Chapter 19 #2
He cupped her breasts in his hands, suckling each of them in turn. Watching him made her weak at the knees.
His thick shaft brushed against her mons. Gwen bit her lip. Was that her making those noises, those little mewling cries, those whimpers?
“Richard…”
He trailed wet kisses between her breasts, up her throat, her chin. She sought his mouth eagerly, opening, coaxing his tongue deep.
She wanted him badly, wanted to experience all the things he would do to her, the promises his touch invoked. She stroked the hard muscles of his chest, kneading his flesh beneath her hands. His skin seared her fingertips. He was supple and hot and exquisite to touch.
He growled his pleasure and Gwen suddenly knew that more than anything she wanted to please him.
He moved his hand between them and rubbed her cleft. It was never enough, only a light teasing pressure that darted away as soon as she felt herself building to an unnameable peak.
“Richard, please,” she begged, unable to stand the exquisite torture a moment longer. “Please.”
“There is only one way to ease the ache,” he murmured against her cheek. He leaned back and she saw that his eyes had gone black with passion. “You must take me inside you.”
She glanced at his thick shaft, disappointment and fear welling within. It was the moment of truth and she didn’t know if she was ready. “It will never fit. ’Tis too big,” she said.
“Oh yes it will, sweet,” he replied, slipping a finger inside her. Another finger joined the first. Her eyes widened as a third finger slipped in. He flexed them, stretching her, sending waves of pleasure along the walls of her sheath.
“’Twill feel a hundred times better than that. Soon, you will be glad it isn’t smaller, I promise.”
She looked at him doubtfully.
“Do you trust me?”
Slowly, Gwen nodded. It was strange, but she did trust him, at least in this. He moved the tip of his shaft within her folds, stroking her as he’d done with his fingers.
Gwen sucked in her breath at the intimacy of it. He urged her up until she was poised over him. “Take me inside you, Gwen,” he whispered urgently.
She swallowed, then gripped his biceps and eased herself down.
“Yes, that’s it,” he murmured, encouraging her with his eyes.
She took a deep breath and tried again. A sharp pain rocked through her as the tight barrier of her virginity refused to stretch. “I cannot go any further,” she said.
Richard swallowed heavily. “’Tis what I told you about. You must get past it.” He held himself perfectly still, his groin tightening in anticipation.
“I cannot do it,” she repeated.
Richard stroked a hand over her breast. A fine sheen of sweat broke out on his brow. “I thought Welshwomen were braver than that,” he said softly.
She glared at him. She gritted her teeth and sank lower, sucking in her breath sharply. Richard’s blood pounded in his ears until he could hear nothing but the beating of his own heart. God, what price he was paying for restraint!
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “It isn’t going to work.”
Richard knew he had to take her now, quickly, or lose her. “Forgive me, Gwen,” he said as he gripped her hips and drove upward in one smooth, clean stroke.
She cried out, her eyes dilating with pain. He hugged her tight to prevent her from escaping. “’Tis better to get it over with,” he soothed.
Gwen held her breath. He had lied. The pain was unbearable. She wanted nothing more than to end his invasion of her body but his arms clamped her too tight.
Within the space of seconds, he eased his grip on her. Gwen started to move away, then realized with a shock that the sensation had changed.
She was full of him. He was hard and throbbing within her, and when she moved, sensation streaked from her scalp to her toes.
“You understand now, don’t you?” he asked, his voice thick with the effort his control was costing him.
His face was hard, feral, and his eyes glinted with something very near to anger.
Gwen realized it was the same fierce passion she had glimpsed on their wedding night.
A sudden thrill shot through her. She would be the recipient of it all—and she wanted it all.
“Oh yes, yes I do. Make love to me,” she whispered.
“God in Heaven, I intend to,” he vowed. Richard fused his mouth to hers, mastering her with his kiss as he intended to do with his body. He broke away, gathered her against him, and stood. She was still impaled on him and she wrapped her legs around him as he placed his hands beneath her buttocks.
She buried her face in his neck, kissing, licking, sucking. “Richard, Richard…”
All his good intentions fled him. He had meant to be gentle, handle her with a light hand, but her heated response made him crazy. Her sheath gripped him like a glove and exquisite vibrations shot through him with every step he took toward the bed.
There would be no holding back the stormy passion raging through him. He would give her all—and he would take all.
He slipped out of her as he laid her on the bed. She clutched his arm, protesting the loss.
“Shh, my sweet,” he murmured, fanning her hair across the pillows before taking her mouth in a searing kiss. When he covered her body with his, she spread her legs instinctively.
“Yes, Gwen, that’s it,” he said thickly. “We’re going to burn together, you and I…”
Her heart lurched at the look of pure animal lust on his face. He poised over her for one breathless moment, then drove into her swiftly, setting her insides on fire.
She clung to him helplessly, let him lead her where he would. He made love to her like a summer tempest; fast, furious, hard. She quickly learned to meet him, to arch into him, to thrust up when he thrust down.
The sensations were cataclysmic, blinding. They fused their mouths together, momentarily silencing the cries echoing in the chamber.
The pressure built within her until she knew she would explode. He sensed it and quickened his movements, then ground his hips against her at the last second.
Gwen cried out as the world shattered into a million multi-colored shards. She spiraled through light and darkness until it pieced slowly together again.
He remained still, whispering to her, kissing her softly, drinking his name from her lips as she said it over and over. Every nerve ending in her body quivered and she was certain the aftershocks had made even her eyelashes sensitive.
He still throbbed inside her and she realized he had not achieved his own release. He began to move, slowly at first, then with the same fury as before. He thrust into her a dozen more times and she felt the hot spurt of his seed even as he cried out.
He did not withdraw immediately. He murmured endearments to her in Welsh, stroked her hair, her moist brow, her lips.
Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes to spill on the pillow below. He brushed one aside with his thumb.
“God help me, I wanted to be gentle,” he muttered. “I’m sorry, Gwen, I did not mean to hurt you.”
“Nay,” she whispered. “You didn’t hurt me.
” She let her gaze wander over his face, memorizing him as if she didn’t already know every last detail.
How could she tell him—this man, this stranger—that he had just made her feel more alive, more wanted, more needed than she had ever felt in her life?
“’Tis just that it… it was so beautiful. ”
He cradled her face in his hands. “It will always be so between us, I promise you,” he said, and then kissed her.
Gwen slipped a hand into his damp hair. Her other hand stroked his back. She felt him begin to grow and lengthen inside her. Her heart quickened.
“You are ready again?”
“Yes,” he said, slipping from her as he trailed kisses over her breasts and down her belly. “But ’tis better if we wait. You will be sore enough as it is.”
Gwen sighed her disappointment. She shivered. The air was cool against her moist body without him to warm her.
He smiled, then got up and went to get wine. Gwen rolled onto her stomach, sprawling across the soft bedding, her body tingling with new awareness.
When she heard him coming back, she turned over. He watched her, his eyes darkening.
“Get beneath the covers, love,” he said huskily. Gwen pulled the coverlets up from the bottom of the bed and accepted the wine he handed her. He slipped in beside her, then took the goblet and held it to her lips.
She sipped, letting the cool liquid soothe her parched throat. When she raised her eyes to his, he was watching her intently.
He turned the goblet and drank from the same place she had, then lowered it and bent forward to kiss her. The taste of wine on his lips and tongue had the unbelievable effect of arousing her.
She leaned into him, attempting to deepen the kiss, but he only backed away. “Was it everything I promised?” he asked, his beautiful eyes searching hers.
Gwen trembled all the way to her toes. “More,” she breathed softly.
Richard smiled, caressing her cheek with a long finger. “’Tis only the beginning.”