“Yes, sir.”
“And I’d like to meet with you and your husband about properly opening up the house, at least for a couple of weeks. Say four o’clock?”
“Of course. I will let him know.” Mrs. Ford nodded.
Then Adeline found herself being dragged up the stairs by the hand. Malcolm took them two at a time.
“Malcolm, slow down.” She tugged his hand. “Your legs are twice as long as mine. I can’t keep up in skirts.”
His answer was to scoop her up into his arms. “Then let’s get you out of them,” he murmured in her ear.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and enjoyed being carried in his arms like some Gothic novel heroine. She didn’t understand his mood, but if he needed her to ease his confusion and pain, then she would follow his lead. They reached the top of the stairs and headed left to the east wing.
“This is where all the family bedrooms are.” He paused at one door halfway down the corridor. “This was my room.”
“Do you want to go inside and show me?”
He stared at the wooden door for a moment, then shook his head. “No.” He hitched her higher against his chest and continued down the hallway.
At the end of the corridor, Malcolm set her down on her feet. He opened the door. Again paused, staring into the grand room. Adeline kept her focus on his eyes. Stormy was the only proper descriptor, like the sea before a storm.
She cupped his cheek. “If this is all too much, we can return to the inn.”
“No, I have been looking forward to getting you naked in a proper bed where we can make love for hours and never leave our cocoon of blankets.” She squeaked as he picked her up again and strode into the room, kicking the door shut behind them.
“You don’t want to talk about all that has happened this morning?” she asked as he attacked the buttons at the back of her dress.
He kissed her hard and swift. “No, I definitely don’t want to talk. I do want to place kisses over every inch of your skin and lose myself in your raven locks and fuck your sweet pussy. Is that all right?”
Adeline nodded. His words set her aflame, desire for him thrumming through her veins. He buried his face against her neck, his lips scorching a path down the skin. She tipped her head back to give him better access.
Then Malcolm slid onto his knees in front of her. He rested his forehead against her stomach for a moment. She sifted her fingers through his golden locks, their color the opposite of her dark curls. The two of them were different in many ways. He was usually so open with his feelings, whereas she tended to keep hers hidden, so often confused by them. His sunny outlook and easy charm the opposite to her awkwardness and wariness of people. But they both were similar in their experience with loneliness. To be surrounded by others but not belong to anyone. He didn’t know it yet, but he belonged to her now.
Before she could think any more about the future of their relationship, Malcolm’s hands were lifting her skirts. Shoving them up impatiently. “Hold these high,” he demanded.
She grasped the material.
Malcolm slid his hands up her stockings slowly, placing kisses up the inside of her knee, her thigh. “Higher, love. All the way to your waist.”
She did as instructed, and his kisses went higher along with her skirts. Then he was blowing air across her sex. Her shiver had nothing to do with being cold.
“Spread those legs,” he said.
The sight of Malcolm on his knees with his tongue buried in her mons was all too much. Her sex pulsed with need as he licked and sucked on her clit. She grabbed hold of his shoulder for balance, dropping some of the fabric on his head. He growled and continued to eat her hungrily. Lord, she would melt into a puddle on the floor before he was satisfied. Then all of a sudden, he stood, taking her with him, and dumped her onto the bed.
He began to strip. Each piece of clothing hitting the ground with such speed that it made her laugh out loud.
Malcolm dropped his trousers with a grin. “I love hearing you laugh like that, from deep inside your chest.” He reached out and tickled her side, causing a wild giggle to erupt from her. “But I also love to hear your girlish giggle.”
She shoved at his hands. “Stop.” She attempted a stern look before another giggle escaped at the wiggle of his fingers.
“Never.” He laughed like the villain he was as he caught her around the waist and flipped her onto her stomach. Finishing off the buttons on her dress, he helped her to wiggle out of it. Adeline quickly undid the laces on the short stays she wore. Then Malcolm’s hands were again sliding up her thighs, but this time he grabbed two handfuls of her shift and pulled it up and overhead. She launched herself at him, desperate to be skin to skin. She gripped his hair and kissed him, ravenous for his mouth, his tongue.
He kissed her back with equal impatience. His hands stroked everywhere, down her back over the curve of her bottom, giving each cheek a squeeze. But she wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to explore all his muscles covered in warm, smooth skin. She ran her hands over his pectorals and the puckered nipples that deserved the attention of her tongue. She broke off their kiss and kissed her way down to lick at them, enjoying the groan that rumbled against her mouth.
“Adeline, please, I must be inside you.”
She climbed onto him, wrapping her legs around his waist, and sank down onto his rigid length. The delicious stretch as he filled her made her close her eyes in bliss. She gripped his neck and experimentally bounced up and down. Her thighs were not strong enough to give her the leverage she needed, though. But she needn’t have worried because Malcolm’s large hands gripped her bottom, and he took control.
