Page 90 of My Hellion, My Heart
“One day you might become bored with me,” he teased.
“Never,” she said, poking him in the ribs.
Smiling, Henry kissed the tip of her nose and then her lips, because they looked so soft and inviting. It was some time before he escorted her back inside and saw her to her chamber. The Renauds had already retired, but Madame Renaud had left a light burning near Irina’s bedside. At the sight of the bed, his fantasies took flight, but Henry sighed, steeling his desires. The hour was already late enough, and his bride-to-be needed to sleep.
He, however, needed an ice-cold bath or a dip in the frigid waters of the Channel.
“Rest well,” he told her at the entrance to her room.
“Wait.” Irina placed a hand on his chest, stalling his departure. His muscles leaped reflexively beneath it as his breath rolled to a pained stop in his lungs. Irina’s eyes met his, and the unconcealed desire he saw there nearly drove him to his knees. “I don’t want you to go.”
Henry huffed a laugh. Irina had never been shy about what she wanted.
He licked his lips. “Irina—”
“Stay.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
Her palm slid down to his stomach. Henry sucked in a sharp breath as her finger slid in between his waistband and his shirt. “Yes, I do.”
“But…what if Idohurt you?” he asked, a beat of panic struggling to take shape within him.
“You won’t. We have already agreed upon it,” she said, then blushing wildly, “Besides, I don’t plan to fall asleep for quite some time. I know exactly what I’m asking, Henry. I want you to stay here. With me. Tonight.”
The whispered words were his undoing. With a strangled groan, Henry took her lips as her hands wound up around his neck. Her mouth opened eagerly to him, her tongue boldly stroking against his, and Henry was lost. He kicked the door shut behind him as his hands roamed over her back, plying her against his full length and leaving her in no doubt of the state of his arousal. A gasp escaped her lips, but she arched against him, erasing what little space remained between their bodies.
“Oh God, Irina,” Henry muttered as he swelled even more. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself in the heat of her, feel her body undulate around him, but he forced himself to slow. He would take his time, even if it killed him.
Henry drew small kisses along the column of her throat, his fingers inching down toward the simple neckline of the gown. His mouth followed their path, nudging and nibbling her skin and making her moan. Her head fell back, and he supported her with one hand as his mouth devoured the swelling rise of her breasts. He pulled her bodice low, exposing one crest to his greedy gaze, and then the other.
“You are perfect,” he said, kneading the rounded flesh gently and taking one peak into his mouth. Her fingers tangled in his hair as he suckled, his tongue curling over her taut nipple. Irina whimpered as he turned his attention to her other breast, his own blood turning to fire in his veins.
Lifting his mouth, Henry eased the dress down over her hips until it fell into a pool at her feet. He pulled back slightly to look his fill. A radiant flush suffused her body as she stood there in plain cotton drawers, her eyes never leaving his. Henry decided that she had never looked lovelier. She was breathtaking. And she was his.
“I do not know how I managed to resist the sight of you unclothed for so long,” he murmured. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Irina blushed and laughed. “Surely not the most beautiful? You flatter me with poetic words, my lord. But I am far too lean, my breasts are too small, and I have muscle where most women should have softness.”
Henry shook his head. She was perfect from the top of her head to her pert breasts and narrow waist, to those long slender legs that he’d obsessed about for hours on end.
“Your breasts are perfect to me.” To prove his point, he bent forward, lingering over each of them, making her gasp as he scraped his teeth over each of her nipples. “I love every inch of your trim, firm body.”
Kneeling, he kissed a path down the center of her flat belly and dipped his tongue into her navel, making her fingers dig into his shoulders. Henry’s hands wandered down her rib cage, sliding over her hips and over the sides of her thighs. “And these legs were made to bring a man to heaven.” His hot breath fanned against the embroidered edge of her drawers as he drew his tongue along its length, tugging at its ties with his teeth.
Growling low in his throat, Henry stood and in one smooth motion, hooked an arm beneath her knees and lifted her, carrying her to the bed and pulling back the bedclothes. He moved to snuff out the light, but she stopped him. “Leave it. I want to see you, too.”
“Irina—” he began, his usual self-consciousness rising.
She sat up, clutching the edge of the sheet to her breasts. “You have nothing to hide from me, Henry. No more secrets, remember?”
After a moment, he nodded. She would be his wife, and he knew he could trust her. He pulled the shirt over his head. Though he was careful to keep his back away from her, he joined her on the bed, the mattress dipping beneath his weight. She moved to touch him, her hands sliding along the bunched muscles of his torso, and Henry exhaled sharply. “You’re beautiful, too,” she murmured. “So strong. So powerful. When I see you like this, I think of a lion. Long and lean and dangerous.”
“Lie back,” he told her, pushing her hands gently above her head. She wouldn’t think he was so beautiful if she got a close-up eyeful of the ugly scar tissue on his back. In his experience, most women’s reactions ranged from pity to disgust to horror. And though he trusted her, and though Irina had already seen him on the ship, Henry did not want her scrutinizing him and ruining the moment.
Untying the threads of her drawers, he inched the serviceable material over her hips until she was fully exposed to him. His body flexed uncontrollably at the creamy expanse of satiny skin and the thatch of dark hair that hid the most secret part of her…the very part he was, at the moment, most interested in.
“What are you doing?” Irina asked, her eyes going wide as he settled himself between her thighs.
