Page 46 of The Devil and the Heiress
She finally allowed herself to touch him. Her hands drifted over his shoulders and down his chest. She would have sworn his skin rippled in pleasure at the contact. His heart beat a fast rhythm beneath her palm. Biting her bottom lip to shore up her courage, she allowed her other hand to drift downward over the muscles of his belly and to the manhood jutting up against her. A drop of pearly liquid leaked from the tip. She touched it with her thumb, marveling at how silky it felt as she spread it over the head. On impulse, she brought her thumb to her lips and licked the salty taste of him.
“Jesus, Violet.” His hands moved down to her hips as he pressed himself against her belly. His entire body trembled with restraint.
“What would you say if I said that I still want to lie with you, even after this confession?” she teased him.
“I would say that it was still unwise. There could be consequences, and I would not have you forced to marry me, despite my initial intentions.”
She grinned and swung out of his grasp, privately thrilled with how his hands hesitated in letting her go. Walking slowly but with purpose, she reached beneath her pillow and removed the tin. “What if I said there could be no consequences?”
His brow furrowed as he stared at the tin. As realization dawned, he came around the bed and took it from her.Pushing the lid open, he asked, “How did you get this?” A good bit of awe tinged his voice.
“Mrs. Mitchell.” If she had said the Devil himself, he could not have looked more surprised.
“On the bed. Now.”
His voice was growly again, sending sparks of anticipation skittering over her. Laughing, she climbed into bed, half watching as he pushed his drawers down his powerful thighs and put the sheath on himself. So that’s how it worked. There was no time to consider further because he reached for the neckline of the nightgown and pulled it down past her hips. When she raised them, he pulled it completely off her, dropping it on the end of the bed. Before she could say anything, he rose over her, blocking out the light as he took her mouth in a desperate kiss. She kissed him back, vaguely aware of how his hips moved into the space between her thighs. She gasped into his mouth when she felt his erection nudging at her belly.
“I shall try to go slow.” He ate at her neck, his teeth scraping only to soothe with his tongue. “But I have wanted you for so long.” Indeed, his whole body trembled with his need. Then his mouth found her nipples, moving from one to the other to lavish them both with equal attention. As he worked, his fingers found her core, ready and aching. Her body, already fond of his fingers, opened for him readily as he pushed two inside. She closed her eyes, pleasure cascading through her as he moved them in a gentle but firm rhythm that matched his tugs on her nipple. All too soon it wasn’t enough. Her body twisted and burned with a need more powerful.
“Christian?” She didn’t quite know what she asked, only that the ache he teased demanded more. She needed to be filled.
“Violet.” His voice was above her. She opened her eyes to see him staring down at her, a fine edge of pain on his face. “I need to fuck you.”
The crude words should have been shocking. She had only ever heard that word in jokes the workmen would shout at one another at Crenshaw Iron. But when Christian said them, they transferred his desperate need to her, so that she shared his fervor. “Yes. Please.”
He grinned, revealing the dimple that she so loved. The head of his erection pressed against her womanhood, sliding inside her the smallest bit until he met resistance. But it was only a tease. “I don’t want to hurt you. You cannot bear my weight in this position.”
No! Had he only meant to torment her?
“Here.” He moved off her to stand beside the bed, and she instinctively grasped at him. Gently taking hold of her hips, he guided her to stand before him. Turning her away from him, he ran his hands down her back in a soothing stroke and bent her over the bed. “Let me know if this is uncomfortable.”
She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t entirely comfortable, but then she didn’t know what to expect. His hands moved down her body again, slipping between her breasts and the blanket to pluck at her nipples. Darts of pure need shot directly to her core, making her body clench around emptiness. “Christian.”
His soft breath of laughter touched her a second before he kissed the shell of her ear. One of his strong hands moved to grasp her hip, while the other pressed into the bed beside her to hold his weight. “Spread your legs,” he whispered.
She obeyed, feeling his hard thighs move between hers. She should feel bare and vulnerable to him, spread as she was and his for the taking, but she loved the feeling of being under his power. He held her hip as he notched himself and gently pushed inside, not stopping when he met resistance. The pressure was incredible. She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the blanket as he pulled out only to push in another inch. It was a slow back-and-forth, until finallyher passage gave way and his groan filled the room as he sank to the hilt inside her.
She felt full of him. Fuller than she had ever thought possible. A burning discomfort accompanied the feeling, but he didn’t move, simply stayed still, allowing her to absorb the foreignness of his body within hers. After a moment, his hand reached between her legs, and his fingers played with her clitoris, sliding over it and teasing it as he had done earlier. Little by little, the discomfort gave way to the aching pleasure from before. She canted her hips, caught as she was between the steel of his manhood and the skill of his fingers. The pulsing ache had returned, greedy and demanding more. Except this time he was there, filling her completely, creating a new wave of intoxicating pleasure with her every movement as he nudged against a sensitive place deep inside her.
“Yes, that’s it.” His voice was serrated with desire. “Fuck me.”
A cry tore from her lips, and she tilted her hips again, pushing back. He answered her silent plea by thrusting into her at the same time. A spark of white-hot light shot across her vision. Then he did it again, and again, moving in a controlled rhythm that matched the stroking of his hand. He attacked her with pleasure from both sides. All too soon she was trembling, her breath coming erratically as she cried out into the blankets as wave after wave of gratification broke over her.
Only then did he falter in his pace. He fell over her, holding himself off her with one hand while grabbing a handful of her hair with the other. He pulled her head back and took her mouth in a kiss, his hips losing their rhythm to become erratic and fitful. “Violet.” He whispered her name over and over as he pressed his face to her shoulder. Finally, his own cry filled the room, and he found his release with short, quick thrusts of his hips.
I love you.The words tumbled over and over in her headas she lay there with him, both of them struggling to catch their breath. She wouldn’t tell him yet. It was still too soon and he was too skittish. But she would soon.
He pressed a kiss to her shoulder before rising. She could hear him pulling off the sheath as she hurried into bed, shy now that it was done. When she rolled to face him, he was climbing under the covers without having bothered to put his drawers back on. She liked that. Pulling her into his arms, he smiled down at her. “Did I hurt you? Are you injured?”
“No.” The truth was that her ribs and shoulder had begun to ache, but she dared not tell him that for fear that he would refuse to touch her again. Shaking her head, she kissed his jaw, his chin, and then his mouth. He kissed her back, and when they parted, the look in his eyes was so warm and soft that she knew he loved her, too, whether he knew it or not. “You were perfect.”
I will marry you.She almost said the words out loud but decided to wait, lest she scare him away. He was so intent on being honorable that he might not believe her.
He pulled the blanket up over them and settled his arms around her. “I fear for Mrs. Mitchell’s sensibilities if she comes barging into our chamber in the morning.”
She smiled as she imagined such a scene. Something told her Mrs. Mitchell would keep her distance come morning.
Chapter 18
