Page 57 of The Society Catch
‘Oh yes. I see what you mean about fun. Giles, can we find a meadow and...Oh!’ She fell silent, blushing as the chemise came off leaving her breasts bared. Her hands went up to shield herself and were caught in one of Giles’s, held while he bent his head and kissed the tip of one nipple. The sensation seemed to flow through her body from the gentle touch of his lips, down to become a unfamiliar ache low in her belly.
She closed her eyes as his lips were replaced with his tongue tip, then a gentle teasing nibble which made her gasp and archagainst him. Giles bent her backwards to lie beside him and began to stroke the fullness of her other breast as his mouth continued to play havoc with the first.
Joanna shifted restlessly, her feet tangled in petticoats and the sheet, trying with what rational thought was left to her to recall which of Giles’s legs was injured so she did not knock against it.
‘This is like trying to make love in a laundry basket,’ Giles remarked, his mouth still against her breast. He raised his head and smiled wickedly at her and she found she could breathe again.
This was not at all how she imagined losing her virginity. Grace’s careful description of the process had sounded embarrassing, alarming and downright painful – “But no worse than having a tooth pulled, and it is never as bad as that again.” It had definitely seemed to be something that should be got over with and then one could hope for some pleasure from the marriage bed. But Giles’s lovemaking was leisurely and, while startling in the effects it was producing, certainly not alarming.
She smiled back at him suddenly realising that she was no longer embarrassed and that he was right, this wasfun.So far,a cautious inner voice warned her.
‘I think we are getting rather tangled up,’ she observed. ‘If we get rid of the sheet–’
‘And all our clothes,’ he finished for her, dragging his shirt over his head and tugging at the edge of the sheet. As he was under half of it and Joanna was on top of the other half, removing it involved her getting off the bed before she could turn back. The sight of Giles stretched out completely naked stopped her in her tracks, the colour mounting hectically into her cheeks.
She had seen him stripped to the waist in bed at the inn, had been held against his bare chest after he had hit LordClifton, she had been aware of his body as he had trapped her in the meadow. But the naked reality of a man in the throes of lovemaking was still a shock.
Giles lay there unselfconsciously while she swallowed hard and climbed back onto the bed. ‘It is all right, you know. Everything is designed to work together.’
This insight into her thoughts made her blush more deeply. Giles caught her round the waist and pulled her down against him again and kissed her with such thoroughness that she stopped thinking again and simply clung to him, drinking in the scent of him, letting the heat of his mouth envelop her as his tongue teased hers and his teeth caught at the sensitive fullness of her under-lip.
Somehow he had managed to undo the tapes at the waist of her petticoat and Joanna found herself as naked as he was. Her immediate instinct was to curl against his flank, hiding herself against him, but he stopped her, easing her back against the pillows and raising himself on his elbow to look down at her.
‘You are so lovely.’ He reached out a hand and freed her hair from the pins which held it, running his fingers through it until it tumbled down, black against her white skin. Giles caught up one lock and used the ends to caress her breast, his eyes never leaving hers as he did so.
She saw his pupils widen as he watched her, feeling that if the subtle caress did not stop soon she must seize his hand and press it to the flesh which seemed to be becoming heavier, tauter with every whispering stroke of the fine hair across it.
He bent his head to recapture the nipple and with a gasp she closed her eyes, reaching blindly to caress his hair, hold him closer to her. His hand slid down her side, paused at the point where her hip curved then ran over the gentle swell of her stomach. The warm palm spread and flattened over soft skin which seemed to quiver under the pressure.
Joanna moaned softly, her head moving restlessly on the pillow, her hands tangled in Giles’s hair. His mouth on her breast was creating strange feelings deep inside her close to where his palm stroked across her stomach.
‘Giles, I don’t…I don’t know what…’
‘I know sweetheart, I know. Just trust me.’ His fingers slid lower into the triangle of black curls and she stiffened, her thighs tight together in instant rejection. Giles’s mouth left her breast and she almost sobbed, convinced she had displeased him. Then his lips found hers again and he murmured, ‘Ssh, my darling, just relax, let me love you.’
His fingers moved down, parted her, slipped gently into secret, sensitive places which made her gasp against his mouth. Then the ball of his thumb found and caressed her in a way which stopped the breath in her throat. Without conscious thought her body arched to press against his hand. The amazing sensation went on, on, until she thought she could not bear it any longer, then his finger slipped into the moist centre of her and through her delirium she heard him whisper. ‘Open your eyes, Joanna, look at me.’
Her lids fluttered open. Her eyes widened, found his tender, watchful gaze on her. ‘I love you,’ he said as everything gathered inside her into one imploding firework that burst through her veins and nerves, made her cry out with amazed joy, then fall trembling back against the pillows.
Giles caught her against him and held her until the trembling stopped. Gradually some sort of coherent thought came back and she found herself resting against his chest, hearing the reassuring beat of his heart under her ear. ‘Giles?’
‘Yes, sweetheart?’
‘That was…that was wonderful.’
‘Good.’ He sounded gently amused.
‘But that wasn’t...I mean you didn’t…’
‘No, you are still a virgin. I just wanted to give you pleasure, that is all.’
‘You succeeded,’ she said shakily, wondering if she had the courage to lie back and look at him. ‘But what about you? I mean, don’t you want to..?’
‘We do not have to take this to its conclusion, Joanna, not unless you are sure.’ He hesitated, his eyes dark with passion. ‘Joanna, do you still want to do this? Do you still want me to make love to you?’
‘Please, Giles.’ She slid her hands up across his chest, pausing to savour the unfamiliar feeling of his nipples hardening against her palms, then cradling his face between her hands. ‘Please love me.’ This time it was she who bent to kiss him, discovering the intriguing difference of being the one on top, of being able to vary pressure and contact. Greatly daring she let her tongue flicker out to trace the line of his upper lip then caught his lower lip in sharp teeth, teasingly threatening to bite.
For a few seconds he let her lead, then with an easy strength rolled her over until his weight lay on her, his knee pushing hers gently but inexorably apart.
