Chapter 15
All her life, Ruby had never looked back, never hesitated, nor entertained regret. She didn’t intend to start now, but as she walked through Viscount Skyburn’s townhouse, candelabras flickering, shadows chasing the walls, she did feel a moment of trepidation.
What if he was not pleased to see her?
She had convinced the butler to let her in, even though it was late at night. She had come to the viscount’s door, her cloak about her frame, the hood covering her face, and she had come in a hackney so that no one would suspect who she was.
It was the greatest chance she had ever taken in her life, but she didn’t want to wait for him anymore, she didn’t want to wait for them anymore. She needed this. She needed to choose him, to not hold back because her heart knew, no matter what anyone might tell her, that he was the one.
The butler opened a door at the end of a long hall and announced her.
As Ruby slipped into the study, she held her breath, desperately hoping that his face would be alight with pleasure and not with shock.
He stood by the fire reading a book as he leaned against the mantel, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to read thus.
But when he heard her name, he turned slowly to the door, nodded at the butler, and said, “Thank you, James. You may go.”
The butler inclined his head and headed out without word or judgement.
“Ruby,” he growled, his voice low and crackling. “What are you doing here?”
She folded her hands before her. “You know what I am doing here,” she said. She lifted her chin, determined not to show her nerves. “Do you want me to go?”
He paused, then said, “How could I want you to go when I have dreamed of something like this every night? When I have dreamed of climbing your own townhouse walls and going in through your window?”
“You have?” she gasped.
“Yes,” he said. “Every night, you haunt my dreams. But you have proven even bolder than me, willing to take what you want. Am I what you want?” he asked.
Her hands fell to her sides, and she took a step forward. “You are. You know you are.”
“I’m to be yours anyway,” he teased softly. “So, why not claim me then?”
She smiled. She loved the way he was turning this, as if he was the lady fair and she the bold seducer, and yet she knew from the power of his body and the passion in his eyes that he was the one who would be doing the seducing.
He snapped his book shut, placed it on the mantel, and then he crossed languidly to her. Wordlessly, he took her hand. This time, it was he who led her out into the hall, who swept her up the stairs, and, with each step, her heart began to beat harder.
Her breath came in swift takes. Her entire body quaked with the anticipation of what was to come. When he gently guided her into his rooms and shut the door behind them, locking the world out, she swallowed because though she was bold, she still felt vulnerable.
In fact, this was the most vulnerable she could ever remember feeling. She never felt like this with anyone else.
He turned to face her, but instead of swiftly taking her into his arms and devouring her as she thought he might, he gently cupped her cheeks.
He tilted her face slowly this way and that, and then he kissed first her right cheek and then her left.
He kissed her eyelids and then he tilted her head back.
Peter kissed the line of her throat, his mouth featherlight. His fingers wove gently into her hair and then he lingered over her mouth.
Her eyelids fluttered as desire pulsed through her.
His own gaze was one of wonder and admiration, as if he could not believe that he was finally getting to have her, as if he wanted to make this moment stretch out for as long as possible.
And as the fire crackled, and their breathing filled the space, he hypnotically lowered his mouth to hers.
But this time it was as if something was driving him, some force, for this time he acted as if he did not have all the time in the world. He took her mouth in a fiery dance. Their angled heads allowed for deeper and deeper kisses until his tongue mimicked what his body wished to do.
His hands worked at the ribbons at her throat until her cloak dropped to the floor.
They both frantically tore at each other’s clothing, unable to wait.
They had held out too long, and within moments, items of their clothing dropped away from their bodies, creating a trail of rich fabric as they frantically moved to the fire.
They were like two magnets being pulled together and, in a few moments, they stood naked before the fire, bathed in its warmth.
They stared at each other with wonder, silent.
Words were not needed, and in that moment, she knew that she was his, and he was hers, and that they always would be each other’s.
She wasn’t just staking claim to him. He was staking claim to her too.
And everything else fell away. Instead of a bold passionate embrace, he twined his hands with hers.
They stood there for a long single moment that seemed to hold eternity.
Their breathing became one. Their heartbeats, too, began to beat as one. She was sure.
And then he slowly stepped towards her, pulling her into the shelter of his embrace. Their bodies caressed. Her breasts pressed into his hard chest, his sex pressed into her hip, and then they were as one, melting together, stroking, touching, learning each curve.
How she loved the feel of his velvet skin. He was heaven. And when he stroked his hand between her legs and found her most sensitive spot, she did not allow herself to do anything but give herself over to him. Within moments, his fingers had teased that place to near bliss.
Just when she thought she was going to go over into paradise, he swept her up into his arms. Peter carefully carried her to his bed and lowered her upon it as if she was the most beautiful and fragile thing in the whole world.
She knew that he knew that she wasn’t fragile. She was strong. She was capable, and yet he was treating her as if he would take great care with her, that he would brook no hurt to her, that he would protect her from anything and everything.
So, when he lowered his body over hers and parted her thighs and gazed down into her eyes, she felt safe, she felt loved, and she felt at one with him.
His body made that feeling a reality when he thrust deep inside her.
There was no pain. There was only perfection, and she tightened her muscles around his hard sex eagerly.
She drew him into her body. He let out a moan of pure desire, a moan that sounded as if he had finally found home, and soon the two of them were rocking together.
Her hips rolled towards his. The thrust of his body met the eager excitement of her own, and within moments they were both peaking together. They were both calling out each other’s names, and they were one in the darkness, one against the world.