Page 79 of Unforeseen Affairs
She reached down and placed him against her entrance. With a shuddering sigh, he closed his eyes and laid his forehead against hers. It felt cool.
“Colin,” she murmured.
“I—”
She bucked her hips, taking him.
It was even more exquisite than he’d recalled. Tight, silky-wet and warm, and the safety, therightnessof it. The sound of her gasping breath, the loosening of her fingers upon his arms as her muscles relaxed with her growing pleasure.
The reserved and controlled Sir Colin Gearing suddenly fell away, leaving only Colin, the strong and decisive young man, one unafraid of a wobbly railcar or of embarking on an adventure with a beautiful young woman. Colin, a man who admired Charlotte’s quiet musings and sharp observations, her dry wit and admirable restraint, her resolve. He, Colin, was a man determined to see the world and enjoy its myriad pleasures.
Like this, the pleasure of having a woman he’d thought forever off-limits to him—she so remote and strange, he so wrecked and ruined and whose honor was his only refuge.
He pulled back, gentle and slow, then thrust into her with more force. He braced himself against the shock of pleasure that raced through him, and he knew he would not last long.
She wrapped her legs around his middle once more, pulling him closer.
To see what it felt like.
It felt like nothing else. Like standing atop towering white cliffs, the wind blowing hard against him, the waves crashing down below with immense force… and then jumping off, trusting the air currents to carry him on. It had not been like this before, with the widow who’d once pursued him.
Seemingly sensing that he was approaching his own pleasure, Charlotte lifted her hand to his cheek. She stroked it as she tenderly brought him back to her lips and patiently accepted his kiss, soft and delicate this time.
“Charlotte, I—”
She pressed another kiss upon him.
“I would do anything for you,” he panted, his voice rising as the massive knot of anticipation unfurled low in his middle. “Anything,” he repeated, not knowing why he said such a thing in that moment, breathless as his release exploded across his body and through his limbs. Pinpoints of light sparked at the corners of his vision.
She buried her face against his neck, pulling him deeper within her as he rode out his climax, accepting everything he gave her.
“Colin,” she gasped, barely audible.
Colin felt himself melt into a pool of pure pleasure. His head felt light, but in a pleasant way. Not ominous this time.
Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around Charlotte and held her tight against him.
It ought to always be like this. The thought came out of nowhere, but he sat with it, allowing it to diffuse into a happydaydream of what life could be like, if she could somehow forever be his.
How long they remained like that he could not say. Eventually they fell back to the bed, still joined, still embracing. He placed a kiss atop her gorgeous black hair before smoothing it down.
Then he silently prayed that he’d not just destroyed everything good that had begun between them.
Chapter Twenty-Two
WhenCharlottefinallyrosefrom the bed, she looked over the tiny room with different eyes. With the knowledge of a woman who’d tasted pleasure of the carnal sort.
Suddenly, so many things—every novel she’d ever read, every couple she’d watched on the street—made so much more sense to her. Her own mother and father. Her stepmother, even.
How were people meant to contain themselves in mixed company, buttoned up under layers of garments, suffocating under the weight of feigned politeness and forced conversation? She paused before the mirror, studying her own nude form—the stiff peaks of her nipples, the elegant curves of her waist, the soft hair between her legs. She was quite pretty, she realized. Hang mixed company; how could anyone, gentleman or lady, go out into the world and not wish to take the first attractive person they saw to bed with them?
It was a wonder, she realized, that anyone ever accomplished anything else when bedsport was available to be had.
A thousand intriguing possibilities of what she might do with Colin filled her mind. Right now, though, she ached where he’d entered her, so anything more would have to wait.
Besides, there were other pressing matters to address at the moment. Her parents would soon realize she’d tricked them, if they hadn’t already. She didn’t think anyone would know where to look for her, but the Sedleys had connections all over, and she was traveling with a well-known and recognizable person; there was no telling when they might be found, at which point she would be forced back to London. Or to her father’s old pile in Yorkshire—exiled, perhaps, as punishment.
And they were still here in Fairhurst, a full day’s coach ride from Manchester. Or so the innkeeper had informed her the night before.
