Page 83 of The Tempting of Thomas Carrick
Yet their senses had never been so full, so alive, so overwhelmed. With his awareness reduced to touch and nothing more, her skin had never felt so silken and smooth, so fine and perfect, her curves had never seemed so lush, so delectably formed. So alluring.
And the same sensual restrictions that limited him also limited her. He could only imagine what, in this heightened state, she was feeling…just thinking of that laid a visceral edge to his escalating need.
Their heated, heavy, commanding need.
He pressed his fingers deep, then deeper, stroked, and she shifted her hips, seeking, needing—brazenly wanting.
He drew his hand from her and pushed down the front of his sleeping trousers. His erection sprang free and he pressed closer. Adjusting her upper thigh and the angle of his hips behind hers, he slid the rigid shaft into the hollow between her thighs; he gripped her hip and held her immobile as he aligned the head with her entrance, then he sank home.
In. Deeper.
His weight propped on one elbow, one hand filled with her breast, the other clamped over the curve of her hip, he held her still and steadily forged into her body, until he came to rest engulfed to the hilt in her searing softness.
Her body clamped about his in a welcoming embrace that had him shuddering—with need, with desire, and so much more.
But even as he let his weight settle on her, shifting into the best position in which to ride her, the control that the moment had imposed on him, that had held and set the pace to that point, continued to restrain him.
He withdrew from her clinging heat, almost to the point of losing it, then—slowly, heavily, and deliberately—he surged back, filling her anew, his groin pressing against the lush curves of her bottom.
She murmured and pushed back, taking him deeper yet, but even as he continued the measured dance of thrust and retreat, she, too, seemed to accept the compelling beat.
As if it thudded through both their hearts, down both their veins, not just his.
Beneath the covers in the gray light of early dawn, they continued dancing to the strict beat, so slow, so steady, so heated—so achingly intense. So overflowing with reined desire that it almost choked them. Every nerve he possessed was excruciatingly alive, seared alive by a passion so demanding, so relentlessly commanding.
They could have gone faster at any time, but neither made any move to break the spell. Instead, they clung, each to the other, and let it play out—let it unravel them both.
Sinking her fingertips into his thigh, she held him to her as the tension ratcheted one last notch—then, arching wildly, she came apart on a sobbing cry.
The sound filled his ears, and blindly he followed, holding her immobile and thrusting deep into her rippling sheath.
Release slammed through him. Scoured and emptied him.
He pumped into her surrendered body, felt his seed jet into the dark warmth of her womb—and all tension left him. Abruptly released, he collapsed over her; gasping, his heart thundering, barely aware, he tightened his arms and held her close.
And felt her sink back into him, accepting, holding him to her in her own way.
Ecstasy rolled over him—over them. It stole away the last shreds of control, of any ability to think. In a wave as long and as steady as the undeniable beat that had commanded them throughout, the glory rolled on and through them, and only very slowly receded, finally leaving them wrung out, exhausted, and steeped in pleasure. Shared pleasure, where awareness of hers heightened his, where a thrum of connection remained, resonating within him, even when the fading tide had fully ebbed away.
That connection fascinated, but he couldn’t focus. The dark warmth of satiation beckoned; slumping under the covers with her locked against him, he let go and allowed his senses to slide into that soothing embrace.
* * *
Perhaps it had simply been that they were there, in the Vale, in a place of peace and assured safety, and no longer surrounded by the uncertainty, the questions, and suspicions that now haunted Carrick Manor. Lying in the bed with his arms crossed behind his head, Thomas wondered if that was reason enough to account for the contentment, the abiding sense of rightness and peace that had swamped him after the act and, even now, lay heavy and oddly reassuring within him.
He’d woken five minutes ago to discover morning sunshine streaming in through the window and Lucilla no longer beside him—indeed, no longer in the room. But the sheets at his side still held her warmth; she could only just have left. He was sorry he’d missed that—both the sight and the chance of gauging what she’d thought of their earlier endeavors. Then again, there was no reason to imagine the interlude had affected her in the odd way it seemed to have affected him.
In his eyes, some new element had crept into the moments, something unexpected that he didn’t understand, and as such, it intrigued him and tugged at his awareness.
By anyone’s standards, he was an experienced man. To discover something new in an act he’d indulged in times out of number was a situation guaranteed to command his attention. Admittedly, the first time he’d had Lucilla beneath him had been exceptionally intense, yet now… It wasn’t so much her, herself, as her and him together—possibly in this place—that seemed to be opening new avenues to explore.
Which, for a man of his appetites, was a very real temptation….
Luckily, he had at least a few more nights of compulsorily sharing Lucilla’s bed.
He let a slow grin curve his lips, then he threw back the covers. He swung up to sit on the edge of the bed and paused to assess his injuries. His head no longer throbbed at all; he reached up and traced the lump above his left ear, and was pleased to find it reduced in size and only slightly painful when prodded.
As for his leg, there was definite pain there, but a quick examination showed the redness about the gash and stitches was already fading. Whatever ointment Lucilla had smeared over the wound seemed to be doing the trick; the gash was dry, and even he could see that there was no infection.
