Page 50 of Dropping the Ball

“Do stop talking and kiss me.”

It was the easiest choice Bernadette had ever made.

When Alden captured her mouth in a kiss, she kissed him back with everything she had. She not only allowed herself to be drawn into his bedroom, she reached for the door and shut it behind them, locking them in their own, glorious, wicked world.

“I shall suffer the consequences for this,” she murmured as she reached for the tie of Alden’s banyan and fumbled through the knot.

Alden stiffened. He grasped her hands, stopping her frantic movements, and asked, “Are you certain this is what you want to do?”

Bernadette gazed up at him, at the fire and fondness in Alden’s beautiful eyes. Her reputation would be irrevocably tarnished. Her career organizing parties for the ton would be over. She would be completely at Alden’s mercy, as it was likely that her father would disown her and possibly attempt to bring her entire world down around her. More poignantly, Hethersett would be so disappointed in her. They were friends, if nothing else, and this moment represented a betrayal that Bernadette knew she could not overcome.

But it was Alden. He loved her and she loved him. He would catch her when she fell and keep her from utter devastation. They would be happy together.

“Yes,” she said, so much emotion in the single word that her eyes stung with tears. “This is what I want. I want you. I love you.”

That was, evidently, all Alden needed to hear. He let out a breath full of longing, then pulled Bernadette into his arms once more, kissing her with twice the passion.

Bernadette loved it. She was wanton and selfish, she would never live it down, but she would be happy in her disgrace. She returned to pulling at the knot holding Alden’s banyan closed, and when it loosened and she was able to tug the garment open, she caught her breath at the magnificent sight of Alden’s naked body.

He was so fit and beautiful, his manliness only enhanced by his years. She brushed her hand over the warm flesh of his sides and up to the strong mounds of his chest to tease his nipples with her fingertips. The slight growl that came from Alden with her touch only encouraged her, and she swept her hands over his shoulders, then around to his back and down to cup his strong bum.

“You drive me wild with your touch,” he said, pulling at her banyan to undress her as well. “You are afraid of nothing.”

“What is there to be afraid of?” she asked, breathless and teasing as she brought her hands around his hips to stroke his growing shaft. “I am not afraid of love.”

To prove as much, she slipped to her knees, pushing Alden’s banyan wider as she did, and caressed his cock and tight balls. He was so well-formed and alluring that her mouth began to water even before she worked him to full stiffness, then leaned in to kiss and lick his tip before bringing him into her mouth.

She’d surprised him the week before with her knowledge of and willingness to enact such things. It had been amusing to watch his face light with shock as she’d pleasured him that way on a walk, under the bright sunshine. As she’d explained then, there were things an Oxford education had taught her that few people knew the true depths of. And while some of her friends and fellow students had found the informal lessons outrageous and distasteful, Bernadette had always loved the feeling of power that knowing she could bring a man to his knees gave her.

It was not just any man either, it was Alden.

“Vixen,” he managed to growl as she bobbed and sucked deeper, using her tongue to tease him even more.

Bernadette was unable to stifle a laugh, which made her ministrations silly rather than sensual. She peeked up at Alden, and was forced to pull back entirely as laughter got the better of her.

“What are you laughing at?” Alden demanded, his mouth twitching into a grin as his impressive member bounced, unhappy to be abandoned. “Is my manhood not to your liking?”

That only made Bernadette laugh more. So much that she lost her balance and tumbled back, landing hard on her bottom. “There is nothing wrong,” Bernadette giggled. “I’m merely happy.”

Alden smiled, then leaned over to scoop her into his arms. “As am I,” he said, his voice a deep rumble. “Even though you are incorrigible.”

Bernadette could not keep her joy inside. As Alden carried her to the bed, then made quick work of stripping her out of her banyan and nightgown, she reached for him, stroking and tickling him, and doing whatever she could to make him laugh and squirm.

“Truly, you are a wild and wicked one,” Alden laughed once he had her naked and on her back under him. “I have not had a single dull moment in my life since you have joined it.”

A faint twist of melancholy cut through the happiness Bernadette felt. Neither of them had had a dull moment because so many dire things were happening to both of them.

But any temptation to dwell on the complexities of the ball or her own Gordian knot of a marriage was forgotten when Alden swooped down to kiss her. He pressed his entire body into hers, not just his mouth. As his tongue played with hers, he wedged himself between her hips, nudging her to spread her legs. Using one hand for balance, he brushed the other along her side before cupping one of her breasts and teasing her nipple with his thumb.

“Alden,” Bernadette breathed out, so overcome with bliss that nothing else mattered.

“Bernadette,” Alden answered her, then shifted to kiss her neck, her shoulder, her collarbone, and the top of her breast.

He lifted her breast to his mouth, brushing her nipple with his lips at first before laving it with his tongue, then drawing the whole tip into his mouth. The way he sucked and lapped at her had Bernadette breathless and restless with need. The sensations shot through her, coalescing in her core, which throbbed and tightened for him.

He shifted again to give her other breast the same treatment, then kissed his way lower, over her stomach and lower still. Bernadette relaxed back into the bed, threading her fingers through his hair and urging him to continue on. If she was to be one of theton’sfallen women, forever an outcast because she could not behave herself and accept her cold fate, then she was going to enjoy every moment of her disgrace.

As Alden reached her center, then shifted suddenly lower so that he might kiss and nuzzle the insides of her thighs instead of proceeding directly to where she wanted him, Bernadette made a soft sound of protest. She knew what kind of pleasure he could give her, and now that she was no longer holding herself back, she wanted it with a passion that would not be denied.

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