Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
J ust as he and Clarissa had discussed, Roderick had been with a great many women over the years. But he had never in his entire life been so hard as he was, perched on the edge of a chair between his new wife’s soft thighs. Her breath kept catching and little gasps and moans kept escaping her lovely lips, ones he wasn’t even certain she realized she was making. It was all intoxicating, as was her earthy scent and the hint of wetness that already existed between her legs just from what they’d done before he put her on his bed.
He wanted to make this woman come. To unravel all her harsh and fearful grip on propriety and see what she looked like when she arched and moaned and shook with pleasure. He couldn’t wait.
He pressed her sex open with his thumbs, gently massaging her outer lips. Her legs shook a little when he did, gripping against his arms. He smiled and leaned in to lick her, at first gently, just a featherlight touch to test her flavor. She was sweet and salty, perfect. When he licked again, it was more firm, tasting her entire length as she rose up beneath him with a gasp.
“Roderick?” she murmured, a question, a plea.
He licked again and answered without lifting his head from her body. “That’s just right, angel. You’re doing just right. ”
She moaned again, like the praise put her on edge as much as the touch. He marked that, stored it away so that he knew all the things that gave her pleasure, from the very erotic to the seemingly benign. He licked again and again, taking his time with her, judging all her reactions, feeling when she became wetter. She dropped one hand against his head, her fingers tangling in his hair. The little tug of that drove him wild and he moaned against her body.
“Oh!” she gasped, and lifted to him.
He smiled against her. She was beginning to lose control, to roll with the pleasure the way she’d been built to do. Recognizing a dance that couldn’t be taught, only experienced. He drew her through it, slowing, drawing his attention to the ripe nub of her clitoris. He smoothed the hood away with his thumb and teased her with the tip of his tongue, then moved away. Back and forth, spending more time there with each sweep until it was all he focused on. He stroked and sucked, gripping her thighs as she began to shake beneath him, on the edge but not quite over.
His heart was throbbing, his cock, too, as she got closer and closer to the edge, lost more and more of the respectability she wore as a shield to the world. This Clarissa would be only his, always his. That thought made him ache and he sucked her even harder as she came in a burst of wetness and flavor on his tongue. He wanted to do this forever, keep her in this state forever. His. Only his.
And he was too aroused to fully examine what that meant or how his world had changed with this first intimate joining that would only connect them more.
C larissa had felt hints of the pleasure that now ripped through her body, causing her to rise and twitch beneath Roderick’s hands and tongue. But this was something else. This was a torrent, an uncontrollable downpour of sensation that broke her into pieces. She thrashed beneath him, trying to find purchase, but he didn’t set her free. He drew every drop of pleasure from her until she was weak on the bed, panting with exertion and wonder.
Only then did he rise from between her legs and lean over her, caging her in with strong arms on either side of her head as he kissed her. She tasted herself on his tongue and lifted beneath him against her own will.
He chuckled against her lips. “That was remarkable.”
Her world was still spinning, but she nodded. “Y-Yes.”
He kissed her, this time on the corner of her lips, nibbling down to her jawline as she gasped beneath him. “Move onto the pillows, please,” he whispered.
It took her a moment to understand what he’d said, her mind still addled by the unexpected pleasure of what he’d already done. But slowly, she did as he’d asked and lay there, watching as he unfastened the fall front of his trousers and slowly lowered it.
She stared. There it was, the much talked about member. Cock, wasn’t that what Esme and Marianne had said? His cock. He would fit that into her. Suddenly she was nervous again. His tongue had felt full inside of her when he’d been licking her and that thing was certainly bigger than a tongue.
“Er,” she murmured.
He shook his head. “Your body was built to accommodate, I assure you,” he said. “And we’ll go very slowly so that it will.” She pursed her lips, both nervous and excited about that idea. He kissed her forehead. “I promise.”
There was a strange sensation that rushed through her, as foreign as the pleasure he’d created with his tongue. She couldn’t name it, but there was comfort to those words. And this was what was required in a marriage, to consummate the union they’d created.
He joined her on the bed, kneeling between her knees, which pushed them open again. He covered her gently, holding his full weight away with his arms as he kissed her and kissed her and kissed her until all there was was that. All there was was him. Only then did he maneuver himself. She felt the tip of him against her sex as he stroked it back and forth. Just as when he did that with his tongue, there was pleasure.
She lifted beneath him, burying her head against his bare shoulder as her fingers dug into his skin.
“Good?” he whispered.
She nodded without lifting her head and her voice was muffled when she said, “Yes.”
“Breathe,” he said, and then she felt the tip of him pressing more firmly.
To her surprise, her body did open for him. He slipped in just a fraction and the sensation was powerful. A joining unlike any she had experienced and she realized with a start that this was something she would likely only experience with him. Something secret they shared that bound them. She lifted with the pleasure of that thought and took him a little farther.
The pressure increased in kind and she felt the faint tingle of pain mixed with the satisfaction of his claiming. She must have tensed without realizing it for he lifted his head and looked at her.
“I know,” he whispered. “Slowly now. You’re so perfect.”
He’d said that when he licked her and that praise had been as arousing as his mouth. How could that be possible? Her body flexed and he growled out a curse softly.
“My God, Clarissa,” he murmured. “You will drive me wild.”
Drive him wild. There was a thought. Odd that she felt desperate to see it when a lack of control was usually so frightening to her. But taking his? Oh, that was something else.
“More,” she whispered.
His eyes went wide and he obliged, sliding farther. The pain was fading now as she stretched to take his thick length. A little more and he was fully seated inside of her. He groaned her name and rested his forehead to hers.
“So good,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Y-yes.”
“I’m going to move,” he said. “If you’re ready. ”
“I’m ready,” she promised, though she wasn’t entirely certain that was true. This was all so overpowering and magical and mystical. How could anyone be ready?
He withdrew a little and thrust back into her gently and all the wondering vanished because it felt like heaven. He did it again and she found herself rising to meet him, matching his motion with the grip of her body.
“Yes,” he hissed out, and then there was nothing but the roll of his hips against hers, their moans matching in the quiet of the room, the soft sounds of their bodies joining.
Every thrust rubbed just right, building the sensation she’d felt with his mouth all over again. She found herself reaching for it, trying to find it in the dark. His pace was increasing now and the power of this increased with it. Her legs began to shake, she couldn’t find her breath, pleasure inched up and up, overtaking everything else but him and she let out a cry she couldn’t have held back for any amount of gold in the country.
His thrusts increased, as if the ripple of her body as she gripped him stole more of that control she so desperately wanted. His hands cupped her harder, his breath merged with hers in deep pants as he kissed her. And then he grunted her name and she felt the flood of his release fill her gripping sheath as he collapsed over her, pressing kisses to her throat and shoulders like he couldn’t get enough of her taste or feel, even though the deed was done. Their marriage was fully real, in name and in act.
There was no going back. And she found for the first time since her parents had forced both their hands, that she didn’t want to go back. She wanted to be just where she was.
H ow long they lie like that, legs and bodies tangled, Clarissa couldn’t have said. It felt like a lifetime as Roderick gently kissed her skin, stroked her body with his hands. At last, though, he rolled to the side, propping himself up on one elbow as he stared down into her face.
“Was I too rough?” he asked.
She blinked up at him, wondering at the concern on his face. He was truly worried about her, focused on her experience. How many people in her life had been like that?
“Not at all,” she assured him as she reached up to trace the line of his jaw absently.
“Good,” he breathed in what felt like true relief. “As much as we tease about my so-called prowess, I will admit I’ve never taken a virgin to my bed before. I wanted it to be a good experience for you.”
She shook her head. “I suppose I hadn’t thought of it that way. Your lovers were all…experienced.”
He nodded. “This seems a poor topic to discuss with your wife.”
She shrugged. “I know you have a past. It doesn’t trouble me.”
It didn’t, that was true. What did trouble her, a little burn in the back of her pleasure-addled mind, was that he might have a future with lovers, too. A love, even. She pushed that thought away.
“Did I disappoint you, though?” she asked. “Since you are more accustomed to ladies with experience in what to do?”
“No,” he said swiftly. “God, no. What we just did was uncommonly wonderful. To unwrap the sensuality you hide beneath all those layers of propriety was an honor I’m glad to have.”
She worried her lip. “Yes, propriety,” she repeated, and dropped her hand from his face as she stared away from him and toward the crackling fire. “Certainly I didn’t show much of that while I was writhing naked in your arms. Nor do I feel much of it now when I want?—”
She cut herself off, her cheeks burning.
“What do you want?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous again. Seductive, she realized.
She glanced at him. “I want more,” she admitted. “I have no idea if that’s right or wrong.”
“How you feel can never be wrong,” he said .
She laughed. “ That is not true. Not for a lady, certainly not for a countess.”
He appeared troubled by that answer. “Well, I want this lady, my countess, to like it when I touch her. I want you to crave this, Clarissa. It’s the most natural thing in the world. I want to feel your pleasure, to know every note of it. And I want you to learn mine.”
She shifted. Learn his pleasure. Give him powerful sensations like he had so easily given them to her. Demure and proper or not, that sounded wonderful. Overpowering. Changing.
“But for now,” he said gently. “As much as I’d like to slide you beneath me and make your legs shake again, I want to give your body time to recover. Later you can have a hot bath, which should ease you. But there’s plenty of time for more, my lady. In fact, I promise you that if nothing else. More and more and more.”
He kissed her as he trailed off and she wrapped her arms around him, pushing away any thoughts, any worries, any confusion about what was right or wrong. About what the stirrings in her chest meant for this union Roderick had never wanted.
He drew away and then tucked her into his body, her back to his chest, his arms warm around her. “Rest now, though. You’ve more than earned it.”
He kissed the side of her neck and she shut her eyes, surrendering to his suggestion. But as she slipped into sleep, she couldn’t help but wonder what her life would look like now. And how she could define herself as countess, lady…as wife to a man who awoke things in her she hadn’t even known her possible.
And made her doubt all the ways she’d seen herself before him.