She was so filled with emotion that she couldn’t speak.
His shoulders hunched. “I thought since you liked to shoot… never mind. It’s a stupid thing to give to a lady—”
“I love it!”
She placed the precious gift on a chair and then launched herself at him. In her enthusiasm, she didn’t check herself and probably would have felled a lesser man. Richard didn’t budge an inch, his arms closing around her like steel bands.
“You do?” His voice was hoarse… hopeful?
Tipping her head back, she told him fervently, “It’s thebestpresent anyone has given me.”
And it was. Not merely because she loved shooting, but because of what the crossbow represented. Heunderstoodher. Accepted her foibles and eccentricities. He truly liked her after all!
The feeling inside her was too vast to contain. So she shared it with him.
As soon as her lips touched his, desire combusted between them. They sank onto the carpet, tongues and limbs entangled, tearing at each other’s clothes. Before she knew it, her night rail was tossed aside, her bare back pressing against the carpet. Hanging over her, he gazed down at her naked body. Her embarrassment dissipated at the undisguised wonder in his eyes.
“By Jove.” His voice was as deep as the night. “You’re the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.”
She trailed her fingers over the granite-hard contours of his chest; in the tussle, she’d managed to get his shirt off. “I was about to say the same thing,” she said reverently.
Flecks of ore surfaced in his eyes. “What did I do to deserve you?”
She grinned, about to make a quip, but he lowered his head to her breasts. The hot, wet suction on a taut peak made her spine arch off the carpet. She bit her lip to stifle a moan.
“Your nipples are so pretty,” he said huskily. “Sweet and ripe against my tongue. I’ve dreamed of kissing you here, suckling to my heart’s content.”
His words inflamed her almost as much as the decadent flicks of his tongue. He licked and sucked, the drugging pulls causing the place between her legs to flutter and dampen.
When his fingers stroked through those needy folds, a groan rumbled from his chest. “You’re so wet for me, lass.”
Her cheeks flamed. “I… I can’t help it.”
“Devil and damn, I don’t want you to. I want your pussy soaked for me.” His eyes grew smoky. “Aye, that’s it. Drench me with your dew, sweeting.”
She moaned as he pressed deeply, her moors on reality beginning to slip. Then he found that little knot of sensation, rubbing it as his fingers pumped fiercely into her. When he lowered his head, suckling hard at her nipples, she broke free of earthly restraints and shattered into ecstatic pieces.
~~~
His chest heaving, Richard stared down into Violet’s flushed face. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, sated, her womanly dew slick upon his fingers. Satisfaction flowed through him; at the same time, his cock was an iron ridge in his trousers, throbbing with an acuity that bordered on pain.
The gentlemanly thing to do would be to take his leave. He’d come to give her a present… and now he’d given her two. He couldn’t say which was sweeter: her response to the crossbow (a success rather than an unmitigated disaster, thank God) or the tight clench of her pussy around his fingers when she’d found her climax.
His thinking was not helping matters down south. He reminded himself that the point of tonight’s excursion was to demonstrate that he meant to woo her with more than lust. So he hadn’t exactly proved his thesis… but, then again, she wasn’t exactly complaining.
He hid a grin. Bent and kissed her nose. “I’d best be going before we get caught.”
Sitting up, he was reaching for his shirt when her hand slapped against his chest. She’d risen, kneeling beside him. “Wait just one minute,” she ordered.
He blinked. “Pardon?”
“It’s my turn.”
“Er, your turn?”
“Fair’s fair, Carlisle.”
He was about to remind her to call him Richard—but his breath left him in a sharp whoosh. Her fingers were fumbling with the placket of his trousers, the movements an exquisite torture.
