Chapter Thirteen #2
“It’s too much already.” Especially since he wasn’t courting her.
When she opened the box, a second gasp escaped her, for inside were two mother-of-pearl hair combs.
“How beautiful, but you shouldn’t have. No doubt they were quite expensive.
” As if the gifts Weymouth had given her weren’t ten times what the combs were worth.
“Perhaps.” The major shrugged, as if it didn’t matter.
“I thought you might like to have something pretty for tonight but not garish, something that meant something instead of an empty offering from one of the men Johnathan wishes for you to meet.” The intense look in his brown eyes made her shiver with anticipation and excitement.
“However, these once belonged to my grandmother. I’ve kept them safe for years, never knowing what to do with them.
Somehow, I knew they were destined for you, for no other woman in my life is worthy of them. ”
Oh, Cornelius, what am I to do with you?
With her heart squeezing and awareness of him dancing over her skin, she snapped the lid shut, but she didn’t answer with words. Instead, she put a finger to her lips, took his free hand, and then led him out of the parlor and into the corridor beyond.
“Where are we going?” Confusion threaded through his inquiry.
Thank goodness for an empty hallway. “Upstairs to my rooms.”
“But why?”
“You’ll see.” She hastened her pace and didn’t slow until they were both safely behind her closed door. They’d not passed any of the servants during their passage.
“Penelope?”
A huff escaped to ruffle the curls on her forehead. She laid the box on her bureau then locked the door. “I intend to thank you in a way you’ll understand.” Then she crossed the bedroom floor to lock the adjoining door to the dressing room. “In the way that will make the greatest impression.”
“Oh?” The major set the bouquet into an ornate vase that rested on a small table that sat near a window. “Why?”
“Because I have wasted far too much of my life doing things I had no interest in. Am I making up for lost time?” She continued to talk as she prowled over the floor toward him.
“Perhaps, but I am also having the time of my life living out a fantasy I had as a young girl.” When she reached his location, Penny shoved the greatcoat from his shoulders.
It fell to the floor with a soft sigh. “And I want to see it through.”
He peered down at her with amusement and desire warring for dominance in his eyes.
Finally, Cornelius nodded. “I am yours to command, my lady, but be warned. If we are to couple this afternoon, it will prove frantic and chaotic, for I, too, am apparently living out… something borne from the shadows of my mind.”
“Oh.” Not knowing what that meant but battered from the waves of need crashing into her from his proximity, she manipulated the buttons of his jacket then shoved it off his shoulders and down his arms until it pooled on the floor.
“Tell me you want me, Major. Tell me if things were different, you would have chosen me…” Then her voice broke and the bravado she had when trying to undress him faltered.
Dear heavens, Penny, you’re far too bold for him, and you don’t need a man besides.
That might be true, but she suspected she needed this one far more than was good for her.
“Damnation, woman, of course I would. Couldn’t you guess from that afternoon in the hedge maze?” he asked as he tugged her into his arms.
“That was then. Years have passed, but if you weren’t you and I wasn’t me, would you still choose me above all others?” It was a convoluted question that danced around the truth, but she didn’t care. She was a coward and didn’t dare speak the words being etched onto her heart.
“God, yes.” Then his lips were on hers, and the passion that provoked the kiss had the power to weaken her knees. When he wrenched away, he continued to remove clothing.
His waistcoat was the next article of clothing to land on the floor, quickly followed by his cuffs, collar, and cravat. When he stood in his lawn shirt, buff-colored breeches, and boots, another tremble tumbled down her spine.
There was something far too distracting about watching a handsome, somewhat broken man shed his clothing. Penny stared, for she suspected these little trysts couldn’t last much longer. Her mouth went dry, which was odd, for that never happened to her. “Truly?”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “Does the reason I wish to bed you, or rather let you seduce me, matter?”
“It does not.” When she attempted to leave the bed in order to help him off with the remainder of this clothing, he had none of it.
The major caught her and tossed her back on that piece of furniture. His grin sent heat over her skin, and the wicked promise in his eyes had flutters sailing through her belly. “But know this, I am me and you are you, and I want you so damned much.”
Oddly, that was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard. “Oh, goodness…”
“Indeed.” His lips twitched but he didn’t outright grin in amusement.
Then he was on the bed with her, and she was in his arms; his kisses caught her by surprise.
This time around, he was quite intense, and soon enough, she was lost on a sea of sensation that seemed far too large for her to try and contain.
So she didn’t even try, for perhaps drowning would be good for her. Eventually, she wrenched away, merely to draw air into her lungs; he was much like a summer thunderstorm that came on suddenly. “Cornelius…”
“Hmm?” he asked against the skin at the crook of her shoulder.
“I need you.” There was nothing else to say since the ability to think was rapidly leaving her.
“Good.” As he spoke, he yanked down the bodice of her gown, bringing the underclothing with it with such strength she feared that he might tear the fabric. It was quite intoxicating.
Once her breasts were exposed, he wasted no time taking one mound in his hand to worry the nipple with a thumb and forefinger while latching onto her other hardened bud with his lips, teasing it with his tongue.
Wild sensation streaked through her body and pleasure circled through her lower belly.
A soft moan escaped her. “Cornelius…” Why couldn’t she give life to the words she truly wanted?
She couldn’t think, not when he was doing such wonderfully wicked things to her, but not content to just lie there, Penny plucked at the thin lawn of his shirt, tugging the tails from the waist of his breeches. “Let me touch you.”
He grunted. “As I said, I’m yours to command.” Then he continued his quest to separate her from reality.
Though it was all too much, Penny put her hands beneath his shirt and skimmed her palms up his chest. The mat of thick, coarse hair rasped against her skin and enhanced the need throbbing through her veins.
When one of her fingertips glanced over a flat disc his nipple went immediately erect, and he hissed out a breath.
Emboldened, she lifted her head to press her lips to the hollow of his throat.
Heavens, he smells so good!
“Temptress.” The low rumble of his voice tickled through her chest. “I adore having your hands on me.” Again, he turned his attention to her breasts, and she thought that stimulation would surely send her over that edge far too soon.
Her heartbeat raced. Heat flooded her body, but when he slipped a hand between her thighs, she was convinced she might expire from pleasure this time.
“You have no idea how many nights I dreamed of you while away in India, how many times I kept your face in my mind to help block out the unsavory things needed of me.” When she relaxed, he put a knee between her legs and splayed her open while his brown gaze bored in hers.
“At times, I was thoroughly convinced you were an angel.”
“I’m sorry you had such a bad go of it while there.” Yet it was lovely to hear those words. At least he hadn’t forgotten her.
“It is what is expected of men in our world.” His eyes were intense as he held her gaze with his fingers strumming over her sensitive folds. “I never thought I’d survive long enough to come home.”
“Yet you did, and I’m glad.” Before she could expand that thought or pluck words from the passionate haze in her brain, the major rubbed his fingertips over the swelling button at her center, and familiar sensations washed over her, around her, through her.
“Oh goodness.” She squirmed from his attentions, but he didn’t let up.
Trembles and tingles collected through her body; she clung to his shoulders, moved her hips in time to his ministrations and tried to press herself closer to him.
This is always my favorite part!
When a release caught her up in its vortex, she let out a half-stifled scream as her core quivered and pleasure raced through her.
A certain shivering, enhanced need flowed through her, for she needed him in her body right this second.
Now that he’d introduced her to this wonderful, carnal world that her husband had kept her from, she couldn’t wait to linger there once more.
“Damn, but you look as if you’ve seen heaven,” the major whispered as he removed himself from the bed.
“If I did, it wasn’t complete, for you didn’t join me.” Was that revealing too much?
“Ah, Penny.” He put down his frontfalls, and when his impressive, erect length tumbled out of his breeches, he took himself in hand, pumping his shaft as she watched, or perhaps because she watched. “You are far too good for me, I fear.”
What did that mean?
The major grabbed her ankles, and when he tugged her to the edge of the bed, she squealed and was plunged into another sea of sensation. With a half grin, he balanced her hips there and shoved her legs into the air, spreading them wide as he did.
This was different, and before she could question him, he penetrated her body with a powerful thrust, and didn’t stop until his hard, hot, thick length filled her passage. “Merciful heavens, that’s wonderful.”
“Different positions each come with their own advantages,” he said around what sounded like a growl.
Then he began to move within her, and Penny completely lost the ability to think, let alone remember her own name.
Just like when he’d taken her from behind at the bookshop, she had no choice but to acclimate to this new way of intercourse.
And it was so very lovely.
Over and over he slammed into her, sinking his shaft deep, oh impossibly deep.
His pushes were quick and hard, as if he had no intention of being gentle this time, and then his movements grew frantic, impulsive, yet that friction, that plunging sensation made her feel as if she were being hurtled into the great unknown.
“Cornelius… Oh, God…”
Another grunt and a tight grin. “Not a god, only just a mere major.” He leaned over her while holding one of her legs, and with the other hand, he once more found that slippery button at her center and bedeviled it.
That was when she fractured, or more accurately, her body began to break a second time.
It was almost as if she were coming apart at the seams as unbelievable pleasure shot through her body and burned through her blood.
“Cornelius!” And she was lost on a sea of sensation, except she was thrust into a world that was absent of light and sound as her body shook, and her passage rocked with contractions.
With a muffled shout of his own, the major followed her into that sacred space on the heels of one last powerful stroke. He ground his pelvis into hers. Warmth filled her core. Seconds later, he pulled away, leaving her oddly bereft of his presence and with a lingering sense of disappointment.
“Oh.” She couldn’t help her frown. “I’d hoped it would have lasted longer.”
“So did I, but I fear you make me far too randy to finesse such things.” Yet his grin suggested he was as giddy as a schoolboy at Christmas.
“Trust me, that is a good thing for a man my age.” As he tucked his flaccid shaft back into his breeches and did up the buttons, Penny lay collapsed on the bed, her heartbeat and thoughts racing.
“You have completely changed how I’ve looked at bed sport,” she finally managed to pant out. Residual tremors chased themselves up and down her spine. Would she ever have enough of him? Eventually, their trysts would need to end.
His grin stimulated her all over again. “I’ll wager there are many things you don’t know, least of all about me.”
“Will you tell me? After all, haven’t I earned the right to know?”
“Ha.” Remarkably, his grin returned. “Perhaps you have, indeed. If we can ever be in each other’s company without clothes coming off, then yes, I will tell you.”
“Thank you.” A grin of her own curved her lips.
“However, you need to go. I must ring for a bath then dress for dinner. Mama and Johnathan will be home soon from their errands.” A sigh escaped, for this interlude had been lovely, and oddly, she felt closer to him than she ever had.
“Will I see you at the rout tonight? After all, it is Valentine’s Day? ” The day set aside for lovers.
For us.
“Absolutely. I wouldn’t miss it.”
She nodded. “Try not to be seen as you leave, and thank you for the gifts.”
“You are quite welcome.” When he leaned down and kissed her forehead, her heart trembled.
Then he was gone, and she hugged a pillow to her chest. Drat, drat, drat.
Perhaps Mrs. Potter was correct. Somehow, she’d fallen in love with her brother’s best friend, and these feelings were no longer the infatuation from when she was a young woman.
Surely, hoping for anything more than what they currently enjoyed together was folly, for he wasn’t a forever sort of man, and she didn’t want to marry again.
Did she?