He leaned in, laying her back against the settee. She shifted and he lowered himself over her, loving the feel of the length of her body beneath his. No one in his life had ever stoked this kind of passion in him. This need to claim and have and love forever.
He could think of no better way to celebrate their engagement than this. To make love to her without the barriers that had been between them the last time.
She must have read his mind, because of course she could read his mind. She pulled away slightly. “We won’t be…interrupted?”
He smiled. “No. It’s early still and I locked the door.”
“You did?” She laughed. “I was so caught up I didn’t notice.”
“I was crafty,” he said, brushing his lips against hers. “I’ll find my ways when it comes to being alone with you.”
“I suppose we have the rest of our lives to figure out how to be crafty together,” she said, and her face was lit up with the same wonder that he felt on his own.
They were going to be together. Forever. He grinned as he covered her mouth again. But the playfulness quickly faded as desire rose in him. She gave so completely, so openly. Despite her past, Helena had not lost her sweetness or her passion. He had never been so glad of anything.
He began to rock against her as his hands roved down her side, then across to gently squeeze her breast. She let out a sound of pleasure and her hips nudged his, sending a jolt of awareness and sensation up his already hard cock.
“The things you do to me,” he murmured as he slid his mouth from hers to her neck.
“Show me,” she whispered, her voice shaking in the quiet of the room.
He lifted his head and caught her hand, drawing it between them and pressing it to his cock. She groaned as she touched him, cupped him, began to stroke him through the suddenly too-heavy fabric of his trousers.
“I need you,” he grunted.
She nodded, and her hand slid to unbutton the front placard of his trousers. As she did so, he pushed her skirts up, bunching around her hips. She parted her legs and he settled between them, his heat finding hers. His cock sliding home as she gasped out his name in pleasure.
He couldn’t be so verbose. When her tight, slick heat pulsed around him, he lost all ability to think, let alone form coherent words. He was animal in that moment, lost in the sensations of pleasure that ordered him to take. To claim. To make his in the most permanent way he could imagine.
He thrust, short and hard, and her fingers tightened against his back. He watched her face as he took her. Her mouth parted with pleasure, her eyes fluttered shut. He memorized every twitch and moan, guiding his motions through her reactions. He watched her build to orgasm and he loved every moment of that journey as they slowly took it together.
At last her eyes flew open and went wide. She let out a garbled cry and her sheath began to pulse around him, milking him with her pleasure, demanding he merge it with his own. And he did, thrusting harder through her crisis, reveling in the way his balls tightened. Electric sensation shot through him. He slammed his mouth to hers, letting his cries of pleasure be lost against her lips as he pumped hard and hot into her clenching body.
He collapsed against her, pressing kisses to her neck as she smoothed her hands over his back. She was his. Truly his in a way he hadn’t allowed before. A way that ensured there would be no going back, not that he wanted to do so.
Because she was the love of his life, and he couldn’t wait to tell the world.
“That was wonderful,” she murmured, pressing her mouth to his neck. “Every time is wonderful. I never imagined it could be like that.”
He rolled a little, balancing precariously on the edge of the settee so he could face her. Their bodies parted with the motion, and she let out a little sigh of displeasure that made him smile. “Just think of how wonderful it will be when we aren’t sneaking around. Or fraught with danger and potential loss.”
She slid her fingers into his hair, massaging his scalp gently. “I might miss fraught with danger,” she said with a laugh.
He arched a brow. “Noted, Miss Monroe. I can certainly make sure there is a little after we’re married. I’ll make love to you by lakes and in side rooms at parties if the fear of being caught makes you mewl my name so prettily.”
Dark pink color filled her cheeks. But there was also a little interest in her eyes at the idea, and he chuckled. He would definitely file this information away.
“Now, I would very much like to exploit the potential danger the study puts us in. However…” He sat up and drew her up with him. They shifted around, putting clothes back in place. She laughed as she smoothed down his hair and he tucked her errant curls back into place. Soon they both looked somewhat more reasonable.
“We have one unpleasantness we must face, I’m afraid,” he said at last.
Her expression twisted and she snuggled a little closer to him. “My uncle.”
He nodded. “Your uncle. I want you to understand I’m not going to ask him for your hand. I’m telling him I’m taking it. It’s a courtesy he isn’t owed.”
Her lips pursed and he could see all her anxiety return. How he hated it. He hoped someday she would no longer feel any of it.
“When you do this,” she said, her voice shaky, “just be prepared. He is entirely awful, especially when crossed. He may not be able to threaten you with a return to Boston as he did me, but he’ll do anything in his power to make this as terrible as he can.”
