Page 430 of From Rakes to Riches

“Stand with your legs apart.”

She obeyed, stepping out of her drawers, then held her breath as his fingers trailed up her thighs, then brushed across her curls. She gasped, but he didn’t linger, just continued to caress a path up her stomach to her breasts, which he touched and teased until she was a quivering wreck.

“Please, David,” she whispered, not knowing what she wanted. Could he give it to her?

He smiled as his hands began a downward journey. She watched the concentration on his face, experienced the knowledgeable gentleness of his hands. When he reached her thighs, this time he trailed his fingers up the insides, taking his time until she thought she’d whimper with the sensations he wrung from her. Was he really supposed to touch herthere?

And then he did, caressing deeper and deeper with each sweet stroke. His fingers glistened with wetness.

“David,” she whispered, “why am I the only one who’s nude?”

Still kneeling at her feet, he looked up into her face. “Because I can’t bear to stop touching you. Trust me.”

She nodded. He leaned forward to kiss her stomach, and then his fingers resumed their questing. She felt a sudden surge of passion and groaned.

Then he was pressing soft kisses lower and lower, and she stopped breathing in shock as he put his mouth where his fingers had just been.

“David!”

He met her gaze, and licked her.

Her head slammed back against the door as she experienced the beginning of a pleasure that seemed too powerful to exist. She really did collapse this time, and he caught her, then swung to his feet and strode to the bed. He set her on the edge, spread her thighs even farther this time, and looked at her.

She tried to close her legs, and for the first time, David looked impatient.

Then his expression softened. “I have long forgotten what being a virgin is like, Victoria. I’m pushing you to things that you aren’t ready for.”

“You’re not going to stop, are you?”

He chuckled. “Oh, I’m not going to stop, believe me.” He shrugged out of his coat and let it drop wherever it landed. “But there are some things I’ll save for another time.”

Her questions died unanswered as she realized he was taking off his clothes. She watched fascinated as the absence of his cravat and stock left his neck bare. He removed his waistcoat, unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, and pulled it off over his head. His chest was as she remembered it, so broad and mesmerizing with muscle. He had to sit down to remove his boots and stockings, but he came back to stand before her. Then he unbuttoned the flaps of his trousers, and they dropped to the floor to reveal his loose drawers, and the bulge she’d seen before. He loosened the drawers, and as they fell, his penis dropped heavily as if it pointed at her.

She stared at it in shock, then raised her gaze to his.

He grinned.

Thank goodness he had not shown her this on their wedding night, or she might have run screaming from the room.

“Trust me,” he whispered, leaning over her.

“I do,” she said.

He climbed onto the bed, crawling over her, all smooth, flowing muscle. He kissed his way up her stomach and breasts, then devoured her mouth in a way that made her forget their nudity, forget what was to come, and just live in the moment.

For the moment had every pleasure she’d never imagined possible. He eased beside her and continued to kiss her breasts, while his hand moved between her thighs, parting them, stroking between them. She groaned and turned her face into his shoulder.

“Still shy?” he whispered into her ear. “That’s part of your charm, sweetheart.”

He’d used that word again, and she sighed her pleasure.

His mouth closed over her breast, suckling so gently, as his fingers began to move against her most private womanhood. She had had no idea that places on her body were so sensitive, but he treated her as if she were his own instrument, tuned by his hands, played to perfection as only he knew how. Her breath came in gasps; she burned with a desire so rousing she didn’t know how her skin contained it. Every time she came close to the edge, he retreated, frustrating her so much that she finally cried out his name.

He renewed his efforts then, sending her flying up to a pinnacle as sweet and powerful as any musical note, held purely as she shuddered and fell into an abyss of deepest pleasure.

When she opened her eyes, David was watching her, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

He kissed her gently. “Did you enjoy that?”

---