Page 74 of Ironvine

“No. I want my husband to undress me.”

A grunt rumbled in his chest. He liked that. Charles shouted out: “Go away.” The servant’s steps quickly retreated down the hallway. His hands stroked her back and slid down to her waist.

Her breath caught, her insides tumbled and tightened. “I also did not know that women could enjoy congress in general. I hoped, I thought surely they must if men did. How could Nature be so unkind to our sex?”

“Nature is not unkind. She is most fair to the fairer sex. Only men, the bastards, keep it a secret.” He pulled her in closer and his hips ground against her as his hands slid down to her rear, keeping her where he wanted her, providing the friction her helpless body so desired.

Her head tipping back, she pressed against him. Intoxicating. “A secret?” she breathed through the haze.

“I believe men are afraid that if all women found this out, they would become demanding of them and also seek out pleasures of their own.”

“A great many women certainly do, do they not?”

He lifted her dress up her body, over her head, and let it fall to the floor. Her breasts strained from her corset. She could feel the heaviness of his gaze on her flesh, feel it in her blood, in her very centre. “Indeed they do. Do you wish to seek out your pleasures, Georgina?”

“I do. I’ve always wanted to.”And I want to with you, Charles Montclare, roared through her brain.

He cupped a breast, squeezed a nipple between his fingers, and took it in his mouth, brushing it with his teeth, suckling it, savouring it. Fiery explosions went off in her body, and she gripped his arms. “I have one concern—”

“Which is?”

“I fear that you are perhaps accustomed to a certain level of experience and agility that serves your needs to the fullest…and I do not have that. Yet.”

He drew a thumb across her damp lips. “Lady Ryvves, know this—I am thrilled that I am your first in all these things. That your experience begins with me. That you shall discover your agility and your needs with me, and I shall strive to fulfill those needs.”

She blinked at his words, his raw, deep voice. The promise of bliss indeed.

“Tonight, you will cry out my name when I bring you to your release, and that shall be devastatingly satisfying to your husband. That is what I require of you, my delicious Countess, your pleasure.”

“Release? Ah yes…that is what we call that moment when…”

“That moment, yes. You enjoyed it?”

“I did.”

“Tonight, if you wish, I shall lick and tease every inch of you, Georgie. Kiss every corner, every curve, discover you, as you shall discover me. What say you?”

A shudder shot through her. “Yes, I wish it so. And, may I ask—”

“Ask me anything.” Grinning, he pushed off his frock coat. Undid his necktie. Kicked off his shoes.

“Will you seek out congress with other women? If I do not please you, of course, you should…”

He stilled, his shirt hanging open, revealing a smooth sculpted chest, a tense torso that she yearned to touch. He came to her, cupping her chin once more, lifting her gaze to his. “I do not wish to seek pleasures elsewhere. You are my wife, and you please me greatly.” His gaze was steady, his tone unrelenting.

Her heart stopped. “How do you know?”

“I know.”

“But we only had that once after I brazenly insisted that you…”

“Ruin you.” His eyes gleamed at her. “And it was much too swift and brisk, and we did not finish, which was not what I would have wanted for your first time.”

She swallowed hard. “What did you want for my first time?”

A grin broke over his lips. “To lavish you with kisses and fill you with hard, deep strokes. To bring you to release not once, but a number of times in a number of ways.”

She groaned, and he turned her around and expertly undid her corset, tossing it to the floor, the thud of the heavy fabric making her blink. He pulled on her chemise, and she raised her arms, and up it flew over her head. She was bare. Bare to a man. To her husband. Bare to Charles.

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