Ankles hooked, she created just enough space between their bodies to loosen his shirt from his trousers and undo his waistcoat. She could not get it over the cap of his shoulders, but it mattered not. His chest hair felt strange but welcome against her breasts; the heat of him pulsated against her core as he walked the pair of them to the bed.
They shifted, and she was certain that they would topple as he moved to his knees, walking them up the soft expanse before laying her down in front of him. The moment he pulled away, she mourned the loss of him.
He finished pulling off the layers from his torso and loosened his trousers, kicking off his boots before he returned to her. The friction of fabric against her core was delicious. Any lingering shyness abated as she found that shelikedthe way she felt like this, exposed and vulnerable to her husband.
Husband.
A month ago, she never would have thought that such a thing would even be possible. Yet, here she was—reveling in the look of near ravenous hunger he had as his eyes drank in the sight of her. He braced a palm on either side of her head, kissing her lips and then her neck, collarbone, and jaw before he started to travel lower.
She could hardly remain still as his surprisingly rough hands pushed her thighs apart, pinning her to the bed and exposing herself to him further. She tried to close them in a modest reflex, but he forced them back apart.
His gaze flicked up to hers in a silent warning before he lowered himself to her, soft suction to the inside of her thigh followed by a soft, pleasurable pinch of teeth. It was the only warning that she needed before he kissed her intimately. The same tongue that had danced with hers only moments before delved between her legs, and all thought left her.
She could not have answered with hername,let alone anything else. It was unlike her imaginings. It was better and brighter than anything she had ever felt before. Richard kept her pinned there, even as her body tried to rock upward against his face. The heat and desire building inside of her seemed to rock through her, building higher and higher.
“Ri-ch-ah—” she tried to speak, but moaned the rest of his name instead. She did not know what she was asking for, more or relief or something else entirely, as her stomach clenched. His answer to her unspoken question was to slide two fingers inside of her wet channel, curling inside of her and coaxing the wanton sounds from her lips until she could no longer breathe deeply enough to make them.
One of her hands found the back of his head, fisting into his hair as the other fisted into the bedding. Her eyes screwed shut as she curled upward, her hips grinding into his face as he pumped his fingers in and out of her rhythmically, matching the pace set by his tongue.
This had not been in her book. She had had no idea that—
Something was happening.
“Ri—pl—”
She could have sworn that was a sadistic little chuckle that he made—right before he removed his face entirely. Disappointment crashed through her as he moved. She felt crazed and sorely tempted to push his handsome face right back where she wanted it, but—he removed his trousers.
Air trapped in her lungs as she watched him slide his trousers over his hips and down his powerful thighs until he could kick them off entirely. His manhood stood proud and ready, a shocking girth that she could not imagine how it was going to fit inside of her. That was what the books claimed, and if it felt anything like his fingers had…
Her eyes widened, but he looked perfectly calm. He paused to kiss her forehead. “Are you still with me?” he whispered against her skin as his thighs pushed hers back apart. She could feel the heat of him pressing against her, so close. Her hands gripped his biceps, and she nodded, unable to properly pull her eyes from where their bodies almost connected. She could see between them as he aligned himself with her and eased inside.
She forgot how to breathe as her body adjusted. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as the stinging, foreign sensation quickly faded into something incredible. Her grip on his tightened, nails cutting small crescents into his skin as he buried himself inside of her.
He shifted his weight onto one hand so that he could lift her chin to look at him. “Open your eyes,” he commanded in a firm, sure voice.
She did, her heart bursting with vulnerable emotions as he started to move. He kissed the tip of her nose and waited until she could breathe again to find a pace. Everybody in the entire hotel was likely to hear her pleasure at this point. She could not stop. She could not have silenced herself if she had been asked.
“That’s it,” he encouraged, his head dropping to her breast, closing his lips over the bud as the sensations started to build inside of her again. Was this something that she was going to be allowed to have with him whenever she wished it? Was this something they were going to only do once to ensure the legality of the marriage, or was this to be something else entirely?
She pushed all of the doubts and worries from her head. Those would be issues for daylight. Tonight, she wanted to be as one—wherever that would end up leading the pair of them. Her hands running down his arms to his chest and down the lines of muscle there, learning the indents and lines of his body as her hips started to move with his, utilizing parts of her that she never even knew that she had.
“Put your hand where mine was,” Richard commanded in that same firm, authoritative tone.
“What?” Catherine could hardly understand speech, but she wanted to do what he asked.
“Where mine had been, there.” He grabbed her hand and placed it between her legs as his pace increased, shifting ever so slightly that when her fingers brushed against the swollen bundle of nerves, her eyes rolled back. She did not know how to take the combination of sensations. She tried her very best to mimic the same movements that Richard had made with his tongue earlier against her skin.
Her climax rushed through her suddenly. All of the buildup that he had done for her came back in an instant when paired with his thrusting inside of her. She felt her walls gripping him, holding tight as the rest of her body tried to fold in on itself, but Richard did not stop. He continued to coax every wave of pleasure out of her that he possibly could until his own roared right behind it.
Richard’s kiss was slow and languid as he finished, heat leaking between them as he slowly removed himself from her and pulled her slightly trembling frame into his arms. He wrapped her up tightly, her leg fitting between his own as she rested half on his chest in an attempt to catch her breath.
Her ear pressed to his chest, and the racing of his heartbeat matched her own, in more ways than one.
Chapter 20
Wallingham Place
“Are you certain that you are ready for this?” Richard asked the woman across from him. The carriage had rolled to a stop a fair few moments ago, but he was not ready to leave it. Not yet.
