Page 29 of Black and Silver

It was everything she’d dreamed it would be. Lawrence felt so strong and powerful as he tightened his arms around her, and his kiss quickly turned demanding and encompassing. He did not treat her like a sweet, fainting violet, but like a woman who demanded to be kissed well and pleasured fully.

“I told you I was not a virgin,” she gasped, reaching for the hem of his nightshirt and pulling it up so that she could take her fill of his bare skin with her hands and her eyes. “I want you, Lawrence. You are my prize.”

“Darling.” It was all Lawrence said, but it was all he needed to say.

He pulled at her nightgown and bunched the thin fabric in his fists as he sought to uncover her the way she’d uncovered him. He stole another kiss as well, if it could even be considered stealing when Minnie wanted it so badly. She pushed her fingers into his hair and gripped tight handfuls so that she could pull him closer, thrusting her tongue unforgivingly into his mouth to taste him fully, and to show him that she was just as powerful as he was when it came to matters of the flesh.

Their kissing and touching turned desperate, and soon Minnie wanted more. She broke away long enough to tug Lawrence toward the bed, then swept Clarence to the bedside table and threw back the covers so that they could tumble there together. There wasn’t even time to pull her nightgown or his nightshirt off. They wanted each other so passionately that the fabric was merely pushed and bunched aside so that they could feel and stroke and entwine.

Lawrence proved everything he’d said in the attic about knowing a woman’s body when he shifted from kissing Minnie’s lips to using those lips to worship her breasts and more. The way he licked and suckled her had her moaning and squirming and arching into his touch. She’d had talented lovers before, but none who’d ever combined pleasure with affection in quite the same way Lawrence could.

She wanted to give everything back to him, to learn every inch of his body with her hands and her mouth and to lavish attention on his cock, which pressed hotly against her thigh, making her breathless with its size, as she actually liked to do, but Lawrence was too determined to be the one to give pleasure.

And he most certainly knew how to give it. Minnie cried out with far too much strength when he shifted lower, parting her legs and burying his face against her sex. She bit her lip in an attempt to keep quiet and whimpered as he pleasured her with his tongue and his fingers. It was exquisite, and by far more potent than any other lover she’d known. He was so adept at licking and stroking and penetrating in exactly the right way that it nearly brought her to tears.

Better still, he knew how to tease and prolong her pleasure, stopping just when she was close to kiss and nuzzle her thighs with the rough growth of his facial hair before diving back in to suckle her to towering heights of pleasure all over again. Minnie didn’t even care that she ended up sprawled and open to him,mouth open with pleasure that she tried to keep silent and eyes rolled back as the coil inside her pulled tight, ready to release.

“Come for me, love,” Lawrence murmured, like some dark, demanding prince in a fairy tale.

And, God help her, she did. Exactly as he commanded. Her body unfurled with the most powerful orgasm she’d ever experienced, as if he’d ignited it with the power of his will alone. It throbbed through her, filling her with thundering pleasure that threatened to send her heart and mine scattering in all directions.

As if that alone were not enough, with deft precision and timing, he stretched over her and drove his thick cock home within her, commandingly and without apology. He worked himself deeper and deeper as Minnie’s body tremored around her, pulling him in, even as he stretched her to the brink of it all being too much. His girth and movements prolonged her orgasm, making her feel as if she might lose her mind entirely to the pleasure of it.

Hard on the heels of that, Lawrence’s own sounds of pleasure turned pitched and needy, and his body tensed in her embrace as he emptied himself within her. The significance of the act was as beautiful as the pleasure she felt. Her heart sang with the knowledge that they were one. She absolutely understood the ecstasy of the woman in the statue. Mere marble could not convey feelings like the ones she felt.

They were slow to come back down from their pleasure, moving together even after their orgasms subsided just so they could be together. Even when Lawrence pulled out and fell to the side, Minnie still felt enveloped in pleasure. She also felt thoroughly wrung out and more exhausted than she’d ever known herself to be.

It did not matter, though. All that mattered was snuggling against Lawrence’s hot, damp body and closing her eyes as shereveled in him. Sleep pressed down on her, and she didn’t try to fight it. She didn’t want to fight it. She wanted this moment with Lawrence to last forever…knowing that it couldn’t.

Chapter Ten

The sleep of utter exhaustion took Lawrence as soon as he settled into post-orgasmic bliss, Minerva tucked against him. It had been a long day with a restless night before that, and if he was honest with himself, it had been a very long time since he had found satisfaction in the arms of a woman.

He’d found so much more than satisfaction with Minerva. He’d found joy and connection. He’d found someone whom he was confident genuinely cared for him, which, in his experience, was a rare thing. He’d found a beautiful woman with no inhibitions, one who enjoyed his every touch and kiss fully, without any artifice or hesitation.

In short, Minerva was perfection, and as sleep fell heavily on him in the aftermath of their lovemaking, Lawrence couldn’t remember himself ever being happier.

The night passed in wonderful oblivion. If Lawrence dreamed, he was certain those dreams had been about the magnificent goddess in his arms. He didn’t remember any of those dreams,so desperate were his body and mind for sleep, but he was certain they’d consumed him all through the night.

When morning finally did come, Lawrence was awakened by the shuffle of someone else in the room. He assumed it was the maid come to rebuild the fire and turned to his side, reaching for Minerva.

The bed beside him was empty.

Still sleep-groggy, Lawrence opened his eyes and looked for Minerva. She was not there. All he saw was Clarence grinning back at him from the bedside table. He stretched his arm farther and swept it under the covers just to be sure, though it was a silly gesture, since the covers lay flat. He was not overly worried, but the seed of the sense that perhaps all was not right lodged in his gut.

“Minerva?” he asked, his voice a bit thick and his body slow to move as he shifted to his other side and sat up a bit. The need and pull within him for her was a touch alarming, since every time he’d become so emotionally attached to a woman in the past, he’d been sorely disappointed. But he would not allow himself to panic yet.

The shifting sound he’d heard earlier had moved to the dressing room. It was clearly Minerva, but what she was doing in the dressing room instead of lying in naked splendor with him in bed for as long as possible was beyond him.

“Minerva?” he asked again, slightly louder, but also sounding needier, at least to his ears. He cleared his throat and frowned seriously, willing himself to be the strong sort of gentleman he should be.

While his brow was still creased, Minerva stepped out from the dressing room, fully dressed and with her hair already up. She paused abruptly and glanced at Lawrence with a frown.

“Is something amiss?” she asked, moving forward again.

Lawrence noted that she had a folded pile of fabric that was very likely some of her underthings, and that she’d brought her traveling bag out. She was packing to leave.

“I, er, no,” he said, pushing himself to sit up even more. He only worried slightly about the way the bedcovers slipped down to bare his chest down to his hips. “I missed you is all.”

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