Page 21 of Everything But the Earl
Owen stood up and turned around. He had a wide, muscular chest covered in dark hair. Grace hadn’t seen a nude man…ever, but she had seen stableboys without shirts on occasionally. That had not prepared her for the jolt of arousal her husband’s body sent through her.
She closed the space between them and put her hands on his shoulders.
“Are you stalling because you are nervous?” she asked. “Or because you find me repulsive.”
“I assure you, I do not find you repulsive.”
“But you are stalling.”
“I suppose. I feel some amount of pressure to make this feel good for you, but I can’t say I have some legendary reputation as a lover, so I am a bit at a loss.”
“Yes, but I have no reputation at all, so how would I know if you were a skilled lover or not?”
Owen raised an eyebrow. “You’d know. I’ll make sure you know.”Then he let out a little growl and kissed her.
It was hard not to feel vulnerable, standing as she was before him wearing nearly nothing. When Owen put his hands on her waist, his skin felt hot against hers. But she found, oddly, that she trusted him. She barely knew this man, but he’d only ever been kind to her, and he was handsome and strong and something about the way he kissed her made her skin tingle.
“May I touch you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Everywhere.”
Owen’s kisses grew hungrier. He licked into her mouth and nibbled at her lip. She put her arms around him and played with the hair at the back of his neck as they kissed and was surprised by how soft it was.
Then Owen scooped her up and carried her over to the bed.
He lay her there and then he undid the buttons on his breeches.
“I don’t want to terrify you,” he said, pausing.
“You won’t.”
“I’m going to muck this up.”
“Youwon’t.”
Grace’s gaze traveled down to the buttons on Owen’s breeches. She wanted desperately to know what he was hiding. She felt arousal flooding her body, nearly painful between her legs, and although the sensation was not new to her, it had never felt likethis.This was almost tangible.
So she grew bold, hoping to spur Owen along. She sat up and wriggled her shift up to her waist and then pulled it off over her head, revealing her entire body to Owen.
He groaned. “You are breathtaking,” he said.
She felt self-conscious but tried to hide it. That wasn’t too hard, given that Owen clearly liked what he saw. He let go of the buttons holding up his breeches, letting them slide down his hips. Then he worked to take them off, obscuring what hung between his legssomewhat. When he stood back up again, Grace had to admit she was a bit startled. How wasthatsupposed to fit—
“Relax,” Owen said, climbing onto the bed. “Lay back.”
She didn’t relax—her heart was beating too fast—but she did lay back, her head sinking into the pillow. Owen lay down beside her and put a hand on her hip. It did not escape her notice that they were still naked, that the lamps near the bed shone bright enough that she could see every inch of Owen’s skin, and that Owen now lay close enough to touch and smell and taste. Tentatively, Grace kissed Owen’s cheek, his jaw, his neck. His skin was salty and warm, but she liked it.
He shifted his weight on the bed so that he was closer to her, so that their bodies touched from their shoulders to their knees. She could feel him hard between them, and it should have scared her, but instead it excited her, as if her body knew instinctively what needed to happen here and was urging her forward.
Owen gently pushed one of her shoulders so that she was on her back. He nudged her knees apart with one hand. He placed his fingers on her collarbone and then slowly ran them down her chest, over the rise of her breast.
“Tell me if anything does not feel good or if you want me to stop,” he said. “And please touch me wherever you like.”
The angle was awkward, but truth be told, Grace was most curious about Owen’s cock. Men and women were far more different than even Grace had imagined. Owen had dark hair across his chest, on his forearms, on his shins, but his shoulders and buttocks were bare.
Owen cupped her breast and tweaked her nipple, which pulled a moan out of her. It was like she had strings in her body that he was pulling, that everything in her body was connected somehow, that she could feel his touch on her breasts between her legs. She reached over and ran a hand over his buttocks and was surprised by how smooth his skin was.
“Yes,” he murmured, shuffling closer to her.
