And the more he stroked her nipples, rubbing himself against her, the more she needed him. “I want you inside me,” she whispered, trying to guide him.
“Not yet.” He pressed her onto her back, caressing her hips. Amelia opened her legs wider, waiting for him, but he kissed her bare stomach, cupping her bottom with his hands.
Why was he moving lower? She couldn’t understand until she felt the warmth of his breath against her opening.
“David, you don’t have to—” Amelia began, but he cut off her words when he kissed her intimately. He explored her folds and crevices with his mouth and tongue, and the sensations overwhelmed her.
Dear God.
She fisted the sheets, her hips arching as he feasted upon her. His wicked tongue stroked her, and she was so close to the edge, she was trembling. It was a storm of reckless need, gatheringintensity. She was aching for him, when suddenly, her body seized up with a thousand tremors. It was like a veil of ecstasy shimmering over every part of her skin. Just as the sensations tightened into a climax, he filled her with his shaft.
She gasped as he thrust inside. Over and over he penetrated, while his erection was rigid with need. He tormented her, making love to her while she welcomed his intrusion. His hand moved between them, and when he pressed the fold of flesh above her entrance, the echo of the earlier shimmering sensation returned.
“David,” she whispered, unable to believe what she was feeling. Her body was now pliant to his thrusts, and she gripped his hips, trying to increase the speed.
Instead, he slowed down, circling her flesh with his thumb. Amelia found herself pressing back and squeezing him deep inside.
“Do that again,” he commanded, and when she did, she heard him inhale audibly. “Yes. Just like that.”
She was starting to feel the same delicious response that he’d conjured within her. It was a slow burn, a tidal pull of desire rushing over her. And she started to shake, straining for more of this.
A shudder rocked through her without warning, and she moaned, her nails digging into his backside as he brought her over the edge a second time. In answer to her release, he increased the pace of his thrusting, and she squeezed him harder, her body throbbing with a dark ache.
“I can’t last much longer against this,” he gritted out, and she wrapped both legs around his waist, trying to draw him closer.
“Do what you will,” she whispered, riding out the pulse of a crest that kept building and rising. With every thrust, she embraced him, understanding that this went much deeper than the joining of a man and a woman. It was a giving of herself, pushing back his dark grief and offering the healing solace of her body.
He took and she gave, until at last he ground into her, his breath shuddering as he emptied himself.
Flesh to flesh, heartbeat to heartbeat, they embraced in the darkness. This…this was what she wanted from him. Only more than that, she wanted his love.
She wanted him to love her the way he had his first wife. Perhaps more. Her own heart was utterly lost now, but she held back the words. This was a beginning, and he wasn’t ready to set aside the past.
“Stay,” Amelia urged him.
David dropped a kiss on her mouth and reached for his fallen clothing. “You’ll sleep better without me,” he said, though it wasn’t at all true. He said nothing more but pulled the coverlet over her before he departed.
For long moments, she stared at the wall, feeling abandoned. He didn’t want to stay with her, and it hurt to know that. A hollow loneliness stole over her, but Amelia refused to pity herself. She was in love with the earl, and the only solution was to makehimlove her.
No matter how long it took.
David’s actions had haunted Amelia for most of the night. She had never imagined he would come to her, but he’d left her feelings bruised. Though she knew it was normal for a husband to visit his wife and share her bed for an hour or two, she’d felt an overwhelming loneliness after he’d gone.
Then, too, his earlier confession that her kiss was better than Katherine’s was even more bewildering. She’d never expected him to reveal such a thing. Especially when he hadn’t wanted to marry her—not really.
Was he afraid of getting too close to her? Was that why he had abandoned her so swiftly?
Her marriage was a tangled mess, and try as she might, she had no idea how to mend the frayed edges. Thank goodness she had a distraction this morning, to draw her thoughts away from last night.
Amelia clutched her reticule, holding on tightly to the edge of the carriage as she drove to the village with Christine seated across from her. The girl’s expression was sullen, and she had I-don’t-want-to-be-here written all over her face. She had also come down with a cold and coughed frequently, her handkerchief clutched in one hand.
When they reached the village, the driver pulled the curricle to a stop, and he helped Amelia down first. When she held out a hand to Christine, the girl ignored it.
“We don’t have to be enemies, you know,” she pointed out.
“I loathe shopping.” Her stepdaughter put on a long face and said, “And since we’re alone, you needn’t pretend to like me. I know you don’t.”
Amelia shrugged. “I can’t say it’s easy to like someone who tells me that I’m not wanted, and she’d rather resent me than get to know me.”
