Chapter Twelve #2
Her eyes opened a crack. Dulverton had risen up high on his knees and was staring down at her.
Perhaps she was asleep, although even in her dreams she would never have believed he could look so passionate and almost feral.
His lips were slick and red, and his eyes were predatory, sensual slits as he unhooked his fall, yanked open the buttons, and then shoved his snug pantaloons down his thighs.
Katie’s breath caught when he exposed his thick, ruddy shaft and wrapped a huge hand around it. He unashamedly stroked himself, his broad palm slicking the fat red crown, squeezing clear drops from the slit with sensual deliberation.
It was a more riveting show than any she’d ever seen at Drury Lane.
When he gleamed with wetness, he lowered his torso over hers until they were almost nose to nose.
“Look at me,” he said when she closed her eyes against his blazing intensity.
Only when she submitted to his searching gaze did he position himself at her entrance and push inside her.
Even with all the readying he’d engaged in, Katie’s eyes watered as he slid into her inch by inch.
She had either forgotten how uncomfortable this part could be or Dulverton was a great deal larger than Jasper.
Either way, she was certain she could not bear even a fraction of an inch more when he bumped something inside her and caused a bone-deep ache of pleasure edged with pain.
Dulverton’s eyelids fluttered as he kept her full, waiting for her body to accommodate him.
She felt unaccountably shy staring into his eyes but could not look away. How odd it was to be so intimate with a stranger.
He raised up on his arms and looked between their bodies as he slowly pulled almost all the way out and then plunged back in to the hilt.
Again and again, he entered her with deep, powerful thrusts and then languidly withdrew, watching what he did for several moments before lifting his eyes to hers.
“You look beautiful taking me, Kathryn.”
Inevitably, her inner muscles spasmed, earning a low animal growl of approval.
“So good,” he hissed, an undeniably smug expression spreading across his austere face as he braced himself on one forearm and reached between their bodies to stroke her.
This time, he did not make Katie beg or wait, and all too soon her climax overtook her.
Dulverton thrusted a half-dozen times before pinning her to the mattress with his hips, his powerful body spasming with the force of his release until his shoulders finally sagged, and he went still.
Katie knew the moment awareness overtook him and for the second time that night her body acted with a will all its own and her legs wrapped around his hips when he began to withdraw, her heels digging into his impossibly hard buttocks to keep him exactly where he was.
For a moment she thought he might give in to her urging, but then he pushed up on his arms leaving her with the choice of clinging like a monkey or releasing him.
She missed the heat and comforting weight of his big body immediately.
The warm contentment she’d been feeling only moments before drained away as he left the bed without meeting her gaze.
With his back to the bed, he slipped on his coat, draped his neckcloth over his shoulder, and picked up his boots. Before Katie realized what he was doing he’d snuffed the candles and threw the room into blackness.
“I have changed our traveling plans.” His disembodied voice came from beside the bed. “We will make the journey in two days, rather than one.”
Had he changed his plans because of what she had said at dinner?
Before she could think of a response the connecting door opened and a shaft of light slanted across her husband’s torso, leaving his face in shadow. “Good night, Kathryn.”
“Good night… heh-Reet,” she said, her mind reeling at the suddenness of it all.
He paused a moment, and Katie—who fully expected him to correct her pronunciation—felt strangely deflated when he merely stepped into the other room and silently shut the door behind him.
She stared up at the darkness above her bed, erotic images from the past hour running through her mind’s eye. Dulverton’s passionate, competent lovemaking was unlike anything she had ever imagined. How could such a cold man be so hot in the bedchamber?
Her warm recollections froze when she came to his abrupt departure. He should have stayed with her and held her and—and—
And what? Engaged in the sort of post-coital banter you enjoyed with Jasper?
She squeezed her eyes shut at the return of her disparaging inner voice and tried to picture Dulverton laughing and lounging beside her, but her imagination failed her.
Katie wanted to be angry at him for leaving the way he had, but really, what did she expect?
They hardly knew each other. It might sting that he’d wanted to flee so quickly, but it was likely for the best given their brief, argumentative history.
Rather than feel abandoned, she should be grateful that the night hadn’t been a complete disaster.
Quite the opposite, in fact. For two long weeks she had made every effort to avoid wondering what sort of lover Dulverton would be.
But not so deep down she had envisioned a cold, indifferent man who mounted her in darkness and stayed only long enough to spill his seed.
He had run off almost immediately after his climax, but not until he’d seen to her pleasure.
Twice.
Thanks to her five Seasons in London, Katie knew plenty about what went on in ton bedrooms as opposed to what went on between aristocratic men and their mistresses.
There were a great many marriages like her mother and father’s—although few others were so acrimonious—and numerous women gratefully looked away when their husbands went elsewhere to feed their carnal appetites.
For years Katie had known that only a man desperate for money or family connections—or somebody trapped, like Dulverton—would marry a woman who was no longer a maiden.
It was acceptable for ton women to take lovers after marriage, but a woman who went to her marital bed anything other than a virgin was considered a whore.
Was that how Dulverton thought of her—a whore? Is that why he had just treated her the way he had tonight?
Uncertainty rose within her, threatening to overwhelm the pleasurable afterglow from their coupling.
On the heels of that uncertainty was hot anger—at herself—for caring what Dulverton, or anyone else, thought about her. He had known she was not a virgin before he’d made his offer; there was no point in flogging herself all over again.
Katie rolled onto her side and winced at the soreness in her hips, her face heating in the darkness as she recalled her body’s worrisome reaction to Dulverton’s vulgar commands and encouraging words.
Why would it arouse her to be called his good girl?
She was a woman, after all, not a child.
She yawned and decided that she did not want to examine the matter too closely.
She could worry about that later. Much later.
Instead, she would be grateful that Dulverton was a skilled, considerate lover and bedding him would certainly be no chore. It was more than she had ever dared to hope.
And it is certainly more than you deserve.
Yes, it was. If Katie were to get what she deserved… Well, that would be grim, indeed.