“Jesus.” He kissed her again, his eyes traveling over her face, her body, her lips. Almost as if he didn’t quite trust himself. As if he didn’t believe she was real. “I love you so bloody much. Do you mean it, little dove? Will you stay with me?”
She didn’t need to think. “Forever if you’ll have me.”
A low sound tore from him. “Of course I’ll have you. You’re the only woman I want. My only love. Now and forever. Last chance to run, darling.”
Not a chance, the silly man. How she loved him. She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. Now kiss me, if you please.”
“With pleasure.” His mouth descended, claiming and hungry. An almost frantic need took over them both. His tongue slid inside to duel with hers.
She wanted his bare, heated flesh, his body atop hers. A hollow ache pulsed between her thighs, wetness flooding there as he plundered. She raked her seeking fingers over his broad back, his strong shoulders. Her nails sank into his tight buttocks, and then she traveled over his lean waist to the knot on his robe, her fingers making short work of it.
He gripped her dressing down in both hands and tore it apart, heedless of the belt as he ravished her mouth. The silken robe fell to the floor, leaving her bare for him. His hands were everywhere. Kneading her breasts, thumbs working over her hard nipples, branding her curves.
“Mine,” he whispered reverently, dragging his mouth down her throat, nipping and licking and kissing as he went.
“Yes.” Her complete surrender was torn from her, so easy, so right. There was nothing else she wanted in the world than to be in her husband’s arms now in this moment, reveling in their love. “Take me, Julian. Make me yours forever.”
Julian’s fingers dipped into the folds of her sex, finding the pearl that made her mindless with want. “You’re so wet for me.” He sucked a nipple into his mouth, raked his teeth over the sensitive nub, gave her a gentle bite that had her crying out and her knees going weak. He caught her to him when she would have turned into an aspic, puddling to the floor. “Tell me what you want, my love.” He kissed the curve of her breast.
Desire surged through her, coiling in the center of her being, the very core of her where she longed for him most. “You, my love. Take me. Please.” She tore his robe off him at last, mindless in her need for him.
He took her in his arms, carrying her to his bed before depositing her gently in the center. In the next moment, he was atop her, his powerful body between her thighs, spreading them wide. He rained kisses over her skin, from breasts to thigh to the inside of her knee. Lower, to her calf. Higher to the jut of her hip bone. And then, when she thought she’d melt with desire, his dark head settled between her thighs.
“Mine,” he said again, the word a delicious brand against her most sensitive flesh. “Come for me, little dove.” And then he licked her, plumping the bud of her sex before tracing wetly over her seam. His tongue sank inside her in long, hot thrusts before he replaced it with his fingers. When he nipped at her pearl and worked it in slow slashes, he sank inside her so deep that she couldn’t contain herself. She cried out, finding her release, her body twisting and jerking into his.
“Yes, my love, just like that.” Lovingly, he ran his tongue over her, lapping up the wetness of her spend, savoring her in a way that made a fresh onslaught of desire make her weak.
And then he was over her, above her, his thighs between hers, spreading her wide. “Tell me what you want,” he commanded, his voice strained.
The hard tip of him nudged her folds. She reached between their bodies, grasping his velvety length and stroking. “You,” she said. “I want you, my darling husband.”
“Put me inside you.”
Clara guided him to the hungriest part of her, tipping her hips to welcome him at the same moment he pushed inside. The breath hissed from his lungs as he thrust into her, hard and sure. They rode the wave of pleasure as one, bodies slamming together, eager, desperate, longing. She reached her climax at the same moment he found his. He pulsed inside her, his seed a warm, delicious flood inside her sated body.
Slowly, they both descended back to earth together. He kissed her throat, took her lips, grazed her jaw. “I love you, Clara. I love you so bloody much it hurts.”
She held him to her, kissed him back with all the love in her heart. “And I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so.”
He stared into her eyes, beautiful and fierce and beloved. “Do you promise, little dove? You’ll not change your mind and long to go back to Virginia without me one day? I made you choose between the place you loved and me once, and I’ll not do it again.”
She kissed him lingeringly. “I promise. And if I ever do go back to Virginia, it will only be with you by my side.”
Julian pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “Thank you, my love. I’ll do my damnedest to see that you never regret choosing me.”
Clara smiled, heart bursting with love. “I have no fears on that account, my darling man. You’re quite stuck with this Virginia hoyden.”
He grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
And then he kissed her again.
lara rested her hands on the scrolled wooden railing of the balcony off her bedchamber,tilted her head back to feel sun warming her skin, and leaned into the solid presence of the man she loved at her back. Birds chirped, the air was redolent with freshly mown grass and the pink roses blooming in the gardens below.
She inhaled deeply, eyes closed. “Is there anything sweeter than a Virginia summer?” she asked Julian on a pleased sigh.
He pressed his wicked mouth to her throat just below her ear and gently nibbled at her skin. “You are sweeter than a Virginia summer, my love. Far sweeter.” He nipped her ear lobe and then traced his tongue over the shell.
An answering heat slid straight to the pulsing ache at her core. They’d just made love not an hour ago, and even though she’d restored her gown and hair to a semblance of order, she was already contemplating luring him back to bed. It was their honeymoon, after all.
