be was here, in this bed, holding her?
40
Come morning, Graham left the driver with the carriage and carried Kunigunde’s valise up to the dock himself.
It was not nearly as heavy as his heart.
Dawn was streaking brilliantly over the sky. He supposed it must be pretty, but he could not bear to look at it for long. Not when these were the last moments left with Kunigunde.
She’d fallen silent. Possibly because this was goodbye. Probably also due to her abject terror of water. She said she had spent the voyage over in a single cabin, clutching her stomach against the rocking of the waves.
The sky was clear now, but who knew if it would stay that way? It was May. The height of spring. Rain and wind could come at any moment.
“I’ll wave to you from the railing,” she vowed. Her face was already waxy.
“You don’t have to. I’ll understand.”
“Iwill.” Her voice cracked. “I’ll wave until I cannot see the pier anymore.”
He nodded. “I’ll watch until I can’t see the ship.”
The river was full of big ships and small water boats ferrying people to and fro. The only vessel Graham cared about was the royal one that would carry Kunigunde away from him.
His siblings had not come to the port with them. There was a new case. A farrier and his brother had arrived last night. The others were still gathering the details.
Graham had never before left his home when a client was inside it, but these were desperate times.
It was his last chance to convince Kunigunde to stay. If not for him yet, then perhaps…
“You would make a good Wynchester,” he began.
She looked at him from the corner of her eye but did not answer. Her hand had slipped beneath her spencer, worrying the gold fringe of her father’s epaulet.
“And…an impressive Royal Guardswoman,” he admitted, voice defeated. “I do not mean to imply otherwise.”
