She truly wanted to see what was under all that propriety. A few times when she’d touched him, she’d felt the shape of him, unexpectedly toned and muscled for a man of his station, but imagination and reality were often very different things.
He tugged the shirt over his head and she caught her breath. That body…it was a sin that he covered it. He should have roamed around shirtless all day long, just letting hungry ladies and gentlemen enjoy the view. He had broad shoulders defined by the curves of muscle and the arches of his collarbone. They tapered into trim hips and lightly defined abdominal muscles. And his arms. Lordy, his arms. Forearms corded with definition and biceps rippling when he slid his hands to his trouser buttons and lowered his fall front.
“Oh,” she gasped, hating herself for being so missish and yet unable to be anything but because the cock was just as stunning and exciting as the rest he’d revealed. He was bigger than Harry, thick, and in his excitement his member curled toward his belly.
“I’ll take thatohas a compliment,” he teased as he pressed his hands to the bottom of the big bed and then began a slow crawl toward her.
He bent his head and rubbed the smoothness of his cheek against her calf, he edged up farther and cupped her knees with both hands, pushing them wider. She removed her fingers from between her thighs and stared as he settled on his stomach between them.
“Oh,” he said with a wink up at her. “Andthatis most definitely a compliment.”
She laughed somehow, even with her breath nonexistent and her heart throbbing. She felt like she’d spun around a few too many times and now she was dizzy and that sensation didn’t get any better when he pressed his hands between her legs and gently peeled her open.
“And now what will you taste like here?” he mused, bending his head to press a closed-mouthed kiss to the quivering lips of her quim. “Earthy? Sweet?” He nuzzled her and she arched a little toward him.
He let his tongue stroke her once, twice, enjoying the full length of her slit with another of those possessive growls he sometimes made when they touched. The ones that made her insides turn to jelly in a way they normally didn’t.
“Oh no, this flavor is just Evelina,” he whispered. “Gorgeously Evelina.”
She moaned and he smiled against her flesh before he delved into licking her without talking anymore. And oh, but he was magnificent. Unlike some of the men who had done this over the years, he seemed to truly enjoy tasting her. He was firm and certain with the strokes of his tongue and the way he sucked her clitoris to tease and torment.
He also seemed in no hurry. This wasn’t just some quick way to make her wet for him, he was driving her toward release, drawing her step by step as the pleasure notched up bit by bit. She sank into the sensation of his tongue stroking over her, forgetting everything else but the ache that built inside of her. She gripped the coverlet with both hands, rising to meet him, reaching for every drop of desire.
Her legs shook, her heart throbbed, her moans echoed around the room as the pleasure peaked and then she fell over the edge of it and spiraled out of control. She dug her hands into his hair, holding him to her as she thrust her hips in wild time to the pulsating release that seemed to give her wings.
He gave her no quarter as she soared, continuing his torment until her voice was hoarse and her muscle sore from contracting in harsh, continued pleasure. It was only when she went limp, her only movements a few twitches here and there, that he lifted his head. He licked his lips like a satisfied cat and then continued his journey up the length of her body.
He settled herself over her sated frame and dropped his mouth to hers. She groaned, arms coming up around his neck, tilting her head so she could taste every bit of him, of herself and the pleasure he had drawn from her.
“I think you better finish what you started, my lord,” she whispered, only barely parting her lips from his. “Because I need more.”
He dug his hands into her hair, his kiss growing wilder and deeper. She wedged a hand between them and shifted, aligning that hard cock to her very wet entrance. He took her in one long, heavy stroke and she cried out against him at the lush sensation of being so filled.
“Fuck,” he grunted, resting his head on her shoulder, his breath short and hard.
He rotated his hips and she jolted, rising to meet him in the most ancient dance of all time. He pulled his head back and they watched each other as he took her slow stroke by slow stroke, grinding against her aching clitoris every time their hips met.
She had always been a woman to find her pleasure easily, but this was something different. An exquisite sensitivity that ripped her control away and had her wailing out his name within a few expert strokes. When she gripped him with the second orgasm, the tendons in his neck tightened, he reared back more powerfully and the slap of their bodies echoed in the room.
She could see him losing control, feel him quake as his own orgasm approached. She lifted, matching his strokes beneath him, in wonder of the movement of him, the way he strained and his breath grew harsh.
And when he came? It was with a gulping cry before he pulled from her body and stroked himself to completion. The heat of him splashed on her thighs and she arched her back to lift toward him.
He collapsed over her, kissing her neck, her shoulders. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, reveling in his weight and for a little while in the quiet of that big bed, nothing mattered but the absolute shattering power of what they had just shared. Even if nothing else had been resolved at all.
* * *
Vaughn felt like he was coming from a fog as he lay with Evelina in his arms. He stroked his fingers through her hair, memorizing the way her body felt tucked against his, her hands moving over his chest in little patterns.
There had been pleasure before, but that…thathad been different. Singular. And he felt both amazed by that feeling and also deeply guilty for it. He’d been married. In all technicality, he still was, even if his wife was most definitely not acting like it. But shouldn’t he have felt this euphoric amazement with her, not Evelina?
“Oh, that look won’t do,” Evelina said, pressing a kiss to his collarbone. “You can’t set a person on fire and then just float off in your mind, Vaughn. It’s very bad form.”
He laughed and was brought back to her, just as she wished him to be. “I suppose my thoughtsarevery scattered and you’re to blame.”
“Oh good. I do love to scramble a man’s thoughts like morning eggs with my prowess. I’ll make a notch on the bedpost to celebrate.”
They smiled at each other and then he sighed. “I do wonder what this means for us. What now?”
