“Oh.” Wonder glimmered in her rounded eyes. When a gust of wind outside sent a renewed draft into the air, she uttered a squeal and burrowed tighter into his arms.
God, she was adorable. Wanting to move on to more pleasurable things, he tumbled them both onto the bed and the comfortable feather mattress tick. “For what it’s worth, I’m beyond excited to potentially have one of the Hasting sisters for my own. I have admired the pluck of your sisters to carve out lives of their own making. You and I shall have such fun together.”
Her arms slipped about his shoulders, and she felt all too right beneath him. “Perhaps I shall make up for lost time from locking myself away for the past several years; I shall finally participate in life.”
“You will be surprised about how much there is to experience, and I want to share it all with you.” Working the ties of her petticoat, he said, “Ah, Emmy, as insane as this sounds, a match between us is everything I have ever wanted.”
And then he set about to render them both completely naked, for hewouldconvince her to marry him by the time the clock struck midnight.
Chapter Seven
Emmaline was drowningon a wave of sensation as Christian kissed her and she returned his kisses with an ardor that surprised her. Oh, how she adored him; it didn’t matter that she barely knew him, and now that man wished to marry her.
Someone—a duke—wishes to marry me. Me!
Then she couldn’t think at all, for his kisses were hot and insistent, and the weight of him as he pressed her into the mattress was so lovely.
“I want to touch you,” she murmured against the strong column of his neck. That clean, wintery scent of him infiltrated her nose and carried her away. “I want to tryeverything.” In her five and twenty years, this moment was one of the most exciting.
“I can deny you nothing.” With his eyes dark with wicked promise, he pulled back a bit and met her gaze. Muscles played beneath his skin, and she joyfully slipped her fingers through the mat of hair on his chest. “Do what you will. We have all night.” When he came down over her again, she sighed and trailed her fingertips along his strong shoulders.
“You’re glorious.” Never had she had the chance to explore a man’s body, but Christian didn’t seem to mind. Every time she touched him, traced the planes and valleys that made up his form, his muscles went taut. He didn’t bid her nay. Instead, he watched her as she stroked her hands over his torso, slid one down past his flat but slightly soft belly to brush her fingersagainst his hard, hot shaft. With her other hand, she rubbed a dusky, flat nipple with the forefinger until it puckered. When he sucked in a shuddering breath, she grinned. “So responsive, so different.”
“And you, my sweet little witch, will encourage me to spend before I’m ready.” He claimed her mouth with a string of drugging kisses that sent every thought out of her mind. When he was done, he eased off her once more. “I intend to worship your body right now, though.”
Before she could respond, he slid down her form, kissing her skin as he went. “Ah, Emmaline.” His hot breath steamed her mons. Gently, insistently, he encouraged her to bend her knees and splay her thighs, which put that most private part of her on display. “Let me show you how much I already admire you.”
“What do you mean?” She trembled, both from anticipation and nerves when he stroked the inside of her thighs with his fingers. Though she’d listened to Gigi’s more risqué stories of what she’d done with various men, she’d honestly thought they’d been made up tales designed to shock the listener.
“Just this. If you don’t enjoy it, I shall stop.” With his fingers on her flesh, he spread her open, then dipped his head and put his mouth on her.
“Oh!” Wild sensations shot through her body. Her blood lit with tiny fires of desire. A strangled moan left her throat as he flicked his tongue over that swollen nubbin at her center. Again and again, he worried that button, and with each pass, pleasure shivered down her spine to lodge deep inside her. His fingers tightened on her hip, her thigh as he applied himself more ardently to his task. With her next moan, she melted into the bedding, suddenly boneless, for he replaced his fingers with his tongue; that change in friction and texture hurled her over a gentle crest of pleasure. “I had no idea…” And she still wasn’tquite certain what had happened just now, but it had been lovely.
The dratted man chuckled with pure masculine smugness as he came back up her body. “Now who is the responsive one?” Every dip and contour of his body was enhanced by shadows from the lingering flashes of lightning that were fading from the area. His rampant member surged thick and proud from a nest of dark brown curls, but before she could look her fill, Christian once more covered her body with his. “Indeed, we were meant for each other.”
“It’s encouraging.” Their skin glided together, the hairs on his chest tickled her sensitive nipples as he claimed her mouth. The foreign taste of herself on his mouth oddly enhanced her need, and Emmaline held him even closer. He explored her lips with a languid grace, and when she wriggled into a more comfortable position beneath him, she jostled his erection. His hiss of breath thrilled her. When he dipped his head to take a nipple into the warm cavern of his mouth, she slipped her hand between them to explore that mysterious shaft.
To give him the same pleasure he did to her.
“Emmaline, easy.” The duke left off with his exquisite torture to lay a hand over hers. He curled her fingers around his length, demonstrated how to stroke him, what brought him to near madness. “Gently, love. I’m nearly done as it is.”
She giggled. How could she not? The whole business of ruination and coupling was full of wonderful, odd things. “Ah, so then Ishouldn’tdo this?” Heady with desire, she gave his shaft a bit of a squeeze before she stroked and twisted her hand down his entire length. Oh, it was silky and hard and so thick!
“Minx,” he gasped on the edge of a groan. He tweaked her nipple in response.
Pain-tipped pleasure cartwheeled through her, and it was her turn to gasp. “And I absolutely shouldnotdo this.” Daring much,Emmaline cupped his hair-covered stones. She stroked them, squeezed them, rubbed her fingers over them and must have hit a particularly sensitive spot, for he uttered a growl mixed with a curse and flexed his hips against hers.
“Emmy!” Urgency threaded through the exclamation. The insistent prod of his member sent awareness pinwheeling over her. “Perhaps you aren’t a frightened wallflower at all.”
Such power a woman could wield during intercourse! “It must be the company I’ve suddenly been keeping, or perhaps the magic of this night.” His support for her bolstered her confidence. Knowing she had a lifetime ofeverythingto look forward to sent a host of tingles playing about her spine.How am I so fortunate?
“Enough, sweeting.” He kissed her, possessed her mouth with a series of deep, drugging kisses that turned her brain to mush and her body pliant and warm. “I want you. Want to show you how much I adore you, what we will perfect between us over the years.” His words were breathless, halting, as if he exercised tight control over himself.
“Oh, Christian.” She cupped his cheek, kissed him again and again, while she rested her other hand on his back. “If this is what love at first sight feels like, then I am well and truly lost.” When she held his gaze with hers, so many emotions pooled in those dark brown depths that she reveled in each one. “I want you too.”
He didn’t answer with words. Instead, he moved them both into a more comfortable position and with a knee, widened her legs. As anxiety and apprehension crawled over her skin, he kissed her with a slow leisure that made her head spin. She looped an arm about his shoulders, tried to layer herself even closer to this man who’d turned her life tip over tail. Then the head of his hardened member was at her opening. With apowerful thrust of his hips, he penetrated her body and didn’t stop until he’d buried himself deep into her core.
“Oh!” She cried out as a prick of pain trickled into her desire-drunk brain. Emmaline gripped his shoulder, pinched his side as she acclimated to the invasion. He was so big, so thick, so… wonderful… embedded her body, joining them into one. “I… this is… wonderful.” The words were breathless, rushed, awed.
