Chapter Twenty-Five
Eventually, the throbbing pulses receded and she slowly regained enough awareness to discover herself laid out along the viscount’s side.
He lay stretched out on his back beside her and had pulled her in against him.
Her head rested on his shoulder and his arm was firm around her back.
One of her arms was draped heavily over his middle and her thigh was tossed across his.
She could feel his thudding, rapid heartbeat through her entire body. His skin was hot and damp with sweat. His muscles were tense. And his erection was still thick and hard beyond belief against the bend of her knee.
Realization dawned within her pleasure-clouded mind. “Phin,” she breathed thickly.
“I’m here, my beauty.” His voice was as weighted as hers. More so, as he didn’t have the benefit of released tension. Tension she could feel through every inch of him.
It took every bit of her courage to utter, “You are not going to make love to me, are you?”
His breath caught mid-inhale and a ragged sound rolled in his throat. His voice held a hint of amusement, but it did not dispel his obvious tension. “Some would say that what we—”
“You know what I mean,” Eleanor interrupted.
He released his pent-up breath. His hand smoothed up the length of her arm and his other arm curled just a bit tighter around her back.
“I promised I’d be careful,” he muttered.
“And by that, you mean…you won’t claim me completely.”
His response was little more than a grunt. The strain and taut resistance in his body suggested he wished it were otherwise.
“You want to,” she whispered.
“So badly I feel like I could murder someone for the privilege,” he answered quickly, the violence in his words widening her eyes. But then his tone shifted to one of regret. “But I don’t make the rules.”
“You also don’t seem the type of man who follows the rules,” she argued.
“Not always,” he admitted with a smile in his voice.
“But I would not ruin your future for my pleasure.” He trailed his fingers lightly down her arm in a tingling caress.
Holding her gaze, he added roughly, “You would not like marriage to me, princess. I’m restless.
I’m never home for long. I’d make you miserable.
” He paused. The look in his eyes was heavy and dim. “You’d come to hate me.”
He was probably right.
Eleanor wanted a home of her own, a life that she directed, a family to love. Children, if she were so blessed. But she’d always envisioned having a partner in that scheme. A steady compassionate companion. Someone to share in the triumphs and disappointments that might come along.
She would certainly grow to resent a husband who couldn’t be bothered to stick around.
And if she were unlucky enough to fall in love with that man…
She didn’t want to consider how it would break her heart to constantly compete with his yearning to be free.
So…that wasn’t going to be their story. That’s not how this would go.
If she wanted something different, she would have to claim it.
Eleanor had no idea where her boldness came from in that next moment.
But she was certain that she had no intention of letting the man leave her bed without getting what they both wanted.
She didn’t particularly like how one-sided this…
thing between them was starting to become. She wanted to participate equally.
As she shifted and pushed herself up and over to lay full-length atop his hard body, she acknowledged this was as much for herself as it was for him. She was desperate to explore his pleasure. Desperate to give him the wonderous experience he’d given her.
Her own brazenness shocked her. But as she settled atop him and felt his erection against her belly and looked down into his stark and silent gaze, she surrendered to her instincts.
“What if I said I’m not particularly interested in following the rules, either?” she asked. “The notion that a woman’s virtue should be valued more highly than her own free will is ridiculously antiquated and extremely offensive.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “I don’t disagree.”
“It’s nonsense, really,” she noted, warming to her argument. “Why shouldn’t I be as free as any man? Didn’t you encourage me to explore my passions?”
As he gripped her hips firmly in his hands, his smile widened and his eyes sparked with blue fire. “I sure as hell won’t stop you.”
“Wonderful,” she murmured thickly. Framing his face between her hands, she lowered her head to kiss him. Gentle, brushing kisses. Small laps of her tongue. Slow, languid licks into his mouth.
But it wasn’t long before the kisses deepened. Their open mouths clashing and claiming with tangled tongues and the edge of teeth and hot, panting breaths.
Gliding his hands down the backs of her thighs, he parted her legs and urged her to bend them until she was kneeling and straddling his hips.
Then he grasped her buttocks, kneading them with strong fingers as he rocked his pelvis beneath her, angling the length of his erection along her sex in a now familiar stroke.
But the material of his breeches was too rough against her sensitive flesh.
Reclaiming just enough awareness to break the kiss, she moaned, “Remove them.”
It took just a moment for him to reach down and shimmy out of the breeches, kicking them to the floor. Then he took her bottom in his hands again and slowly, expertly guided her sex along his satiny cock.
Eleanor gasped, then moaned, then shivered from head to toe as she dropped her forehead to his.
The pleasure was overwhelming.
Smoother, hotter, and so much thicker than his fingers, his cock fit against her slick, swollen folds like silk-covered steel. Anticipation flooded her core, bringing more melting heat to her sex. The hollow ache inside her—which had been temporarily assuaged by her release—deepened and expanded.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he carefully rolled them both until she was beneath him. Then he shifted one arm to prop himself up so he could look down into her face.
The fire in his eyes—the hunger she saw there—was breathtaking. Consuming. To feel the force of such raw desire focused on her was…empowering.
“Are you certain?” he asked, his voice gruff but gentle.
Eleanor smoothed her hands up his muscled back and nodded.
“No regrets.”
She smiled and shook her head. “None.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth as he curled his forearm under her head and took her mouth in a deep tongue-thrusting kiss. As he claimed her sigh, he shifted between her spread thighs, positioning himself at her entrance.
The smooth, stretching pressure as he slowly eased forward, taking space inside her, was…stunning. And achingly wonderful. The sense of connection—of intimate vulnerability… It stopped her breath and forced a deep arch to her spine.
His lips gentled on hers and he murmured soft words of soothing praise between slow, drugging kisses as her body stretched to accept him in agonizingly measured increments.
His breath was heavy against her throat and his skin grew heated and slick with sweat.
When the full, hardness of him felt like more than she could bear, he shifted his arm beneath her low back and cupped her rear.
Tilting her hips to better receive him, he withdrew from her until just the hot, throbbing tip of his erection rested at her entrance.
Then he slid his tongue along hers and pushed into her once again with a raw, gravelly groan.
Going farther this time, deeper, until his pubic bone pressed against hers.
The intense sensation of being filled by him combined with the hard, grinding pressure on her clitoris was astounding.
Eleanor gasped and tipped her head back.
His lips fell to her throat, then her shoulder.
It wasn’t the same pleasure he’d given her with his mouth or even his fingers, but it was deep and wonderful. The intensity of it… The acknowledgment of how their bodies were as one… It brought an odd and sudden thickness to her throat.
The unexpected emotion was swiftly dispersed when he began a slow, rocking rhythm of thrust and retreat. This created brand new sensations, awakening nerves and sparking exciting new pleasures that increased with every pump of his hips.
When he lifted his head just enough to look into her heavy-lidded eyes, she saw desire and so much more in his gaze. Everything shifted. The pleasure sunk deeper, the intensity hit harder, and the ache of yearning settled with cosmic weight around her heart.
She wrapped her arms around him and sought his mouth, needing the taste of him and the hard, solid warmth of his body. His weight was a force keeping her present as the pleasures layered deeper and brought her ever higher toward the peak.
And then the man eased his hand between them and circled the tip of his finger over her clitoris in a rhythm that matched his thrusts. It felt as though a sudden flashing connection had been formed between all her nerves and Eleanor was lost.
The climax was explosive. Intense. Bright.
But not so much that she didn’t feel the change in him.
The quickening of his thrusts. The guttural catch in his throat, then the sudden tensing of his muscles before he withdrew from her in a sudden movement to press his erection against her belly as he buried his face in the curve of her neck.
His arms tightened around her and his breath was hot on her skin.
But not as hot as the silken spurts of his release between them.
Eleanor struggled to catch her breath as he shuddered in her arms.
Something odd unfurled within her in that moment. Something she feared she might recognize. In a concentrated effort, despite her languid satiation, she fiercely shoved the emotion aside. She did not welcome its intrusion.
A few moments later, once his breath had slowed, he pushed himself up to brace on his elbows.