Was he being purposefully obtuse?“I mean, in lovemaking. What comes next? When doyoubecome involved?”
He closed his eyes and laughed. When he opened them, he said, “I assure you, that was me.” He skimmed his palm down her bare stomach to the thatch of curls. “And I was very much involved.”
“I know,” she said, distracted again by his touch. “But you and your….” She gestured to his bare torso and pointed lower, feeling her cheeks heat. “It’s your turn for such enjoyment, and you must insert…yourself…inside me.”
“No,” he said, now idly brushing first one of her breasts, then the other.
“No?”What could he mean?
“No. I will tease you, stroke you, lick, suck, and bite you,” Owen stated.
“Bite me?” she repeated, imagining all sorts of sensitive places he might do so. She shivered with the thought.
“But I willnotpenetrate you until our wedding night. Some things are done a certain way, and that’s that. Tradition, respect, love—it all makes sense when I think of you as my virginal wife on our very first night of marriage. And in answer to your question, it is not always so fast. I doubt either of us will sleep on our wedding night.”
Her eyes opened wide. It sounded marvelously exciting, but it gave her pause.
“I don’t want you going elsewhere to satisfy yourself.”
He sobered at once. “Absolutely not. Never again,” he promised. “You have my heart and my body, so long as I live.”
“It could be months until we marry,” she reminded him.
“Months?” he repeated with less enthusiasm.
She giggled. “Show me how to give you the same sensations you gave me, and we will save the rest for the wedding night.”
“Very well.” He rolled onto his back and sighed. “Such a demanding woman. I haven’t slept a wink, and now she wants me to teach her to pleasure me.What next?I ask.”
She punched his shoulder for teasing her and turned on her side, so she had better access to his glorious nakedness. Hardly able to believe this beautiful, strong, healthy man was all hers, she drank in the sight of him—admiring his broad shoulders and muscled arms, his flat stomach, and his…oh my!It was growing as she looked at it.
“Um.”
“If you wrap your fingers around it,” he said, his voice sounding thick, “I shall tell you what works best.”
Adelia did as he said, and despite her unpracticed hands, he said very little after that. She easily got the gist of it, marveling at the feel of him so silky smooth yet firm under her touch.
When she glanced at him again, his eyes had closed, his expression intense as she intimately stroked and squeezed him. In a short time, he groaned and spent across the sheet, all the while with her watching him, fascinated.
“You can let go now,” he said after a few moments, his voice sounding lazy and contented. She understood the blissful journey he’d taken. Moreover, he must be exhausted after watching her all night.
“Do you wish to sleep a little, right here beside me?” she asked.
In answer, he drew her down on the dry side of the bed, and in a very few minutes, she drifted off to sleep next to her already snoring fiancé.
*
Owen awakened tothe disconcerting sound of shouting, something he never heard in his home unless he was the one doing it. Heart racing, thinking of murderers and ropes, he glanced over to see Adelia remained safely at his side but starting to stir.
“Stay here,” he ordered, climbing out of bed.
“What is going on?” she asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up, still bare and beautiful. “I wonder the time.”
“Near to noon, I’d warrant,” he declared, hunting for his trousers. He yanked them on, decided against the dressing gown as the shouting grew louder, and ran from the room.
As he descended the stairs, Owen realized he should have expected the sight—Adelia’s brother, bathed and dressed in the fashion of an earl once more, shouting for his sister. Fortunately, Owen’s butler was loyalty personified, guarding the stairs and the rest of the house from unwanted invasion.
“Ah-ha. There you are!” Lord Thomas Smythe yelled upon spying Owen halfway down the staircase. “Where is she?”
