Page 96 of The Mech Who Loved Me
"You're beautiful," he breathed. "That's it. Ride me. Rub yourself against me." He buried his face in her throat, grabbing a fistful of herchignon.
Ava moaned. Her thighs were quivering. "Please.... Oh." She was almost on that edge again, her body tightening, reaching for orgasm. Her fingers were clumsy in his shirt as she tried to keep the rhythm he was showing her, but couldn't quite manage. "Oh. My.Goodness."
Kincaid laughed. "You make even the dirtiest fuck sound prim and proper. I love it." He licked her throat, teeth grating against her sensitive skin. "That's it, sweetheart. You're so close, aren't you? Take what you want.... That's it. Oh,Jaysus."
Hands tightened in her skirts, then his thumb was reaching between them, pressing indignantly against her clitoris. She felt hot all over, tingles erupting through her. Too much. Far too much. Ava's eyes widened, her hand squeezing the back of his neck as she tried to keep going, her body bucking under the force of that swirlingpressure.
For once she didn't care where she was, or who could have heard them. She cried out as she came, silenced by the press of his mouth as he captured her scream with a ferocious kiss. His unrelenting thumb kept grinding against her, his hips thrusting up into her, forceful now, as if he'd lost all sense of himself,andthen—
Wet heat spilled within her. Kincaid shuddered and groaned, his body stilling as he pressed into her, as if he could find himself withinherskin.
And then it was over, Ava collapsing in his arms, her skin dewed with his sweat, and the heat of his body like a furnace beneath her,withinher.
The stillness of the aftermath was almost as sweet. Ava's body clenched and unclenched in a dozen little aftershocks, his hand stroking the buttons down her spine, sweetly tender as sensation began flooding back inagain.
Ava looked at him from beneath heavy lashes. Her mouth was wet and ravaged, her body too. No longer a maid. She felt the sudden urge to smile, and then he was smiling back at her and everything wasperfect.
Utterlyperfect.
"Thank you," she whispered, as he tried to shift heroffhim.
"It was my pleasure," Kincaid replied and then he gave her a boyish smile that stole herheart.
Twenty-Two
THE CARRIAGE ARRIVEDat the Garden of Eden, and Kincaid helped her down. Ava stared up at the lush pleasure house. COR had celebrated a night out together to get used to each other, and the night had opened her eyes in a myriad of ways. It seemed like a year ago, and yet it was barely sevenweeks.
Seven weeks since it allchanged.
She looked down at the broad arm beneath her hand, and glanced up at Kincaid's shadowed jaw, feeling a flush of...something... squeeze in herchest.
There'd been shadow shows, with a man and two women behind a backlitsheet.
Fire-breathers. Jugglers wearing bright spangles and lurid makeup. More wine than she could ever drink, and men and women showing more skin than she'deverseen.
But the pleasure house seemed quiet now, the lush gardens behind it whispering with only wind. Ava turned to him in surprise, and Kincaid smiled at her. "It's ours for the night. I asked Charlie to run ahead and pull some strings. He owed me afavor."
"A rather largefavor."
Kincaid shrugged. "They were closed tonight anyway. They're always closed on aMonday."
She decided she didn't want to know how heknewthat.
"This seems somehow anticlimactic," Kincaid said. He'd tucked his shirt back into his trousers, and his coat was on, but there was a rumpled airabouthim.
"Not for me." No man had ever tried to organize a surprise for her. "I want to see what you hadplanned."
"I'm fairly certain you've glimpsed a previewofit."
The pulsing throb between her thighs was still damp, though he'd helped clean her up in the carriage with his handkerchief. Avablushed.
"Come," Kincaid said, capturing her fingers. He was carrying a heavy basket in his mech hand, and she kept peering at it, wondering what it contained. "I don't think you ever managed to view the gardens in detail. They're more exotic than you could realize. Full of flowers and plants. You can gush over them to your heart'sdelight."
The servants in the house wore livery this time, a bold luscious red. They averted their eyes as Kincaid guided her toward the back of thehouse.
"They have all manner of ferns back here, and lush foliage. There's a little waterfall in the back, with a beautiful clearing," he said, leading her through the winding paths in the garden, the lantern he'd taken from one of the servants casting a long shadow in front of him. His luxurious, fur-lined cloak made it look like his shadow hadwings.
"It's lovely," she whispered, looking around. The place seemed completely different tonight. No capering jugglers or acrobats. No drunk men wanderingaround.
