Page 101 of Ironvine

She twisted her head on the table slightly to catch a glimpse of him, but he kept his hold on her hair firm and she could not. He grunted and suddenly stiffened as if he’d been knifed in the back. Another low grunt, a sharp howl.

That’s what this was, wasn’t it? A kind of violence. Sudden, unexpected, brutish, not only the way their bodies met and moved together, but the sensations that overwhelmed her body and her thoughts—erasing all the politeness, dissolving the carefully cultivated niceties. Smashing graceful manners, gentle countenances.

Between lovers, all of them were insignificant. All were obliterated.

ChapterForty-Four

Georgina

Georgina’s eyes fluttered open.Sunlight spewed into her bedchamber through the slight gap left between the great curtains. She liked waking up early. She’d grown accustomed to it at Fairthorn. She would get all sorts of work done in the quiet of her room or her studio room, depending on which project she was consumed with.

A deeply intense rose scent filled her nostrils. Fresh roses lay on the pillow next to her. White like her wedding day roses.

Charles.

Sweet, thoughtful. Romantic. A gesture of esteem.

She lifted the flowers to her face and smelled their intense fragrance. Heady and rich. A smile tugged on her lips. A beautiful gesture that tickled her very heart. As if he were courting her.

After their time in the painted room, exhausted, they drank down the cold tea in the library, the two of them barely uttering two words between them. And then he’d taken her hand in his and brought her to his bed where they continued until they had to dress for dinner. After a wordless dinner, they continued on in her chamber well into the night.

Early this morning she’d awakened him by taking his cock in her mouth, kissing it, lavishing it, one hand at the base of him, stroking as he’d shown her.

Groans and harsh murmurings filled the room. A hand dug in her hair, fisting. His hips rocked with urgency against her face, as Charles cursed like a savage, grunting out her name, which had only made her work him more intently until finally, his cock throbbed his release between her wet swollen lips, his warm seed filling her throat.

He’d taken her in his arms, his breathing ragged, his ringed hand gripping her face. His lips against hers as he repeated, “Georgina, Georgina…” They fell silent in a sweaty embrace, his lips nuzzling her throat, his hand between her legs.

She stretched her arms over her head. Her entire body ached in a most delicious way. He now knew every inch of her flesh, and she his. It had been exciting, startling, beyond anything she’d hoped congress between a man and a woman would be.

Georgina threw off the covers and washed her face in the warm water her lady’s maid had brought. She arranged the roses in the pitcher by the basin, her heart thudding in her chest.

Donning her dressing gown, she grabbed her sketchbook and threw open the heavy curtains. Sunlight bathed the room. The view of Ironvine’s endless green park filled her vision as she perched herself on the couch by the window.

Her pencil flew over the paper. Drawing quickly from memory, she laid down the lines of Charles’s face. The way he’d looked at her when he’d first spied her in his father’s secret room. Surprise, apprehension, dread, and a hint of anger that soon grew into fervour and then something darker, richer.

His seduction in that room had been so unique, so commanding. She truly did not know how to describe it properly and very much wanted to. She would with her lines. The lines of his face, his eyes, his lips.Oh those lips.Dangerous, powerful, magnificent. The sharp angle of his jaw.

She lost herself in this combination of feeling, memory, sensuality, and technique as her pencil flew over the page, as her fingertips rubbed out lines, smoothed out angles.

For all the information her sister had given her since she’d gotten married about relations between a man and a woman, never once had she mentioned what a man’s tongue, teeth, lips, his fingers were capable of doing to a woman’s body.

Philippa had always answered Georgina’s many eager questions as a proud woman of experience. She enjoyed that prestige in her younger sister’s eyes very much. She was sure her sister had never experienced her husband’s tongue between her legs, in her…Georgina drove the pencil swifter against the paper as a delicious sting flared between her legs and melted her insides.

The sketch of his face fell from her lap, but she paid it no heed as she quickly outlined his body on another paper. Filled it in. Modified, rubbed.

Yes.

A knock at the door. “Ma’am?” Her lady’s maid had come to help her dress.Already?

“Come in.” Georgina quickly put away her papers and went to the basin to wash her hands.

Today, she and Charles were to go visit the Ironvine tenants. She would meet them all. Charles had mentioned that he liked visiting his tenants and seeing how their crops were going, and their livestock, to hear their concerns. It was important to him.

Dressed and ready, she entered the dining room for breakfast. She looked forward to seeing her husband, but the dining room was empty. He was not there. She ate quickly on her own.

“Are you ready?” Charles stood in the doorway, boots muddy, face flushed. He took a roll and bit into it. “I went riding early this morning. I’ve missed it. I love riding here at Ironvine. I didn’t want to wake you.”

“I did enjoy my lie-in this morning, I must admit.”

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