Concentrated sensation rushed through her veins, her bones, her every fiber, and she twisted her head against the pillows, lost to the throbbing need that coursed through her trembling body. And then, with an expert combination of mouth and fingers, he thrust her over the edge.
She had never experienced pleasure like this. The waves were deep and never ending, jolts that kept coming and coming so long as he suckled at her twitching body. And it went on and on, until she felt lost, until she felt found all over again.
Finally, he stroked his tongue over her one last time and withdrew his finger gently. She found her breath at last just as he pushed from the bed. She watched him, dazed, as he stripped out of his clothing in front of the firelight. He was smiling at her as he did it, clearly enjoying the results of his earlier handiwork.
She reached for him and he let her catch his hand. He moved forward, taking his place back on the bed. Only this time he covered her with his body, settling between her legs, his arms braced on the coverlet as he looked down at her.
He said nothing, but nothing needed to be said. She saw everything in his eyes. Everything she had loved about him, everything she had lost. She saw the future she’d once planned with him, the one that had been shattered all those years ago by impossible circumstances out of her control.
She reached for him, touching his cheek, his shoulders, smoothing her hands along his warm flesh as if to prove this all wasn’t some dream. If it was, she wanted to stay in it forever.
Even if she knew that wasn’t possible.
His expression shifted, as if he read some version of her thoughts. His lips drew down into a frown and he leaned in to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him, and gasped as he slid his cock deep inside her in one long thrust.
He held still for a moment, just kissing her, like he wanted to really feel her body, feel this moment. She did the same, flexing around his hardness, curling her fingers against the planes of muscle on his back. This moment, if nothing else, was hers.
She would remember it for the rest of her days.
He began to move then, slow thrusts that began to rebuild the fire he had created with his mouth earlier. He drew back from her as he did so, watching her as he took her.
She lifted to meet him, grinding against his pelvis, taking all the pleasure she could from him. He shuddered, making a low sound in his throat that was better than any pretty words he might have concocted.
He also shifted, rolling onto his back so that she was on top of him. She sat up, adjusting herself onto her knees. Now she had the power and it was amazing to feel that way. Especially considering how much taking Stenfax had done since their reunion. Oh, she’d loved it, but now this was her pleasure,hertaking.
She wasn’t going to waste it. She reached down and grabbed his hands, pressing them back against the pillows, tangling her fingers in hers. She rolled her hips over his, watching how his face twitched with pleasure. The same pleasure echoed in her body.
She wanted to make this last all night. Something screamed at her to draw it out, but it was difficult when her body reached for pleasure and found it in spades. Her thrusts grew faster as she neared release a second time and then she was falling over the edge again. She worked her spasming body over his, hard and fast, crying out with release and relief that she couldn’t control.
His neck strained as she did so, and once again he flipped her over onto her back. He moved against her with hard, heavy thrusts that only served to draw out her own pleasure even more. Finally, his face twisted, his breath grew harsh and he cried out her name and pulled away from her. The proof of his release splashed across the sheets and her stomach as he came.
As his breathing slowed, he looked down at he and she saw the moment his feelings changed. There was a slow tension that entered his face as he looked at her. A wall that came down between them.
And it tore into her. Earlier in the night, she had confessed her pain and he’d comforted her. More than that, he’d made love to her,reallymade love to her. She’d had a tiny hope that maybe that meant something.
But she could see now that it didn’t.
“Let me get you a handkerchief,” he said, speaking to her like she was nothing but an acquaintance who had sneezed.
She sat up as he got off the bed and swept up his trousers. He put them on before he caught his waistcoat and pulled a folded square from the pocket. He held it out and she stared at it.
“No,” she said. “I don’t want it.”
He wrinkled his brow. “Don’t you want to clean yourself up?”
She let out a broken laugh. “I’m not dirty, Lucien. I have no need for it. I’m a woman who just shared something wonderful with her lover. I feel no need to wipe away the evidence, nor to pretend this night away. Not like you.”
He turned his face, breaking off their connection once more. “Elise.”
She pursed her lips at the exasperation in his voice. There was no arguing with it. They were stuck in this loop, it seemed. He despised her but couldn’t resist her. He would take her and yet never allow these moments to soften his heart.
Meanwhile, every single moment they shared tattooed his name on her very soul.
She gathered the coverlet and flopped it over herself for some kind of protection. “You got what you came for, Stenfax,” she said softly. “Of course you’ll go. The easier to forget you’ve sunk so low.”
He let out a low, pained sound and she jerked her face toward him to find that he had dropped the waistcoat back at his feet and was just staring at her.
“Is that what you think?” he said. “That I come here, I fuck you and I go home without a thought for you?”
