Chapter Four
“Please tell me where we’re going!” Charlotte begged in good-natured excitement as Spencer led her to the outskirts of the city.
“I told you it’s a surprise.”
He winked down at her and leaned close enough to tell her a secret, his warm breath tickling her ear.
“We’re almost there, I promise.”
His lips lingered and she felt him brush them across her hair.
As they approached a verdant large meadow on the banks of a crystal-clear brook, she wondered at the wisdom of letting him bring her to his secluded place ... alone. Now, a woman had little more than her reputation.
Spencer led her up a narrow trail to the meadow, glancing back every so often to grin as she gazed at the incredible beauty of the wildflowers surrounding them.
Taking advantage of the solitude, Charlotte released his arm and slipped her fingers intimately through his, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.
He returned the gesture, dropping to an even more leisurely pace, their linked arms swinging between them.
Spencer wove through a small grove of trees, never letting go of her hand, and then into an even more lovely grassy meadow.
At this moment, contentment settled in her breast.
Spencer’s strong hands came upon her shoulders and a moment later he kissed the sensitive skin along the side of her throat.
His fingers brushed a stray tress from the back of her collar, and his lips touched the slope of her neck at the very base where every nerve ending seemed to center.
She shivered in anticipation of his touch, and she turned to him.
No thoughts of work or time travel or holding herself from him entered her mind.
Right now, she was happy to simply be with him.
“I come here to be alone and think,” he whispered.
Tenderly, he brushed a windblown hair from her throat as his lips moved to her cheek.
“I thought you might need a place of your own as well.”
They stood so close the heat resonating from his body sent tingles dancing across her skin. He kissed the delicate flesh at the corner of her mouth and the tingles shot straight to her brain. Her lips parted in response, warm, ready.
“It’s true,” she whispered, closing her eyes as he kissed the other corner of her mouth.
“Life completely overwhelms me at times. I need a place like this.”
She tilted her neck, responding without thought as his lips slid an intoxicating trail of kisses down the gentle slope of her throat. His fingers ran light paths up and down her spine until she shivered.
“Thank you for sharing your special place with me.”
Lifting her into his arms, Spencer’s piercing blue gaze bore into her eyes with such smoldering emotion her breath froze.
“There is much more I want to share with you,” he said. “God help me, Charlotte, you feel so good in my arms.”
A heady combination of desire, delight and passion swirled through her veins, leaving her light-headed and more than a little foolish. She twined her fingers through his thick, wavy hair, angling her face in to meet his lips.
“Kiss me.”
****
Spencer was only too happy to oblige. He kissed her once full on the mouth, keeping his touch soft, tender, and inviting. She trembled.
Cradling her against him, he settled her back into the soft meadow’s tall grass, pressing his mouth more insistently against hers.
Her lips were made of the most pliable velvet, and he drank in the sweetness of them.
Her hair was smoother than silk and it tickled his face.
Her skin was pale like fresh cream, and he caressed it.
And her eyes, oh, those eyes, like warm liquid pools of green emeralds.
They might pull him into oblivion if he wasn’t careful.
He didn’t want to be careful. He just wanted Charlotte. ..
“Charlotte,” he murmured against her lips.
Spencer had never known it could hurt to want a woman, but at this moment he ached for her.
His chest grew tight, his fingers thick and awkward, and he didn’t just want her .
.. he needed her. After all the horrors he’d seen in recent years, she was the one good thing in his life.
For only a moment he pulled back, clasping her hand to his chest. She lay before him, her eyes wide and trusting, and when he leaned forward to kiss her throat once more, he could feel the rapid flutter of her pulse. It matched the pounding of his own.
“Are you afraid of me?” he whispered against her mouth, bracing his hands on either side of her.
“Yes, I’m afraid, but not of you.” Her lips parted and he answered the invitation.
She moaned and Spencer swallowed the sweet sounds. He wanted to devour her. Explore her. Make love to her.
His hands roamed her still-clothed form until she writhed beneath him. She responded to his every touch, and his every kiss, and it was driving him to madness. Her movements were incredible, provocative, and every gasp escaping her mouth prompted the next kiss to be more fervent than the last.
Moving down, he kissed the notch at the base of her throat and his fingers traced the edge of her bodice where the tantalizing swell of her breasts peeked over the top.
Maneuvering the gown away from her breasts he drew back, claiming just one in a cupped palm and prompting yet another throaty moan.
“You are so perfect,” he murmured huskily.
At this moment Spencer stood at the very precipice of his self-control, ready to topple over the edge and into .
.. her. And when she began to unfasten the gold buttons of his jacket he was done.
The edge not only loomed near, but as she leaned up to strip the garment from his shoulders, he heard the wind rush past his ears as he plunged past the point of no return.
Her cool fingers dug into his back and a shudder of pure pleasure coursed through him. He was unable to stop now. This was it.
****
Charlotte paused for the space of a breath, half-sitting, all but gaping at the man before her.
He was more man that she’d ever seen. A god .
.. with rock-hard, sinewy muscle bulging from every inch of his frame.
Making love to him would be ecstasy, but she could be content just to stare at him for hours.
Spencer, however, obviously had no intention of staring.
He moved quickly forward, grasping the back of her neck with his roughened palm, pulling her to him for more mindless kisses.
He took her lips hungrily, as though his very life depended on it.
The kiss was hot, wet, and all-consuming, and she matched him in it stroke for stroke never wanting it to end.
Nothing had ever been so incredibly good, so right, and so .
.. perfect. A man had never stirred her emotions the way Spencer Abbott did and now she was positively drowning in passion.
She settled herself back more fully in the grass allowing him to lie completely on top of her.
She shivered in pure ecstasy, relishing the thrill of his body against hers.
This man need only touch her to awaken desire as she’d never known existed.
Is this love? Lust? Both...?
Their fingers worked together to further loosen their remaining clothes.
“Charlotte,” he whispered breathlessly against her mouth, voice thick with passion. His body poised above her was clearly primed with desire of the most primitive kind.
“I want you,” he rasped, ravishing her neck with his mouth. He moved lower, pressing searing kisses along her collar bone and then to the beginning swell of her right breast. Her exposed nipple ached for his touch.
“Are you ready for this?”
“Yes,” she murmured.
****
Spencer’s entire body was tight and primed, with desire burning relentlessly in his loins. His manly cravings again spiraled dangerously close to the edge of control. She looked so goddamned beautiful lying beneath him that Spencer merely wanted to kiss her senseless.
Those huge green eyes were a smoldering vortex of conflicting emotions, and her full round lips parted again ever so invitingly just inches from his. Heat radiated from her body pressed intimately against his hardness and he was ... lost.
He lowered his head to claim her mouth over and over.
He was powerless to stop. Grasping her roughly, pulling her tighter against him, Spencer could hardly control his rampaging emotions.
He tore with a feverish need at the buttons of her day dress.
He finally understood completely what possessed people to fall in love.
The simple act of loving her was enough to sustain him for a lifetime.
He traced another steaming trail of kisses down the warm creamy flesh below her breasts.
How I want her, long for her, love her.. .
“Charlotte,” his voice was barely above a rasp.
“I want you—I love you.”
“I love you, too, Spencer,” she whispered fervently.
****
Charlotte clasped his head to her bosom with tremulous hands, and drew a calming breath, struggling to control the many emotions Spencer’s declaration had stirred within her. At that moment every fiber of her being craved his touch. She pressed parted lips to his.
“Spencer, oh, God... I want you!”
He grabbed her face between his hands, eyes searching hers, before he took her lips in a desperate exchange. She’d never be entirely sure how it happened but suddenly she was floating, his arms locked around her as he lifted her against him.
He did not utter a sound as he pressed her further into the soft grass. This—his body settling over her—was what her soul longed for, and she opened to him in welcome
Dragging his blue shirt up, she pulled it over his head, letting her fingers trace the honed expanse of his back. He groaned.
“My love, are you sure about this?” he asked once more.
“Yes.”
Her tongue dipped into his mouth, beckoning him closer.
“Really certain?”
He lifted her layers of petticoats until his hand found the curve of her thigh.
Spencer settled himself between her legs, pulled her more securely beneath him, tracing the path of her hip with the flat of his palm.
“You are so lovely,” he murmured, pressing deliberate feather light kisses to the line of her jaw and down her throat to the swell of her breasts.
“I love you,” she whispered again, twining her fingers through his softly curling hair, searching the intense blue of his eyes—eyes so incredibly soft and adoring.
“And I you,” he murmured.
They were beyond words, locked together, moving as one. She cried out again and again for him to hold her closer ... tighter. She couldn’t get enough of him. She felt him in the deep recesses of her damaged soul, and her body throbbed everywhere.
All she wanted was for him to thrust into her wetness. If he didn’t do so soon, she didn’t know what she might do. She was on the brink of shattering from pure physical pleasure...
She wanted to cry from joy, to hold the sublime sensations that were flowing throughout her body in her heart and mind forever...
****
He roamed every inch of her body with his hands and lips, learning, exploring, until every last curve and crevice was embedded in his memory. Charlotte trembled beneath his gentle caresses, as she traced his body with her soft hands until he vibrated with wanting more.
“I can’t take this anymore,” she groaned, wiggling beneath him until her hips nestled flawlessly beneath his. He grinned against her throat, slowly tracing the curve of her thigh with his palm.
“Don’t make me wait,” she gasped
He needed no further urging and positioned himself above, more than ready to plunge into her heat. To hell with slow. He needed her now. Fast and hard.
“Yes!” Charlotte cried out when he finally entered her, and it was nearly his undoing.
The shudder that coursed from her body and into his was a sensual experience he would remember for the rest of his life.
Never had he realized that this act of joining two souls through love and devotion and mutual giving and taking of pleasure could usher forth a fulfillment that only those truly in love could appreciate . .. encompass ... achieve...
If Spencer believed he understood love before making love to a woman who’d promised herself body and soul to him and no other, he was mistaken.
He collapsed on top of her when it was over, and kissed her sweetly, breathing deep the scent of rosewater that seemed ever-present in her hair, and enjoying the slick of their damp skin pressed intimately together as he held her in his powerful arms.
“You’re amazing,” he murmured, raising her hand to press a soft kiss upon the palm.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” she teased. Rising on an elbow, she pressed a loving kiss on his forehead. She gazed into his eyes as she sighed wistfully.
“I suppose I should get back to Annabelle’s before she realizes how long we’ve been gone on our stroll.”
When she pulled away, he realized she was shy and modest—unable to meet his gaze as she dressed, struggling to pull down the mountain of petticoats he’d pushed up around her waist and fasten buttons at the front of her gown.
Spencer turned to find his shirt, trousers and jacket and made quick work of getting dressed.
“I must say again that I think it’s time we were getting back. We’ve lost track of time. I don’t want Annabelle to worry about me,” she said quietly.
“Charlotte, is something wrong? Is it because of what we did?”
“Don’t worry, my love, I’m perfectly fine. In fact, I’ve never felt better.”
“You must let me walk you back home,” he said, a concerned look on his face.
“Yes, of course,” she replied softly.
She berated herself for having made him look troubled as they walked back through the cobblestone streets to Annabelle’s house. It was the last thing she had intended to do.