Page 29 of Lady Elizabeth's Winter Stranger
“Oh, my darling…”
Tom took the invitation – because invitation it was – and kissed her until her head reeled.She dug her fingers into his bare shoulders in a silent plea for him to keep going.
He groaned and rolled out of the bed.“I can’t wait any longer.”
His flavor lingered in her mouth.He might taste even better than Mrs.Dawkins’s biscuits.“Good.”
He reacted with a grunt of amusement, as his shaking hands tore at the fastenings on his breeches.Tom was in general an even-tempered gentleman.Elizabeth approved of that, but she loved to see him reach such a pitch of craving now.With a sigh of anticipation, she stretched out against the sheets.She curled her toes and lifted her breasts in a blatant display.Her earlier shyness evaporated to nothing under his unfettered pleasure in her nakedness.
While Tom’s attention focused on her rather than on his buttons, his attempts to rid himself of his breeches became more chaotic.“You’re making life difficult,” he complained, laughter warming his deep voice.
“You’ll survive,” she said, pleased to see him in such a dither.
Finally he tugged his breeches down and cast them aside without looking.Elizabeth didn’t notice where they landed either.She was too busy staring at the impressive column of flesh rising against his flat stomach.
“Goodness me,” she whispered.Would that fit inside her?No wonder Mamma said that the act would hurt.She pressed her thighs together as virginal nerves, temporarily absent, surged anew.
He laughed and kneeled over her.“Has my rampant manhood awed you into silence?”
“Yes,” she said in a scratchy voice.
“I think you need reassurance,” he said gently.He kissed her again, lingering.He went back to stroking her between the legs, until she forgot her trepidation.She was too busy trembling her way through reactions that she’d never experienced before tonight.
This time, when Tom eased his finger into her, her body gripped him in preparation for the ultimate union.Her hips bumped upward, as the blood rushed in her veins.
Rising on his arms, Tom shifted until he lay between her legs.Through the shuddering storm, she felt something blunt and hot press into the junction between her legs.She hooked her hands over his broad shoulders and stared up into his eyes.“It’s happening?”
“Yes.”His voice was strained.So were his features.His gaze burned down into hers, as if he could see right through to her soul.“Bend your knees.”
She obeyed and tightened her grip on his shoulders.As he inched inside her, the pressure increased.He breathed erratically, and his gray eyes turned opaque.She ran her hands down his arms, feeling the way his muscles hardened.He was struggling for restraint.
“Are you all right?”he asked jerkily.
So far, the act was uncomfortable, but not painful.“Yes.Don’t stop.”
He bent to kiss her, then edged further forward.Her body stretched to accommodate his slow advance.Elizabeth bit her lip, as pain sliced through her.Despite her determination to endure, a muffled whimper escaped.
He stopped moving.“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.”Already the pain faded.She traced the line of his spine and caught his hips.With every second, his possession became easier to bear.“It hurt for a moment, that’s all.”
He kissed her with an open-mouthed appreciation that flooded her with pleasure.Her tension eased, and her body fitted itself more naturally to his hardness.She sucked in a deep breath of air redolent of their desire.Musky.A trace of sweat.Rich and animal and before tonight, unfamiliar.
Elizabeth slid lower in the bed and felt how that changed his angle.She made a faint murmur of curiosity as Tom shifted deeper.No pain this time.
Now that the initial shock passed, she was mostly conscious of the transcendent intimacy of what they did.The vicar had spoken of them becoming one flesh.She’d assumed the phrase was poetic, but that was how this felt.As though this act united the formerly separate Tom and Elizabeth into one being.The insight was moving, and she blinked away tears as she stroked his lean flanks with more tenderness than passion.
“I should stop.”He frowned down at her.“You’re crying.”
With a choked laugh, she lightly dug her nails into the skin covering his ribs.“Don’t you dare.”
“But…”
She gulped back a sob.She didn’t want Tom going anywhere else right now and if she burst into tears, he might.He already looked ready to bolt.“I’m crying because I love you so much, and because this thing we do is so beautiful, and because I’m so glad I waited for you to come into my life.”
She watched his face change, as he listened to the torrent of words.He bent and kissed her with a devotion that she couldn’t mistake.“Oh, my beloved…”
He raised his head and pushed forward with purpose, going to the hilt.When their bodies first joined, her heart had clenched with overwhelming emotion.But this closeness carved a rift so deep inside her, it marked her forever.She was his.She would always be his.On a broken sigh of surrender, she arched until her breasts brushed his chest.
