Chapter 26 #2
“Touch yourself there.”
The feel of her sex beneath her fingers wasn’t novel, but like this, it was. So good and so purely lustful, watching him watching her. Yet…soon it felt oddly empty and she knew why. “Liam, I need you to touch me.” Each word scraped across her throat. “I need you.”
He released himself and tucked his thumb beneath her chin, tipping her head back as he angled down and caught her mouth with his.
Urgently, steadily, he moved forward, pushing her until she was on her back and he was between her legs.
Above her, he hovered. Instinctively, she reached down and found his ready shaft and guided him to her.
She grabbed his back as he thrust and buried himself deep inside her. “Liam,” she cried.
No longer did she feel empty. Lust didn’t have to be a hollow, depthless pursuit.
In this passion, they were unified—a pleasing of the self…
a pleasing of the other. How those were one and the same as their bodies took…
as their bodies gave. The weight of his larger, heavier body so delicious and right as he kissed her while he moved inside her.
She wasn’t only connected to him, but to herself in a way she’d never experienced.
Yet that connection to herself only existed because of her connection to him.
This had to be a connection of the souls.
She, Saskia, who was so pragmatic and who prided herself on her common sense had become a convert to the spiritual—a believer in the connection of souls.
A feeling began to build deep inside her sex.
A feeling that hungered and craved and needed and needed…
more. And, oh, how Liam was giving it to her, but not in a punishing way.
In a way that gave her what she needed. How deep inside herself she’d gone, as if there were a universe inside her and it was expanding.
Teetering on the edge of climax, she moaned and gasped and pleaded, then on his next thrust, the universe inside her burst, shooting light and sensation through her as he drove deeper inside her.
An illuminated being was she in this exquisite moment of release.
A wanton, too. How he and she had transcended the body in this place where their souls met—but how of the body, too.
This act defied all reason and definition.
For if one tried to reason with or define it, the essence of it slipped through one’s hands.
She understood that much.
Better to dissolve into sensation and let feeling take over—feeling of the body…feeling of the soul.
“Saskia, my love, I can’t…oh…” He pulled from her and took himself in hand and spilled his seed onto her stomach on a long animal groan.
Enervated, panting, he collapsed onto his side and reached for her chemise before wiping her stomach.
He kissed her neck, the day’s growth of his beard deliciously scratchy against her. “I just need a few minutes.”
“A few minutes? Until what?”
He smiled against her. “Until we do that again.”
Oh.
And she realized that was precisely what she wanted—to do that again…now.
“We have to wait?”
He chuckled against her, then kissed her neck…her clavicle…his mouth covered her breast… His wicked gaze lifted. “No, my love, we don’t have to wait.”
My love.
Through all the longing and lust and delight struck a flash of feeling—fear.
Fear that she was losing her sense of self.
That she was going too far and a person who went too far wasn’t who she was.
Yet…when she was with Liam, she tended to forget that.
He pushed her to dare.
And it made her feel wobbly.
Others wobbled, not Saskia.
But here she was…wobbling.
Even as she gave over to the inevitable and surrendered to his kiss.
A ray of golden sunshine filtered through gauzy curtains and cast Saskia in the role of sleeping goddess as she lay curled into Liam’s side, her head snugged into his shoulder, hair tousled about, her breath light and even in the cadence of slumber.
How lovely she was.
All those men of the haut ton who viewed her as fearsome hadn’t the faintest notion of who this woman truly was.
If only they could see her now.
But none of those men would ever see her like this.
Never.
He was the only man who would see her thus.
The certainty thrummed through Liam with sudden ferocity.
All those lords and gentlemen could just keep thinking of Lady Saskia as fearsome.
He cared not.
He knew the true Saskia.
His stomach gave a loud grumble. After the night they’d shared—which, in truth, had only ended a couple of hours ago—he was ravenous with hunger. But his stomach could wait, for he had Saskia in his arms.
He had all he needed to sustain him.
Her lashes fluttered open, and sleepy, silvery-blue eyes met his. A slow, sated smile curled about her pink lips. “Are you hungry?”
“Oh, aye.” His best cheeky smile pulled at his mouth. “Last night’s mutton stew wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy me.”
She buried her face in his neck and giggled.
“Now, I need a healthful, sustaining bowl of porridge to start me in my day.” He traced the delicate line of her jaw. “Maybe two”
Her smile froze. “Day…” Her brow crinkled, then released. “Day!”