He needed something different now. And, his instincts were telling him, so did she.
“This is where I ache, Gabby.” He captured her hand, bringing it to the placket of his trousers. Pressing it over the unapologetic bulge of his erection. “I’m harder than a steel pike for you, sweetheart.”
The gentle spasm of her hand injected pleasure through his veins. He didn’t miss the increased cadence of her breath, her breasts rebelling against the restraint of whalebone and fabric. Her eyes were wide, a little dazed, that of a doe who doesn’t know whether to run or stay. When he took his hand from hers, her palm didn’t budge. It remained quiescently, obediently where he’d positioned it. All of this spoke volumes about what his wife truly wanted.
And it made him harder than ever, his cock straining beneath her touch.
He tipped her chin up. “I want something from you.”
“What…what do you want?”
She wetted her lips, a nervous, enticing habit. He wondered if she knew that her body gave her away. The flick of her pink tongue over her bee-stung lips. The expanding well of her pupils. The excited flutter at her wrist that sent butterfly reverberations through his rigid prick.
She was as hot and bothered as he was. He could practically see the wicked scenarios forming in her head: the favors she imagined he might ask of her. His intuition told him that his naughty minx would be quite willing to fulfill any one of those fantasies…because they would also be hers.
He was tempted. Christ, he was.
What he wanted, however, was more than a quick fuck in the carriage. He wanted to start afresh with his wife. To lay his claim on her so thoroughly that she would never doubt that she belonged to him, as he was now. Now and forever. He wanted this bonding to imprint itself upon his own mind as well: if and when his memory returned, he wanted his old self to never again take for granted the gift he’d been given.
To that end, he’d spent a great deal of energy strategizing how to go about seducing his wife body, mind, and soul. Hence, this trip and the intimate game he was about to initiate.
“Kiss me, Gabriella,” he said.
Her widening eyes made him speculate whether he’d asked that of her before. To initiate rather than be a passive recipient. Right now, he wanted to know that this was about her desire as much as his…and he wanted her to know it too.
A heartbeat passed.
Timidly, sweetly, she brought her mouth to his.
God’s blood, her lips were as plush as they looked, fitting perfectly to his firmer edges. Even though he knew this wasn’t their first kiss, it washisfirst taste of his wife since he’d awakened. And her kiss was everything a woman’s kiss should be: soft and demure, a hint of wantonness in the way her mouth shaped so readily to his.
Her kiss spoke of a longing to please that aroused him utterly. He could tell she wasn’t used to being in command, for she was attuned to his slightest reactions, her instinct to follow his lead. When he tested this by running his tongue along her mouth’s sweet seam, she parted her lips immediately, welcoming him into her honeyed, feminine heat.
His wife might be shy, but she was no novice. She was a temptress, a goddess who seduced through the art of yielding. It called to his deepest carnal fantasies, and he took what she offered as his due.
One arm around her waist, his other hand at her jaw, he held her still for his plundering. He delved into her cavern, his tongue claiming her warm, satiny treasure. He tasted her moan, felt it in the throbbing insistence of his groin. Her hand still cradled his cock, now so hard that it threatened to rip through the thin wool barrier. He flexed his hips, pressing his erection into her touch, letting her know her effect on him, as was her due.
He slanted his mouth over hers, deepening his penetration. Thrusting into her wet hole and luring her tongue to play with his. She whimpered, squirming delightfully against him, the shy rub of her tongue threatening his self-control.
It would be so easy to toss up her skirts. To take her then and there, sheath his turgid, aching prick in his wife’s pussy—the pussy that belonged to him and that he’d yet to claim.
But that wasn’t his plan.
He lifted his mouth from hers. It took a moment for her eyelids to slide up, revealing her gloriously disoriented gaze. It made him want to kiss her again, but there was something else he wanted too. Something essential. Something that took precedence over the fire she ignited in his loins.
Rubbing his thumb over her kiss-swollen lips, he gave his second command. “Now tell me about a past kiss.”
Her long lashes fluttered up. “Wh-what?”
“This is what I want from you, Gabriella: to be my wife in body and mind. As my amnesia has robbed me of our past conjugal bliss, you will be my memory,” he told her. “For the duration of our trip, for every physical pleasure we share, you will share a story of it from our past. Our first time, our best time, even our worst…I will leave it up to you what you wish to tell me.”
“I don’t know if I can say such thingsaloud.”
As charming as he found her maidenly modesty, he wouldn’t let it stand between them.
“You can because I’m your husband and you’re my wife,” he stated. “I wish there to be no secrets between us. Moreover, your memories of our past might trigger my own and hasten my recovery.”
As she chewed on that and her tempting bottom lip, he went on, “There is no guarantee when or if my amnesia will resolve. But I’m not going to let the future of our marriage be dictated by that uncertainty. You have my word that I will guide us through this journey, Gabby, but it would be a damned sight easier if I knew what baggage we’re carrying. Will you give me what I ask? Your honesty, loyalty, and commitment as my wife?”
