Abruptly, he did just as she asked.
“I didn’t mean—” she began, only to huff with annoyance. “You are dreadful.”
He laughed, gazing down at her with such an adoring look that she could have forgiven him anything.
“I learned from the best. Relax and stop rushing. You may know how to pick a lock, but I know how to undo you. Let a fellow work, can’t you?”
Alice snorted, amused by his description. He was right too, he’d already proven that much. She supposed she ought to just trust him and do as he said.
He sent her a smug smile and moved down the bed, his tongue and mouth leaving a trail of heat across her skin. Kissing a path down her breasts, he traversed her ribcage and belly, the jut of her slender hips, and nuzzled the tender skin on the inside of her thigh. Alice’s breath hitched as she stared down at him, her fingers sinking into his hair, the deep auburn glinting like garnets in the firelight. He glanced up then, his eyes dark with wanting, before he pressed his mouth against the soft patch of curls.
“Aubrey,” she whispered.“Please.”
He did not tease her this time, but gently parted the curls, exposing the delicate peak of her sex.
The touch of his tongue was enough to wipe her mind clean of any thought but him, of the way he touched her and the heat that surged from the place he lavished with such attention. Alice sighed, trusting in him and tumbling into pleasure with wanton abandon.
It was perfection.Hewas perfection, she realised, as the world and all the trauma and fear fell away and she sank into the velvety dark, the sensations he wrought from her unresisting body so unbearably good that she held her breath. He was everything she had never allowed herself to want, even to dream of, yet Aubrey gave her love and trust and friendship, with theadded spice of desire. Her muscles tensed as she hovered on the edge, the delicious anticipation of pleasure still to come, holding her suspended.
Alice shattered with a cry that tore from her mouth without her ever thinking to stifle it. The sound was unrestrained, but in that moment, she didn’t care, and she knew Aubrey didn’t either.
Still dazed she had not time to make a sound before Aubrey moved, easing her thighs wider as he found his place between them.
“Alice?” he said, her name a question as he waited.
“Yes,” she said, laughing at the desperation in his voice until he pushed inside her.
In one hard thrust, he entered her. She gasped, grasping his shoulders and holding on tight as he groaned and took hold of her wrists, pressing them into the mattress over her head.
“All right?” he asked gruffly.
Alice felt her lips quirk into a smile. “Rather better than all right.”
“I thought I’d lose you tonight, and I knew my life was over. I love you, and I’m never letting you go. I hope you realise that. We’re joined now, in every way that counts.”
Something in her relaxed at the declaration, not only her muscles that had tensed at the sudden invasion of his body filling hers, but the part of her that feared she could never belong anywhere, to anyone. She was finally at home, loved, just the way she was. “Never let me go.”
He moved then, a slow slide and retreat that grew quicker and deeper as he moaned, a raw sound somewhere between pleasure and pain. Alice closed her eyes, losing herself in the wonder of how exquisitely they fit together. Time ceased toexist. Nothing existed outside of this room, this touch, this kiss. Aubrey slid his hands into hers, lacing their fingers together. Gazing up at him, finding him watching her, Alice discovered his face flushed with passion, and with such a look in his eyes that she wondered if she could die of happiness, from being loved so well. But then he moved, hard and deep, tilting her hips in such a way that melted her brain, and the sensation overpowered everything else as he gasped, thrusting quicker, faster.
He took them higher, with Alice holding on for dear life, breathless and mindless as she followed where he led, on and on into this new, undiscovered territory. Her hands slid over skin, damp with exertion as his movements became increasingly erratic.
“Alice,” he said, her name a raw exclamation as his body jerked and he spilled his pleasure inside her.
Alice watched him. The sight of him in such a state of abandon was the most wonderful thing in the world. She followed him into bliss, their hands clasped tightly together. They lay together, a tangle of limbs, unable to speak as their hearts thundered in unison.
When his breath finally returned to something close to normal, Aubrey moved off her, collapsing onto his back. He reached for her, apparently unwilling to allow any distance for even a moment.
“Good Lord. I am going to enjoy being married to you, love.”
Alice laughed at the anticipation in his voice and snuggled closer, her head on his chest. His skin was blazing hot, his heart still pounding in his chest, and she smoothed her hand up and down his body, revelling in the rise and fall of the powerful muscles under her fingertips.
All at once, she could not keep her eyes open a moment longer. She had never felt so relaxed, so at peace. She smothered a yawn and heard Aubrey’s low chuckle. He shifted, easing them lower down the bed and pulling the covers up over her.
“Go to sleep, love. It’s been a hell of a day.”
She blinked at him, not wanting to be parted, even by sleep. “Will you stay?”
“I can’t,” he said, kissing her forehead tenderly. “Not tonight. We must endure at least seven days, depending on how long the licence takes to arrive. Seven days to ensure no gossip follows you to the altar, and then our nights will be our own, forever.”
