Page 66 of The Lost Lord
“Did you?” Richard chuckled. The placket gaped, and he pulled the voluminous material up and over Miriam’s head. As he tossed it aside, Miriam whirled around and lay back against the pillows, fully naked. “You are gorgeous,” he mumbled hoarsely. His gaze zeroed in on the pink tips of her breasts.
“And you are wearing far too much clothing,” Miriam grinned. She shuffled forward on hands and knees. Artless and unashamed of her exposed body, Miriam pushed his shirt down his shoulders.
“I have dreamt of seeing you like this ever since the day I came to the warehouse,” she whispered as Richard helped her by discarding his shirt. “So strong.”
“I couldn’t believe you did that,” he mumbled into her hair as he pressed her back onto the bed. “That was the day I knew that nothing could stop me from making you mine. I’ve never known a woman who was willing to risk her safety and reputation to come and find me. I was always disposable. With you, I felt needed. Essential.”
Miriam’s hands were everywhere, exploring his chest and arms and driving him crazy. Richard pressed her body into the soft bedding. She squeaked then as he palmed her breast.
“Yes,” she sighed, arching into his touch. Impossibly soft skin slipped beneath his hand. Richard tasted the taut bead of her nipple. Miriam groaned. The feminine sound went straight to his cock.
He skimmed his hand down her side and lazily explored the heated triangle that hid her sex. Gently he urged her thighs apart. Miriam yielded as she dropped her hand to his trousers and fumbled with a button on his falls.
“All in good time, Miriam. Let me please you first.”
“I want this,” she whimpered.
“I know.” He sank his fingers into her sex. Richard drank in her satisfied, half-astonished cry as he found the nub hidden between her slick folds and tortured it.
“Oh, please do that more,” Miriam panted. Her fingers scrabbled at his arms, whether feeling them or seeking purchase he didn’t know. All Richard knew was that he had never wanted to please a woman as badly as he did tonight. He refused to find his satisfaction until she had known hers. He complied with each soft, half-intelligible command.
“Stay still. Does this feel good to you?” he murmured against the tickling cloud of her curls. Richard kissed a path down the planes of her stomach. He flicked his tongue into her belly button. The tension between them built higher. He reached her sex and kissed her where her pleasure went deepest. She tasted of sea and salt and woman. The tiny nub begged for his quick licks and a slow, hard suck. Richard buried his fingers to the knuckles inside her as Miriam gripped his hair and writhed. She broke in a storm of incoherent murmurs.
“Yes. Oh, yes, Rich, I didn’t know, I didn’t know…”
“You didn’t know what?” he asked as he inched up the counterpane to lay beside her. A smug smirk pulled the corners of his mouth upward. He traced a lazy pattern over her belly.
“That it could feel this good,” she whispered. Miriam levered herself up onto her elbows, radiant with relaxed pleasure. “But, what about you?”
“Are you ready for me?” Physically she was, yet there was more to this joining than enjoyment of the act. This made her his wife in truth, irrevocable. Tonight, they made private vows with their bodies. To trust and to hold safe. To protect and to love.
“Yes.”
A single word was all it required. Richard discarded his trousers and smalls with alacrity. Naked, he lay down and pulled Miriam over him. She sat on his thighs, gingerly stroking his manhood.
“Am I to put this where your fingers were a few minutes ago?” she asked in a low growl.
“That is typically how it’s done,” Richard gasped. “There are other options, but generally this is what people mean when they say intercourse.”
“Can I put my mouth on you…kiss you the way you did to me?” she asked, shyly.
Richard groaned. She was trying to kill him. It was all right though. This was a far better death than he’d ever deserved. “Go ahead.”
Miriam shifted back and examined his member with consternation. Experimentally she licked the tip. “Like that?” she asked.
“Precisely like that,” Richard grunted. Miriam continued her experiment by sucking the tip into her mouth. His fingers slid through the curls that spilled over his thighs as he gritted his teeth to hold back his pleasure. “Stop. Miriam. If you don’t wish to delay the main event, you must stop that now.”
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. The sight of his wife’s unleashed carnal instincts made molten desire course through him. He positioned her over his cock and held it steady while she glided down over him.
“I feel so full,” she gasped. “As if I were empty and didn’t know it but ached for this unknown pleasure.”
Miriam tilted her hips. Richard strained to hold back. “Feel the rhythm, Miri. Your body already knows what to do. Listen to it.”
She found the pace and he let her take the lead for a while. When she was close to the edge but unable to go over it, Richard found her hooded pearl with and worried it with his fingers. Miriam bucked as pleasure burst through her again. Richard gripped her hips and thrust deep inside her until the tremors subsided. In the aftermath, he tucked her close against his side and whispered, “You are mine now. Forever.”
Chapter 29
“Richard, might I have a private word with you before you head to the wharves?” Edward asked the next morning after breakfast. He was dressed as if for parliament.
