Page 41 of Lady Frederica and the Scot Who Would Not
She frowned. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter. Not now.” His gaze raked over her, making her toes curl. “I can’t wait. Not with you here before me. You rob me of control.”
He didn’t sound as if he liked that one bit, but he was proceeding forward, so she bit back any comment as he slid his hands up across her stomach and between her breasts, his arms stretching, muscles straining against his skin, before he cupped her breasts. At the same time, he stood to tower over her. “Are you afraid?”
“I want very much what’s to come,” she said, sensing he was speaking of them joining.
A hint of a smile pulled at his lips. “My bold lass,” he said, the burr that so rarely was heard coming out.
He lifted her, setting her on the top of the pianoforte, her feet on the keyboard. Lyrical notes punctured the silence, even as he opened her legs and rucked up her gown. The air around her became electrified, the desire between them crackling like lightning. Her breathing grew shallow and fast.
“You’re so damned beautiful.” He skimmed the tender inner flesh of her thighs with his fingers and made her insides turn to liquid. “I want you so very much.” His hand hovered at the juncture of her thighs, as if he’d not delve there, into her silken curls where her hidden spot lay, without her permission. She appreciated the gesture on a deep level. He was giving her power in a world where women had precious little.
She wanted his touch, just as much as she sensed he wanted to give it, but she also wanted to know one thing. “Why did you leave me in the bedchamber alone on our wedding night?” Never mind that he’d left her alonetwiceon their wedding night. It was a triviality.
His gaze suddenly dropped, but he said, “To give you time to calm from your fright.”
She brought her hands to his shoulders, allowing her fingers to curl there over the taut muscle and solid bone. “Do you know what I think?” she asked as her pulse drummed hard.
Slowly, his gaze came to her. “What?”
The word was heavy, reluctant, but she didn’t let it stop her. She couldn’t. “I think you were the one who needed time to recover.”
His gaze flicked wider by the barest of slivers, but it was all she needed to know she’d struck on a truth.
“It’s my job to protect you, Frederica, and I almost failed.”
She wouldn’t push him, not now. This destroying of barriers was a delicate process. “Well, I’m here, unharmed. You didn’t fail. So show me, if you dare, what happens next between us.” She had never said such a bold thing in her life. The thrill of it left her breathless, and the smile he gave her made her dizzy.
“Wee, wicked lass,” he growled, drawing off her unmentionables in an astonishingly adept manner. Cool air hit her below as he pulled her to the edge of the piano top, so that she was almost hanging off. He shoved the bench out of his way, then gently parted her at her center and lowered his head toward her most private area.
The action rendered her speechless and rushed adrenaline through her, and when his fingers spread her and his hot breath wafted over her core, she clutched him. “Do you mean to—”
“I do indeed mean to…” He offered a salacious smile as his fingers touched her bud, firing off a million sensations within her. Her bottom clenched and a moan escaped her. “I assume that’s you giving me permission to proceed?” he teased.
She barely got a nod out, as she forced herself to loosen her clenched thighs on either side of his upper torso. Before she could even fully relax, his tongue traced up her sensitive flesh, branding her and making her whimper at how wonderful it felt. Gabriel, the intelligent man, took her whimpering for what it was in the moment—full submission.
He stroked his tongue up her center slowly and repeatedly until her throat ached to scream her satisfaction, and then he circled the pearl, making the need and knots build and tighten with each slide of his tongue against her flesh. Blood rushed in her ears, heat swept through her body, and her pulse increased at a pace that left her panting. She lifted her hips to meet him more fully, to force his mouth harder upon her, to get that completion that he’d given her before.
A great wave built slow and delicious, and then crashed upon her. Yet, even in the chaos, she knew it would not be enough. “Gabriel, please, I want you to make me yours.”
The dark look of primal triumph he gave her as he tugged her away from the keyboard to the other edge and slid her toward him made her quiver. “Look at me,” he commanded, and she did, locking gazes with him. “It will just be one moment of pain, and if you want me to stop—”
“I won’t. I’m ready.”
He captured her mouth with his hot one, slanting a ravenous kiss over her lips and plunging his tongue inside her while he lifted her toward him and plunged himself inside her. She gasped and stilled, digging her nails into him. She’d known. Of course she had. She’d made it a point not to be naive. Even as the thoughts flitted through her head, her body started to relax, to stretch, to accept him and conform around him.
“Frederica?” he said, the restrain in his voice obvious.
“I’m fine.”
He pulled back to look at her. “Just fine?” He raised his eyebrows.
“More than fine,” she whispered, leaning forward to kiss his chest and his neck. A low growl emanated from him as if she’d pushed him toward some edge with her ministrations, and when he gripped her legs harder and slid slowly inside her from his base to his tip, she realized she’d pushed him toward losing that grip on himself he always held so tight. It was exhilarating, and becoming more so the faster he moved, the more pleasure it built within her.
Even as he moved within her, he brought his teeth to her night rail, tugged the material down over one shoulder to bare her breast, and took her nipple in his mouth to suckle. It was too much perfect torture. Her body arched like the string of a bow about to be shot, and she could not stop her scream of pleasure as waves of heat flooded over her. As her muscles clenched repeatedly around him, his own movements grew faster and faster, until he too tensed and growled and seemed to bury himself impossibly deep within her. And then hot liquid filled her. She sagged against him with a laugh, and he surprised her by lifting her, her gown falling from where it had been pushed up to her hips, and he slipped an arm under her legs while tugging her gown back down to cover her.
His eyes held hers for a moment. “You’re beautiful, and I don’t mean simply your outer appearance, though you’re right damned lovely. You’ve an inner light.”
