Page 63 of A Scottish Bride for the Duke
Adrian’s eyes were the only thing to follow her into oblivion, his eyes fully gray in the dark.
She lost herself for several seconds. Adrian slowed, riding out the full waves of her climax until she felt wrung out. His hand loosened on her throat, and she found that although he had given her the illusion of restricting her breath, she found it no more difficult to breathe now than she did before.
For all he said he wanted control and capitulation, he wanted full command over her body, he was being remarkably gentle.
He smiled, as though sensing her thoughts, then withdrew from her. The sensation was so sudden, she only had time for a brief feeling of loss before he reached underneath her and flipped her, holding her down on her belly so her face was in the pillows.
“Comfortable?” he asked, the wet rod of his erection pressing against her buttocks.
She almost told him she didn’t want this—but that would have been a lie. Her desire, having been briefly eased, came roaring back at the sensation of his body pressing into her from behind.
“Are ye going to… take me like this?” she asked.
He pushed inside again, seating himself far more easily than the first time.
There was no pain now, just wet heat and pleasure that sent sparks across her mind.
“Yes,” he said, and she felt the soft, slightly bristly scrape of his mouth against her shoulder. A kiss, bestowed in a way she would not have expected from someone like him. “And I want you to put your arms up again, sweet. Can you do that?”
She nodded. “Aye.”
He demonstrated, finding her wrists, one after the other, and pressing them against the carved wood of the headboard.
“Just like that, laid out before me. Just for me.” He pushed inside her again, and she felt the possessiveness of the gesture.
There was something to be said for beinghis, for being the only woman he would touch in this way. For him being the only man.
And there was something to be said for having him fill her. Such a primal act, one that made her feel as though all the civilization they lived in had been stripped away—they were nothing more than instinct, nothing more than animals, nothing more than sheer want and desire and this sense ofbelonging.
Two halves coming together. Two becoming one.
“That’s right,” he said, his voice turning tight, and she understood what that meant with that same primal part of herself—he was approaching his own climax. “You have such a delicious arse, Isobel.”
As though to prove his point, one hand came to cup her bottom, kneading and squeezing. Isobel had given very little thought to her derriere, concealed as it always was under so many layers of clothing. But now she was bared to her husband—herhusband—and he seemed to like it. Likeher.
His breath came shorter, and he braced himself above her his breath hot on her nape, his chest brushing her back as he thrust into her again, again, again.
She broke, squeezing around him as her pleasure crested again, and he snapped, too, swearing as he buried himself deep inside her.
For a long time, they merely laid there, his body above hers, and hers unsure under his. Then, with a groan, he removed himself and moved off.
“I’ll clean you up,” he said gruffly, something awkward in his voice even as he rolled off the bed pour some water in a bowl.
He retrieved a cloth and bid her to roll onto her back. When she did, he wiped her delicate areas, looking down at the sheets with a grim twist of his mouth. There, where she had been lying, were tiny spots of blood.
“I suppose there is no denying it now, wife,” he said, that grimness still in his voice. “The marriage is consummated. There can be no escaping it.”
She raised her chin, that comment making her feel more exposed than her nakedness.
“I had no intention of avoiding it, Adrian. Or escaping. I know better than that.”
And by that, she knew that whatever his personal feelings, if she fled, he would chase her.
To the ends of the earth, if necessary.
Adrian did nothing half-heartedly, as proven by the way he had bedded her.
She was his, and he would claim her, as was his right.
