“You,” she admitted, the word leaving her more easily than her own name. “I want you.”
He closed his eyes for a heartbeat, then opened them again, blazing. “You’ve always had me.”
Heat rushed down her body. The sensation shocked and thrilled her with its force. She wanted more. Of him. Of this. Of the way wanting didn’t feel like shame with him; it felt like a right she’d been born to claim. “You’ve always had me, too.”
“Liss,” he said, almost a laugh, almost a groan, “I am going to carry you upstairs the moment this door opens.”
She slid her fingers to his jaw again, thumb stroking that sinful stubble she loved. “Then carry me, because I am done pretending. I want the whole of you.”
His answering grin was fierce and boyish both. “As my wife commands.”
On cue, the carriage rocked to a halt. Giles gathered her closer, one arm strong at her back, the other securing her against his chest as if she were the only treasure he had ever wished to possess.
And for once, Alyssia had no objections to being possessed.
Bishop thought he’dgo mad while carrying Alyssia to their bedchamber. The house had never seemed so narrow, nor the stairs so infernally long. He took them two at a time. How he’d made the rest of the way, God alone knew.
Your mouth hardly left hers, that’s why.What could he say? He was a man addicted to the skin of his wife, her every damn breath. And with her three words,I wantyou, she might as well have turned him into the rogue she always claimed him to be. He couldn’t stop kissing her, touching her, memorizing her.
He was even inclined to believe he’d been the one knocked senseless at the ball and dropped into a dream.If it is a dream, may it never end.Let the world spin on without him; he would remain here, arms full of his wife.
He should be gentle. He would be gentle. He meant to be gentleness itself. But when he shouldered open the bedchamber door and set her on her feet, kicking the door shut with his foot, something fierce and long starved surged to the surface. He backed her against the door, braced a hand beside her head and kissed her. How many nights, howmany times during the day even, had he dreamed of this moment?
Too many to fathom.
He’d thought it would take years for her to accept him so fully. Very well, not years. But at the very least weeks, months, and yet here she was, owning him, the answering press of her body making it seem as though she could not choose distance even if she tried. And she didn’t. That was the biggest damn blessing.
“God help me,” he broke away to brush his lips against her jaw, “You have utterly bewitched me.”
She seized his lapels and drew him in for another kiss, quick and honest. “Then be bewitched,” she breathed. “But don’t you dare stop for anything. Take me, Giles.”
He nodded and bent to lift her up, but she stopped him. “Right here.”
“Christ, here? It’s your first time. The bed is seven steps away.”
“Seven steps too far,” she countered. “I don’t want to wait even that. Now, take me, you can be gentle later.”
What the devil could he say to that? What his wife wanted, his wife got. And quite honestly, with words like that, he couldn’t hold back much either.
His hands found the back of her gown, fingers deft at the tiny hooks and laces. He needed more skin. “Tell me if I hurt you, and I’ll stop,” he said, voice rough.
“Don’t worry, I know what to expect.”
“Expecting and experiencing are two different worlds.” As they’d once again learned tonight.
She chuckled. “I’m counting on that.”
Damn little temptress.
He freed the bodice enough to bare the curve he’d been dying to worship with hands and mouth. He lowered his head, breath stuttering as the first taste of her breast met his tongue. Her sigh spilled over him, fingers thrusting into his hair.
“You gasp so prettily, Liss,” he teased.
“Focus,” she admonished, and arched into his mouth.
He laughed softly, helplessly, and caught at her skirts, pushing them up the slope of her leg. He fumbled one hand to the fall of his breeches. She was quicker, slipping her hands beneath, seeking, learning. He cursed again, softer this time, as her palm found his cock.
“Liss.” Bloody, bloody hell. “Mercy.”
