Chapter Eight
God, but he was the most fortunate of men just now, and he could scarcely believe what was happening.
Though he couldn’t understand the fact that Rose was letting him bring her pleasure, he wasn’t about to question it.
Clearly, she felt comfortable with him, trusted him, and he wouldn’t abuse that trust. Bloody hell but she felt simply amazing in his arms, and the tiny plea she uttered set fire to his veins.
After a handful of days full of teasing, of banter, of talking, of looks full of longing and hunger, he had her in his arms and would claim this beautiful, broken woman.
It humbled him as he caressed the perfect globes of her breasts.
With each pass of his hands, each stroke and twist of his fingers on those pink, pert nipples, she moaned and arched her back.
Though she hadn’t spoken it aloud, no doubt it had been years since she’d been pleasured by a man, and if she was this wanting, it wouldn’t take long for her to fall over the edge into bliss.
And he absolutely wanted to encourage her to fly.
As he slipped a hand down her torso, past the soft swell of her belly, over her mons to delve his fingers into the curls shrouding her sex, the tiny sounds of pleasure and desperation she made went straight to his shaft.
It was only a matter of time before he embarrassed himself by spending too soon, for it had been a while since he, too, had indulged, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the throbbing discomfort.
Right now, his focus was on Rose, in caring for her needs, to show her that she wasn’t as horrid as her family had perhaps made her feel.
“Dear God, yes.” The woman parted her legs to allow him greater access, and as he spread her folds to uncover the swelling pearl at her center, she whimpered. Her back arched again, and she held his other hand to her breast, pressing it to the nipple.
Oh, yes, she would break, and soon, and he couldn’t wait to bear witness to that.
At the first pass of his fingers, she moaned.
The shiver that went through her delicious body transferred to him.
By the second, she was shaking with need.
Laurence circled that tiny bundle of nerves, experimented with varying levels of friction as he worked it over in the quest to discover what she liked, and all the while, he kissed the side of her neck, plucked and rolled her nipple.
When her breath came in labored pants, he grinned and whispered words of affirmation into her ear.
It was providence that he’d chosen the hedge maze to explore this afternoon.
He had no idea she would be here at the same time or that she would look at him with hunger warring for acceptance in her eyes.
Perhaps their first carnal meeting had always been meant to end like this; it was impossible to puzzle out, but he refused to expend the brain power on it in this moment.
And still he worried that swollen bud, rubbed it, circled it as if that were his only purpose in life.
“Mmm, yes.” The lady writhed against his body, and his hardened length pulsed.
“I’m going to be swallowed up by these sensations.
” There was both marvel and fright in her tones, but at this point, he didn’t think he could try to separate one from the other.
It was his hope that after this, she might share her story with him.
Instead of thinking, he sought to soothe her, push her toward the brink, and for one second, he left off working her nubbin in favor of slipping two fingers into the honeyed heat of her passage.
A ragged moan left his throat. Damn but he couldn’t wait to claim her; she was warm and tight, and as he stroked into her body, those slick walls greedily pulled at his digits.
“Fly for me, Rose.” In and out, in and out he thrust into her.
“Relax and let yourself go. In this moment, there is nothing to fear, and certainly no scandal.” At the back of his mind, he wished to know what had occurred in her life to make her anxious and sad, but he would sort that out later.
“Concentrate on what I’m doing to you… On what I will do to you once you fall over that edge. ”
“Mmm.” Her head thrashed on his chest. “It’s just there… out of reach.”
“Shh.” Renewing his attentions at her breast, Laurence withdrew from her passage only to bedevil her nubbin with greater intensity. “Don’t think about anything except what you feel.”
“Oh!” A shiver racked her body, but he didn’t reduce the friction, the play he did to her button or her nipple.
“Ah!” When she fell into release, she did it in spectacular fashion.
Put simply, Rose shattered in his arms. A low keening cry left her throat as her body stiffened then relaxed.
The play of expressions on her face tugged at his chest, and as the orgasm crashed over her, her eyes shuttered closed.
She clutched his arm, tightened and released her fingers, while contractions and waves of pleasure no doubt stole through her person.
It was one of the most glorious sights he’d ever seen.
But he wasn’t done with her. Not by half.
As soon as she came back to herself, Laurence encouraged her about so that she straddled his waist. Now that he was able to rove his gaze over body straight on instead from behind, his arousal grew more acute, but he tamped on the need to immediately claim her.
“Dear God, you are incredible.”
With the sunshine touching her with faint golden illumination through the hedges and a flush of pleasure kissing her cheeks and chest, and her hair half escaping the pins holding it up, it was almost as if she’d stepped out of the woodlands to be with him or enchant him.
Putting his hands on either side of her neck, he drew her to him and kissed her, slowly at first because he was in awe of her, and then once urgent heat roared through him, he deepened the embrace.
Rose broke it to explore beneath his jaw with her lips.
She nipped the skin there, licked everywhere she’d just kissed, and one of her hands drifted to his chest. “Though I have pictured you naked in a couple of my dreams, the reality is ever so much lovelier.” Then she flicked the flat disc of his nipple with a fingernail, and his world tilted sideways.
The fact she’d had scandalous fantasies about him added fuel to the fires already pushing through his blood.
Once more, he took her breasts in his hands, rubbed the pads of his thumbs along her nipples, and as they hardened, he rolled those distended tips until she moaned her approval.
Then, needing to feel more of her, he laid back on his jacket.
His hands went down her sides and at her buttocks, he held them, further spreading her open, and he reveled in how she felt against him. “I want you.”
“There’s nothing stopping you.” She rose onto her knees and took his painfully rigid shaft in her hand. “But I understand the sentiment. When it comes to these feelings, I am helpless against them.”
That preliminary touch nearly had him shooting off his wad. Need shuddered down his spine. He curled a hand about her hip. “Rose…” A warning growled through his voice.
“Hush, Captain. Let me do this before my courage deserts me.” She stroked her hand up and down his length.
Bliss was so close and held literally in her palm.
At his gasp, she giggled, leaned over him, then pressed her lips to his.
Just when he would have taken control and kissed her senseless, she fit the head of his member to her opening, and holding his gaze, she sank slowly onto his arousal until he’d fully penetrated her.
“Oh, I remember this.” The words were hushed and almost reverent.
“Damn.” Of course, he didn’t want her to remember times with a different man while she was with him, so he’d need to try harder.
Her honeyed heat was nothing short of heaven, so snug and welcoming.
Laurence gripped her hips and guided her off his shaft merely for the wonder of thrusting upward into her body once more. “You feel so good.”
“This is well worth the scandal.” Rose shoved her hands up his chest, and when she clutched his shoulders, she shifted her stance and again leaned over him, rocked her hips, ground upon him.
A moan escaped her while wild sensations flooded him.
“So lovely.” The words were breathless as she bounced awkwardly up and down his member. “So large.”
At least she’s refreshingly honest.
And he adored that about her. Putting his hands on her waist, he ignored the urgent throbbing in his shaft.
With tensed muscles, he flipped them both over.
Once settled between her bent knees, he spent time kissing her in the hope that would cool the heat in his blood, but the lady wasn’t content to let him pleasure her.
Her hands were seemingly everywhere, and each flitting touch, every caress sent him careening closer to the edge before he’d properly claimed her body.
He’d barely gotten his fill of teasing her nipples with his mouth when she’d sneaked a hand between them to fondle his bits. Need tingled through his stones, and the gentle teasing she gave him added another layer to the already frenzied urgency surging along his nerve endings.
“Rose, damn it, leave off.”
“Why should you have all the fun?” she whispered against the side of his neck. “Get on with it before I go mad.”
“Gladly.” Laurence encouraged one of her legs upward.
When he glanced at her, caught the soft smile curving her lips, his chest tightened.
She was the most beautiful vision, and he wondered anew how he’d been so damned fortunate to have her consent in this most intimate act.
Then his mind was gone, for he thrust into her welcoming sheath once more. His groan mingled with hers.