Page 30 of The Red (The Godwicks 1)

Mona went to the gallery, and spent a moment petting sweet, sleepy Tou-Tou in his bed before heading for the back room. She didn’t want to seem afraid, so she opened the door withouthesitation.

Malcolm waswaiting.

He stood in the center of the back room, his back to her. He’d dressed like the man in the portrait. Hunting attire. White breeches, a green velvet jacket, and brown leather riding boots that clung to his thighs like a second skin. He was magnificent, resplendent, utterly desirable. His hair looked a shade longer and a shade lighter, and it was curled on his head in the consummate Regencystyle.

In his right hand he held a long wooden riding crop with aleathertip.

Mona ignored the crop. She cared nothing about it. She walked to Malcolm, almost ran, and he took her into his arms and kissed her passionately. His mouth was warm and tasted of spiced wine and cigars. She couldn’t stopkissinghim.

"Beautiful girl,” he murmured against her lips. She wanted to tear off his fine white linen cravat and lick the hollow of his throat. She would have kissed it and bitten it. She would have drunk wine out of it. She hadn’t given that hollow a second thought until it was covered and hidden fromherview.

"I want you already,” she said as she grasped the back of his coat and pressed her breasts to his chest. He kissed the tops of her breasts, swelling out of her dress. He ran his fingertips over those soft swells and she shivered and sighed. Her nipples needed sucking and her clitoris needed licking and her pussy needed his cock. She was pleased they would be all alone tonight, their first time all alone together in months. She had things she must ask him, but she knew she couldn’t until he’d spent his lust on her. It would be hours, she knew, if thepatternheld.

Shecouldwait.

Malcolm had looped the leather cord of the riding crop over his right wrist, and she felt the tip of it tickling her backside as he kissed her mouth. He lightly scored her back with his fingertips, caressing her skin along her spine, cupping her bottom before tickling his way up to the nape of her neck again. He kissed her earlobe, kissed her collarbone. As he kissed her neck, he pulled the strap of her dress down her shoulder to bare her left breast. He held it in his hand, squeezed it as he kissed her mouth. He cupped it in his palm and looked down, smiling at it like a prizedpossession.

"So lovely,” he said. "So young and ripe.” He teased the tender red tip with his thumb, tracing the edge of the aureole. Her nipple hardened quickly. It was a red marble under the pad of his thumb. He toyed with it to make her moan. "Tell me what you feel, Mona. Tell me what I do toyourbody.”

"I feeldesire.”

"Tell me much more than that. How does yournipplefeel?”

"Hard. It feels as hard to me as it does to you,” she said breathlessly. "A woman can feel when her nipples arethishard.”

"As a man can when his cockishard.”

"Yes, I’m sure it’s something like that. When you touch my nipple when it’s soft, I feel pleasure. But when you touch it when it’s this hard, the pleasure is magnified. Ten or twenty times. It’s hard to stand, hard to breathe. I ache,Malcolm.”

"Where do you ache, Mona? Tell me everywhere you ache.” He whispered the order and kissed the top of her breast. His soft hair tickled the bare flesh of her chest. She would die if he made her wait for him totakeher.

"My breasts ache,” she said. "They need to be licked and sucked hard. And I ache inside foryourcock.”

"Inyourcunt.”

"In my cunt,” she said. He inhaled sharply as if it aroused him to hear her say the word. "It’s not just the cunt. The ache is everywhere. In my stomach. In my thighs. Everywhere you touch me. I ache everywhere,Malcolm.”

"Here?” he asked, and flicked his tongue across hernipple.

"Yes.” The word came out inagasp.

"Here?” He slid his hand into the long slit of her dress at the top of her thigh. He cupped her between her legs, cupped her cunt, and slipped a finger into her wet hole. She contracted around it involuntarily. Malcolm flinched and she knew he’dfeltit.

"Yes…” shehissed.

"Here?” He kissed her chest over her heart. "Do you ache formehere?”

"Malcolm…you told me not to love you. Don’t make meloveyou.”

"But do you miss me when I’m gone?” heasked.

"The things you do to me…I’d never dare dream them, much less do them. And yet, when I’m with you, there is no game I wouldn’t play, nothing of my body would I keep from you. You leave me and I go mad with waiting. You leave me and you are my every waking thought and my every sleeping dream. And if I knew when you were returning to me, I would count the minutes until I saw you again.” She paused. "No, that’salie.”

"What’s the truth, Mona?” His voice was so soft and tender ithurther.

"I would count theseconds.”

They breathed together, looking into each other’s eyes. His mouth closed over hers again and they were locked into a kiss that would seeminglyneverend.

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