Chapter 21 #2
She swallowed. She remembered the carriage rides, the lessons, the stolen kisses. Each time he had been the one to pull away. Each time she had wondered whether he regretted them. Now she realized the truth had been something altogether different.
“What makes it difficult?” His eyes closed briefly, almost as though gathering his composure. “When you stand this close to me, it becomes remarkably hard to think.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “I hadn’t realized I possessed such power.”
“You possess entirely too much of it.”
Jane laughed softly. “I rather like hearing that.”
“I suspected you might.”
She looked up at him. “Aren’t we past pretending?”
“Pretending?”
“That we do not affect one another.”
His gaze rested on her face with quiet intensity. “I gave up pretending some time ago.”
“So did I.”
The admission settled gently between them. Jane could hear the rain beginning outside, tapping softly against the windows. The room felt smaller somehow. Warmer. Safer.
She could smell the cedar and sandalwood of his cologne, clean and understated, carrying the faintest trace of the cool evening air he’d brought in with him. It suited him perfectly.
He seemed to notice her breathing had changed.
“So,” he murmured.
“So.”
“You are still tempting me.”
“Am I?”
“Very much.”
She lifted one eyebrow. “Why is that a bad thing?”
His smile became almost dangerous. “You truly wish to ask that question?”
“We are married.”
“We are.”
She held his gaze. “I fail to see the difficulty.”
He took one deliberate step forward. Now scarcely inches separated them. Jane had to tilt her head to meet his eyes fully.
He was close enough that she could make out the tiny flecks of lighter color hidden within their dark gray depths. Close enough to hear the steady rhythm of his breathing. Close enough that the warmth radiating from him surrounded her completely.
A shiver ran down her spine. She could no longer remember what clever reply she’d intended to give.
Instead she simply looked at him. At the strength of his shoulders beneath the dark dressing gown.
At the faint shadow along his jaw despite having shaved that morning.
At the small scar near his temple she’d noticed weeks ago but never asked about.
At the tenderness hidden beneath the disciplined composure he showed the rest of the world.
Everything about him felt quietly overwhelming.
His hand lifted slowly. His fingertips brushed a damp curl away from her cheek. The gesture was astonishingly gentle.
Jane leaned into the touch before she even realized she was doing it. His thumb lingered against her skin. He drew a slow breath.
“You have no idea...” His voice was barely above a whisper. “...how often I’ve imagined holding you like this.”
Her heartbeat stumbled. “Hector...”
He leaned closer until only the narrowest space remained between them. “I have tried very hard to be patient, but I would very much like to kiss you.”
She smiled. “I wondered how long it would take you to say so.”
A quiet chuckle escaped him. “I was attempting restraint.”
“It seems exhausting.”
“It has been.”
His expression softened into something almost unbearably affectionate.
“I would happily spend the rest of the evening discovering precisely why my wife has been looking at me that way since she walked down the aisle.”
Warmth flooded her cheeks. “And how have I been looking at you?”
“As though you expect me to stop behaving.”
She laughed. “Perhaps I do.”
“I fear you may succeed.”
His hand slipped gently into hers. He lifted it to his lips and pressed a lingering kiss across her knuckles. Then he looked into her eyes once more.
“You need only say the word.”
Jane answered not with words but with a small, almost imperceptible nod.
His smile deepened. “So be it.”
Slowly, giving her every chance to pull away, he closed the remaining distance between them and kissed her with all the tenderness he’d been denying himself for weeks. Their first kiss as husband and wife was unhurried, warm.
He broke away and looked down at her with such raw passion in his eyes that it made Jane’s breath catch. When he caught her lips in a second kiss, it was nothing like the first. It was heated and hurried.
Jane kissed him back with the same fervent desire, meeting him in desperate need to get closer to him. The layers of clothing between them felt too much.
He tasted of coffee and wine and sweat. Her world tilted, and all she could think about was the way his hands were drifting from her cheeks down her shoulders, stopping to linger at her breasts.
He cupped them gently through the material of her robe and nightgown before untying the sash of her robe and tossing the dressing gown to the floor.
Jane moaned as Hector found her erect nipple through the thin nightgown, and rolled it gently between his thumb and forefinger. Waves of pleasure rolled over her body. She braced her hands on his shoulders as his mouth found hers again.
He lifted her into his arms, and moved her to the bed. Before she quite knew what was happening, he had bunched her nightgown up around her waist and had dropped to his knees beside the bed.
His mouth was on her inner thigh, his tongue making lazy circles on the delicate skin. Jane gasped, her mind blank of all thoughts but Hector’s mouth. He kissed his way up her thigh to the dampness between her legs.
Jane’s hips bucked off the bed as his tongue gently licked up to the hard nub of her desire. The whiskers that had been growing in since that morning brushed roughly against the sensitive skin, making her gasp.
Hector swirled his tongue around, and Jane reached down to twine her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer.
He slipped his tongue inside her, and Jane was nearly undone.
Her body moved in rhythm with his mouth.
She rocked toward something that she instinctively felt was coming but had never experienced before.
Her chest heaved as exquisite tension built throughout her body; suddenly, the climax rushed over her, sending her pulsing down the other side of the sensation. She cried out and held onto Hector’s head as he continued his ministrations, finally lowering herself back down to the mattress.
He came back up and kissed her once, slowly, tasting of her.
“Rest,” he said, low against her mouth. “We’ll talk later.”
She heard him move away, the soft close of a door. The sheets were cool and she pulled them up and was asleep before she could think of a single thing.