Page 95 of Never a Bride
She should beg him to stop, but she was mindless with the rising surge of pleasure that rocked through her. She felt his hot breath a moment before his tongue swept over her, parting her.
“I knew you’d taste like the sweetest wine,” he said hoarsely, even as his fingers spread her wider.
She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think as he bent his head and licked her again. He suckled the most sensitive nub of flesh into his mouth, and the pleasure roared through her in waves that buffeted her body and shuddered across her skin in a final release unlike anything she’d imagined. She was mindless and aware at the same time. Even as she sagged in his arms, she thought,This is what brings women and men together.This is why women risk everything for love.And she would, too.
Moments later, the coach slowed and they heard the coachman call out to the gatekeeper.
“Oh, sweet heaven,” she whispered, sitting upright on the bench. “We’re home.”
Alex groaned and laughed at the same time, dropping his head to her shoulder for a moment. “Ah, how I wanted to join you in such bliss.”
“I—”
“No, you mustn’t worry, love. Here, let’s get you assembled.”
Together they tugged up her smock and gown, and pulled her skirts down about her legs. She buttoned her bodice while watching him slide his shirt over his head and tuck it back in his breeches. He looked down at himself, then back up at her with a grin.
“What?” she asked in confusion as she did her best to pin up her hair.
“You’ve made me damp in a rather inconvenient place.”
She didn’t understand until he tied up one of the curtains and she saw the wet stain across his breeches. She gasped. “That’s from…me? From when I…”
He kissed her quickly. “That’s your body preparing for me—and nothing could excite me more.”
“But you didn’t—we didn’t—”
He slipped on his doublet and collapsed beside her. “Believe me, I know. But I didn’t want your first time to be in a leaky coach.”
She stared at him, wishing she could ask what this all meant to him, hoping he knew what it meant to her.
When the coachmen threw open the door and helped her down, she looked back up at him.
“I can’t come out,” he said with regret in his voice.
“I know.” She blinked the rain out of her eyes and asked, “Will you come to visit me?”
He grinned. “Nothing could keep me away.”
The coachman closed the door, then climbed up above to take up the reins. As they headed back for the gate, Emmeline linked her hands behind her back and went around the mansion, avoiding the front entrance. Her legs felt wobbly and she was getting wet—but she needed to think.
Heading down the sloping gravel path toward the Thames, she breathed deeply of the spring flowers and tried to plan what to do next. She couldn’t keep giving in to Alex, or “The Seduction of Emmeline” would turn into “The Ruination of Emmeline.” How could she convince him they belonged together, that he’d be happy married to her?
She felt a hand on her arm and she turned, expecting her sister. Instead she looked up into the faces of the Langston brothers. Stunned, she opened her mouth to scream, and they stuffed a gag in instead.
~oOo~
After Alex had changed, he and Edmund rode their horses to Langston House to confront Lady Elizabeth and her brothers once and for all. A maidservant graciously showed them into the great hall, with its old black-beamed ceiling and stone walls. When the girl reappeared, her plump face had taken on a decidedly hesitant demeanor.
“My lady is not feeling well, my lords. She requests that you visit another day.”
“That won’t do,” Edmund said, walking toward the door the girl had just come from.
Alex stayed at his side, brushing off the maid’s distress. “We won’t harm your mistress, girl, we just need to speak with her.”
A woman was trying to escape out the glass doors into the garden when they entered the room.
“Elizabeth!” Edmund called, running to catch her arm and haul her back inside.
