Page 94 of Never a Bride
“Don’t I? Don’t you think there were moments when I was only him, not myself? I looked in a mirror and saw him. I looked at his friends, and to them I was him.” He paused. “Maybe some part of me didn’t want to give that up.”
His sudden despair made her ache for him.
Without looking at her, he said hoarsely, “I’m afraid there was some part of me that didn’t want Spencer to return. Maybe I only needed to rescue him today out of guilt, or some old loyalty that became meaningless long ago. When he was gone so long, I never even looked into where he was!”
“You couldn’t, not without risking his life.”
“You don’t know that—I don’t know that. Maybe I wanted him to be dead.”
Emmeline rose up on her knees on the bench and leaned against his chest, framing his face in her hands. “Don’t do this to yourself. You may have envied your brother, but you wouldn’t wish him dead. I know you.”
“Youdon’tknow me, Em.”
She kissed him hard on the mouth, putting all her love there in hopes that he’d recognize it for what it was. “I want to know everything about you, good and bad. I want you to let me in.”
She kissed him again, softly, gently, and moaned when his hand cupped her head.
“Em—”
“No, don’t talk.” She reached behind him and unrolled the curtain, then did the same on the other side, muting the light in the coach. When she came back to him, he was watching her, the despair receding from his face and passion taking its place. She didn’t want him thinking, only feeling, and maybe that was really the way to communicate her love to him.
Staring into his eyes, she spread his doublet wide and let her hands run down his chest, her thumbs brushing over his nipples as he’d done to her. He shuddered and whispered her name.
Oh, this was heady, this sensation of knowing she could affect him the way he’d affected her. She pushed him lower onto the bench, then straddled him, pushing her skirts to the sides. Pulling him toward her chest, she removed his doublet, then remained still as he spread kisses down her neck and against her gown. He quickly unbuttoned her bodice even as she unbuttoned his shirt. He held her upright and she sat directly on his lap, with only his loose breeches separating them. Instinctively she wanted to rub against the hard ridge of him there.
He suddenly froze, his dark, wicked eyes staring at her breasts covered only by her thin smock. “No corset?”
She shook her head. “When I received your mother’s letter, I had no time to dress properly.”
“My lucky day,” he murmured, as he pooled the gown at her waist.
She slid his shirt over his head. The broad expanse of his chest was fascinating, and she trailed her fingers through the scattering of hair about his nipples.
Alex slowly pulled her smock down and her breasts were revealed in the dim light of the coach. The rumbling of the carriage over rutted streets made them bounce and she wanted to cover them. But he groaned and buried his face between them, his arms around her body as he held her tightly.
“Em, you’re so beautiful,” he whispered in a husky voice.
For the first time, she truly believed him. He held her breasts with both hands, looking at each as if he didn’t know which to choose. She savored the rough skin of his palms and the admiration in his eyes. As he bent his head and leaned her back in his lap, he locked his gaze to hers and they stared at one another as he opened his mouth to her breast. She knew his touch would feel wondrous, but the searing pleasure that rocked through her as he drew her nipple into his mouth made her cry out and convulse against him. He pressed his erection hard between her legs, sucking on her nipple. When she didn’t think she could take such wild pleasure for another moment, he moved to her other breast, this time licking gently as if she were a sweet he’d not treated himself to in a long time. She clutched his shoulders and held on as he ran his hands down her back and beneath her skirts. She groaned and pressed herself even harder against him.
The touch of his hands on her bare buttocks was a wicked shock. He squeezed her, rubbing her hips against his. She was lost in what he did to her, in the rise of hot desire that had her yearning for what only he could give her. What was this terrible need that raced through her body, centering between her thighs?
Suddenly she found herself rolled over on her back on the seat. Looking into her eyes, he seemed to flinch.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“I’m getting wet,” he said with a lazy grin. “There’s a leak in the roof.”
He leaned aside, and a few raindrops splattered across her breasts. She caught her breath at the cool sensation, then almost choked when he bent and licked each drop off, following the winding path of water between her breasts and even to the very peaks. For endless moment, he suckled one nipple and caressed the other with knowing fingers, until she was squirming beneath him.
“I need to see you,” he said, sliding her out of the rain. He knelt down on the coach floor between her thighs.
Her face hot, she whispered, “Really? Are you certain?”
He gave a deep laugh, even as he rolled her skirts up and bunched them with her bodice. She was naked to him above the waist and below, and she tried to clutch her thighs together, but he stopped her.
“No, love, let me look upon your beauty. How wondrous you look with your hair tumbling about your breasts and that flush on your cheeks.” He sat back on his heels, running his palms in slow circles up her inner thighs then spreading her legs wider.
She couldn’t stop shaking with the incredible sensations he evoked, even as she covered her face in embarrassment. But she peeked between her fingers as he bent his head. She felt the gentle kiss he placed between her thighs like bolt of lightning. Her hips lifted off the bench in a spasm as she cried out his name.
