Marcus awakened fully alert, a habit from his days in the army. Another part of him was also standing at attention, but that had nothing to do with his military past and everything to do with the gorgeous woman curled on her side next to him. His wife. His lucky Penny, who’d changed his fortunes from the moment he’d first met her at a ball. Twelve years of marriage and three strapping sons later, his desire for her had only deepened. Like a fine wine, the passion between them had grown richer, more robust and satisfying with time.
Leaning up on his elbow, he admired her sleeping profile. Her lashes were lush black fans against her alabaster cheeks, her sultry features soft and sweetly relaxed. A sound escaped from her rosy lips: half-sigh, half-moan, it was as adorable as it was tempting. When she shifted in her sleep, her plush backside nudging his cockstand, he could resist no longer.
Gently pulling the heavy raven tresses off her neck, he nuzzled the curve of her shoulder. He inhaled the fragrance of her sleep-warmed skin: jasmine and neroli, her signature scent and a potent aphrodisiac to his senses. His lips skimmed along her smooth white shoulder, his hand roving under the covers. Blood pumped through his veins as he palmed one rounded breast, savoring its firmness and silken heft.
Gently, he rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She was still asleep, but her breathing changed, the cadence quickening, the surges more shallow. Smiling to himself, he played some more, drawing the covers down so that he could see what he was doing. The sight of those luscious tits, their blushing tips hard and saucy against his fingers, threw kindling onto his fire.
His hand followed the sweet dip of her waist to the even sweeter flare of her hip. God love his wife’s curvaceous figure. And the fact that, over the years, he’d won her over to the habit of sleeping in the buff… although he had a hunch that she was no longer sleeping. As he kissed her ear, his caress slid farther down to one of his favorite places of all.
Satisfaction poured through him. Just as he’d suspected.
She was wet, hot, and ready for him.
“Good morning to you, too.”
Her throaty words, uttered with her eyes still closed, made him grin.
“And it’s about to get better,” he murmured.
“Confident, are you, Lord Blackwood?”
“Let’s just say you’re rather a sure thing, Lady Blackwood.”
“Someonehas a big head.”
“As a matter of fact, yes.” He slid his erection against the cleft of her bottom, the blunt tip prodding the soft base of her spine. “Very big, as it were.”
“Marcus.”
But since she was giggling and her pussy, which he’d been petting all the while, had gotten wetter and hotter, he didn’t take her admonition to heart. He knew his Penny, and she liked her games. He liked them, too.
He ran a possessive hand down her silky leg, pulling it back over his. With both of them laying on their sides, this position presented rather intriguing prospects. Never a man to waste a good opportunity, he positioned his shaft and thrust home.
Ah, Christ. So good. Always so good.
“Penny,” he groaned.
Her reply was a breathy mangling of his name. He didn’t need further encouragement. Holding her steady by the hip, he drove himself into her lush passage, deep and deeper, the fit snug and bloody perfect. He played with her pearl, circling and rubbing, pressing that sensitive little knot against his stroking cock in a way guaranteed to drive his lady wild. Moaning, she bucked wantonly against him, and he held on, not wanting this pleasure to end, not just yet.
Gritting his teeth, he kept his pace measured. Waited for her crescendo, her hitched breaths and the flush on her jiggling breasts betraying that she was nearly at her peak.Thank God.Gasping, she threw her head back to look at him, her stunning violet eyes bright with love and passion, and in that moment the truth reverberated within him.
I have everything. Everything I’ve ever wanted.
His thoughts vaporized in the blaze of their kiss. In the love and lust of their tangling tongues, their joining bodies. Only when he felt her climax did he let go. He hilted himself and held, burying his groans in his wife’s hair as her rippling sheath pulled joy from him, their shared heat melding them as one.
Chapter Three
Sipping chocolate, Lady Pandora Blackwood—Penny to her husband—was sorting through a pile of invitations at the breakfast table. It was an ordinary event, but she had a newfound appreciation for routine. This moment marked the passing of an all too recent danger: four months ago, an enemy had risen from her past. The once notorious spy who called himself the Spectre had reemerged to threaten her and her former colleagues. After months of blackmail and threats, the bastard had attacked her ex-comrade, Gabriel Ridgley, the Marquess of Tremont.
Tremont had dispatched the villain.
With the Spectre gone, the world was made safer—and Penny’s secrets would remain where they belonged. In the past. Locked away where they couldn’t harm the ones she loved.
She breathed a silent sigh of gratitude and relief before sliding a glance at her husband.
Seated to her right, Marcus was reviewing his business correspondence while he drank his coffee. One of the things she adored about him—and there were admittedly many—was the fact that he was so proper on the outside. A perfect gentleman whose style was marked by restraint. Sometimes, he erred too much in that direction, and it took plotting between her and his valet Gibson to ensure that he didn’t wind up looking downright funereal.
Under Gibson’s tutelage, she’d learned that the art of men’s dressing lay in the details. Thus, she made sure that fine cufflinks, cravat pins, and other stylish accoutrements found their way into her husband’s wardrobe on a regular basis. Gibson, for his part, employed those items to stark yet superb effect when grooming Marcus.
