Page 86 of Three Weeks with a Princess
She had to swallow a few times before she could answer. “I will be, once you start touching me again.”
There was passion again in his eyes. “Oh, love, I never want to stop touching you.”
He took her mouth in a kiss that scorched her. Then his hand, possessive and hard, cupped her sex, claiming her. When he parted her folds, Lia moaned and jerked against him. He held her tightly against his brawny chest, murmuring encouragement as he played with her. His fingertips moved with assurance, slickly spreading her wide. He teased her bud to aching, hard prominence. Lia arched her back, pushing into his hand to increase the delicious pressure.
Oh, and he teased her there, just as he’d teased her nipples, circling and making her strain for his touch. When he finally touched the bud, she cried out as luxurious spasms rippled out from deep inside.
Her skin felt shockingly hot and every muscle seemed to skitter and jump with restless desire. She flung her arm around his neck, digging her fingers into his cravat as she tried to spread her legs even wider.
Jack leaned forward and nuzzled her mouth, sliding his tongue across her lips. “What do you want, sweetheart? Are you ready to come?”
“Yes, dammit,” she choked out. “Do something.”
His laugh was wickedness incarnate. He flicked her sex once, twice, and a third time, but it still wasn’t enough. She let out a soft wail and arched off his lap.
“Tell me what you want.” His voice was so low and hard it seemed almost like a stranger’s.
“I want you inside me,” she gasped. “Why do you wait?”
He was holding back, damn him, so careful with her that she wanted to scream. Even now he wouldn’t take her—at least not all of her—even though she was more than ready to give him everything.
His laugh was harsh. “Don’t worry, love. I’ll give you exactly what you need.”
When he pushed two fingers inside her channel and pressed his thumb over the tight knot of her sex, moonlight and stars burst behind her eyelids. She let out a high, choking cry as waves of pleasure overtook her. His hands moving over her, inside her, threw Lia into a shimmering void, sending her soaring higher and higher, reaching for those vibrant shards of starlight. Then he caught her as she fell to earth, holding her gently and murmuring soft endearments as she drifted down into her body.
But when she opened her eyes to take in his tight, almost somber expression, Lia couldn’t escape one simple fact—while Jack had catapulted her to the heavens, he’d unfortunately decided to send her there alone.
* * *
Only the mightiest of efforts had prevented Jack from ripping open the fall of his breeches and thrusting into Lia’s glorious body. But she was a virgin, after all, and no girl deserved to be taken in so slipshod a fashion, especially not one as innocent as Lia.
That fact left him no choice in what he must do next.
His mother and sister would be furious, of course, and it would mean that no wealthy bride would be riding to Stonefell’s rescue. But with a half-naked and utterly sated Lia sprawled in his arms, those seemed like minor concerns.
Despite all efforts to the contrary, he was beginning to think his life and Lia’s had been leading inexorably to this very moment. And to see her at this damnable ball, pursued by scoundrels and rakes, he’d understood with thundering clarity just how vulnerable she was. When she’d had the unmitigated gall to ask him to help her find a protector . . .
Even if it had taken his brain some minutes to catch up, his body had known exactly what to do—to claim Lia as his, now and forevermore.
No one knew Lia better than he did or cared for her as much. If she’d found a good man to marry, he would have accepted that. But for her to lead the life of a courtesan, a plaything passed from one man to another?
Never.
He cradled her in his arms. To finally give in to the magnetic pull between them sent an almost staggering sense of relief flooding through his body and mind. A special license was very much in order. The sooner he married Lia and got her into his bed, the better.
When she tapped him on the nose—rather hard—he blinked with surprise.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked in a voice too wary for a woman emerging from the throes of passion.
Jack resettled her, wincing slightly as her bottom pressed down on his brutally uncomfortable erection. He’d allowed his mind to briefly wander, compiling a list of what needed to be accomplished over the next few days.
Lia’s cheeks were flushed with passion, her mouth red and swollen from his kisses. Her full breasts, her slim waist, her lushly curving hips, and the mink-soft curls between rounded thighs all tempted him to throw caution to the wind and take her right now, staking his claim in no uncertain terms.
“Jack, have you gone deaf?”
Dammit.He’d done it again. “Sorry, love,” he said. He tipped her upright and went to work wrestling her stays back in place. “Let me help you get dressed.”
She batted his hands away. “I don’t need you to help me get dressed. I need you to talk to me.”
