Lucien’s fingers played messages on her bare back. “But speaking ofstiffening . . .” he said softly.
Positioned as she was, Beth was perfectly, and nervously, aware of hisstiffening. All unconsciously, she wriggled, and he caught his breath andheld her still. With a wicked smile, Beth fought his hold and wriggledagain. She had never realized what fun it could be to stir a response.
“God save me,” he muttered and rolled her off him. “Listen, youdelicious wanton, you can seduce me and drive me to incoherent delight asoften as you want after the first time, but I’d rather have some hold onmy senses just now.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to hurt you, my love,” he said seriously,cradling her head, “and believe it or not, I’ve never taken virginitybefore.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Why?” he asked as his hand slipped down the front of her body and cameto rest at the cleft of her thighs. “I can’t see that it adds to thepleasure. Look what it’s doing to us now. I could be lying helpless underyour delectable, wriggling body.” He leaned down and brushed his lipssoftly over hers. “Let me love you, Beth, and carry you to delight. Thistime, just let me love you . . .”
It hardly needed the touch of his lips to spin her beyond thought,beyond control, beyond everything except pure sensation. His hands workedtantalizingly up her body beneath her loosened gown. It was up and overher head and she was naked. She hardly noticed, except that it was betterto have her skin against his. She wrapped her arms around his chest andfilled her mouth with his flesh. It was a hunger she felt. A driving needto engulf and possess.
He left her briefly and returned. Now the contact was complete, head totoe. He parted her legs and moved between. Suddenly, the hunger, the need,the ache, all centered there.
“Lucien,” she moaned.
“I know, love,” he said unevenly. “I know.”
He began to slide slowly, tentatively, into her. Beth’s need coalescedinto driving hunger. This. This was what she wanted. She rose to meet himand the brief pain was nothing. She wrapped her legs around him in fiercedelight.
She lay in the dim evening light, resting her head on his shoulder,playing gently with the sweat-damp curls on his chest. “That wasremarkable,” she said.
“Thank you,” he replied. His chest shook slightly with a chuckle.
“Oh. Was it just you, then?” she asked with an assumption of innocence.“Would it not be like that with anyone?”
“Beth,” he warned.
She turned on her front and looked up at him. “No free love?”
He tried to look stern. “Only with me.”
Beth began to feel breathless again just looking at him. A Greek god.She’d thought that when she’d first seen him, and it had terrified her.Now it excited her. His hair was in disarray and darkened by sweat alonghis brow. His color was heightened, and his eyes seemed a brighter bluethan ever. His magnificent body was stretched beside her, smooth andmuscular. Hers. Hers to touch, to taste, to take within her.
“And you?” she asked. “Will there be free love for you?”
He gathered her into a fierce embrace. “Impossible. I can’t imaginewanting any other woman, my pearl. You radicals do have a way of tamingthe aristocracy, don’t you?”
“We’ll do anything for the cause,” said Beth contentedly.
It was a considerable time later that they ordered a meal. It wasalready dusk and the candles had to be lit. They were hungry by then, butthat didn’t stop them feeding one another tidbits and stopping often for akiss. They talked of their time together and the time before they had beentogether. For the first time they shared the hidden parts ? the hurts anddisappointments of their lives, the hopes and the dreams.
Beth tentatively raised the question of social issues and found that inhis own way, he was not indifferent. One of the reasons there were so manyservants in the de Vaux houses, he told her, was to give employment. Itwas family policy to buy local products as much as possible and they werecareful of the needs of their tenants.
Beth’s instinct might say that it was not enough when the familycontinued to live in such rich state and yet she had learned to balancetwo very different realities. Little purpose would be served by the deVaux family going off to live in a cottage on dark bread and stew. It wasenough for the moment to know that her beloved did not look on hardshipwith callous indifference.
The clocks were striking midnight when they extinguished the gutteringcandles and climbed into the big bed to snuggle together. Beth let herhands stroke over the beloved contours of his back, but he capturedthem.
“Oh no, you don’t, you enchantress. I’ll go odds you’ll be sore enoughtomorrow as it is. And I’m only a mortal man, you know.”
But Beth was a clever student and would not be restrained.“Hoc volo, sic iubio, sit pro ratione voluntas,”she said with agrin as she slid on top of him and wriggled. “I refuse to be reasonable.What I want, I get. And I want to seduce you to incoherent delight.”
She saw his eyes darken, but he grabbed her to try and hold her still.“Back to the schoolroom for you, my girl,” he said huskily. “That is not agood translation.”
Beth nibbled on the nearest tasty object, which happened to be hisearlobe. His grip relaxed. “At a time like this, Lucien,” she muttered,“you expect a good translation?”
