Page 92 of A Figure of Love

The words and the raw, confident desire with which he spoke them sent a crippling wave of lust straight to her core.

“You will?” Her heart pounded at the erotic picture he painted with only a few blunt words.

“Mmhmm.” He held her tight, his tongue tracing a line straight down to her navel. “Pull up your gown.”

Serena obeyed with alacrity, not caring if he said please or not.

He slid a hand between her thighs and entered her with his long middle finger. She shuddered, her body becoming boneless as he began to pump her with slow, rhythmic precision, his head pushing up under her loose gown and his hot mouth fastening on her breast.

“Oh, Gareth.”

His mouth tightened at the sound of his name and a second finger joined the first as he shifted her with his free arm, positioning her bottom on one hard thigh.

“Wider.” His mouth left her breast only long enough to move to the other nipple, while his pumping hand paused to nudge her thigh.

She opened her knees to him and he gave a smug grunt of approval, his lips and tongue sucking and teasing her sensitive nipple until she thought she would go mad; all the while his fingers were plunging in and out, his clever thumb circling her core until she arched back over his arm, crying out her pleasure.

He scooped her up in his arms and strode into the adjacent room. She watched him slit-eyed through a haze of pure contentment, laughing when he tossed her onto the bed and positioned himself at the edge. His face was hard and his eyes burning into her as he ripped open the fall on his breeches and freed himself. Serena was already inching toward him when he slid his hands beneath her thighs, jerked her toward him and lifted her hips off the bed, entering her with a savage thrust.

∞∞∞

His famous self-control had unraveled and snapped. Looking up to find her beside him had made him realize—with blinding clarity—that she was his. He could look at her whenever he wanted. And the way she had come to him told him he could have her whenever he wanted—that she felt the same way, or at least something very similar.

She wrapped her legs around his hips while he drove into her, unable to get deep enough inside her.

Words from long ago, as insidious as serpents, invaded his passion and enflamed it—“You won’t fall easily, Gareth. But you will fall hard when it finally happens.” Venetia’s words—a warning—and she’d been right.

He had fallen, but he hadn’t been broken by his fall, as he’d always feared. Instead, loving Serena made him stronger, less hollow, and more of a human being.

He looked down at her face as he drove into her like a battering ram—her lush lips parted and slack, but still smiling, her skin mottled with passion, her heels digging into his ass as she tightened around him, pulled him in deeper—and then he exploded inside her with an intensity that left him blind.

He was still floating a few moments later, when she said his name.

He forced open his heavy lids. He was still buried inside her, his knees braced against the bed. She was smiling up at him, her hair a glorious tangle, her nightgown up around her neck, and her eyes filled with their usual, teasing mischief.

“Yes?” It was all he could do to squeeze out the single word.

“Can we go home?”

Gareth looked down to where their bodies were still joined, worry bubbling through the euphoria still clouding his mind. “You mean, right now?”

She chuckled. “I meant tomorrow. It is already too late today.” She laid a hand over his and he looked up. “I miss Oliver.”

Relief coursed through him. “So do I.” He lowered her to the bed, the feeling of loss when he was no longer inside her wrenching.

“And I also want to get back home so you can do what you promised.”

“Promised?” he repeated, probably looking as foolish as he sounded.

She nodded, squirming a little. “You know. . . the thing with your bed?”

Gareth thought he must be the stupidest man alive: Thing? With a bed?

And then it came crashing down on him and he stared into her wildly blushing, hopeful face.

“You are insatiable,” he said, not bothering to hide his grateful amazement.

She covered her hot cheeks with her hands. “I know. Isn’t it wonderful?”