Chapter Seven #3
No, she wasn’t willing to give him up just yet, and there was no way in hell she’d leave him to his demons alone, so she threaded the fingers of one hand through the silky hair at his nape.
With the other, she traced the network of scars and twisted flesh on his left arm, murmured words of encouragement to him when he would have protested.
She stood on tiptoe in order to feel the full extent of his kiss, to show him she wasn’t going anywhere.
The scrape of the hair on his chest against her sensitive nipples tugged another moan from her.
“Thornton, please…”
And still he kissed her. Though his body was taut and tense, as if he were fighting the instinct to lay claim to her, he kissed her like he had all the time in the world.
Seconds later, the heat of his hands seeped into her arse as he gripped her derriere.
His fingers feathered over her skin, arousing yet calming, and she shifted to spread her legs in anticipation.
“Will you continue to torture me then?” she asked between peppering his chin with kisses.
“Depends.” He grasped her hips and ground his pelvis into hers but still he didn’t penetrate her.
“On what?” Though she didn’t wish to beg for his attentions, she rather wished he’d hurry things along.
“Tell me you want me.”
“I want you.”
A half grin curved his lips. He urged one of her legs up to rest on his hip. The head of his member rubbed along her wet folds as she opened to him. “Tell me you will always want me, regardless that I am a wreck and a disappointment. Perhaps we’ll only have the heat between us.”
Nearly out of her mind, Emma shook her head. “I will always want you, but we’ll discuss the rest later. I need to feel you moving inside me.”
“I always respected you for never backing down for a good fuck.”
A host of shivers fell down her spine at his continued use of vulgarity. “How could I not when you are— Ah!”
He shoved into her passage without warning, and then her world dissolved beneath a wave of pleasure.
“I could spend hours playing with your body.” He pulled out only to thrust again.
The duke groaned and held his position, fully sheathed as her passage greedily worked to keep him with her.
His breath stirred the loose hair at her temple.
“But perhaps I am only fortunate enough for these handful of times.”
There were no words she wanted to waste.
There would be other times to argue with the monsters he fought against. “Make me fly, Thornton.” She grasped his shoulders and tilted her hips, wriggled them in order to take him in as far as she could.
His thick, hot length filled her, stretched her more than she’d ever been.
Each tiny movement on his part set off a flutter of sensation through her core.
Her insides tingled and tightened. She pulled him closer, wanting him to move yet hoping they could remain like this forever.
In this, she remembered how good they’d been together… before life took him from her.
Cecil held her steady with his hands at her hips.
His gaze softened and a mixture of awe and pleasure illuminated his expression.
Perhaps he wasn’t as far gone as she feared, but then he closed his eyes, shuttering his soul from her.
And he began to move within her once more.
Each penetration sent glorious sensations through her body, sent her hurtling closer to the edge of bliss.
Evidently, they’d teased each other too long, for his thrusts became wild and erratic.
Frantic and forceful, he stroked into her, keeping her pinned between his chest and the window behind her.
It was useless to ask him to slow, for he was determined in his, so she wrapped her arms about his shoulders and matched his rhythm as best she could.
Again and again and again he pushed, impaling her, going impossibly deep, perhaps in an effort to touch her soul, and she couldn’t have enough of him.
When he slipped a hand to her breast to bedevil a nipple, she shattered. With a cry, pleasure rushed up to engulf her, and Emma rode the wave unashamedly as tears of pleasure coursed down her cheeks.
“Cecil!” She didn’t care who heard; this was beyond amazing.
A grunt was his only verbal response, but he thrust twice more before finding his own release. As he’d done twice before, he withdrew from her convulsing passage only to ejaculate against the window glass at her side.
Why, though? The craving to share a release with him, to feel his essence inside her body was strong.
Did he not want all of her? Spent and with knees that felt as if they held the strength of cooked porridge, Emma stumbled over to one of the winged-back chairs and collapsed within it.
Curiosity eventually won over discretion.
“Don’t you wish for children? For your title? ”
He frowned. “And perhaps pass on a weak mind?” Quickly, he stuffed his member back into his breeches and did up the buttons of his frontfalls.
“That won’t happen. There is nothing wrong with your mind. You suffer from the things you experienced in the war. They are two different things.”
“Perhaps.” When he rested his gaze on her, his expression softened. “Regardless, you and I haven’t discussed starting a nursery. I don’t want to trap you by impregnating you if you wish for a divorce because you can’t stomach my disposition or looks.”
A tremble went through her heart from his considerations. For long moments, she regarded him in silence before uttering a shuddering breath. “I don’t want a divorce.”
“You don’t?”
“Perhaps I did at one time when you left, but I don’t now.
” She couldn’t even explain the change in thinking to herself.
She was here for the duration and she wanted to support him in whatever way he should need her.
“Whatever you need from me, I shall help you through until you are healed or can find peace.”
He looked at her with an odd expression, as if he couldn’t puzzle her out. “I need you in a physical way. That has never changed.”
“Understandable, but why me?”
A hint of ruddy color crept up his neck. She liked that he didn’t immediately dress, for she wasn’t done admiring his chest. “When you and I couple, my mind is at peace. For those precious moments, the horrors and hells are held at bay, and I… I look forward to those reprieves.”
“Fair enough.” Silence roiled between them as he retrieved her chemise then drew her into a standing position where he helped her on with the garment.
It touched her heart, this unexpected gentleness after what they’d just shared, and she remembered what Mrs. Gates had told her.
If that was how she’d break through the walls around him, so be it.
Besides, he was no slouch in carnal things.
“Cecil, if we are to do this, make inroads into repairing our marriage and understanding each other as we are now, you will need to spend time with me beyond bedroom endeavors.”
“But…”
She shook her head. “I won’t deny you access to my body, for I have physical needs too, but we also need to talk to each other, despite how difficult those various topics might feel.
There is more to a union than sex, and whether you believe it or not, I might want you for a lifetime, no matter how that might look. ”
He nodded but said nothing.
One of her eyebrows rose as she accepted the petticoat from him. “Do you agree? I want to help you, but you need to let me in. Can you do that? For us?”
When she thought he’d flee the gallery, he merely nodded. “Agreed. Join me for tea?”
Dear heavens, he’d agreed. “That would be a lovely start.”
Just what have I agreed to? For that darkness was still there, waiting.