Chapter 26 #3
Despite being unable to see Benjamin’s face, she could feel the hot warmth emanating from his skin. Her outer skirts slipped to the floor, wet and cumbersome, just as she finished unfastening his fall flap. It dropped downward, and she moved to tug his breeches beneath his hips.
“W-wait,” he pleaded, catching her arms.
“Why?” she pressed. “Ben, you have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Gaze pointing toward the floor, he stepped back and unfastened the buttons around his knees, allowing his breeches the room for proper removal.
Clara, in turn, tended to her under petticoats, shoes, and clocked stockings, and discarded them atop her other clothing.
Left in only her shift and lace cap, she watched as Benjamin awkwardly stepped out of his shoes and breeches.
After he’d removed his stockings, he swallowed once he caught her eyes on him.
He was beautiful in his shyness. Tense and unable to keep his eyes on her, Benjamin looked between her face and the floor in rapid succession, his hands curling as he uncomfortably shifted from side to side.
Although Clara briefly saw him during their candlelit fumbling, this felt more genuine…
intimate, and her breath hitched at the sight of corded muscle, bruises, and various scarring.
Closing the distance between them, Clara lifted a hand and laid her fingertips against the harsh, uneven mark above his hip bone.
Although Benjamin never told her directly, Amos once relayed how Donnelly sliced open Benjamin’s wound, which meant he’d been stabbed, stitched up, reopened, and resewn all in a matter of weeks.
With a painful swell of emotion, Clara brushed her thumb across the scar and spread her free hand over his chest, his true frailty reflecting in the sharp, staccato rhythm of his heart.
Tears sparkled in her eyes, and Clara leaned forward to brush a soft, barely there kiss against the rope burn on his neck.
Benjamin flinched, perhaps pained, before ultimately relaxing into her touch.
Cupping his cheeks between her palms, Clara rose on tiptoe and opened her mouth against his pulse, wet and warm before he shivered beneath her ministrations.
Earnest in her ardor, she seared her lips along the stark bruising, her tongue darting out against his skin as his hands fell to her waist.
“Y-you’re still dressed,” Benjamin choked. She pressed a placating kiss to his chin and stepped back.
Removing the cap from her hair, Clara unpinned her long, curly locks until they came cascading over her shoulders.
Benjamin clearly wished to help. His face was an open mask of desire, and his palms lifted, but she denied the assistance and unlaced the collar of her shift.
The neckline loosened, and the garment slipped from her lissome curves before puddling around her feet, leaving her bare and practically glowing within the firelight.
Benjamin breathed out as though winded. His eyes widened, and his pupils became blown, his mouth opening and closing as he appraised her in wordless wonder. When she stepped toward him, he grew endearingly flushed, the healthy pink flooding from his face to his chest.
“I…I-I have to sit down,” he stammered.
“Why?” Clara asked, concerned. “Because of your condition?”
Benjamin blushed further. “N-no, uh…because of you.”
She laughed, a warmth fluttering within her breast. When men told her she was beautiful, she considered it a ploy, a way to ensure she gave up her body to their forceful, pawing hands.
But when Benjamin implied her beauty, Clara couldn’t help but believe him…
couldn’t help but feel that she was, in fact, beautiful.
Taking his hand, she lowered to kiss his knuckles, her touch soft and fond as she murmured, “All right then. Have a seat.”
Stumbling toward the chair by the hearth, Benjamin sank upon it as she joined him.
Clara drew between his legs, and his hands fell to her waist. Her wet mouth urged into his, deep and slow, and with a roll of his tongue, he tasted the headiness of their kiss, his fingers knotting through her hair as he melted into the needy slant of her mouth.
To his surprise, Clara was the first to break away.
“Wait a moment,” she pleaded, breathless as she cupped his face. “What are we doing, Ben?”
Swallowing, he turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Tonight, you are my wife,” he reminded her. “I…I want you, all of you…if you will have me.”
Clara quivered, brushing her thumb over his lips. “And you’re sure you wish to give up your virtue? To damn yourself for me?”
A molten look overcame his eyes within the firelight, and curling his hand around her wrist, Benjamin whispered, “I’m already damned without you.
” Chasing her mouth with his, he snagged his fingers through her hair and gathered her into his arms, angling into their heated kiss as Clara framed his hips between her thighs.
The silent plea of moremoremore burst through his veins, and trembling all over, he smoothed his hands from her waist to her breasts, inflamed by her soft moan once his thumbs rolled over her nipples in careful, hesitant circles.
He didn’t know where this confidence was coming from, this want, this need, this desperation, but with Clara grinding herself against his swelling hardness, he wished to do nothing but succumb.
While her fingers unraveled his queue, Clara pressed more urgently into their kiss, her lips crashing strongly into Benjamin’s as he traced his fingertips along her skin.
His touch was reverent and oh-so-careful, his worshipful behavior nearly bringing tears to her eyes.
When had a man taken this much care? She couldn’t recall anyone ever being so cautious in the way they handled her.
Breaking the kiss to nudge their foreheads together, she panted against his lips, overwhelmed and shaking while his tentative touch trailed between her thighs.
Clara gasped, her head tipping back as Benjamin prodded at her entrance.
That was when he pushed two fingers inside her.
Once he flexed and curled them between her walls, she started to writhe, whimper, and curse, her nails digging pleadingly into his shoulders while she bucked her hips.
Benjamin’s expression grew sweetly awestruck, his eyes heavy-lidded, and his mouth slack as he rocked his hand between her legs. He was enraptured by Clara’s sudden desperation, his cock becoming painfully hard beneath her bottom as she squirmed and grasped his wrist.
“Rub me,” she pleaded.
Bemused, Benjamin allowed her to guide his thumb until it was placed over her clit, then he followed her lead, clumsy at first as he mimicked the brisk, fervent little circles she encouraged him to rub across her bud.
All at once, her breathing grew labored.
Her eyelids fluttered closed, and while rolling into the assault between her legs, Clara mewled and yanked on his loosened queue, desperate as she started to twitch and spasm around his thrusting fingers. She didn’t wish to come undone…not yet.
“Wait, wait,” she entreated, forcing them both to stop. Lips brushing his, she informed him, “I want to ride you.”
Benjamin drew a hitched breath, his limbs quivering as he nodded. The unspoken anything for you filled the space between them, and helping her get more comfortable in his lap, his lashes went half-mast as she rolled her soaked entrance along his tip, testing the feel of him before they locked eyes.
“Is this all right?” she asked.
He nodded again, squeezing desperately at her waist.
Curling her arms around his shoulders, Clara pressed an assuaging kiss to his mouth, hoping to calm him as slowly she eased herself down around his length, his body tensing beneath her as a deep, throaty groan rumbled inside his chest. Trailing kisses from his cheek to his neck, Clara spread her legs farther and rolled her hips, taking him down to the hilt as he cried out and clutched her shaking frame.
They both grew needy, frantic, and then his mouth was clumsily seeking hers once more, her hands yanking on his undone hair as she began to rise and fall against him.
Benjamin shuddered, and Clara licked into his mouth, devouring his low groans as he arched into her rocking hips.
He’d always heard stories growing up, specifically, about kissing and sex itself, but nothing could’ve possibly prepared him for the warm, thrilling pleasure that coursed throughout his limbs, his cock throbbing each time her heat clenched tightly around him.
With their lips brushing amidst each thrust, Clara gasped as Benjamin drove between her legs whenever she sank down, the act leaving her dazed and her knees wobbly as his thumb returned to rubbing her clit.
Though unexpected, it was Benjamin who stopped this time, his chest heaving as he shook his head.
“It’s too much,” he rasped. “I…I don’t think…I-I can’t…” Desperate, he took Clara’s waist and hefted her upward, disengaging while pressing a kiss over her heart. “Please,” he begged her. “I…I-I want to try something…”
Beholden to his every whim and fancy, Clara slid off the chair and allowed him to guide her onto the floor, where they both lay out amidst the flickering firelight.
Amidst his clumsy crawl, it was clear to her that he wished to love her as though unencumbered, that he wished to give her pleasure as opposed to himself.
Lifting a hand to curl over his cheek, Clara spread her legs, and then Benjamin was covering her mouth with kisses, deep and passionate, as he drew her thighs up to lock around his waist. Cupping his face, Clara angled more fiercely into his lips, frantic as her heels pressed into his bottom and pulled him upward, attempting to gather him back inside her.