Page 78 of A Duke's Christmas Carol
“Are you hurt?” he murmured, lifting his head to look at her, his eyes glassy with his desire for her.
She shook her head, panting a breathless “no.”
The frown upon his brow relaxed, his mouth finding hers again as he stilled within her. As he did, that slight discomfort began to ease, her body becoming accustomed to the new and wondrous sensation of being joined with the man she loved.
A minute later, he began to withdraw, the slick friction sending a frisson of bliss through her nerves. She gasped in wonderment, her back arching as if there was some silent communication taking place between her body and his, andhishad full control of her. Indeed, she was only too happy to surrender entirely.
He eased out until he almost left her bereft of that hard flesh, teasing her a little with slow, short pulses that rendered her breathless and trembling: her whole body now a bundle of crackling, sparking nerves. Then, with a growl in the back of his throat, he sank back inside her, filling her up completely.
So, this is what I have been missing.It was difficult not to be furious with herself that she had waited so long, imagining all the weeks of pure ecstasy she could have had if she had just been bold.
As Adrian’s kisses explored her throat and neck, dancing across her chest and down to her bosom, he continued his slow rhythm: measured strokes that allowed her silken well to experience every glorious inch of him, while it soothed away the last of that sore-muscle discomfort.
But when his mouth closed over the peak of her nipple, a gentle suck drawing a fresh gasp from her lips, he plunged inside her a little harder.
“Oh, yes!” she cried out, her hands sliding down his rippling back to grasp the muscle of his buttocks. “Yes, my love! Yes!”
She urged him to thrust harder again, her hips tilting up to meet the stroke of his manhood, taking him inside her to the very hilt. It was everything she had imagined it would be, and so much more. Indeed, to feel him moving inside her, and moving with him, was the most intimate vow she could think of: a promise to be joined, to be entwined, body and soul.
In perfect harmony, they moved together on the chaise-longue, his thrusts satisfying her every need, while his lips ensured that no part of her felt unloved, his kisses a feverish delight that she could not stop savoring.
And just when she thought it could not get any better, Adrian’s hand slid between them, his fingertips brushing against the powder keg of her swollen bud.
In truth, she was in awe of his talents, his measured strokes never faltering though his fingertips were strumming a different rhythm, and his kisses played another. He was the conductor of an entire orchestra who played solely for her pleasure, and though she did not know how he managed it, she saw no reason to question something so exquisite.
What could have been minutes or hours later, for time had lost all meaning, she felt that now-familiar climb of her euphoria, soaring higher and higher toward her conclusion.
“Come for me,” Adrian murmured, before he kissed her lips.
At his command, her body responded. She reached those immense heights of pleasure in an instant, and flew right over the edge into absolute ecstasy.
Every rush of pleasure that had come before was a mere echo compared to the fierce torrent that pummeled through her. Her entire body seized at the force of its blissful intensity, her back arching, her eyes squeezing shut, her head pounding with the pressure, her thighs shaking violently, while her stomach tightened and her lungs forgot how to breathe.
She grasped for Adrian, raking her fingernails across his back until he unleashed a tantalizing growl of pleasure and pain.
“Yes, my love!” she half-screamed, before gasping a breath to cry out again. “Yes… oh… oh, God, yes!”
For what felt like the most euphoric eternity, that pleasure pulsed through her, making her feel as if she had been transported to a higher existence. A true paradise that she had been permitted to glimpse, because of him.
Then, as her bliss slowly began to ebb, and the fog of ecstasy lifted from her brain, she concentrated upon the slowing thrusts of the man she loved. She wanted him to feel what she had felt, wanted him to join her in that place of pure pleasure.
“Do not stop,” she murmured, tilting her hips up to meet him. “Please, do not stop.”
He gazed at her for a moment, a smile playing up on his lips. “As you wish, my love.”
As his lips crashed against hers once more, he began to quicken his pace, as though her words had unleashed something within him. He plunged into her with urgent abandon, and she spurred him on, her hands grasping his backside to urge him deeper, her moans encouraging him to satisfy himself.
“Yes, my love,” she moaned, each thrust reigniting the sparks of her pleasure, like little echoes of that all-consuming rush. “Do not stop!”
A short while later, he growled her name, his brow creasing as if he were swept up in a wave like Valerie had been. “Oh, love,” he murmured, as he stilled inside her. “Oh… my vixen.”
He thrust twice more in short, rousing pulses, then he collapsed on top of her, his arms scooping beneath her so he could hold her close without crushing her with his weight. Burying his face in her neck, she felt the curve of his smile and the tickle of his hot breath while she wrapped her arms around him in turn, so happy she wished she could bottle that moment and keep it forever.
“I love you,” he mumbled. “My God, how I love you.”
She held him that little bit tighter. “I love you, too. With all my heart and soul, I love you.”
As they lay there together, entwined in each other’s arms and still joined, Valerie pressed a kiss to his silky, dark hair. With it, she sealed her promise to love this man for the rest of her life, knowing that not a day would go by where she was not thankful beyond belief to have found him.
