Chapter Eighteen #2
“Good.” He tugged at the knot of his cravat and kept tugging until the length of silk unraveled.
Then he tossed it to the floor to join the trail of his other garments.
“I can’t wait to explore every inch of your body, to show you how much I need you, love you, how much I want you in every aspect of my life.
” The major halted before her, his lips curved in a slight grin and those emotions he spoke of reflected in his eyes.
“It sounds lovely, but I want the same permissions,” she whispered, with a suddenly dry throat, for over the past months, she’d had cause to discover that life was raw and messy and real.
In many ways, it was quite different than the fairy tales she adored reading, but in other ways, it was quite the same.
Love was eternal and forever.
“Of course you’ll have that. Tonight, and for the rest of our lives.”
“It’s all like a lovely dream.” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “What if it isn’t real?”
“It is quite real, sweeting. Never think it isn’t.” When she assumed he’d sweep her into his arms and kiss her, he merely worked the short line of buttons at the back of her gown. “By the by, Principal Agent Mason had my knife couriered over to me this afternoon.”
“That was kind of him.” What wasn’t he telling her? “Was there something else?” she managed to ask as the garment easily dropped to the floor with a soft whisper, hastened even more so when he tugged on the fabric, guided it off her body.
“I carried that knife throughout my commission in the military. During one of the battles, I was shot at, dead to rights, and I thought my time on this mortal coil was over.” He removed her stays as he spoke, quickly followed by her petticoat. The pile of clothing on the floor was mounting.
“What happened?”
“The ball went through my uniform and struck the knife hilt. In fact, it’s still lodged there. Saved my life.” He drew his knuckles along the side of her neck where a scab marred the skin. “I took it to mean I still had a purpose on this Earth.”
“Of course you do.” The words crashed into each other in her mind.
“Perhaps you needed to learn how to love and let someone else love you without restriction.” With him so close, she couldn’t think properly.
Needing something to do with her hands, she tugged his shirttails from the waist of his evening breeches.
“We would never have met if you had died.”
“Perhaps, and that would have been a tragedy.” He rested his hands on the curve of her hips.
The warmth he imparted both comforted and aroused, but before she could say anything else, he slid his palms up her sides, skimming her ribcage, which set off another round of butterflies in her belly.
“Somehow, meeting you, knowing you, working with you, loving you has turned my life upside down and set it back to right again.” He encouraged her shift up and off her body.
“Nothing is the same, but everything is as it should be, I think. As it needs to be, as if I was on a mission to reach this moment.”
Ambient air wafted over skin to leave gooseflesh behind and tighten her exposed nipples. “What a lovely thought.”
“A thought for now, yes, but soon it will be our shared reality.”
“You welcome the thought of marriage, and everything it might entail?” She couldn’t help the delicious tingles twisting down her spine when he cupped her breasts.
“I do. Some more than others.” With the pads of his thumbs, he teased her nipples into hard buds that sent pleasure zipping through her body to lodge between her thighs. “However, just as you have done all along, I’m sure you’ll change my mind about the other things I still have doubts about.”
That was better than nothing. “Meaning?” She could hardly think let alone breathe with him so close and her body two seconds from surrendering to him.
“Meaning, I want to experience everything with you despite the doubts and fears.” He shrugged as he held her gaze. “And I also wish to formally pursue detective work.” He waggled his eyebrows as he looked at her. “With you as my partner.”
Happiness went through her body to collide with desire. “Truly?”
“Quite.” Then he tugged her into his arms, and she sighed as feelings of protection and security and love danced around her.
“During the course of this wretched case, I could have lost you twice, despite my promise to protect you. So, since we both have a penchant for falling into trouble, and because I’m quite besotted with you, I want you by my side both personally and professionally.
” Tenderly, he kissed her, drinking from her lips as if she were made from the most delicate porcelain.
“If nothing else than to keep an eye on you.”
“Cheeky man.” Tears rose in her eyes as she gave his shoulder a mock-smack. “I adore you, Felix, and am flattered that you trust me enough to make me a partner on an investigative team.”
“You have earned my trust, my admiration, and my respect, but I give you my love freely, because I think I’ve carried that for you from the first.” He kissed her again, slowly and with more passion, and with a sigh, Caroline melted into his embrace.
She looped her arms about his shoulders and kissed him back, intent to lose herself in this man.
“I need you, Felix.” It wasn’t enough to share kisses with him.
She wanted to see all of him, explore his body and remind herself that this man was hers, had given all of himself to her just like she’d given the same to him.
Truly, they had an equal partnership, and it was both breathtaking and frightening.
Guided by desire, she sloppily pulled the fine lawn shirt from his torso, tugged it up and over his head, which temporarily left his arms stuck in the sleeves behind his back.
“Caroline, wait…”
“Not a chance. Free yourself or don’t, but I am going to begin enjoying my Christmas present,” she murmured then took shameless advantage by dragging her lips over his chest. The warmth and smell of him, the rasp of the mat of hair covering his skin tickled her cheeks and nose, the solid manliness of him nearly rendered her intoxicated on naught but him.
“And it’s as thrilling as I have dreamed.
” When she teased one of his flat nipples with her tongue, he caught his breath.
“You have earned it after this damned case. “I’m happy to let you take whatever you want from me, but I will retaliate.” The dear man let her explore as he freed his arms from the shirt, but he said nothing as she licked and caressed him as was her wont.
“I don’t mind.” The man was hard and powerful, his skin smooth and warm, the length and breadth of him everything she’d ever desired.
In him, she’d found the one person she couldn’t wait to spend her life with, and it didn’t matter that he clung to his abrupt attitude or grumpy disposition.
They were merely facets of him. With another sigh, she glided her fingertips over his form as she memorized every dip and divot, every scratch and scar both old and new, everything that made him into the man she would marry and spend her life with. “You make me mad about you.”
Did that mean she was as desperate as that maid?
“I know the feeling well.”
“Mmm.” Needing more, needing to fill all her senses with him, Caroline kneeled and reached for the buttons on his frontfalls. “Ah, Major, you are better than every sweet I adore at teatime.”
He grunted. “Damn it, Caro, don’t do this. It’s not exactly the sentiment of romance I was after tonight.”
“Hush. Let me do this. To show you my regard.” With excitement buzzing through every nerve ending, she freed his engorged member from the confines of his evening breeches.
“While I love this appendage, I can’t wait to have you fully naked.
” It was scandalous how much she enjoyed coupling with this man.
He’d sneaked beneath her skin and was now part of her.
“Shit…” The word trailed off the second she took his hot, hardened length in her hand. “At least let me enjoy your body first.”
“Not a chance. Once I’m beneath you, I’ll be lost.” Then she swallowed heavily around the lump of emotion in her throat.
“With every case you work, there is a chance I’ll lose you.
And while I would never ask that you give up your living, when I do have you to myself, I wish to show you how deeply I love you.
” His shaft continued to thicken while she manipulated it, and when she touched the tip of her tongue to its head, Felix jerked with a gasp.
“Also, I adore a good scandal.” She slid one hand up the back of his muscled leg to squeeze an arse cheek while with the other, she pumped his manhood at the same time she took the tip into her mouth.
“Damnation, but I swear you will see me in the ground.” The pleasure in his voice made her grin.
He rested his hands on either side of her head, and when she found the rhythm she knew he enjoyed from the last time she did this to him, employing her mouth, tongue, and fingers, he buried his fingers into her hair and thrust his hips, which sent that part of him deeper into her throat.
She swallowed, hoping the muscles there would massage his tip. The fact that this man shared the power with her during their couplings or how they worked a case made sexual congress between them all the more pleasurable. As she applied more friction, a strangled sound issued from him.
“You must stop,” he ordered in a desperate whisper and broke their connection. “I’m close to spending, but I want to do that in your body instead of on it.” With haste, he shucked out of the evening breeches and hosiery as she stood. “There is time enough for that in the days to come.”
Oh, he was a wicked one. Caroline propped her hands on her hips, grinning when he raked his gaze up and down her form. “Did you not enjoy that?”