Page 50 of Taming of the Rake
Regina’s eyes watered with the effort it took not to blink, for she couldn’t look away from David. His pulse thundered beneath his jaw, and his lips fell open on the sounds of his pleasure. The dark fans of his lashes left shadows on his cheekbones, the vulnerability of his expression at odds with the sheer size and strength of him. But even the hand guiding her head and tangling in hair was reverent and worshipful, as opposed to harsh and forceful.
She luxuriated in being the source of every sigh and groan, every shiver that wracked him. It became so potent, so powerful and all-consuming, Regina couldn’t stop even when she tasted the first hint of his coming seed. He gazed down at her in shock, lips moving with words that never emitted as she intensified her efforts, determination driving her to bring him to his finish.
His entire body went tense, and his cock jerked against her tongue before the wild, salty cascade of his seed flooded her mouth. Regina swallowed and released him, gasping for air as she dropped her head to rest against his thigh. For a while, only their harsh breaths rang out through the room. David’s fingers remained in her hair, lightly stroking along her scalp as she caught her breath.
David urged her back onto his lap, holding her tight against his chest as he kissed her brow. “Not … finished with you … yet.”
She smiled against his chest. “I certainly hope not.”
His fingers tilted her chin, and then their mouths met in a slow, thorough exploration. Regina closed her eyes and opened herself to what this kiss made her feel, understanding that she might never feel this again. If he did nothing else but kiss her for the rest of the night, Regina would have been content. She never imagined someone else’s lips on hers could be so soul-stirring, so life-changing.
Suddenly, David tore his mouth from hers and urged her to her feet. He turned her and used a hand against her back to bend her over. Hands braced on the surface of his desk, Regina panted and arched at the stroke of his fingers down her spine, coming up on tiptoe and spreading her legs wider. All sense of modesty or shame disappeared, as they always did whenever he touched her, awakening these secret, base parts of her.
His fingers continued their downward path, and Regina held her breath while waiting for him to touch her where she wanted it most. Her inner thighs were already damp with arousal, her cunny clenching and pulsing with desperate need. A finger slid into her, then another, and Regina’s head fell to the desk as he began fucking her with them—first with slow, precise thrusts, then with faster ones that made her sheath clench and squeeze around him. Just when she hovered on the edge of climax, he withdrew and then dipped his thumb into her. Before she knew what was happening, his first two fingers were back inside her and the thick tip of his thumb pressed against another part of her … a place he’d never before touched. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing and why, but then he gained an inch into her rear passage, and then another, and words failed her.
“Oh,” she whispered, the tension melting from her spine as she registered the foreign sensations of him breeching both her entrances at once. “David …”
His lips skimmed her shoulder, his fingers steadily teasing her back toward climax. His entire thumb was lodged in her now, adding a sense of fullness and wicked, vulgar pleasure to his steady caresses inside her quim.
“Didn’t I tell you?” he whispered, kissing his way along the back of her neck. “There is so much left for me to teach you … so many things I could do to make you melt for me.”
She had melted minutes ago, and was now a weightless, formless bundle of nerves at his fingertips. Climax unfurled from within her in what felt like an instant, tearing through her with unrelenting intensity. She clawed the desk and bit her lip around a moan, hips bucking and legs quivering as he quickened the strokes of his fingers, his knuckles slamming into her with a savagery she welcomed with every backward sway of her hips.
Only when she’d gone still did he remove his fingers and position the head of his cock at her entrance. He was aroused again, full and thick and demanding as he pressed into her. Regina gasped when he paused halfway in, withdrew, and then plunged, his hips battering her buttocks and pushing her into the edge of the desk. He did it again, then again, one hand pressing at her lower back to hold her where he wanted as he fucked her with hard, measured strokes. The dying embers of her first climax roared to life again, and by the time he’d worked himself up to a swift, steady rhythm, she was falling apart again. The hand at her back slid under her and pulled her up, his chest pressed into her back. His arm locked around her waist and his teeth clenched around her earlobe as he pounded into her, driving her climax higher and higher until she could hardly breathe through the belly-clenching spasms.
Regina lifted her hands into his hair, swaying back into each of his thrusts, accepting everything he had to give and wishing it never had to end.
But, end it did, when David pushed her back over the desk and fell against her, head buried in her neck as he chased his own climax. His hands slid up her body and along her arms, until his hands rested over hers, their fingers intertwining. Regina clung to him as he groaned his release into her ear, hips jerking his heart thudding against her back.
He went deathly still, though his weight wasn’t so unpleasant that Regina required him to leave her. She enjoyed the solidity of him, as if he were her shield against the world. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to hang onto the final moments they would share together, knowing the time had come to lay everything bare.
She waited until his breathing had quieted and he finally straightened from on top of her. Until he had used his cravat to clean himself, then folded it and offered it to her use. Until he had pulled his breeches back up and offered her the forgotten nightgown.
Then, she turned to face him, one hand pressed against her middle. He stared at her, one hand clenching the back of his chair and his mouth a harsh line as wide, dazed eyes fell to where her hand cradled new life.
Regina parted her lips to speak, hoping to get her words out before David could utter his.
In the end, they both spoke at once.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered, at the exact moment David met her gaze and uttered, without batting an eyelash, “Marry me.”
Chapter 12
“Regina. Did you hear me? I said—”
“I heard what you said. What on earth can you mean by it?”
“I should think that was plain enough. I want to marry you.”
“Why?”
David squeezed his eyes shut and rested his head against the back of the carriage seat. Last night’s confrontation with Regina had kept him awake through the night, and now plagued him in the bright light of day. He never intended to speak the words that had shattered what was left of their fragile connection. Before sending the note summoning her to his study, David told himself to be strong. He would hear what she had to say and accept it with grace and a stiff upper lip. He would congratulate her on becoming a mother and wish her well. He would let her go.
But then, he’d lain eyes on her and all his good intentions had fallen away. David couldn’t think of anything other than having one last night with her, forestalling the inevitable and pretending this might end differently.
One last taste of her, and he could set her free. He could go on about his life pretending there wasn’t a child of his bloodline walking about Lancashire, or that his heart wasn’t broken at the loss of the one woman he’d ever felt more than attraction and mild affection for. Regina owned him body and soul, and David wanted the same of her. He wanted to be able to call her his, to take comfort in the knowledge that he would never have to be without her.
Which was why, after taking her across his desk, David had found himself unable to adhere to his plan. Let her go? He would rather die.
