Page 30 of The Innocent Carrying His Legacy

So he lay there, staring down at her face, his hand moving slowly, exploring her slick heat as she moaned and twisted beneath his touch. There was no shame to her, no hiding, no holding back. She’d abandoned herself utterly to the pleasure and it was the most mesmerising thing he’d ever seen in his entire life.

He ached to have her hands on him, to have her mouth on him, but his control felt thin and tenuous, as if he couldn’t quite hold onto it, which might have disturbed him if he’d thought about it. But he didn’t think about it. Nothing was more important than her pleasure in this moment, than her hunger and how he would feed it, drive it higher, and then satisfy it in a way that no one else could.

He slipped one careful finger inside her, then another, feeling the tight, wet heat of her body grip him. She gasped, another low moan escaping her, arching up as he slid his fingers deeper. Setting up a gentle slide in and out with one hand, he pushed her T-shirt up with the other, exposing the practical white cotton of her bra. He pulled that aside, baring her breasts, her skin milky, her nipples a pretty dusky pink. Lowering his head, he circled one with his tongue, teasing her and making her gasp before sucking it into his mouth.

Then he worked her with his fingers and his tongue, using the trembling of her body and the soft cries she made as his guide, stoking her pleasure higher and higher.

Ivy clutched at him, writhed beneath him, making the ache in his groin more intense. Making him want to tear the T-shirt from her body, thrust her legs apart and take her roughly and hard. And he would do that. Eventually. For now, though, he’d take his time, he’d be careful with her, stoking her pleasure lazily because it was good to have her beg him. Good to have her pleading. Good to have his name in her mouth as she clutched at him and demanded more.

It was good to have her desperate for him and he wanted to enjoy that for as long as physically possible.

She was such a passionate little thing though and she didn’t last as long as he would have liked. He brushed his thumb over the hard bud between her thighs at the same time as he thrust deep with his fingers, and she went suddenly stiff, her whole body arching. A shaken cry escaped her and she convulsed as the orgasm swept over her.

He didn’t take his hands away immediately. He stroked her, easing her down until her trembling had begun to fade, then he put his hands on the cushions on either side of her head and looked down into her flushed face.

‘I didn’t know.’ The brilliant copper of her gaze was full of wonder and she stared back as if she’d never seen anything like him before. ‘I didn’t know it would be like that.’

The tightness in his chest returned and he couldn’t place the feeling. It was almost like sympathy, or pity, or regret, he wasn’t sure which. Something to do with the wonder on her face and her passionate response, and how it seemed obvious that someone in her life had neglected her and neglected her terribly.

But then, as his research had shown him, she’d grown up in a children’s home and had no family. She’d had no one at all except the friend for whom she’d offered to be a surrogate and now that friend was gone.

She’s alone, like you.

The tightness wrapped around him and squeezed. Ah, but he wasn’t alone, not any more. He commanded men. He had his half-brother dependent on the money he brought him. He had power. He wanted for nothing.

He wasn’t the Sultana’s neglected bastard any more.

‘You’re a virgin, aren’t you?’ He watched her face, enjoying how unguarded she was in this moment. As she had been with the gardener just before, alight with interest and curiosity. He’d wanted her to be that way with him and now she was, and he relished the satisfaction of it.

‘You guessed?’ A crease appeared between her brows. ‘I suppose it was obvious. But...what gave it away?’

Unexpected amusement coiled inside him. ‘A few things.’

‘Like what?’

‘I’m not really in the mood to have a conversation about that.’ He shifted against her, pressing his hard, aching sex against the soft heat between her thighs. ‘We’re not finished.’

Her eyes went very round. ‘Oh...’

She was so pretty and the scent of her body, jasmine and a delicate musk, was making that desire, that powerful possessive drive, almost impossible to restrain.

He leaned down, brushing his mouth over hers in another kiss. ‘I’m going to take you, little fury,’ he murmured, because he wanted her to be very clear about what was going to happen between them. And what it would mean for her. ‘And once I do, you’ll be mine. And it’ll be for ever, because what’s mine stays mine. Do you understand?’

She shivered, a painfully vulnerable expression crossing her face. ‘Why? Why do you want me to be yours? You don’t even know me. If I weren’t pregnant with your child, you wouldn’t even have looked twice at me.’

For once there was no anger in her voice, only a painful note that somehow pierced him like an arrow. She was totally genuine; he could see it in her eyes. She really had no idea why he would want her.

It’s a valid question. And she’s right, you barely know her.

Oh, but he would. And what he did know, what he’d seen in the interactions they’d had already, was that her spirit and her will called to him in a way he hadn’t experienced with another woman. Yes, he couldn’t deny that the baby had triggered something in him, but it was her who’d deepened that connection. Her and that stubborn spirit of hers that had made him want.

‘If you weren’t pregnant with my child, you wouldn’t be here.’ He shifted his hands, cupping her face between them, adjusting his weight so she could feel the pressure of him, the solidity of him surrounding her, yet not be crushed. ‘And if you weren’t the most stubborn, the most aggravating, the most passionate woman I’ve ever met, you wouldn’t be lying on the couch right now with your legs apart and me on top of you.’

A deep red flush swept over her. ‘Don’t lie. Don’t say things you don’t mean.’

‘I never say things I don’t mean and I never lie.’ He curled his fingers into the soft chestnut of her hair, holding her gaze so she could see the truth. ‘Why would you think I would?’

His stare was so direct and Ivy felt naked. And not just literally. Somehow his touch and the pleasure he’d given her had stripped all her emotional armour from her too, and she didn’t know how to put it back on.

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