Page 26 of The Forbidden Love of an Officer
His lips returned to hers, his tongue pressing into her mouth, distracting her mind.Paul. She did love him. She did.
His mouth left hers and returned to her breast, as his fingers continued their caress. He was cherishing her; absorbed in her, she could feel it. Warmth spread throughout her body, reaching in ripples as far out as her fingers and toes. Her legs bent and her knees parted wider for him, as his invasion grew in speed and depth.
She was damp where he touched her, and the dampness increased as the warmth did too.
His head lifted. ‘Ellen, will you touch me too…’ His fingers slipped free of her then he clasped her hand and moved it to the part of him which would join them. He curled her fingers around him and moved her hand up and down.
Shyness prevailed over every other sense. His fingers slipped back inside her as she tried to do as he had asked. It was awkward and strange…
‘Lie on your back, Ellen.’
She rolled backwards, letting go of him and opening her legs wider as he came over her, so he could settle between her thighs.
‘It may hurt for a moment.’
She nodded as that part of him touched her, and then as she looked into his eyes, he thrust in, and yes, it did hurt, a bursting sensation pierced her, and then there was an uncomfortable pressure.
She felt a little sick. But it was done now; they were man and wife.
He withdrew then pressed in again.
She gripped his arms, realising it would not just be a single invasion. His jaw had been taut before but now a smile played with the edge of his lips as he withdrew again, and pressed in. Her hands lay on his shoulders.
‘You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.’
She smiled, her shyness receding, and her senses absorbing the odd new feelings.
‘I will look after you, I swear it.’
She nodded, watching his face as he worked, casting spells in her body.
She could not take her gaze from his and he did not look away from her. She loved him so much. ‘This is wonderful,’ she told him.
He smiled more, and moved more quickly, pressing in and pulling out, again, and again. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders as her knees bent higher so her toes could curl into the sheet, against the wool-filled mattress beneath it.
Her body was a flood of lovely sensations; they were tight in her lungs, catching at her breath and trembling through her stomach. She had no breath left when he thrust harder and deeper… Once… Twice… On the third movement, his body went as stiff as stone and his eyes shut as he sucked in a harsh breath before releasing it in a sigh which brushed over her cheek. The part of him that was inside her pulsed.
He did not move for a while, and while he lay still, the pleasurable feelings he had engendered tingled through her nerves then ebbed away.
He opened his eyes and smiled, then withdrew and rolled onto his back beside her. ‘Come.’ He lifted his arm. ‘We will sleep now.’
She pillowed her head on his chest. She felt as though she had been shown a precious secret other people had been keeping.
He fell asleep. She listened to his breathing, watching the flickering orange candlelight dance about the room.
She was Mrs Harding.
* * *
Ellen woke in a silent room as daylight peeked through the cracks in the shutters. She was curled up against Paul, who had turned on to his side in the night. It was Christmas Day. Her sisters would be waking. They would have come to her room if she had been at home. She presumed Sylvia and Rebecca would go to Penny instead. They would attend Mass and eat an informal luncheon with her mother, then dine formally in the afternoon with her father and there would be guests invited from local families.
Paul rolled to face her. ‘Good morning.’
‘Hello. Good tidings.’ She whispered her seasonal greeting.
His fingers stroked her hair back from her face as a smile curved his lips. ‘Merry Christmas.’ He kissed her for a while, then the weight of his hips rolled her backwards, and he was between her legs once more and pressing into her. She lost her breath.
He did delicious things, moving within her, the soft hair on his chest brushing against her breasts as he did so.
