“You’re a virgin?” he asked, brow furrowed, the cords in his neck tensed and strained, as if he scarcely held himself in check.
Clearly, he had believed her not to be one. She refused to allow herself to feel anything about that realization just now. No, she would think about it later. For now, she would allow nothing and no one to ruin this moment and keep her from what she wanted.
Including Lion.
“Yes.” Addy undulated her hips, trying to urge him on.
“Addy.” His lips were set at a stubborn angle she recognized too well.
She didn’t want to hear him prattling on about honor. So, she kissed him, openmouthed and unabashed, giving him her tongue. It was all the spurring he required. With a groan, he kissed her back, his tongue sliding against hers while thrusting into her. She knew another exacting pinch as her body adjusted to the unfamiliar invasion. He felt impossibly large and insistent, almost as if he would split her in two.
She held her breath, keeping still, tensing.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured against her lips.
She didn’t want his apologies. Didn’t want his regrets.
“I’m not,” she returned, arching her back and tentatively moving against him, following her body’s instinctive urging. The slick glide of his shaft inside her elicited a new sensation. She felt gloriously full, wrapped in the warm strength of his big body atop her, within her.
With a groan, he kissed her harder, as if the last of his control had frayed and snapped. His hips canted into hers, driving him deeper and then withdrawing, his pace maddeningly slow. The pain was receding now to nothing more than a pang of discomfort. With each stroke, new pleasure shot through her, beginning at her center and radiating outward.
Addy touched him everywhere she could, trying to commit the lines of his body to memory so that even when she was at home in New York City, with an ocean between them, she couldclose her eyes and remember this night, the way he brought her to life. Her fingertips trailed over the taut blades of his shoulders, the muscles of his back and forearms, lingered in his silky gold waves. Touching him was a luxury, and she would miss it just as she would miss him.
But there was no thought for sadness now. No space for anything but the two of them, their bodies working together in ancient rhythm, pleasure sparking like dry kindling turning into roaring flame. He began thrusting inside her faster, harder, penetrating her deeply, losing his gentlemanly restraint. He no longer kissed her and made love to her as if she were fragile and delicate, and she was glad for it. She liked him this way, wild and untamed, all his elegant hauteur shattered.
He tore his mouth from hers, groaning her name. Bracing himself on one arm, he reached between them with his free hand, to where their bodies were joined. His fingers found her, stroking and teasing her needy flesh.
The ever-growing knot of pleasure tightened, heightened by each glide of him inside her. He took the peak of one breast into his mouth, and the hot suction sent her over the edge. She shuddered and clamped down on him, her body spasming around his thick length. Sparks skittered up and down her spine, and a rush so potent and unlike anything she’d ever known roared through her. All she could do was clutch him tightly and surrender to the fury of her release.
Lion continued, gliding in and out of her wetness, clutching her hip, making low sounds of helpless pleasure. Another few strokes, and he tensed, withdrawing from her so swiftly that she mourned the loss of him within her. Looming over her, he gripped himself. His expression awash with ecstasy, he painted her inner thigh with his seed before collapsing to the bed at her side, his breathing as ragged as hers.
CHAPTER 8
Recriminations swirled through Lion as he lay by Addy’s side in his bed, naked and spent, his heart pounding and his mind in ruins.
She had been a virgin. He’d been so caught up in her that he hadn’t given a thought to her experience other than those supposed kisses from the Swiss lads. But when she had held his gaze and lifted her nightgown over her head, revealing her lush curves and gorgeous body, he had lost his ability to control himself. Had he been as gentle as he should have been? Had he taken his time and eased her into lovemaking?
He hadn’t been a virgin in what felt like a lifetime. His first lover had been an experienced widow who had tutored him well in the art of pleasing a woman. Had he ever made love to a virgin? He didn’t think he had.
Dear God.He had taken Miss Adelia Fox’s maidenhead.
Had spent on her thigh little better than a mongrel in heat. What a beast he was.
He was going to have to marry her, and for reasons he could not presently comprehend, the notion of taking Addy as his wife didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should. In fact, it didn’t bother him at all. Quite the opposite.
Hewantedto marry her.
This astounding realization struck him like a blow.
Swallowing hard against a rush of emotion, he turned to find her watching him, her lips swollen from his kisses. Her eyes seemed even more vibrantly green in the low light. Her nipples were hard, pink points, jutting toward him in invitation. Her hair was a burnished cloud on his pillow. She looked at home in his bed, as if she belonged there. He’d never had a woman in his bed here at Marchingham Hall, and the astounding rightness of her presence made his chest tighten.
That was when his gaze traveled lower, finding the reminder of what they had just done together.
His seed was on her thigh.
“Are you…” His words trailed off haltingly as he fought to regain his composure. Lion cleared his throat and tried anew. “Did I hurt you?”
“A bit of pain is to be expected a woman’s first time,” she said softly, indirectly answering his question.
