Alexander had been with many women in his life. Before he was scarred, he’d been known as a rake, a seducer of women, and they had fallen at his feet for the opportunity for a night in his bed. Tonight should have been nothing out of the ordinary for him. Oh, it had been a while, yes. But it shouldn’t have meant anything beyond slaking a desire that had risen up so powerfully in him.
But now, staring into Marianne’s green eyes, seeing the innocence in her expression, but also the heat that bubbled beneath her demure surface…he felt a stirring in his heart that he didn’t understand and didn’t want.
He wanted it to go away.
With a growl, he rolled back over to cover her, pinning her to the bed with his superior weight. She mewled out in pleasure, arching against him with unpracticed passion that made his hard cock even harder, a divining rod that screamed at him where to go.
With difficulty, he fought the urge to simply plunge inside her tight body, and kissed her roughly. She tasted like peaches, sweet and ripe, and she relaxed beneath him with a soft sound of pleasure. When she was limp, he returned his attention to her body, dragging his mouth back to her rosy nipples, where he licked and sucked and plucked at her. He loved how her breath caught with pleasure, how her hips rolled against his, seeking what he had to offer. He loved how she shut her eyes and surrendered to sensation. Innocent or no, she was bold. She was brave.
And that spoke to him in some deep place he had thought cut off when he locked himself away from the world at large. Tonight he would allow himself this pleasure. After…well, he would decide that when he came to it.
He dragged his mouth lower, tasting the flesh of her stomach, her hip, and then parting her legs to reveal her sex just as he had in the carriage. She was already wet, and the scent of her desire drove him mad with wanting. But he wanted this to be good for her. So he pushed his own desire aside and focused on making her come, making her ready.
He spread her folds, rubbing the flat of his fingers across the entrance to her body. She gasped, turning her head on the pillows at the intimate touch. He watched her face, observing how she bit her lip, how she arched her back as he smoothed his fingers across her again, then dipped just the tip of his index finger inside.
“Alexander,” she gasped, her eyes opening wide and his name a prayer as he breached her body this time.
“I want to ready you,” he explained, only barely holding back a groan as her tight body pulsed around him. She was most definitely untried and he gently stretched her with his fingers. She dug her fingers into the coverlet, hissing out a sound that wasn’t clearly pleasure or pain, and he stopped moving. “Does it hurt?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, her breath short. “It’s full.”
He almost laughed at that statement, for she hadn’t even begun to experience fullness yet. His cock would soon stretch her, leaving no more space between them.
And he was so ready for that moment. Judging from the slick welcome of her sex around his fingers, so was she. He bent his head, drawing his tongue against the salty and sweet essence of her body. She ground up into him just as she had done in the carriage, and within a few long strokes, her body began to shake with orgasm. He looked up at her as he continued to draw her through the pleasure, reveling in the look of pure release on her lovely face.
When the tremors had subsided, he lifted to his knees, grasped her hips and slid her lower on the bed. He pressed her thighs wider before he matched their bodies, his hardness to her softness. She looked down at the place where they would be joined, and he saw the worry on her face, but also the curiosity and lingering need.
“Ready?” he asked.
She jerked out a nod. “Yes.”
He drove forward in one slick thrust and barely contained a groan of pure bliss. By God, but her tight body welcomed him, pulsing around him in the last few tremors of her prior orgasm. He looked down at her face and saw the flash of pain there, so he forced himself to hold still when all he wanted to do was pound against her hard and fast, slaking his need for her until there was nothing but blinding pleasure to wipe away everything else.
“Talk to me,” he urged, hearing the strain in his voice.
She wiggled a little beneath him and her sex clenched against his cock. He dipped his head back with a harsh grunt, fighting for the control this woman didn’t even fully realize she could take.
“It hurt for a moment,” she whispered. “But now it’s just…odd.”
“And what about now?” he asked as he slowly rotated his hips.
She gasped, her eyes going even wider as she jerked her stare to his face. “Alexander?”
“And now?” he repeated, rolling his hips again.
She sucked in air through her teeth as she lifted against him instinctually. Oh, yes, she was built for this. From her beautiful head down to her curling toes. She was built for this and for him.
He moved faster now, working to balance a desire to be gentle with her with his need to come. And she met him stroke for stroke, gasping out his name as he gathered her closer and kissed her deeply.
Their hips ground together, her sex milked him, hotter and tighter than anything he’d ever experienced before. And swiftly he approached a crisis he would not be able to avoid. Her panting breaths echoed in his ears as she neared her own release a second time and he ground hard into her to bring her there.
She let out a harsh cry, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as she nearly bucked off the bed. He drove his tongue into her mouth, catching her gasps and moans of pleasure as he drove harder and faster into her clenching body. He felt the gathering storm reaching its crescendo and with a moan, he withdrew from her body and spent between them.
His heart racing, he rolled from her, pulling her against his chest and holding her there, relieved from all the negative emotions that normally clouded his every move. At least for a few short moments.
Marianne pulled the blanket around her a little tighter and pushed her plate away. It had only been half an hour since she and Alexander had made love, but it seemed like an eternity. Certainly, she felt like she was with a different man.
In the bed, he had been gentle, careful, and he had given her more pleasure than she had ever thought possible. But here, sitting in the main room of their chamber, a table of food spread out before them, he was back to being distant, cool.
