Chapter Seven #2
“Oh?” He could hardly think because his pulse pounded so loudly in his head.
“Yes, and I’ve thought of nothing else for the past day or so.” She drew him to his feet with a gentle tug to his cravat. “I want you to thoroughly put me through my paces.”
“Why?” It was damned arousing to be with a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.
“I never had that during my marriage, and it’s quite dull setting myself off by my fingers when I want a release.”
If he wasn’t careful, he’d spend in his pants by her words alone, but he kept tight control over himself. Needing something to do with his hands, he held her head between his palms and stared into her eyes. “Is that your permission? You want everything done to you tonight?”
She nodded. “It is.”
Excitement buzzed at the base of his spine while acute need enveloped his stones. “Shall I undress you, then?”
“I…” Need warred with panic in her eyes.
Why was she so nervous? She had been married, had enjoyed physical relations with her husband—shoddy as they’d been—had borne children!
Perhaps she was feeling unsure, much like an innocent, since this was practically new to her after what she’d already shared with him.
“I think so, yes, and I’m acting the ninny, aren’t I? ”
“You are not. It’s perfectly understandable. After twenty-two years with a man who couldn’t stumble his way around a woman’s body, you don’t want that to happen again.”
“Yes.” Diana nodded. “But I know you won’t be that.”
“I will not, and haven’t I already sent you flying?” As he spoke, he removed his tailcoat, tossed it away, and then divested himself of the waistcoat, where it joined the jacket on the floor nearby.
“You have, and it was spectacular.” Her darkened gaze glittered as his cuffs, collar, and cravat came off to follow the other garments to the carpet.
“Come here.” Before she could do anything else, Nathaniel settled on the sofa once more with his legs outstretched.
“Sit between my legs.” When she did so, his legs framed hers and her wrapped his arms around her.
The hardness of his erection bumped insistently against her arse.
“I’ll wager your husband never did anything like this.
” He pressed his lips to the side of her neck, and enjoyed the faint floral scent of her skin.
“He would rather die than have relations anywhere except a bed.” By increments, she relaxed against him.
“I hope you know he was an idiot.” The more he nibbled the skin beneath her ear, the longer he drew a hand up and down her arm, the more tiny shivers ran through her to transfer to him.
“Oh, I do. Even more so than you do.”
Nathaniel snorted. “Shall I continue?”
“God, yes.”
“Good.” He licked and kissed a path along the side of her neck. All the while, he continued to stroke a hand up and down her arm. When she fidgeted, he brushed the fingers of his other hand along the top of her bodice. “If you feel uncomfortable, bid me nay and I’ll immediately stop.”
“At the moment, I want to feel your hands on me.”
The woman was incredible. “Fair enough.” When he dipped a finger beneath her gown to briefly graze a hardened nipple, she sucked in a breath.
“I can hardly breathe, yet you’ve barely started.” She reached up a hand and hooked her fingers about his nape, gently pulling his head closer.
“It’s good that we’re compatible in this way then, hmm?”
“Quite.” When she turned her head, he captured her lips with his, and for several minutes, they spoke with kisses and fleeting caresses.
Eventually, and he was never quite certain how it had happened, he managed to divest Diana of her clothing.
Only then did he shuck out of his evening breeches, hosiery, and shoes.
Once they were both nude, he settled her once more between his legs.
In the dim candlelight, her skin was pale yet pink, and she was the most gorgeous woman.
“I knew you would be beautiful,” he whispered against her neck, and ever so gently he drew his fingers along her sides, played her ribs as if he were a pianist.
“Gammon.” Her eyes fluttered closed, and she reclined into him, both relaxed yet alert. “Childbirth and surviving Atterbury has given me more curves than are fashionable.”
“You merely need to see them in a different light.” Nathaniel cupped her breasts, and she sucked in a breath. “You are lovely, lush, and I cannot wait to explore.”
“Such a charmer. No wonder every woman in London fancies herself in love with you.” Diana sighed when he squeezed her breasts, rolled those dark pink nipples at the roots. “Oh, yes, do that.”
“Like that, do you?” His lips glanced against the side of her neck as he spoke. The fact she’d allowed him such intimate access wasn’t lost on him.
God, William will kill me if he finds out.
“I’m nearly gone, and you’ve only played with my breasts.”
“Good. You deserve everything I’ll give and more.” When he glanced his palms over her erect nipples, a shuddering moan escaped her. She arched her back, which put her firmly into his care.
Honestly, he couldn’t have enough.
“I need so much more, Nathaniel.” Then she wriggled her bottom, and when he groaned from the sensations streaking through his shaft, she laughed. “Please.”
Bloody hell, but she felt simply amazing in his arms, and the tiny plea she uttered set fire to his veins. He couldn’t help thinking he was the most fortunate of men to have gained this extraordinary woman’s trust. Best friend be damned, he couldn’t wait to claim her body and begin their affair.
The thoughts humbled him as he caressed the perfect globes of her breasts.
With each pass of his hands, each stroke and twist of his fingers on those pert nipples, she moaned and arched her back.
Clearly it had been years since she’d been pleasured by a man who knew what he was doing, and if she was this wanting, it wouldn’t take long for her to fall over the edge into bliss.
As he slipped a hand down her torso, past the soft swell of her belly, over her mons to delve his fingers into the curls shrouding her sex, the soft sounds of pleasure and encouragement she made went straight to his shaft.
It would be only a matter of time before he embarrassed himself by spending too soon, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the throbbing discomfort.
Right now, his focus was on Diana, in caring for her needs, in showing her that she had always been deserving of carnal pleasure, even if her husband couldn’t see it.
The dear woman parted her legs to allow him greater access, and as he spread her folds to uncover the swelling pearl at her center, she whimpered. She held his other hand to her breast, pressing it to the nipple. “Make me fly,” she whispered.
How could he ignore that? At the first pass of his fingers, she moaned.
The shiver that went through her delicious body transferred to him.
By the second, she was shaking with need.
Nathaniel circled that tiny bundle of nerves, experimented with varying levels of friction as he worked it over, and all the while, he kissed the side of her neck, plucked and rolled her nipple.
When her breath came in labored pants, he grinned and whispered words of encouragement into her ear.
“So different from the other day, but so familiar.” Her breaths came in pants. “I am overwhelmed.”
“Shall I stop?”
“Heavens, no!”
With a chuckle, he worried that swollen bud, rubbed it, circled it as if that were his only purpose in life.
“Mmm, yes.” The lady writhed against his body, and his hardened length pulsed with a need of its own. “Dear God, I’m going to be swallowed by these sensations.” There was both marvel and worry in her tones.
“Then let them swallow you.” Ignoring the urgency in his shaft, he sought to push her toward the brink, and for one second, he left off working her nubbin in favor of slipping two fingers into the honeyed heat of her passage.
A ragged moan left his throat, for she was so damned wet and welcoming.
Christ, but he couldn’t wait to claim her; she was warm and tight, and as he finger-fucked her, that passage pulled at his digits.
“Fly if you wish, Diana.” In and out, in and out he thrust into her. “Relax and let yourself go. Once you fall over that edge, there is so much more I’ll do to you.”
“Merciful heavens…” Her head thrashed on his chest. “Saying it won’t make the reality come easier…”
“Shh. It’ll come.” So would they both. Renewing his attentions at her breast, Nathaniel withdrew from her passage only to bedevil her nubbin with greater intensity. “Tell me what you want me to do to you.”
“Just this. I’ll do—Oh!” A shiver racked her body, but he didn’t let up on the friction, the play he did to her button or her nipple.
“Ah!” When she fell into that release, she did it in spectacular fashion.
Diana shattered in his arms. A low, keening cry left her throat as her body stiffened, then relaxed.
The flicker of expressions on her face tugged at his chest, as did the way she pointed her toes as the orgasm crashed over her, and her eyes shuttered closed.
She clutched his arm, tightened and released her fingers on it, while contractions and waves of pleasure no doubt stole through her person.
It was one of the most glorious sights he’d ever seen, and it made him wonder why he couldn’t remember the same with any of the other women he’d been with.
But he wasn’t done with her. Not by half. As soon as she came back to herself, Nathaniel encouraged her off his lap.
Immediately, she frowned as she stood awkwardly by the sofa. “What are you doing? Have you tired of me already?”
He scoffed as he stood to take her into his arms once more.
“Hardly.” With a flush of pleasure barely staining her cheeks and chest in the dim illumination, and her hair half escaping its pins, it was almost as if she’d stepped out of a dream to be with him this night.
“Dear God, you are incredible. Did you know that?” Putting his hands on either side of her neck, he drew her to him and kissed her, slowly at first because he was in awe of her, and then, once urgent heat roared through him, he deepened the embrace.
There was no going back now.