“You trust me then?” he murmured, shifting the Spencer jacket down her shoulders so that the material brushed her arms, teasingly.
“Completely,” she assured him. “We are soon to be wed anyway, are we not? What would it matter if we were a little…”
“Early?” He finished her sentence with a chuckle, and she nodded. “My thoughts precisely.”
He kissed her again. Charity raised her hand and tangled it in Seth’s hair, pulling him further down toward her to maintain that kiss for as long as possible. Just feeling the pressure of his muscular body against hers made something stir deep within her gut. Her stomach writhed, with such excited anticipation that a wetness flooded between her thighs. Shocked, she gasped at the sensation, recalling how she had felt it before when he had pleasured her.
She was thinking so much of him and the thrilling pressure of his body, it took her a moment to realize he was tugging at her gown. The laces at the back of her dress came undone, then he parted their kiss and spun her hurriedly around, practically clawing at the back bodice in his need to reach her flesh. She giggled at thethrill of it all. Strangely, she wouldn’t have minded if he ripped apart every hem of that dress in his quest to feel her bare skin.
The dress slipped down her shoulders, and then his hands went for her corset, unlacing that too.
“Damn thing,” he muttered under his breath, making her smile once more. “I like you best with nothing between us.” He leaned forward and traced butterfly kisses down her spine as he removed the corset and tossed it to the side. “When there is nothing to separate us at all.”
She expected him to make her chemise the next target of his ministrations, but he did not. Instead, he reached lower, flicked up the train of her chemise, and made for her stockings, rolling them down and brushing the insides of her thighs temptingly as he did, his fingers leaving a burning and thrilling path behind.
A moan escaped her lips at his touch, and she arched her back.
“The sounds you make, Charity.” He was standing pressed up against her derriere, wresting at her chemise and bundling it around her waist. “You haven’t the slightest notion of the sway they hold over me.” He caressed her rear, pressing his fingers deep into the silky flesh and then down between her legs.
Her lips parted, that moan growing again in excitement as he reached between her thighs and found her center. She was wet and ready for him, longing for more of his touch. The first touch was gentle, and as she moaned with frustration, rocking her hips back into his, he chuckled in her ear, then slipped a finger insideof her. She gasped at the sheer pleasure of it, concentrating at the sensation that built at his touch, the way goosebumps rose across her skin, and yet sweat gathered in her palms.
He rocked her, back and forth, on his hand and then toward his hips. As the pleasure grew and she started panting, wanting more and more of this touch, she felt the hardness stir beneath his trousers. It was tantalizingly close, so near that her mind filled with images of what it might be like to have Seth enter her completely.
“Please, Seth…” she begged breathlessly, wanting him,needinghim.
He urged her forward and she stepped, uncertain where she was going.
“Hands down,” he ordered.
Charity lowered her hands to find her palms soon resting on the bed mattress.
“Oh, Charity,” he whispered and kissed down the small of her back, each cool touch of his lips only causing her to arch deeper over the bed. “Say you belong to me. Youreverythingbelongs to me.”
The scandalous words made a spark of thrill shoot through her. She raised her weight on her toes, leaning even more across the bed.
“Say it,” he commanded.
“My everything belongs to you, Seth.”
“You’ll always be mine,” he added, no longer touching her, though she could hear the sounds of clothes being shed.
“I’ll always be yours,” she promised, wanting him to know it was the truth. After everything that had passed between them, she had every intention of being with him forever, of standing beside him at an altar someday soon and promising to love him to her dying day.
“Devil’s mercy,” he muttered, and suddenly, he was upon her like a beast pouncing its prey. His hands brushed her hips, hot and passionate, digging into her skin, then he guided her back, moving her lethargically. She felt his length first just pressing her entrance. Her back arched with anticipation of it, wanting more of him. “I am sorry, Charity. The first time, it will hurt.” He did not enter her yet but leaned over her, leaving a trail of more searing kisses across her spine, her shoulders, and her neck. “But I’ll make sure every time after it will please you. I promise you that.”
“Please, Seth. Don’t hold back. Please…” she gasped loudly.
She was ready to beg him down on her knees, just to share this with him at last.
Then he entered her, lancing deep inside of her. The pain was sudden, erupting in some deep part of her body that she had not known existed. She froze, her hands flattening on the bed, as Seth stilled behind her. Such a deep guttural moan erupted from him at the sensation that she was completely distracted from the pain. She thought of his moan, the way he held her hips, how he seemed to be straining not to move just yet.
“Don’t stop now,” she pleaded. “Seth!” She pressed her hips back against his experimentally and felt a rush of pleasure. Wherever the pain had been had now gone and in its place her body was trembling with this need.
He rocked into her. He started slowly at first, and Charity concentrated on every touch between them, every thrilling sensation.
She basked in the glory of his touches to her hips and up the curve of her back, the way his length reached deep inside of her, how he moved slowly, softly, introducing her to the sensation. How sometimes he bent over her, kissing her shoulders or hair, his hands never once failing to leave their imprints on her hips and thighs.
Then something happened to Charity. The pleasure grew greater. She shivered with the want of more, of him to thrust faster, and harder. She pushed herself back against him. Unable to find her voice, she tried to show it through actions instead. He seemed to take the hint though. He raised himself up, moving his palms to splay his fingers across her waist, then he drove them together, faster and harder.
