It wasn’t the Christmas season. Or the cold. Or the snow. Or the fantasy of their little bower away from everyone else. It was the woman before him. She was his other half, the piece of himself he had never known was missing until this moment of stark revelation and utter want.
He had fallen in love with Lady Alexandra Danvers.
“Yes, darling.” He planted kisses on her cheek, her ear, her chin and jaw. Any speck of skin his lips could find. Her throat, the madly throbbing pulse of her heart. Lower still, all the way to the generous swells of her breasts, at last upon full, erotic display. He kissed his way to the taut bud of one erect nipple and then sucked it into his mouth. “Mmm.”
She hummed her pleasure. He licked and bit before moving to the other perfectly pink peak and trailing his tongue in a teasing ring. He kissed below, then above it before straightening, denying her what she so clearly wanted.
“Harry,” she said again.
But he had something better in mind. Ignoring her plea, he guided her to her back on the soft fur, taking care to see that she was comfortably settled. He stopped for a beat to take in the full effect of her long, deliciously curved body spread before him like a nude feminine feast before he kissed the peak of her breast. “The next part of the experiment involves communication.”
“Please do it again,” she said immediately.
He smiled against her skin before kissing to the left of her hungry nipple. She was a quick study, his future wife. “Do what again?” he asked, being deliberately obtuse.
Harry glanced up to find her watching him, her lip caught between her teeth, an adorable flush staining her cheekbones. A quick study, but still an innocent. Never mind that, he would rectify it with great pleasure. And he would also make her tell him exactly what she wanted him to do to her. If she wanted to conduct an experiment, he would damn well give her a bloody experiment. He blew on her nipple.
She gasped and arched her back, thrusting her breast toward him in a wordless plea.
But he would not falter. He kissed the valley between her breasts. Here, she smelled of her soap. Bergamot and orange and sweet, bare woman. “Tell me, Alexandra.”
“What you did before,” she said on a rush, frustration tingeing her tone.
He blew on the beckoning bud again. “More specific, sweet. I am afraid that I must conduct this experiment with a great deal of attention toward specificity. That way, when we review it, there can be no question of what occurred. Nor will there be any confusion regarding our compatibility.”
She made a sound of exasperation. Her fingers threaded through his hair, and she attempted to urge his head toward her waiting nipple. He resisted, prolonging their battle of wills to heighten the passion for both of them. Even if it all but killed him to control his urge to fuck her into the next century as he so desperately longed to do.
“Suck my nipple into your mouth as you did before,” she elaborated, her voice strained with need. “And…use your teeth again, if you please.”
He had uncovered her libidinous side, and he loved it. “As you wish, sweet. All in the name of our experiment, naturally.”
And then he suckled her. Caught her nipple between his teeth and tugged. Licked it. Kissed it. Bit it once more. He held his weight on one forearm as he visited this sensual torture upon her, and his free hand found its home. His fingers parted her slit, encountering hot, slick flesh. He sought her pearl, circling the sensitive nub. Her hips bucked. With two fingers, he worked her, sucking at the same time.
More wetness coated his fingers. His entire body was alive and aflame, his senses filled with her, breathing her in, aware of her every sound and breath and movement. He could not get enough of this. Of her. And the notion that he would be able to spend the rest of his life bringing her pleasure and loving her nearly split him in two.
Too good to be true.
She was.
It was.
Theywere.
“This experiment is proceeding…” she gasped when his fingers found the particularly sensitive underside of her clitoris at the same time as he bit her. “Oh. That is to say, I am pleased with the experiment thus far.Harry.”
He raked her flesh with his teeth and applied more pressure to her pearl. He sucked her nipple and let it fall from his lips with a lusty pop before looking up to meet her gaze as he continued to play within her wet folds. “Pearl.” He stroked it lovingly. She was soaking wet. “Also known as gem. Or, more scientifically as clitoris.” At the last, he worked it from side to side, applying all his efforts to stimulating her and readying her for the culmination of their experiment.
The rending of her maidenhead.
He did not like to think of it, for he had never taken a virgin. His only lovers had been well-experienced and eager, either for the pleasure he could give them or the coin. Neither had mattered to him. All that had was his ability to slake his needs within their willing flesh.
He wished he had never known another woman before Alexandra, that he could come to her the same way she came to him, innocent and ready for an awakening. They could have discovered their pleasure together. But he was not an untried youth, and he could not undo what had already been done.
All he could do was make certain that she was the only woman he would ever pleasure again. The only woman he would ever love.
“Pearl,” she repeated, her hips thrusting into his in a parody of lovemaking.
She wanted more. The wetness on his fingers suggested she was ready for it. But first, he wanted to taste her. Perhaps it was not the sort of thing one ought to attempt with an inexperienced lady. But the woman he was hellbent upon pleasuring was no ordinary lady. She was Lady Alexandra Danvers, and she did not flinch at stealing her brother’s attire and donning it so that she could proceed with her meteorological studies. She was an original.
She was his.
Forever.
