Part 13 (2/2)
”So am I still your love?” Shyly, her eyelashes fluttered down. ”I...hope I am. Especially as you know I love you.”
He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles. The gesture didn't begin to express the tenderness flooding him. ”I've guarded those words like a talisman, darling. Don't you know I love you?”
”I'd like to be convinced.”
He was relieved to note that with every second, she sounded more confident. ”I fell in love with you at first sight, although it took me a while to recognize it. You wore blue at the Worthingtons' ball and I said to myself, 'That's the woman I'm going to marry.' Imagine my chagrin when I heard you were all but promised to what's-his-name, that duke fellow.”
Her eyes shone with shy delight. ”Truly?”
”Truly.”
”How lovely.” Her fingers tightened around his. ”I fell in love with you last Christmas. I was horribly cast down to think you only cared about my fortune.”
”Now you know better, don't you?”
Regret darkened her delicate features. ”It's a pity I couldn't solve the Thorne family financial crisis. Given it's now my family, too.”
Her allegiance pleased him. ”We're not quite on our uppers, my darling. You can have a new gown now and again, and we won't have bread and jam for every meal.”
She laughed. She always reacted with surprised pleasure when he mocked her. He suspected jokes had been rare in her father's solemn household.
”That's a mercy.”
He sobered, wanting to set her mind at ease. ”It may take a few years before I can drape you in diamonds, my love, but the Thorne fortunes have recently taken a turn for the better.”
”I like that.”
”The promise of diamonds?”
”No, the way you call me your love.”
”You will always be my love. I fought an army of dragons to win my beautiful lady. I intend to spend the next fifty years enjoying the spoils of victory.”
”I like to hear you call me beautiful, too.”
He curled one hand around her supple waist. ”You'll believe it before the night is done.”
She slid her hand up his chest with a naturalness that made his heart crash into his ribs. ”Show me.”
”You're not afraid anymore?”
”Hearing you say you love me has done wonders.”
”Well, let me say it again.” The humor faded as he looked into her eyes and saw a devotion that would last a lifetime. ”I love you, Marianne.”
”And I love you, Elias,” she said with equal weight. ”Now kiss me before I go mad.”
He laughed with an unfettered joy he couldn't remember feeling before. ”With pleasure.”
When his lips met hers, he was gentle. He was painfully aware that while he was ready to devour her in one mouthful, she was a virgin.
At least his intentions were pure. But she immediately opened and flicked her tongue across his lips in unabashed invitation. Her wholehearted cooperation made him desire's fool.
She murmured her appreciation of his swift response and curved her body into his. He pulled her nightgown up, only stopping the kiss long enough to tug it over her head and fling it aside. Her warm, silky hair cascaded around him as he returned to the kiss. His hands traced soft curves, b.r.e.a.s.t.s and waist and hips and b.u.t.tocks. All perfectly shaped for his delectation.
Heat spiked when she touched his chest through the red dressing gown. His heart slammed to a stop when those eager hands pushed the robe from his shoulders. As the garment crumpled to the floor, he basked in the heady friction of her bare skin against his.
He battled the haze in his mind and raised his head from where he kissed her neck. He wanted to stop and spend forever looking at her. He wanted to tumble her immediately onto the bed behind them. ”Marianne, I'll shock you.”
”I want you.” She scattered a deluge of kisses over his chest. Her lips grazed one nipple, making him jolt.
She stretched up and kissed him with open-mouthed enthusiasm, her lovely b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressing into him. As the pebbled nipples brushed his skin, animal hunger took hold. He growled and swung her up into his arms. He placed her on the bed and kissed her with all the love in his heart. He couldn't get enough of that luscious mouth.
Caution insisted that he delay to explore the glorious bounty of her body. But she surged up with a cracked whimper that set his blood afire. When she raised her knees to frame his hips, restraint rushed away. Instead there was welcome and a need to possess that turned his brain to lava.
Seeking hands shaped her flesh, slipped between her legs to make her ready. She bucked and cried out sharply as his fingers slid into her sleek heat. He stroked her, but breathtakingly quickly, they'd both reached the point where this wasn't enough.
Tensing his thighs, he nudged against her. On a moan, her fingers dug into his shoulders. Smoothly and easily his body slid inside hers.
Through pa.s.sion's deafening clamor, he recalled her innocence. But she sobbed in desperation and pitched her hips to take him deeper. He couldn't fight her. He was lost to everything except primitive compulsion. He thrust into heavenly tightness and claimed her.
Through the roar in his ears, he heard Marianne's shocked gasp. Then he gasped himself when she sank her teeth into the curve of his shoulder. Pain flashed through him, adding an edge to the unearthly experience of joining with her.
”h.e.l.l and d.a.m.nation, what have I done?” he groaned, lifting his head and seeing her clearly for the first time since appet.i.te overmastered him. ”Did I hurt you?”
The drive to move deeper pushed him to insanity. The way she clenched around him felt like paradise, while devils of self-recrimination scurried around his head, kicking and pinching. He should have been more careful with her.
”Marianne, say something,” he said urgently. In the shadowy candlelight, he couldn't interpret her feelings as she lay staring up into his face. ”For G.o.d's sake, if you want to scream at me, do it.”
The fraught silence extended before, to his astonishment, she smiled. Her expression conveyed an exhilarating mixture of self-satisfaction and elation.
”You're mine.” She trailed her hands along his shoulders and down his bare back like an explorer taking possession of a new land. ”All mine.”
”I've been yours since we met.” He rose on his arms so he could see her. He felt her body adjust to the change. Sensation blasted him. And the urge to finish.
”I love that,” she sighed. A flush marked her slanted cheekbones and her eyes were heavy with arousal. Before Elias could stop himself, he edged forward. She wriggled and seated him more firmly. She conquered every inch of him, body and soul.
”I love you. I can't bear to think I hurt you.”
”You didn't.” She paused. ”Perhaps a little. At first.”
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