Page 28 of The New Earl’s Convenient Wife

Sunlight painted her lithe body with gold, gleaming on the silken hair of her head, at her thighs, outlining her body in a halo of light, brightening the rose of her nipples to pink.

‘Afraid to join me?’ she teased.

‘That sounds like a challenge,’ he said on a sigh, aroused but wary.

‘Surely you will rise to the occasion,’ she said, dipping her gaze to his trouser front, where his member was obligingly stirring. But she stayed his hand when he attempted to loosen his neck cloth. ‘Let me. But you must stand perfectly still.’

He tried very hard to obey that command, though it gradually grew almost impossibly difficult. Insisting he remain immobile, not touching her, she disrobed him slowly, slowly, one garment at a time, kissing and nibbling each bit of skin she revealed.

His chin and the back of his neck after she pulled off his cravat. His shoulder blades, and the outline of his ribs once she shucked off his jacket and pulled the shirt over his head. She raked her teeth gently over his nipples as she pushed down his unbuttoned trousers, then sat him back on the blanket to pull off his boots, stockings and breeches.

While he tried to sit still, his heartbeat throbbing and his breath coming in gasps, she caressed and nibbled from his toes to his knees, slowly up his thighs, until he was fully erect again, aching for release. Until at last she took him in her hands, kissing and suckling.

After lasting about as long as a callow youth with his first sweetheart, he collapsed, gasping. She reclined on her elbow beside him, stroking the damp hair off his brow until he regathered his breath and his heart stopped trying to beat itself out of his chest.

Running a finger over his lips, she said, ‘My, you seem even warmer now. I think it must be time for a swim.’ Laughing, she leapt up and ran to the river, leaping in with a delighted laugh.

‘Come in, it’s glorious!’ she cried, wading out into the deeper water.

With resignation, he followed her, gasping at the cold shock of the water. ‘Glorious?’ he grumbled. ‘More likely I’ll end up with an inflammation of the lungs.’

‘What, here on a balmy English day after you survived the rain and ice of Peninsula winters? Nonsense.’ She slapped the water, dousing him with a blast of chilly liquid, then dived in and swam off.

With a growl, he plunged after her. Laughing, she swam away, splashing and dodging. For some minutes, they played the game of approach and escape, until at last, with a satisfied sigh, she turned over to float on her back.

He swam back to shallower water and stood a moment, admiring the vision of her naked form half revealed, half submerged. Her breasts bobbing above the surface, the cold making her nipples peak as if in the throes of pleasure…the round of her belly and knees breaking the surface, sinking under.

Swimming over, she drew him back into waist-deep water, wrapped her legs around his torso, her arms around his neck and, suspended by the buoyancy of the water, fitted him inside her. ‘Just let me float,’ she murmured.

And so he braced himself against the current and let the water move them. Their shoulders and torsos sun-warmed, their legs and hips submerged, the water lifted her against him, pushed and pulled him within her to its own rhythm, slow, languid, sensuous, like nothing he’d ever experienced.

Despite the cold, the softness of her bottom under his hands, the taste of her nipples he leaned down to suckle, had his erection strengthening until he once again filled her. Moving with, against the water, he thrust harder, faster, until they both reached a shuddering climax.

Legs trembling, he pushed them into deeper water, needing its support to avoid falling over. Smiling languidly, she leaned up and kissed him.

He pulled her close, sensation still sparking and fizzling along his nerves, like the last gasps of a nearly spent Congreve rocket. His brain, at first numb with sensation, slowly filled with a sense of awe and wordless wonder.

When his legs could function again, he lifted her and walked them into the shallows, then sat with her on his lap, her head resting against his chest while a dove cooed in the shadows, siskins warbled, the afternoon sun warmed his back and water lapped gently around them.

Finally, with a sigh, she lifted her head. ‘I suppose we must go back now. Duties await.’

He shook his head at her. ‘I can’t call you “Mouse” after this. No, you’re a water sprite sent to enchant me. A true naiad.’

She angled her head. ‘Naiad?’

‘In Greek mythology, naiads were nymphs sent to guard the springs. Beautiful, light-hearted, kind. As you are.’

She nodded. ‘I feel so ignorant! Mama never let us learn anything beyond needlework, dancing, a little music and how to manage a household. If it weren’t necessary to know a modicum of mathematics to do that, I wouldn’t even know my sums. I so envy the education you had at university!’ She made as if to continue, then hesitated.

‘What is it?’

‘Well, I couldn’t help noticing what an excellent library Thorne Hall possesses. I’ve always felt…cheated, that I never had the opportunity to learn more. Would it be possible, once I’ve finished my household duties, for me to…study some of the books there?’

‘Of course. They are your books now, too, you know.’

She gave him a brilliant smile that made him feel guilty for not previously offering a permission she seemed to have been waiting for. ‘Not that I’m not grateful for what you’ve already allowed me to learn here at Thornthwaite.’

He moved against her. ‘I love what you’ve been learning. And what you’ve been teaching me, like today.’