She tasted sweet. Ariadne shivered violently, and a soft moan of want slipped from her.
“Perhaps I shan’t mind if you do ravish me,” came her breathless reply.
In a moment, her back was on the flat of the couch, and Cedric gentled his touch, cupping her cheek with one hand while bracing above her on his elbow.
He’d never kissed her with such a desperate, hungry passion before, always mindful of her sensibilities and his honor. Now her eyes glowed with innocence and the bloom of uncertainty.
“Consider this lesson one on finding out of the thing you want are the things you want,” he said. “Do you want to stay?”
Chapter Nineteen
Ariadne felt herself gazing up at Cedric; the unmarred half of his face was cast in shadow, the scarred part of his face in the light. A few weeks ago, she would have run, terrified out of her mind, but now, she saw past the scars.
The emotion in his eyes said more than the ruin of his skin. The knot of anxiousness inside her loosened, and guided by instinct, she kissed him with all the passion he was pulling from inside her. Eagerness and inexperience made her actions clumsy, but it didn’t matter because he soon took control.
He slowed her frantic kisses with slower moves, showed her how to twine her tongue with him, and how to pace herself to enjoy the heat that sizzled through her.
Her fingers dug into the back of his hard shoulders, her knees bracketing his hips, and yet still she was desperate to get closer. When his mouth left hers, she made a sound of protest.
“Easy, mouse.” His soft laugh made her blush hot… then he drew the lobe into his mouth.
The touch she was unprepared for made her groan as his tongue flicked back and forth over the delicate shell, the caress hardening the tips of her breasts, causing a flutter between her thighs.
He played with her breast simultaneously, rolling the swollen tip between his finger and thumb. The sensations spread from her breasts, building and building, until every fiber of her vibrated with need.
She was wearing countless layers, a thick chemise, stays, and starched petticoats, not to mention her thick, heavy velvet dress.
“Devil and damn,” he muttered, his strong touch titillating the taut peaks of her breasts, rubbing them against the cage of stiffened fabric. It was sensational and torturous. “How many bolts of cloth are you wearing?”
His hand slipped from her breast to slip up her silk-stocking clad leg while his lips coasted over her jaw and neck, pleasure ruffling up her spine.
She was not sure what to ask for or how to put words to the feeling inside her body. She didn’t know how to get relief, but she trusted that he could.
“I feel…” she whispered.
“What?” The scrape of his beard over her cheek made her shiver.
“Ermmm…” she paused. “Wet?”
His head lifted, “I can take care of that. I’ll give you what you need. Trust me, Ariadne.”
His lips met her cheek while his hot palm landed on her sensitive inner thigh, his fingers drifting toward the shadowed crevice just beyond.
She gasped and held onto him as his finger parted her silky nest, then ran a finger along her swollen folds and up to her secret rosebud.
“Christ, you’re wet,” he murmured.
He found her pearl, and while he rubbed her, eased his middle finger into her untried passage. “You’re so small and tight.”
Pleasure shuddered through her as he varied pace, pressure, and stroke to maximize her pleasure. Her control began to unravel as the whirling tension built, gathering in the wanton peak that throbbed for his touch.
It didn’t take long for her to shatter: she’d been on the edge from the start. When she went over with a cry, he claimed her mouth and swallowed it.
As Ariadne slowly floated down to earth, several facts entered her awareness. One, she’d just felt a blissful high she had never known existed; it even felt as if the earth had stopped moving for a moment.
Second, Cedric was lying heavily between her thighs, his face buried in her neck, his hot breath coasting over her ear. Third, his finger was still inside her, and she clenched over it, knowing that when they did consummate the marriage, something much bigger would be inside her.
So, this is what all the fuss is about.
