She slid a finger under the waistband of his breeches. “I can’t wait any longer, Julian.”
He looked down at her, at her earnest, beautiful face and his resolve slipped at the desire he saw there. “I want this to be for you—”
He wrapped his hand around the long length of her hair and tried to ease her head gently away from him, but she curved one hand around his hip to draw him closer and gazed up at him, her dark eyes luminous, her face flushed. “There is no you and me. Not now. There’s only us.”
For him there was only her, and God she was lovely, kneeling on the bed before him with his hands buried in her hair, her red lips open and eager and her fingers just a little clumsy as she unbuttoned his falls. He brushed a few dark tendrils back from her face and curved a hand over her cheek. “Ah sweet, I just want—”
She looked up at him, an impish grin on her lips. “Don’t say you want to slow down again.”
A defeated groan slipped from his lips. “Men’s bodies are greedy, love. I’m not sure I can slow down now.”
She gripped his waist to hold him still and kissed her way down his stomach until she was dangerously close to the edge of his breeches. “I don’t want you to slow down. I want you to be greedy.”
His hard length strained against his falls, demanding her hands, her mouth. He looked down at her with heavy-lidded eyes, at her plump lips curved in a secret half smile. God, he knew that smile, and his cock jerked with anticipation at the memory of what followed it.
And then she pushed his breeches aside and her mouth was on him, hot and wet and perfect.
“Ah God, Charlotte.” Julian’s knees buckled at the exquisite torment of her lips sliding over his aching flesh. His hips moved helplessly as her slick tongue circled and teased. She took him deeper with each of his panting breaths and loved him for long, hot moments, her mouth sweet agony, until Julian felt the delicious tightening in his lower belly and drew away from her with a groan.
She grasped his hips to bring him back, but he resisted. “No, sweet. I want to be inside you.” He’d waited for this moment with her, dreamed of sinking into her soft, welcoming body, her arms tight around him and her breathless cries in his ears. Now it was here. For tonight she was his, and he would savor it.
He shucked his breeches, climbed onto the bed, and went to work on the buttons of her riding jacket. “How is it you’re still clothed?”
“Am I? I hadn’t noticed. I did notice you’renot.” She smoothed her hands over his shoulders with an appreciative sigh, then teased her fingertips down the arch of his spine.
“No, you don’t.” He tossed her jacket over the side of the bed, then sent her riding skirt sailing after it so she wore only her thin muslin riding shirt and underclothes. “It’s my turn to play with you.” He nudged her onto her back and stretched out on his side beside her.
Her eyes went wide. “Play with me? How—”
“Like this.” He turned her face toward his and nipped lightly at her lips, his tongue darting and teasing until her breaths came short and fast. “Yes.” He took the lobe of her ear in his teeth and bit gently. “I want you breathless.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “Iam.”
With a single tug he released the tie at the front of her shirt and slipped his hand inside the loose material to caress her breast. “I want you hard and aching for me,here.” He ran a thumb across her nipple until it strained for more; then he rolled the tender bud between his thumb and forefinger. She cried out and the high, needy sound shot straight to his cock.
No. Slowly.He would work her slowly, build her up until she was mindless, begging for release. He held her hips flush against the bed and took her other nipple in his mouth, biting it gently. “Do you need more, sweetheart?” She didn’t answer, but writhed against the bed as he continued to stroke her. “I think that’s ayes.”
He moved to her other breast and circled her nipple with his thumb, his touch slow, feather-light, torturous, then bent his head and took the dark pink bud into his mouth to suckle her, his lips gentle at first, then more insistent, his tongue darting roughly over the tender peak as his hunger grew.
He drew back to gaze at her, at her dark pink nipples so hard and tight against the transparent white muslin, wet from his mouth. He blew on the peaks and watched them tighten even further, but his gaze darted to her face when she whimpered in response. Her hips rose from the bed, tempting him to slide a hand down her belly and run his fingers through her damp curls.
She cried out again and her back arched sharply. “Please, Julian.”
God, he was greedy, greedy and desperate, because with that one breathless plea all his plans to tease her evaporated in the heat of his own desire. He tore off her shirt and chemise and fumbled with her drawers until he slid them off at last and she lay bare before him.
“Charlotte.” He pressed a lingering kiss between her breasts. He could feel her heart throbbing against his lips. “You don’t know, you can’t know how lovely you are to me, how much I want you.”
Her fingers twisted in his hair. “No more waiting, Julian. I want you, too. I’m ready.”
He groaned as his fingers found the weeping center of her desire and circled the tiny nub with his thumb, once, again—
She let out a strangled cry and urged herself against his hand. “Julian,now.”
“Let me just… I don’t want to hurt you, sweetheart.” He held her open, his thumb caressing still in slow circles as he pressed one finger inside her, and God, she was ready, her damp flesh yielding, her body melting for him.
“Yes, love.Now.” He came over her and kneeled between her thighs, gasping as her hand reached out to caress his cock. He rocked into her fist, unable to stop himself, but then she pressed him against her damp heat and he surged inside her with one deep, hard stroke.
She sank her fingernails into his back as he began to move, his neck corded with the effort to keep from plunging wildly into her like some untried schoolboy with his first woman. Sweat broke out across his brow and his breath came in harsh, panting gasps, but he kept his strokes deep and steady for her.
