Wanting to achieve a better angle, Caroline pushed mindlessly closer still, closer, until she had slid fully onto Fitz’s lap with her thighs straddling his lean hips.She gasped at the feeling of being open and vulnerable, her most private place pulsing against the heat and hardness of Fitz beneath the bed covers.Unsure what to do, she writhed a bit, grinding down.They both groaned, Fitz’s hands tightening in her hair and pulling in a way that made pleasurable pain sing through Caroline.
His voracious mouth fell to her throat, nipping and licking and sucking at the sensitive skin there, sending shivers all through her.Caroline’s thighs quivered and clenched as he bucked up, nudging the spot where so much of her desire had accumulated and centered.The layers of linens between them muffled the sensation but not enough to keep Caroline from moaning.She could not make her hips be still.
A tiny needle of fear pierced the veil of pleasure.She had never felt such a loss of control, such an oblivion of heat and hunger and aching towards something she couldn’t even name.
“Fitz,” she gasped as his broad palms swept over her shoulders and around to her back, “What are you doing to me?“
“I’m learning you.”He dropped the words along her collar bone.“I confess I’ve never been a great student, but no subject has ever inspired me so much.Shall I keep going?”
“Yes,” she cried, unable to put a stop to this just yet, “but?—”
“I know.Don’t worry.I won’t go too far.Do you trust me?”
Too far.Caroline was confused for a moment before she remembered, hazily, oh yes.He doesn’t wish to get married.And neither do I.So we mustn’t…
“I trust you,” she told him, looking deep into his gray eyes and finding him looking back at her, into her.Seeing her.
Learning her.
Caroline squirmed helplessly, arousal simmering all over again.Fitz’s hands found her breasts, his clever fingers lifting, shaping, strumming, teasing until she didn’t know whether to scream or sob or simply expire of sheer pleasure.His body below hers was like sun-warmed rock, smooth muscles bunching with the effort of holding himself back.For her.
She wished he didn’t have to, that they could simply follow the thread of this intensity and desire all the way to the end.It was more than her usual curiosity, her need to solve the mysteries and discover the secrets of the world around her—no.This was even more primal.
They were so close, sharing breath, sharing touch, sharing passion.But they could be closer still, and Caroline wanted it with a ferocity that shocked her.
Driven by that need, she threw her arms around his neck and clutched him to her, the broad planes of his chest against her softness and the tantalizing hardness thrusting up between them making her writhe in frustration.She shoved at the bedclothes, wanting no barriers between them.
Fitz clenched his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut, and grabbed her wrist to stop her.
Freezing for an instant, Caroline read the tension in his big, rangy frame.The damp lock of hair clinging to his furrowed brow.The working of his lungs like a bellows as he fought to master himself.
“Have mercy, sweet,” he rasped at last, blinking open those lustrous silver eyes that glowed like stars in the moonlight.“I’m only a man.”
Caroline buried her face in his shoulder.She didn’t know the words for what she wanted.
Luckily, Fitz seemed able to read her mind.Or perhaps he was reading her body, the cues of their private mating dance.In any case, he smoothed a hand down her spine all the way to the curve of her buttocks, an intimate touch that made her gasp.She felt it like a brand, hot and possessive and inexorably tilting her hips to notch more firmly against his.And he began to move.
Long, sinuous shoves of his hips, pressing her down against him at the same time.The first thrust made Caroline moan open-mouthed against the muscle of his shoulder.Everything in the world faded away; there was only the friction coiling the knot of hunger tighter and tighter and tighter until it broke apart in an ecstatic release that sent waves of shivering delight through all her limbs.
“Ah, God,” Fitz gasped, still holding her bottom, his other hand tangled in her hair.His hips churned for an instant then his whole body went rigid and Caroline bit down on his shoulder, instinctively claiming him for her own in his moment of crisis.
They clung together for long moments like survivors of a shipwreck, tossed on stormy seas.The ability to breathe returned along with the ability to think clearly.Caroline, for her part, regretted the loss of the haze of passion.It had been nice not to have to think so much, for a bit.
Reluctantly, she began to shift her weight, meaning to untangle herself from Fitz’s arms and bedsheets and dangerously addictive touch…but the moment she lifted her head, her eyes fell on the bite she’d left on his shoulder, and the heat that had been so sweetly waning began to simmer once more.
Fitz saw her looking and lifted one hand to prod a blunt fingertip at the indentation of her teeth.He winced a bit but the smile that lit his face was pure delight.“Sweet…and sharp,” he murmured.“You’ve marked me.”
She could tell by his face and by the way he kept lightly stroking the marks, he didn’t want an apology.So she didn’t give him one.Instead, she gathered herself to climb off his lap, shaking out the crumpled fabric of her long white night dress and marveling at the warm lassitude of her body.
“Let that mark serve as a reminder tomorrow,” Caroline told him, backing toward his chamber door and keeping her gaze on his all the while.He watched her go as though transfixed.“Every time you feel a pang in your shoulder while we walk through Swinley Forest, imagine me whispering in your ear a reminder to stay focused.Nothing can be allowed to get in the way of our parents finding love together.”
But as she closed his bedchamber door softly and leaned back against it to catch her breath, Caroline knew that she was the one who needed the reminder.
She could still feel the heat of his hands on her body, the surging strength of him between her thighs…the heady wonder of his intent, attentive eyes looking deep into her as though striving to discover her very soul.And Caroline’s spirit, which should still be sated by the climax of pleasure he’d brought her to, yearned for nothing more than to fling the door open and leap back into Fitz’s arms.
Together, they had satisfied the physical cravings he awakened in her body…but she very much feared that the act had only intensified her longing for closeness of another kind.The kind that bound two people together for longer than the space of an hour or a night.
The kind she could not afford to indulge.
