More pressure, faster, his fingers flying over her as he continued thrusting deep. The view was almost more than he could bear. But he continued, riding her and pleasuring her until she tightened on him with such sudden strength that she nearly squeezed him from her cunny. He took her hip in hand, holding her to him, and rutted into her slippery warmth.
The pulse of her release was still all around his cock as he lost control, sinking deep and emptying himself inside her. As he flooded her with his seed, the truth struck him with the undeniable jolt of a lightning bolt through the sky.
He had fallen in love with his wife.
CHAPTER 16
“Another biscuit?”
Eleanora shook her head. “I couldn’t eat a thing.”
Nando grinned wickedly. “You need your strength. Have one more, my dear.”
She was reclining on a mountain of pillows in his bed, wearing one of his silk banyans and not another stitch, and she had never felt more contented. They had spent the entirety of the day alternately making love and sleeping, moving between bedrooms and beds, avoiding the outside world. Nando hadn’t wanted to dress to go down to dinner, and she hadn’t argued, enjoying the familiarity and ease they could have in his bedroom together. They were barefoot, sated, and relaxed.
“You have already fed me far more than I am accustomed to eating.”
He took a bite of the biscuit he had offered her, chewing thoughtfully. “Did that bastard Tierney not feed you properly? I’ll have to give him a sound thrashing.”
Dressed in a banyan as well, his golden curls ruffled, lounging on his side across his bed, he looked like an invitation to depravity. Although his tone was mild, she had no wish for Nando to find trouble with Mr. Tierney.
“He was an excellent employer,” she hastened to defend. “No thrashing, if you please. Besides, I hardly think you are in a condition to thrash anyone.”
She cast a pointed look in the direction of his injured arm. He had proven himself more than capable of making love to her—thrice over—despite the pain it must have caused him. However, Nando was her responsibility now. She felt astonishingly…wifelywhere he was concerned.
“I am in excellent condition, as you can surely attest.” He gave her a heated look that made her belly tighten.
Little wonder he was a legendary rake. He had reduced her to nothing more than a witless, boneless puddle of desire over and over again. Just when she thought that her body was not capable of experiencing more pleasure, a caress or a kiss or a sinful lick from Nando, and she discovered how wrong she was.
“I simply wish it to remain so.” She reached for her nearby glass of wine, retrieving it from a bedside table, feeling unapologetically sinful as she did so.
She had never in her life lolled about in a bed, eating and drinking and wearing scarcely any clothes. Less than one day of being married to Nando, and he had thoroughly debauched her. She didn’t regret it, and she hoped she never would. Unbidden, the warnings Princess Stasia had left her with returned, but Eleanora tamped them firmly down.
“Be careful, my dear, or all the concern you show for me will make me think you’ve grown fond of me,” he teased, before taking another bite of the biscuit, somehow managing to make the act sensual.
Although he was being his usual, lighthearted, devil-may-care self, and she knew she must not take his words to heart, something in Eleanora’s chest tightened painfully. She was desperately fond of him. It was impossible not to be so. Nando simply possessed a magnetic, captivating presence which wasevery bit as much to do with his easy charm and wry humor as it was to do with his undeniable good looks. If her feelings for him were so strong after less than a day of marriage, what would they be like in the days, weeks, and months to come?
The years?
He was a rake with an unabashed appetite for all things carnal. Would he grow weary of her? What would happen when he did? And why had these alarming questions not felt so potent and real to her until now?
She took a sip of her wine to calm her whirling thoughts and distract herself from the uncertainty of the life awaiting her as his wife.
“Of course I am fond of you,” she said simply, gratified at the composure she showed. “If I did not like you, I wouldn’t have married you.”
Not a hint of a quaver in her voice.
He arched a golden brow, stretching with leonine grace, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “Not even to remove yourself from your previous circumstances?”
“My circumstances were not so dire,” she said, although that wasn’t entirely true.
Her position in Mr. Tierney and Princess Stasia’s household had been the best she’d had yet. Other situations had not been so egalitarian, nor so understanding. And it had certainly been a relief to have a master of the house who hadn’t attempted to foist his attentions upon her.
“But you must admit that marrying a prince surely has a certain allure,” Nando continued.
“Marrying you had a great deal of allure for me,” she conceded quietly. “Else I would not have agreed to such a preposterous suggestion.”
His lips twitched with mirth. “Surely not preposterous.”
