Page 73 of The Beast of Beswick
“Yours. I want to be surrounded by you.”
In his bedchamber, Fletcher had left one candle burning, which Thane extinguished on his way to the massive bed. It made her heart twinge, but Astrid didn’t mind the darkness. There was safety in it. She understood why Thane needed it with his scarring. And the truth was, she was too afraid of what would be written all over her, what he would be able to see in her eyes.
He wanted to hide his body. She needed to hide her heart.
Scooting to the middle of the enormous bed, Astrid heard the rustle as he shucked out of his clothing. Buckets of desire sluiced down her spine, her anticipation heightening with every sound. Without sight, her other senses were amplified a hundredfold. The mattress dipped as Thane joined her. Warm hands caressed her soles, sending shivery bolts of heat up her entire body.
He licked at her breasts, drawing one nipple into his mouth and sucking. Her entire body shuddered with arousal as he paid patient, decadent homage to the other. “As are you, Your Grace.” She smiled in the darkness. “I’m constantly confounded by the fact that your mouth is so…gifted.”
She felt his answering grin. “This is only the beginning, darling.”
“Confident, too.”
“I am a duke,” he rumbled. “We are an impressive bunch; ask any one of us.”
Astrid wanted to laugh but gasped instead as he pressed thatveryimpressive male part against her sensitive sex in response and circled his lean hips in a slow, teasing motion. Her hands, which hadn’t been able to explore before, grasped his shoulders, dragging him down to her for a hot, open-mouthed kiss. She gloried in the feel of his body as he draped himself over her. His chest hair abraded her breasts with delightful friction, and she arched her spine, rubbing her hard nipples against him.
“You feel so good,” he groaned.
“As do you.”
Curious, her fingers wandered over his ruined back and side, and though she felt every rise and bump of his tortured skin, Astrid was careful not to pause. Sorrow and pity surged through her. She wished she could kiss every scar and heal him from the inside out, but she settled for palming every bare inch of him. She marveled at the expanse of his shoulders, savored the long channel of his spine, and delighted in the two wicked indents above his taut buttocks.
Grinning to herself, she grasped his rear at the same time that she brought her knees up to grip his hips. They both gasped at the intimate position.
“Fill me,” she ordered in a hoarse voice.
And he did.
…
His darling wife was going to kill him.
The smart, beautiful, hot-mouthed little harpy who had upended his world and boldly challenged him on every level. Astrid’s natural passion astounded him. Humbled him. And she held nothing back, giving herself wholly and unconditionally, a gift in itself.
The velvet cling of her was exquisite torture, the scent and taste of her combining to make him nonsensical. He’d been in a constant state of arousal from the moment he’d seen her fresh and rosy from her bath. Thankfully, she had wanted him as much as he wanted her.
And now, the feel of her warm, luscious, willing form conspired against years of discipline and experience. Lodged deep, his cock throbbed. Slowly, he inched backward, feeling the soft hug of her passage as she unwillingly relinquished him. Thane swallowed hard, every muscle coiled with tension as he eased back in with a groan.
“I love how you feel inside me,” she whispered. “You’re my missing piece.”
He almost came then. Her words had the power to do that to him, he was discovering. “And you’re mine.”
His frenzied heart echoed his thoughts:Mine. Mine.Mine.
Thane withdrew and plunged forward again, his rhythm gathering speed. He could feel her knees gripping his hips, her hands digging into his shoulders as she met him thrust for thrust. She sought his lips, and he gave them to her, delighting in the hot plunge of her tongue and the assertive way it twined about his. Her movements grew jerkier as she neared her peak.
“Yes, sweetheart, come for me.”
“Thane,” she cried out, her head falling back as she was gripped in orgasm.
Driving deep, he was quick to follow as her inner muscles clamped down and pulsed around his cock. His ballocks tightened, and pleasure spiked through him as he yanked backward, pulling himself from her sheath at the last minute before his brain went blank. His seed spurted against her belly, and with a guttural shout, he collapsed against her, breathing hard.
Not wanting to crush her, Thane shifted them both to the side, holding her damp body close. His replete senses slowly came back to reality. Thane gave his wife a gentle kiss on the lips, his mouth unerringly finding hers in the darkness. Astrid didn’t say anything, but he could feel her mind turning at his withdrawal. He didn’t want to spoil what they’d just shared.
After a moment, he rose naked and walked to the bathing chamber to retrieve a pitcher of lukewarm water and a cloth. Thane didn’t need a candle to light his way—he was accustomed to moving around in the darkness. His eyes had adjusted enough to make out Astrid’s lean shape on the bed. Gently, he washed the stickiness from her belly and her thighs.
“Do you wish to stay here or return to your chamber?” he asked when he was finished seeing to himself.
