He lifted Phoebe on top of the worktable without any finesse and tore open her wrapper. Her chest was heaving and he could make out the rosy tips of her hard nipples beneath the gossamer fabric of her nightgown. Phoebe began to undo the pearl buttons that started beneath her chin, but her trembling hands kept faltering.
She let out a few adorable curses and managed to expose the hollow at the base of her throat, but it wasn’t nearly enough and her progress was far too slow.
Will brushed her hands aside and fingered the lacy neckline. “Is this important to you?”
She gave him a bemused look. “No?”
“Good,” he muttered just before he ripped open the front of her nightgown.
Phoebe gaped up at him, but Will simply raised an eyebrow in challenge.
After a moment she dragged her hands through his hair and kissed him with renewed fervor. He then roughly grazed his lips along her jaw and down her throat as she let out a series of urgent cries. Will gently bit her exposed shoulder before nuzzling her décolletage. He paused at the hollow at the base of her throat and gave it a slow, lingering lick as Phoebe shivered beneath him.
“Will,” she begged. “Please.”
“Not yet. I feel like torturing myself a little more.”
He fell to his knees like a weary pilgrim on the steps of a sanctum, ready to worship. Then he pushed up the fabric of her nightgown and spread her legs wide before burying his face between her thighs.
As he dragged his tongue along the seam of her quim, Phoebe let out a startled moan that Will wanted scorched inside his brain so that he might always remember the sound of her surrender. She dragged her fingers through his hair, pushing and tugging as if she wasn’t sure whether to stop him or keep him there, but either way Will would not relent. Not until she was screaming his name whilst in the throes of unimaginable pleasure. Consequently, he did not have to wait very long.
Phoebe began to squirm beneath his hands, both relentless and wanting, chanting his name until it nearly lost all meaning and he knew it was time.
“Now come for me, my ruthless darling,” Will said as he slowly eased a finger into her lush, pulsing channel. He was rewarded by a fierce tug on his scalp as Phoebe cried out for him.
After a few more moments spent wringing every last tremor from her, Will clambered to his feet. But Phoebe looked wilder than ever. Her eyes had taken on a feral sheen in the lamplight as she pushed his jacket off his shoulders.
“I need you,” she gasped.
They were the sweetest words he could imagine hearing from her. This woman who made it a point of not needing anybody, especially not him. Will tossed his jacket on the floor and nearly ripped the buttons off his trousers in his eagerness. Just before he entered her, he paused. Phoebe’s eyes were now bright with anticipation, but there was something else in her manner that caught his attention. This unspoken feeling of understanding that sprung between them so easily. She seemed perfectly at ease in his presence, even now. And, come to think of it, so did he. Will slowly drew out his erection, and Phoebe watched with rapt attention as he gave it a long, smooth tug.
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you teasing me?”
“No.” Will smiled. “I just want to remember this. All of it.”
Her gaze softened and she pulled him in for a long, searching kiss. As she dragged her fingers through his hair, Will swore he could feel the tenderness behind the motion, everything she would not say to him. Yet. But even tender feelings could not stave off the heat between them and soon they were once again desperate and gasping for each other.
Will fit himself at her entrance and slowly pushed inside.
“God, Phoebe,” he rasped as she pressed a hand to his backside and urged him in even deeper. She responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and Will leaned forward, gripping the edge of the table with one hand while the other tangled in Phoebe’s hair. He found the end of her braid and gave it a gentle tug until she leaned back, exposing her lovely breasts to him. Will took a nipple in his mouth and began to suck in time with his thrusts, which had quickly lost any sense of finesse. She let out another cry and arched beneath him. Will pounded into her harder ashe felt her begin to clench around his aching cock. Somehow he had the wherewithal to swirl his thumb around the sensitive nub of her sex and she suddenly jerked against his chest, screaming his name into his shoulder. Will only lasted another few thrusts before he wrenched himself from her and spilled onto her bare thigh.
He let out a breathless laugh at the heady sensation that washed over him and then wrapped her in his arms. Phoebe, his wild, reckless love. How could he ever let her go?
Eighteen
Phoebe laid with Will across her mother’s worktable in a sweaty tangle for what felt like an eternity until mutual bodily pain forced them apart. It was also growing late. If anyone caught her sneaking back into the house at this hour in this state, she was prepared with a number of explanations depending on the questioning party, but it was a situation she would still prefer to avoid altogether.
She did her best to button what remained of her ripped nightgown and knotted her wrapper at her waist. Will watched her closely as he righted his trousers and pulled on his discarded jacket. Phoebe could only manage to give him quick, sidelong looks. Now that they weren’t acting on their basest urges, she didn’t know what to do with herself. But it was Will’s behavior that was most puzzling.
My ruthless darling.
Oh how her heart had soared and her belly clenched when he had said those words. And though she did quite like being called ruthless, she most certainly wasn’t his darling. But did he truly want that? And, more importantly, did she?
“You’re frowning. Is something wrong?”
Phoebe turned to Will and shook her head. “No. Nothing.”
But the concerned expression didn’t leave his face. “I’m sorry. I know you said before that it was supposed to be just one night.”
