Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Buttons went flying. Fabric tore.
Finally, Evie managed to get James’s waistcoat off.
In those same breathless moments, he’d managed to strip her down to her chemise.
She moaned as he fisted a hand in her hair, yanking her head back so that he could ravage her mouth.
His roughness thrilled her and stoked the wildness in her blood.
Tonight, in this moment, there was no need to hide herself or her desire.
There was only the brilliant truth that even the darkest secret couldn’t dim.
He was hers, and she was his. It was as simple and complicated as that.
When his teeth grazed her neck, her knees wobbled.
He caught her, carrying her to the bed. Lying on the mattress, she gazed at him with open adoration while he stripped off his shirt.
His brawny shoulders gleamed in the firelight, his chest a wall of muscle dusted with hair.
The ridges of his torso flexed as he bent to remove his shoes.
His hands went to the waistband of his trousers, unfastening them and pushing the fabric past his lean hips.
Her breath caught when his manhood sprang free.
By the blooms, he was ready. His cock hung thick and heavy between his carved thighs.
She saw the smear of wetness on the broad tip and felt an answering trickle between her own legs.
Then he was looming over her, his hair like polished bronze and eyes gleaming like moonlight on a stormy sea.
A wave of yearning crashed over her. What had she done to deserve such a fellow?
“My bright-eyed god,” she said without thinking.
He cocked his head. “Pardon?”
Since her new policy was honesty whenever possible, she decided to confess.
“You have, um, always reminded me of Apollo.” At his blank look, she said, “You know…the Greek god of the sun?”
“I know who Apollo is.” He drew his brows together. “The statues of him always make him look like a milk-fed youth who never lifted anything heavier than his own lyre.”
At his appalled response, she giggled.
“He is also the golden boy,” she said, smiling. “Admired by all, he establishes harmony and order. He is lofty in his ideals, perfect and untouchable.”
“First off, I am no boy. Secondly, I have plenty of flaws. And thirdly…”
He planted his hands beside her shoulders. The heat emanating from his disciplined form electrified the space between them, and her nipples reacted, tightening and throbbing until they poked visibly against her chemise.
“I am definitely touchable.” Sensual invitation gleamed in his gaze. “Care to see for yourself?”
She didn’t need to be asked twice. Reaching up, she ran covetous hands over his satiny shoulders and down the long, sculpted muscles of his back.
She loved the feel of him, hard and warm, the contrast of his smooth skin with the virile scratch of hair.
When she scraped her fingernails over his flat nipples, his pupils flared.
Emboldened, she slid her palms down his taut abdomen, loving how he quivered at her touch.
She traced the arcs of muscle from his hip bones to his groin, then hesitated, recalling his rejection when she’d last touched him here.
“Don’t stop, sunflower,” he said huskily. “I want your hands on my cock.”
Merciful petals.
His wicked permission caused a flutter between her thighs.
She reached for his shaft, curling her fingers around its substantial girth.
He throbbed and strained against her fist. Her eyes locked with his, she pumped him slowly, firmly, adding that squeeze at the tip that she knew he liked.
He groaned, his approval slickening her palm.
“Devil and damn, I’ve missed this. I’ve missed you, Evie.” His gaze, steel-blue and earnest, pierced her heart. “This is what I wanted: nothing but honesty between us.”
There are still secrets between us.
She shoved aside the thought. She’d revealed more than she ever had, and for now, that was enough. While she hadn’t told him all the details of her past, she had let him see the truth of her heart. Right now, she felt freer with James than she had in ages…perhaps ever.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered. “I hated fighting with you.”
“Fighting isn’t all bad.”
“It isn’t?”
“No. Because now…” His smile had a wolfish edge. “We get to make up.”
He kissed her, and her thoughts melted. When he finished ravishing her mouth, he searched out the sensitive places that made her writhe and pant.
The plump lobe of her ear, the tender line of her throat.
He cupped her breasts, and his eyes went heavy-lidded as he played with her nipples, setting off pulses of pleasure.
When he bent his head and licked the budded tips through the linen, she moaned his name.
“Your tits are so pretty,” he muttered. “I cannot get enough of them.”
He reached for the neckline of her chemise.
She expected him to draw it over her head; instead, he tore it straight down the middle.
The sound of rending fabric took her back to that time in the greenhouse, when James had first shown her his primal side.
She adored the hot-blooded lover beneath his civilized polish and tingled from head to toe as he raked a greedy gaze over her nakedness.
“That is more like it,” he said.
When he fell upon her, she speared her fingers through his hair, holding on as he devoured her breasts.
He layered sensation upon sensation, lashing with his tongue, scraping with his bristle, and grazing with his teeth.
She squirmed, squeezing her thighs together, wanting more yet not knowing how much more she could take.
When he pinched one nipple and closed his lips around the other, she felt a liquid tug at her core.
He suckled her forcefully, and she gasped at the sudden flood of bliss.
He looked at her with glinting surprise. “Did you come, sweetheart?”
Embarrassed, she couldn’t answer him. It had never happened this way before. She’d never been this terribly eager—
“Well now.” His mouth formed a sensual curve. “What a delightful surprise.”
“For me too,” she admitted.
His smile deepened. “I wonder what else we shall discover.”
“Oh, God,” Evie chanted. “Oh, my goodness. Oh my God.”
“James will suffice, darling.”
He would have said more, but his mouth was otherwise occupied.
Eating his wife’s pussy was a treat, one he’d allowed himself to indulge in on occasion.
For despite his enjoyment, Evie had always been a bit bashful about having her cunny licked.
Sensing her discomfort, he’d backed off.
He’d done a lot of that, he realized. Of retreating…
out of courtesy or to preserve what he’d perceived to be his wife’s delicate sensibilities.
Not tonight. Tonight, Evie was different—they both were.
The conflict that had nearly torn them apart had instead torn down the barrier between them.
Their argument had left him feeling raw…
and strangely free. It was as if he’d shed the cloak of responsibility and restraint he’d worn all his life.
Apollo, his foot. Tonight, he was nothing like that aloof and disciplined god.
If anything, he felt like Bacchus, wild and maddened by sensual desire.
Spreading Evie’s plump crease with his thumbs, he feasted his fill.
Her wanton flavor and desperate cries were the most potent of aphrodisiacs.
His granite-hard cock throbbed with a heartbeat of its own, and he ground against the mattress, just enough to relieve the pressure.
He didn’t want to go off like a Roman candle when there were things he burned to try with Evie—fantasies that had teased his imagination but that he'd suppressed for one reason or another.
Like this, for instance.
Stiffening his tongue, he pushed it inside his wife’s passage. When she responded with a squeak and a lush squeeze, he grunted with delight. Soon another part of him would be buried deep inside this lovely hole…
Evie jerked her head up, her dazed gaze meeting his. “Should you be doing that?”
“Most definitely,” he said thickly. “You are delectable, meant to be savored inside and out.”
To prove his point, he swiped his tongue up her slit, using the tip to tickle her pearl. She went stiff as a board, then let out a wail. Weaving her fingers into his hair, she arched her needy little pussy against his mouth. By Jove, she was a vixen. Why the bloody hell had he held back before?
Then and there, he came to a decision.
There will be no more holding back—for either of us.
He replaced his tongue with his thumb. Rubbing her slick bud, he licked inside her again. Her taste intoxicated him and drew a spurt of early desire as he thrust against the mattress.
Her head rocked side to side. “By the blooms. I’m going to…to…”
“Do it, love,” he growled. “Spend in my mouth. Let me taste your pleasure.”
Her spine bowed off the bed, and she gave him what he asked.
Her nectar anointed his tongue, her abandon an unspeakable delight.
Prowling over her quivering body, he kissed her deeply, sharing the taste of her bliss.
She moaned, rubbing her tits against his chest, twining her tongue with his.
The fact that she was still needy, still hungry, made him wild with lust. Nudging her silken thighs apart, he fitted his tip to her opening.
“You’re mine, Evie. Say it.”
“I’m yours. Take me, James. Please.”
Sweeter words he’d yet to hear. His eyes fastened on hers, he drove home. Lush heat surrounded him, gripped him, pulled him in deeper.
“Christ, I love being inside you.” A guttural sound worked up his throat as her sheath tightened exquisitely around him. “You’re so snug and wet, made to take my cock.”
“When you’re inside me, I feel like I belong to you.”
Her surrender caused something to snap inside him.
“You are mine,” he snarled. “Every part of you.”
He pulled back, only to slam in. He gave her no quarter, and she wanted none.
She dug her fingers into his bunched biceps, arching to meet his thrusts, moaning as his stones thumped against her mound.
Feral with lust, he grabbed her delicate ankles and slung them, one by one, over his shoulders.
He saw Evie’s eyes widen, for this was new to her.
He lunged, and they both gasped for this felt new to him too.
Not the position, but the pleasure…the thrilling intensity of it.
He’d never been in so deep. Never been stripped this bare.
Never been so entangled, body and heart.
He gazed into Evie’s flushed face.
“I’ll never get enough of you,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll always want more.”
Planting his forearms on the bed, he drove into her, deeper than before, as far as he could go.
Buried to the bollocks, he ground his rock-hard shaft against her peak until she writhed and whimpered and begged.
The pressure gathering at the base of his spine told him he wasn’t going to last, and he wanted one more thing.
He looked into her eyes. “Come for me.”
“Oh, darling,” she panted. “I have. Several times.”
He knew this, and if he didn’t, her satisfied blush would have given her away.
“Do it once more,” he coaxed. “With a little help.”
Balancing himself on one arm, he took her hand and placed it where they were joined.
“Touch yourself while I take you.”
She bit her lip. “I couldn’t possibly…”
“Like this.”
He moved their hands together, showing her.
“I can feel you tightening around me,” he groaned. “Keep doing it, Evie. Don’t stop.”
He started thrusting again. The feel of her fingers, the shy movements and juicy sounds, stimulated him beyond bearing.
Then there was Evie’s expression—her helpless desire as she frigged herself while taking his cock.
Maddened with lust, he pounded into her, and within moments, he felt the beginning flutters of her climax.
“There’s my good wife,” he growled. “Squeeze me just so.”
“Oh, James. That’s so…so…oh bless the blooms.”
Her lips parted, her spine bowing off the bed. Her spasms rocked her—and him. Throwing his head back, he buried himself to the hilt. He erupted, his bliss blasting from him in voluptuous surges. Shuddering, he continued thrusting, letting her milk him of every drop.
Then he cuddled her close, nestling her head against his shoulder. Contentment filled him as he saw that Evie looked well loved. Damp tendrils clung to her forehead, a blissful smile tucked into her flushed cheeks. He traced a fingertip over her bottom lip.
“What are you thinking, sunflower?” he murmured.
“That you were right.” Her eyes gleamed. “We should fight—and make up—more often.”