Page 94 of Bad Luck Bride

She untied the sash and pushed the dressing gown from his shoulders, but as it fell to the floor behind him, she didn’t look where he thought she would. Instead, her gaze paused at his bare chest. She touched him, and he inhaled sharply, tilting back his head and bearing it as she slid her hands across his shoulders, over his nipples and down to his abdomen, where she stopped.

“Oh!” she said, her startled exclamation telling him she’d seen him in all his flagrant glory. “That’s not what I…” She lifted her head, frowning a little. “You don’t look anything like the statues in the British Museum.”

He gave a shout of laughter. “What were you expecting?” he teased, tilting his head to look into her face. “A fig leaf?”

She made a face, pressing her hand to his shoulder and giving him a playful shove for his impudence. “No, of course not. But…” She paused and looked down, and her cheeks turned absolutely scarlet. “Goodness.”

She reached out as if to touch him, but that would be a bridge too far. He was in a precarious enough state as it was. “Oh, no,” hegroaned, pushing her hand away. “We’re not to that point in this dance just yet.”

She started to protest, but he bent down, sliding one arm behind her back and hooking the other beneath her knees, then he lifted her into his arms and silenced her laughing squeal with a long, deep kiss as he carried her into his bedroom.

He laid her on the bed, but he didn’t join her. Instead, he stood beside the bed, letting his gaze roam over her, from her coppery hair spread across the sheets to her adorable face to her perfect breasts to the deep curve of her waist, to the generous curves of her hips. His gaze caught there, on the red-gold triangle between her thighs. He grasped her hips in his hands, turning her body and easing his own between her legs as he sank to his knees.

He put his hands on her thighs, pulling her legs wider apart, then he bent his head.

Guessing his intent, she stiffened, giving a startled gasp, and her thighs clenched, her knees pressing against his shoulders.

He lifted his head, waiting until she did the same. “Kay,” he said softly, his fingers touching her most intimate place as their eyes met. “I want to kiss you here. Let me do this. Trust me.”

Her eyes were wide as saucers, but she nodded, relaxing a fraction, and he slowly bent his head to press his lips to her fiery curls.

She gave a long, soft wail at the contact, and he reveled in the sound, smiling as her head fell back against the mattress. Still watching her, he ran his tongue over the crease of her sex to her clitoris, and this time, she gave a startled cry. Instantly, she stifled it with her hand, and he smiled, knowing the tension of having to be quiet would only arouse her further.

Closing his eyes, he allowed his other senses to take over. Shesmelled like flowers, and she tasted like heaven, and as he caressed her again and again with his tongue, he relished her stifled sounds of pleasure and the thrust of her hips against his mouth.

“Devlin,” she whispered. “Oh, oh.”

She was so close. He continued this carnal kiss, stroking her relentlessly, until, with a final sob of pleasure, she came.

He continued to kiss and caress her and nuzzle her, wringing more orgasms from her, then finally, with one last kiss, he stood up.

Kay lifted her head to look at him. She wanted to say something, but the feelings within her were so overwhelming, she couldn’t find words.

He lifted her legs and turned her body, stretching her out on the bed. Then he left her, going into the sitting room, and when he returned, the French letter was in his hand. As he moved to the other side of the bed, she dared a peek at him, and though the lamplight that spilled through the door from the sitting room was faint, it was enough to confirm that his manhood was still jutting out proudly in front of him, and she realized with sudden insight just what that French letter was supposed to do.

He paused by the side of the bed, pulled the sheath of vulcanized rubber from its velvet envelope, and unfolded it. Tossing the envelope aside, he slid the sheath along the length of his shaft, and she felt a sudden, strange pang of fear.

He looked up, making her realize she had made a shocked sound, and instantly, he was on the bed beside her, kissing her.

“I love you,” he said against her mouth, then he pulled back to look into her face. “Do you love me?”

Without hesitation, she nodded. She didn’t quite know how allthis was going to work, but her love for him was absolutely certain. “Yes,” she said, reaching up to touch his face. “I love you.”

He bent his head as if to kiss her again, then paused. “Just to clarify things, you are going to marry me, aren’t you?”

Talk of honorable marriage seemed strange when they were both naked and aroused and about to do something that was strictly forbidden outside marriage. “What a question to ask at such a moment,” she murmured with a chuckle.

“I mean it, Kay.” His voice was strained, his face suddenly hard. “Without marriage in the offing, I’m not taking your virtue. Yes or no?”

“Yes,” she said happily and kissed him. “Yes, yes. I’ll marry you as soon as you come back.”

“Thank God,” he muttered. “I thought I was going to have to toss you out and take another cold bath.”

He moved then, easing his body on top of hers, and she gladly opened her arms, but then, he stopped again, resting his weight on his arm, suspended above her as his hand maneuvered the hard, sheathed part of his body between her thighs.

“One thing you need to know.” His voice sounded hoarse, his breathing labored, and he paused, his face grim, as if he was striving for control. Sweat glistened on his chest, on his forehead, and his breathing was quick and harsh. “I’ve got to warn you about this. You’ve never been with a man before, so it’s probably going to hurt.”

That news was a bit alarming, but then he rocked his hips against hers, and as the hard part of him rubbed the place he had kissed so wickedly a short time ago, she forgot to be afraid. With a moan, she closed her eyes, savoring the sweet, aching delight of it.

---