Chapter Eight #2
“I wish there was champagne around. I’d like to pour that over your tempting treat.” Caroline came over him, claimed his lips with an open-mouthed kiss that sent his senses reeling as his mind spun while imagining licking spilled champagne off her naked body.
“You have grown bold since we last did this.” He slipped a hand to the small of her back, encouraged her closer to him.
“Perhaps I learned confidence from you.” She delivered a nip to the underside of his jaw then blatantly brushed her breasts along his chest. “I don’t know how long this will last because I desperately want you inside me.”
“Ah, well I’m aching to do exactly that.” When he reached for her, she batted his hands away.
“Not yet.” She nibbled and licked a path down his chest and over his abdomen while dancing the fingers of one hand along his hip.
For the space of a few heartbeats, their gazes locked, but then she kneeled between his spread legs.
“An appetizer, I think.” A breath later, she leaned forward and took the tip of his hardened member into her mouth.
“Shit!” The softness of her lips coupled with the heat of her mouth nearly did him in, but he let her play to her heart’s content. While he watched her, she bobbed on his rigid length while curling the fingers of one hand around his stones.
The firm but gentle pressure was both heaven and hell. When she gave him a knowing wink, he was spurred to movement. Each time he thrust upward, the glide of his shaft moving in and out of her mouth and the way her kiss-swollen lips slid along his erection all worked toward his undoing.
As she continued with her torment, a few locks of her black hair fell from its pins to brush his abdomen, which added another layer to the torture she inflicted.
Cupping his stones, she held them firmly in her palm, squeezing with various degrees of pressure, and each time, he swore he’d lose his control prematurely.
Wild sensations streaked through him. Felix’s pulse pounded in his ears in time to the throbbing in his length, and still he thrust, for it was far too erotic not to; the feelings streaking through him would drive him mad.
Eventually, it was too much. “Leave off,” he whispered, but his voice was graveled with emotion and strain.
“I want to spend inside you, not on you.”
At least not today.
She came off his length with amusement and disappointment twisting in her eyes. “You’re certain? I want to know what it’s like to have you spend down my throat.”
Yes, she would definitely kill him. “Not today.” But he tempered the order with a grin.
“I adore the times you are grouchy.”
“With you, I don’t feel the need to protect myself in that way.” Surprised at the confession, he maneuvered their bodies so that he was balanced on his elbows while lying between her bent knees.
“I have already waited so long.” Need shone in her eyes, with a hint of vulnerability that he wondered at. “Please don’t make me wait another second more.”
“Perish the thought.” Felix held her head between his palms, threading his fingers into her hair, and he nearly came apart with wanting her as well.
What was more, he wanted her in his life in all the ways that mattered.
“God, Caroline, I…” At the last moment, his courage failed, and he couldn’t say the words he ought.
Instead, he claimed her mouth with firm intent and treated her to long, drugging kisses that went deeper and harder each time, robbing them both of breath.
The way she clung to his form, molded herself to his body, kissed him back as if it were the most natural thing hurried him closer to the edge, but he kept her trapped within the cage of his arms and continued to make love to her mouth.
When she moaned and wriggled against him, he chuckled. Her fingers danced down his spine to his arse cheeks, where she pinched one as was her wont. Those familiar sensations of pleasure almost made him come prematurely.
“Caroline!” Need streaked through his member and tingled in his stones. “What the hell?”
She giggled, and he wished to gather that sound to himself to hoard in his heart. “Trying to keep things interesting,” she murmured with a lick to the column of his neck. “Since there is an age gap between us.” Her voice wavered. “I don’t want you to lose interest in me.”
“That will never happen.” Moving slightly downward, he spent the next several moments fondling, licking, nipping, and suckling her pebbled, rosy nipples that never failed to tempt him.
“Mmm, yet I am more than a convenient place to stick your wick.”
“Indeed.” He said nothing else. Not yet.
Caroline’s back arched. Her fingers scrabbled over his skin while her breathing shallowed. “Oh, Felix… This is as lovely as I’ve dreamed it would be.”
The honest whisper stoked the fire in his blood. His shaft throbbed painfully, but he didn’t want the coupling to end just yet. He stared down at her, for she was a vision. “What did I ever do before I met you?”
“Became a more grumpy version of yourself?” Caroline’s smile had his world tilting.
Dear God, I truly do think I love her.
“Perhaps.” When he settled more comfortably in the cradle between her thighs, there was a sensation of coming home.
And he couldn’t delay further. Holding her gaze, he rubbed the head of his shaft along her flesh to flirt with her opening.
Slowly, to tease and torment, he thrust into her tight passage.
“I think this is my favorite part.” With a tiny moan, she canted her hips, sending him deeper. “Perhaps I can forgive you for staying away for so long.”
“At least there is that.” He pulled out of her welcoming heat merely to spear into her all over again. That friction hurtled him closer to the edge, but he shoved the sensations to the back of his mind.
She matched his movements and soon they worked together in a leisurely, unhurried rhythm that brought mutual pleasure but in a deliciously exaggerated fashion. It was both familiar and new, but he knew one thing: he wanted this forever, wanted to share this with her and only her.
Mutual moans broke the silence. Strain bedeviled his left thigh where the prosthetic attached. And still, he didn’t hasten his thrusts. He held her gaze, lost himself in those blue pools, and that connection brought home the decision he’d already made—he wanted to marry her.
“Felix…” As she wriggled her hips, he merely grinned. “I’m nearly there.” She thrashed her head back and forth.
“So am I.” Need swept up his shaft. Release was near so he increased his pace. Each thrust went deep, penetrated hard, and irrevocably joined them.
With a knowing grin, she wrapped her legs around his waist. When he put a hand between their bodies, found that all-important nubbin and rubbed it, a keening wail escaped her.
As contractions started deep in her core, they dragged him into the storm they’d both created. “Yes!” Her breathing changed to pants.
Urgency tightened his stones, making them heavy and pulling close to his shaft.
Awareness raced up his length. He thrust with determination and possession.
When he went as deep as he could, she canted her hips, meeting him.
A scream ripped from her throat before she muffled it by pressing her lips to the crook of his neck.
Her inner muscles fluttered around him, squeezing his length, sending him into madness.
Felix stifled his own shout as his grasp on reality shattered, and he was thrown into a hard release that left him not in the world for a few seconds.
“That was bloody amazing.” The craving for connection—for her—increased as he collapsed on top of her body.
Her breathing warmed the side of his face and neck. “It was.” She took a shuddering sigh and relaxed beneath him. “It seems you get better with age.” Then she followed the statement with a giggle that went straight to his heart.
For the space of a few breaths, he waited, pondering, then he just knew. It was far too lovely being here with her like this, in this moment, and suddenly, everything in his life felt… right, as if he were always meant to be here.
With her.
“There is something I would say to you.” After brushing his lips over hers, he rolled to his side and let his legs hang over the edge of the bed.
“Oh?” She smiled at him while drowsy satisfaction went through her expression.
“Indeed.” When he left the bed to pad across the floor toward his clothing, a protest left her throat.
“I’m not leaving, sweeting.” After rummaging in his waistcoat pocket, he retrieved the ring he’d bought with her in mind.
Once he returned to the bed and sat beside her, he laid the ring onto one of her erect nipples.
The large oval emerald glimmered in the dull light.
The tiny diamonds that surrounded it didn’t look nearly like fire or the gold nearly as bright as the last time he’d examined it, but he hoped she’d like it. “Marry me.”
Shock warred with hope in her eyes. “I beg your pardon?”
He nodded, hoped to God he appeared earnest. “Marry me.” It was the only thing he wanted out of this life. To have her be his wife, live the rest of his days with her by his side? It was the best dream he could imagine.
Oddly, her lips pulled down in a frown. “Are you asking out of obligation for what we did months ago? What we are continuing to do?”
“God, no.” He took her hand, squeezed her fingers.
“I’m asking you to share your life with me because I’m in love with you.
Quite desperately, I fear.” When he paused to think over what else he should say, he soon realized there wasn’t much else to tell her.
“I might be just shit at being a husband, but there is no one else I’d rather try to do that with than you. ”
“Oh, Felix.” While her chin quivered, an expression of awe crossed her face, but interwoven in that was shining love, something he never thought he would receive from another person beyond his sister.
“This is wonderful.” She picked up the ring and turned it this way and that.
“I’d hoped you would come to your senses and realize we are more than just a good partnership for solving cases, but when you didn’t appear to want marriage… ”
Damn, had he already failed? “I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Disappointing you. Rejection. Not being good enough. Not being whole…” Did that make him appear too vulnerable? He was still learning about relationships as well as love.
“None of that is true. I adore you just as you are. Even your grumpiness is cute at times.” She raised her gaze to his. “Annoying at others, though.” But when she smiled, his world upended itself. “The ring is beautiful.”
Relief slammed into his chest. “So are you. If you require more words, I’ll think them up, but for the time being, I wonder if saying I love you is enough.” Truthfully, he hoped so. He wasn’t gifted with talking or flowery speeches.
“It’s enough. There will be other times for more conversation or deeper declarations.
” Then Caroline slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand.
Seconds later, she pounced on him, settled him onto his back as she straddled his waist and peered down at him with shining eyes.
“In the event you wondered, I love you too, Felix, and I have a feeling that sentiment will only grow stronger as time goes on.”
Another wave of shock went through him. “You love me?”
“I do.” She treated him to an open-mouthed kiss before pulling away. “And I can’t wait to see where we go from here as a couple.”
“As do I, but be warned. Your father doesn’t care for me, and I didn’t ask for his permission to wed you. Another black mark against me.”
Her eyes twinkled like sapphires. “That matters not. I’ve won you, and you were always my absolute choice.”
“Aw, sweeting.” Seconds later, his body tensed, and he turned them over, whereupon he continued to kiss her.
Several minutes passed before they both parted merely to breathe.
He grinned, and it wasn’t forced. “I should probably go before your aunt and brother come home.” Neither of them needed additional scandal just now after getting engaged, and he certainly didn’t wish to rush a nuptial ceremony.
“All right.” A huff escaped her. “Will we continue to investigate tonight?”
“Yes.” Felix nodded. “I’ll go home, clean up, and have an early dinner.
Afterward, I’ll come pick you up. We’ll pay a call on Withington’s sister.
” Unable to help it, he flashed another grin.
“I’m glad we’re deepening our partnership, Caroline.
Quite frankly, you are the most important part of my life. ”
Don’t cock it up, Kourier.