No cloth barriers between them.
He hissed out a breath at how good it felt, how right, to be inside her and naked. So good that he lost himself for a moment, thrusting in and out of her, pinning her to the bed with his weight. Until belatedly, he realized he was being an oaf and used his forearms to prop his upper body up. Why had he waited so long to know what she would feel like—truly feel like—beneath him? It was heaven and hell in one.
He lowered his lips to hers, taking her mouth, moving faster, driving into her without regard for finesse. It was all about claiming her, feeling every inch of her, possessing her. He fucked her in such a frenzy that she slid across the bed and at the last moment, he ended their kiss to realize her head was about to connect with the carved wood of her headboard. Lacing his hands together atop her head, he continued his rhythm, using his fingers to blunt the impact with each thrust.
“Kiss me again,” she whispered.
He gave her what she wanted. Anything, anything she wished, this perfect goddess who somehow loved him. This woman he didn’t deserve. He thrust his cock inside her with all the desperate need within and sealed his lips over hers, feeding her the taste of herself on his tongue. She twined her arms around his neck, holding on tightly, meeting him thrust for thrust.
And then she cried out and her cunny clamped on him so deliciously, tightening like a vise. He swallowed her cry with his lips. He was close, so close. Just a few moments more…
Ah, Deus. He was going to…he couldn’t…
His climax took him by surprise, roaring through him with such ferocity that he couldn’t withdraw in time. Instead, he emptied himself inside her as he came so hard that tiny black stars speckled his vision and a rushing noise sounded in his ears. Came until she’d wrung every last drop from him.
Surrendering, he collapsed atop Pamela, her body a soft, divine temptation beneath his. She held him tightly to her, and he buried his face in her throat, inhaling her sweet scent, wishing he never had to leave her bed.
Realizing in the aftermath, in the painful thuds of his heartbeat, that he was in love with her too. Fate had brought them together. And now, it would likely tear them apart as well.
* * *
Pamela woketo a thin trickle of dawn’s light painting the ceiling of her bedchamber, her legs tangled with Theo’s, his body pressed tightly to her back, his arms wrapped around her waist. To his deep, even breathing falling hotly on her bare shoulder.
Unlike all the other nights they had spent together, this time, he had stayed.
And not just stayed with her, but slept.
He had fallen asleep, and so had she, content in the protective circle of his embrace. Gratitude swept over her and something else, too. A bittersweet acknowledgment that her love for Theo didn’t diminish her love for Bertie. That she could love them both. That Bertie would want her to find happiness again, not to force herself to live a lonely life for the rest of her days.
It hadn’t escaped her notice, of course, that Theo hadn’t returned her feelings. But she hoped that in time, he would lower his guard further. He had already shown her his scars. He had made love to her, without a stitch of clothing separating them. And then he had fallen asleep in her bed.
Beneath the covers, she gently traced over the scars on his forearm, feeling the puckers and smooth places, the deep grooves which had been caused by something sharp. Perhaps a blade or the lashes of a whip. Her heart ached to think of how terribly he must have suffered.
What had happened to him?
Had he been injured in a fire, perhaps? One of Bertie’s uncles had been burned as a child, and he had suffered similar scars on his face. And yet while some of the scars looked the same, others were different. The deep gashes her fingertips traveled had not been caused by flame. Had a ceiling fallen in upon him? Had he crawled through a burning building and suffered horrific injuries on his way to safety?
So many questions swirled in her mind, but she would not ask them. Nor would she pressure him to reveal more to her so soon after he had shown her the most important part of all—himself.
He shifted behind her, and she knew he was awake by the change in his body. His cock was thick and stiff, gliding in the crevice of her bottom. But the arm holding her, the one she had been touching, tensed, although his hand sought hers, stilling her wandering fingers by tangling them in his.
“Good morning,” she murmured softly, not daring to turn and face him, lest she break the spell that seemed to have fallen around them.
“Damn,” he muttered, sounding grim. “I’ve lingered far too long.”
“Or you haven’t lingered nearly long enough,” she countered, determined not to allow him to disappear with such haste.
For she feared that when next their paths crossed, he would once again revert to his cool, aloof self. That he would fight what was happening between them. That he would pretend as if they hadn’t waltzed together in the sweetly glowing candlelight of her chamber, as if he hadn’t stripped himself bare before her and made love to her until she had been nothing more than a limp, sated heap on the bed. As if she hadn’t fallen in love with him.
He kissed her bare shoulder, his neatly trimmed beard rasping over her skin. “You know I’ve a duty to attend.”
“Of course, and rest assured I do take the welfare of my dear brother quite seriously. However, I am selfish. Cannot your men carry on without you, just for another quarter hour?”
“And risk being seen leaving your chamber?” he rumbled in her ear, his lips grazing the shell. He slid his hand from hers, trailing his touch along her inner wrist in slow, maddening caresses that made her want him to touch her elsewhere.
Everywhere.
But he was right. They played a dangerous game, and the longer he lingered, the sooner the household would be alive again, the servants rising to perform their duties in the chambers and kitchens. Belowstairs humming quite like a hive of bees. Hunt House was immense by town house standards, and the veritable brigade of servants attending its gilded halls was proportionally massive. So many servants, so many chances to be seen. For ruinous gossip to spread.
