“I’ll show you,” he said.
Blooming hell, she loved it when his voice deepened like that. Loved it even more when he snatched her into his arms as if she weighed no more than thistledown and carried her into the bedchamber, tossing her onto the bed. With one knee on the mattress, he made quick work of her robe and his own, and though she’d had over a month to get used to his bold masculinity, her breath still caught at the glorious sight of him.
Strength and raw beauty infused his every aspect. His shoulders were wide and heavy, and her gaze caught for an instant on the scar on his upper left arm. The work of a sniper’s bullet. It was a reminder that Marcus was all-too human, that she might have lost him before they’d even begun, a notion that spurred her pulse.
Not wanting to linger in fear, her eyes followed the chiseled planes of his chest, which were sprinkled with wiry bronze hair that she loved to rub her cheek against. The truth was she liked to touch him everywhere: loved the rippling of his muscled back beneath her palms, the hard drag of his ridged torso against her soft curves as he made love to her. In fact, it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain a ladylike composure when they were in bed. Last week, he’d driven her into such a frenzy that, of their own accord, her legs had wrapped around his lean hips, but he hadn’t seemed to mind. His eyes had glazed over, his thrusts getting harder, deeper, filling her so utterly…
Desire sang in her blood. She couldn’t help but stretch up her arms, whispering, “Come to me.”
He took her outstretched arms… and she blinked to find them pinned above her head, his large hand securing her by the wrists.
“In good time,” he said. “Stay like that for me, love.”
Goose pimples prickled over her skin at his calm command, the passionate flare in his eyes. In the past, she would have balked at being under any man’s control. She’d willingly participated in the sexual act twice before Marcus; both times, she’d taken the top position, driving the seduction along and deriving no pleasure from it. Her throat constricted as her one other experience pushed into her consciousness. Her first time and no participation on her part at all. Nothing but force, pain, and degradation…
She pushed the memory aside. With Marcus, things were different. Sex was about love and trust and goodness, dazzling discoveries that seemed to patch up her soul, healing all the broken places, leaving her whole and burning with want.
Her husband bent his head, his lips brushing hers, but when she leaned upward to deepen the kiss, his mouth left to course instead along her jaw, her neck, and collarbones. Her lungs strained as he licked a trail between her heaving breasts; when his lips closed around one throbbing nipple, a moan scraped from her throat. He’d recently introduced her to this heady pleasure. Her spine arched at the hot, drugging pull of his lips, which elicited a twin pulsing between her legs.
“I love your breasts, Penny.” He licked the other taut peak, blowing softly. “They’re so sweet.”
“Have more then,” she purred.
His husky laugh warmed her nipple. “If you insist.”
He continued to playfully explore, pressing kisses over her ribcage, her belly. She squirmed, giggling when his tongue dipped into her navel. But when his mouth continued its journey downward, she stilled. Surely, he didn’t mean to kiss her…there?Being no well-bred miss, she accounted herself well-informed when it came to the variety of sexual acts and thus had heard about oral stimulation but, to her knowledge, that was a thing done by women to men. It hadn’t occurred to her that a man—never mind a gentleman like Marcus—would wish to put his mouth on a woman’s…
The first, hot swipe of his tongue startled a whimper from her. The second made her back bow off the bed. “Oh, God. Oh,Marcus—”
He lifted his head. “All right, Penny?”
“Yes, yes,” she gasped.
“So sweet. Here like everywhere else,” he muttered. “God, I can’t get enough of you…”
Dazed, she let her head fall back as pleasure—asMarcus—consumed her. He knew no shame, his big hands holding her thighs spread as his tongue delved deeply, searching out her innermost secrets. Feral sounds broke from her as he ate her sex with passionate hunger, driving her wild with his praise. How delicious he found her. How luscious and wet. Pleasure built inside her, a storm that pushed the very boundaries of her soul. He licked upwards, to the top of her cleft, latching onto her pearl and suckling hard. Stars flashed the instant before she flew apart.
Glittering pieces. Brilliant and ecstatic. Reborn.
Caught up in the rippling waves of her climax, she nonetheless felt another jolt when he came inside her. A hard, thick filling that shoved out her tattered breath and replaced it with pure joy. More rolling tides of pleasure.
His face was dark with passion above her. “Christ, you feel good. So wet and tight, so beautiful.” He ground his hips, grazing her sensitive peak with the steely root of his cock. “I’d die happy right where I am.”
“You feel even better,” she moaned. “So big and hard. I can’t get enough of you.”
The moment the words slipped out, she realized her mistake. No lady would say such things. It was one thing to flirt with one’s husband and quite another to express such direct and lusty feelings.
Heart pounding, she opened her mouth to somehow take it back… but Marcus’ lips claimed hers with primal force. His tongue thrust into her mouth, a hot, fierce parry that mimicked the pounding of his hips. His rhythm went from demanding to savage. Lost in the maelstrom, she clung to him, her pelvis lifting to take what he gave her, deeper and deeper, and when he groaned her name, shuddering, she felt him touch the end of her, his heat flooding her womb. Then the storm broke inside her, the tumultuous bliss almost too much to bear.
Eventually, Marcus rolled onto his back, tucking her against his side. With her cheek nestled against his chest, she lay dazed, listening to his heart which thudded as furiously as her own. For long moments only the sound of their ragged breaths filled the room. Then her mind began to work again, and anxiety whirled.Did I reveal too much? Shock him with my behavior? Does he suspect…?
A rumbling chuckle interrupted her spiraling thoughts. Lifting her head, she saw her husband’s smiling expression.
“What is so amusing?” she said.
He threaded his fingers through the hair at her temple, tucking a long strand behind her ear. His touch was intimate, loving, and God help her but her insides melted just a little bit more.
“Us,” he said. “I never thought I’d want a bickering sort of marriage, but if the way we just concluded our first row is any indication, I think we should have more of them.”
