But he had gone too far to stop, and she was his wife. Moreover, he felt quite certain he would burn alive if he could not sink inside her.
“Please?” she asked softly. “Trust me with yourself, as I have entrusted myself to you.”
Hell and damnation, what was he to do with such an angel?
He knew what he ought to do, set her free. Grant her an annulment. Send her on her merry way before he hurt her. Before his quest for revenge left her sullied and stole her innocence and banished all the kindness and goodness from her.
He also knew what he was going to do, take her. Seal both their fates. Make certain she would never forget she was his wife.
He caught fistfuls of his shirt and yanked it over his head. Her hands were upon him before he could stop her, caressing, soothing. The sensation of her small, soft hands upon him proved his undoing.
He did not care if she was disgusted by his scarred hide. Blood was roaring through him. Desire was heavy and hot, sliding down his spine, radiating through him, driving him relentlessly forward. He reached between them once more, stroking her, and she was as wet and responsive as ever.
Morgan gripped his cock, guiding it to her entrance as he lowered himself over her, taking her lips in another kiss. He could not even warn her this would hurt. Could not form more words. All he could do was feel and need and take.
He plunged his tongue into the velvety recesses of her mouth at the same time as he breached her. One slow thrust of his hips, and he was partially inside her, the tip of his shaft bathed in her heat. The animal in him screamed to thrust all the way. To sink home, to take her relentlessly and hard and deep. But he reined himself in, exerting so much control, beads of sweat rolled down his neck. One more slow, agonizing thrust, and he met the barrier of her innocence.
His to claim.
Forever his.
The knowledge was so potent, so thrilling, sending a great rush of possession surging through him, that he lost his ability to stop. He sank deeper as she stiffened beneath him, the only sign he had caused her pain. Still kissing her, he returned to her pearl, rubbing over it in slow, steady circles until she relaxed. One more thrust, and he was all the way home, seated as deep as he could be.
And she was tight. God, was she tight, milking his cock as her body adjusted to him. She was close to spending once more. He could sense it in the small jolts rippling through her and the sounds in her throat, the small moans he swallowed with his frenzied kisses. His body took on a will of its own, his hips undulating in steady, shallow thrusts. He could not stay still. She felt too good, sucking him inside her, clenching on him, bringing him closer to his own release.
She came again, shaking beneath him, contracting on his prick with such force, he knew he could not last much longer, even as he wanted to prolong this. He wanted to stay inside her forever. But his hips were moving, and he was taking her harder and faster than he wanted. Faster and faster as she made sweet, breathy sounds of her own helpless lust, her hips rocking against his, meeting him thrust for thrust.
Warmth rolled down his spine and his ballocks tightened. Rocking against her, he emptied himself. Bedding a woman had never felt so satisfying, as if it completed him.
“Damn,” he groaned, trailing kisses down her neck, burying his face against her elegant throat. The oath was torn from him, and he knew he should suppress it, for she was a lady, but his emotions were so violent and visceral, nothing else would do. “Leonora, you feel so good. So bloody, bloody good.”
Her hands were on his shoulders, fingers pressed into the blades, clutching him to her. “So do you.”
She still clenched him hard as the last of his climax rippled through him. Reluctantly, he slid from her cunny and rolled to his back, his body more sated and replete than he could ever recall. He lay there, staring at the plaster work on the ceiling, a medallion of acanthus leaves that had become so familiar to him as to cease existing, not truly seeing anything, breathless and mindless.
He ought to be gloating. He ought to be celebrating the latest step in his mission of vengeance. But his bed was rumpled, and the air smelled of fucking, and Leonora’s perfume, and all he could think about instead was when he could be inside her again. She had been a virgin, after all. Her blood was smeared upon his cock, mingling with the remnants of his seed.
Several hours from now? Tonight? Tomorrow morning?
Pray God it could be soon.
Leonora rolled toward him then, startling him by cuddling into his body as if she were a cat seeking comfort and warmth, her arm going around him. Her show of tenderness made him hold his body still and rigid. He did not want her trust or her pity. He wanted her body, and his ability to enact retribution upon her evil kin. He wanted to meet the Earl of Rayne at dawn and send him to hell as he deserved.
But then she did another thing he least expected.
She pressed a kiss to his chest, directly above his frantically thudding heart. “You are beautiful, my lord.”
He felt the imprint of her lips upon his skin as if it had marked him as surely as the fiery end of a Frenchman’s cigar.
Chapter Six
Leonora woke tothe sounds of terror and misery. A low, masculine cry, half groan, half growl, rattled through the stillness of the chamber. The sun had set, blanketing her surroundings in darkness, and for a moment, she was not even certain of her surroundings. Riverford House? Nay, not the chamber she had inhabited for so long; it was as gone to her now as her childhood.
Remembrance and awareness returned to her all at once. She was at Linley House, in the marquess’s bedchamber. Inhisbed. The soreness between her thighs forced her to recall in exquisite detail what had passed between them hours earlier. After he had made love to her and brought her body to such an astounding pinnacle, she must have fallen asleep, and heavens knew for how long.
She could not even discern the time of day given the lack of light, and neither could she determine the source of the sound.
Until she heard it again, and she realized it was coming from alongside her in the bed.
