Page 29 of Caroline Saves the Blacksmith
She felt at once beautiful and compelling for the first time she could remember. Caroline wanted this moment, suspended out of time, to last forever. Reality would set in, along with the crushing guilt she bore for her past mistakes and the betrayal of her dearest friend, but right now she would grab hold of this respite. Treasure it long after this evening’s strange events were a distant memory to hold close in the lonely hours when she did not work. True passion, a true meeting of the minds, had not seemed possible for her, but this aberrant night held precisely that.
Frantically, she pushed his nightshirt up to bare his torso. Reaching down with trembling fingers, she awkwardly unbuttoned the falls of the painfully tight buckskins. In his burning desire, William’s impressive length was straining to be free. He hissed as her fingers grazed against his naval, but Caroline barely noticed, her folds swelling and pulsing in anticipation of what was to come.
Finally, she released him to discover he was as hard as iron, his swollen member jerking in the grasp of her soft palm. William growled, rolling his hips.
Caroline stared down at him, discovering how empowering this position was for her, towering over the large man and holding his length in her hand.
“I need to undress.”
She chuckled at the low, reverberating declaration. Lowering her foot onto the floor, she hopped off of him. William quickly pulled off his nightshirt before lifting his hips to push down his buff-colored buckskins and small clothes, growling in frustration when they caught on his legs and attempting to sit up.
Caroline quickly leaned over and untied the leather tapes at his thick calves, then unbuttoned the leather-covered buttons that fastened the breeches to below his knees. Taking hold of the garments, she yanked them down over his bandaged ankle. She straightened them and turned to fold them over the table reverently. Buckskins were a financial investment, and she wanted to ensure they would be unharmed.
When she turned back, she found that William’s entire naked body was revealed, except for the solitary stocking he had not removed from his uninjured leg, causing her lips to curl up in a half smile before she grew utterly distracted. In her prior trysts with the earl, she had not seen much in their hurried encounters. Caroline was at once curious and mildly shy to behold William in such an intimate state.
Good Lord, he was a powerfully built man. His shoulders would have been broad under any circumstances, but pounding iron and steel every day for years had hardened them into muscular planes only hinted at with clothing to shield them from sight. Dark, curling hair covered the expanse of his chest before arrowing down over a flat, sculpted stomach. His most impressive feature was the proud length standing to attention. Her knees weakened as she considered mounting the powerful appendage, her inner muscles thrumming in anticipatory delight at the idea of seating herself over him to ride him to mutual completion.
Their position on the settee should have been awkward. Ungainly. But now that William’s powerful physical condition was revealed, she realized it was barely an effort for him to lift her slight form.
William’s hot gaze traveled over her body, reminding her that she was as naked as he was. More naked than he, because she had no stocking on. There, with only the fire in the hearth and a single candle to light the darkened room, they gazed at each other with only the sound of their mutual panting and the crackle of flames on wood to break the silence between them. Caroline, in a haze, acknowledged it was the calm before the storm.
THE CRESCENDO
Caroline was the incarnation of everything he found desirable. Intelligent. Ambitious. Beautiful. She smelled sweet, and her responsive nature was a hitherto hidden delight. Every cell of his body craved to join with her softness.
As they stared at each other through the warm gloom, William finally lost his patience. He needed to feel her naked skin against his. He had imagined it a hundred times before and could wait no longer.
“Come back,” he growled.
She hesitated for only a second before lowering her naked form over his. William gasped at the touch of her skin, blinking in an effort to maintain his focus as he grasped her waist to lift her upright. Craning up, he licked at one of her pink, pebbled nipples. She moaned and gyrated against him, shooting sensation straight through him to gather in his groin.
It seemed impossible, but his cock lengthened further as he suckled her hardened nipple. Caroline arched back, pushing more firmly against his mouth and crying out in shocked raptures. William chuckled before sweeping his mouth to her other breast to swirl the tip before gently grazing it with his teeth. She cried out again, keening as he swept his hands down over the flare of her hips. He continued to suckle on her sweet nipples until she was writhing in mindless pleasure, before using his hands to pull her down his body.
Caroline’s thighs fell open in invitation, her knees sliding down over his outer thighs to meet the settee with a slight thud as her slick crease made contact with his erection. William groaned as he pressed himself up against her core, lightheaded with lust when she lifted her hips to slowly seat herself onto his hard, aching length, nearly spending when her wet heat encircled his cock in a tight embrace.
Both of them paused, trying to catch their breath while William found his bearings. Disbelief assailed him from the overwhelming sensation of being joined with Caroline. He looked up at her, lit by candlelight, and attempted to comprehend that this dazzling woman was somehow positioned to ride him on his settee. She was magnificent, all pale skin and soft curves rising above him like Venus from the ocean. Her blonde hair had come loose from her plait, and her expression was as shocked as he imagined he must appear to her.
He lifted a hand to brush back a strand of her flaxen hair, threading his fingers through the tangle of fronds to cup her head and stare deep into her eyes when, with a sudden gasp of pleasure, she bucked her hips. Her head fell back in sensuous abandon as she continued to rock over him, and his hands dropped to grip her by the thighs as she rode him.
William moved to stroke and circle the nub at the apex of her swollen crease, teasing moans from her throat as she rocked her hips. Caroline’s eyes fell shut as she jerked in response, moving rhythmically in time to his forefinger as he gently explored and flicked, finding the precise location that made her keen the loudest. Once he found her preference, he worked her relentlessly, watching her desire mount with fascination until he felt her peak, her intimate muscles pulsing around his hardened length.
As he felt her slow in the aftermath, he thrust up deep, growling as all the pent-up pressure in his soul unraveled. Frantically, he increased the tempo of his thrusts, using his hands to grasp her hips and move her faster as she gyrated and rode him to his own peak. Without warning, William lifted her by the hips, spending in a silvery stream over his own torso while the white-hot sensation of his climax made him lose all sense of self.
* * *
Several minutes passedas she fought to recover her breath, seated on his thick thighs while she slowly descended from the heights of shared passion. Eventually, she rose to clean up and put her night rail back on. Embarrassment was setting in.
What have I done?
She had lain with a man who was not her husband. Again. A hand came up to rub the ache in her chest.
This served to prove she was a harlot. An unchaste woman.
She handed William a rag to clean himself, unable to meet his eyes, before walking over to the other settee to pick up her wrap. As she lifted the garment, she heard William settle back behind her.
“Join me?”
Caroline stared down at the embroidered fabric in her hand, uncertain how to respond and attempting to make sense of his request.
