Chapter 10

Emma curled her toes into the prickly grass, lifting her face to the cool night air. She'd woken a few minutes ago tucked too tightly into the bedclothes, the fireplace roaring and sweat trickling down her forehead and neck. She had tossed off the bedsheets and rushed to open the windows. She threw on a nightgown to cover her naked body. The beautiful night had beckoned, and laughing, she had bounded down the stairs, noting the silence of the house and trying to ignore her hunger.

Emma hurried toward the lake, the glistening water enticing her closer. She was no longer overheated, but the idea of swimming in the lake was too tempting. The last night she had done something like this was with her sisters in Penporth. Five of them had snuck from their beds to jump into the squire's lake and swam for an hour. Emma ran to the edge of the lake with a laugh, dipping her toe into the water. It was cold, but not piercingly so.

A sensual kind of naughtiness rushed through her, gripping the edges of her nightgown, she started to pull it up.

"Good God," a voice in the dark groaned. "Do not take it off!"

Emma gasped and whirled around. "David?"

"Of course, it is me," he said in a strangled tone. "You were about to strip naked."

Emma smiled though her heart was pounding a frightful beat. "I thought I was alone. I wanted to swim and not soak my nightgown."

A small pause, then, "Swim naked?"

"Have you never done it?"

"No."

The viscount said nothing more, and though Emma could not discern where he was, she felt the intensity of his stare. A sparkling heat chased up Emma's spine, to her breasts, and down between her thighs. She tried to speak, but her voice felt trapped inside her chest. Finally, she said, "Then swim with me."

"Naked."

"Yes." Emma grinned. "Or is that too dangerous?"

"I was more wondering if the fishes would be tempted to nibble on my backside."

She laughed, canting her head in the direction of his voice. "So, are you tempted, my lord?"

He emerged from the shadows, the light from the pale moon washing over his features. "Yes, but not for swimming."

Oh, God.Somehow Emma had thought his seduction would have been practiced, that there were intricate steps to be taken, a ritual of some sort. This felt provocative, too spontaneous. Her toes were bare and wet with grass and dew. Her cotton nightgown was a familiar comfort that had needed to be discarded two years ago. Her loose hair rippled down her shoulders and back in tangled waves. It wasn't how she had anticipated, yet now the moment was upon her, heat and nerves scythed through her chest and expanded throughout her entire body.

"Come here," he murmured, his voice rough and far too sensual.

Emma knew what would happen should she walk over to him, yet she did not hesitate, but ran into his arms. His eyes widened, and then he caught her to him, dragging her up and kissing her with reckless and tempestuous want. That quickly, fire seemed to engulf her entire body, shaving off the slight chill of the night air. David tasted sweet and decadent. Emma softly moaned into his embrace when he swung her into his arms so that she had to wrap herself around his body to anchor her weight. Her legs hooked around his hips and her arms tightly around his neck. Their mouths danced and teased, kissing over and over.

David took her into a glass conservatory, surrounded by the fragrant scent of flowers. Inside was heated and lush, and Emma held onto him when he bore her down to a padded chaise longue by the windows. Their mouths broke apart, and he scattered kisses over her cheeks and down her throat.

"I need to take you inside…to my bed and worship you as you deserve," he groaned. "I feel I cannot breathe or think with this urgent want I have for you, Emma. God…I've never thought feeling like this was fucking remotely possible."

Awe and tenderness speared through her. "You are trembling, David."

"So are you," he said gruffly.

She tenderly kissed the underside of his jaw. The scent of him, overwhelmingly male, surrounded Emma and filled her senses. "That is because I am burning up with need. I want you so very much."

He rose above her, one of his feet braced on the ground and the other bent by the knee, which was pressed down on the chaise right between the valley of her legs. David pushed the nightgown up her legs, dipped his head, and licked from her ankle to the sensitive back of her knee. Emma gasped, reaching up above her head and gripping the arm of the chaise for purchase. The move arched her breasts and hips upward in provocative yet very instinctive want.

He kept sliding the nightgown up, kissing each inch of her flesh exposed with torturous intensity. Her heart was a pounding mess, and she felt assailed by a strange weakness. It invaded her bones and made her pliant…and so willingly, lasciviously open. She bit into her lower lip and squeezed the armrest when his mouth brushed against the inside of her thighs, close enough to her sex that she felt his breath waft over her folds.

Oh, God.

Shock widened her eyes when he inhaled her, a rough groan leaving his throat. Next, her hips…then belly were exposed, and she felt more than saw his blistering stare on her body. Emma flicked her gaze from the ceiling to stare at her lover. His expression was harsh and sensual with his desire, and the way he stared at her exposed sex engulfed her entire body with blushes. The wretched devil smiled.

"Do not look away from me, Emma, my sweet."

Her breath hitched when he kissed right onto her navel. Her belly quivered when he flicked his tongue over her right there before nipping it sensually.

"David," she moaned, unable to still the rising tide of lust.

Next, the underside of her breasts was exposed, and they were laved with licks and kisses. She cried out when he sucked a nipple into his mouth with tender pulls, then with passion. He ravished her body with kisses and touches that roused her to a fever pitch of desire. Emma was almost sobbing when he eased her upward, whisked the nightgown off her body, and tossed it aside.

He stared at her body as if he had never seen a naked woman.

"By God, you are so damn lovely."

Holding her gaze, David removed his clothes with swift movements. Anticipation set her heart to pounding as she stared at the beautifully corded body revealed with each piece of discarded garment. She barely got a chance to appreciate his primal male beauty before he came over her to press another drugging kiss to her mouth. Emma thought he would join their bodies now as her sisters had explained, but he only broke their kiss to open her wider to his greedy gaze, lowered his head, and licked over her exposed sex.

Emma cried out, slapping a hand over her mouth. Her sisters hadn't told her this part! Oh, God!

He did it again, and she tried to close her legs against the far too wicked sensual assault. He nipped the lower curve of her backside, then sucked at that spot until her flesh throbbed. The slightest shift of his mouth placed him back at her sex, and David kissed her, flicking his tongue over her clitoris and then sucking her tender flesh.

Pleasure snapped through her body like lightning, and she arched, convulsing as ecstasy bowed her back. Still, he did not relent his ministrations, the pleasure thumping even more insistent when a finger slipped inside her sex. The invasion at first felt odd…the idea that a part of him was so intimately pushed inside of her. Then he raked his teeth over her nub and pushed that finger deeper, stroking it in and out. For a breathless moment, Emma's mind felt fractured by bliss. She sobbed, lifting her hips against his mouth, shattering when he allowed another finger to join the first, stretching her with a delicious pressure that made the pit of her belly swirl.

David came over her, his weight falling perfectly between her splayed legs. We fit, she dazedly thought as his chest pressed against the sensitive tips of her breasts. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, feeling his thumping pulse against her tongue. He reached between them, fitted his cock to her sex, and pushed inside.

Her sisters lied.

The pain was not fleeting or slight. Emma bit his shoulder as shock buffeted her senses at his inexorable invasion. He thrust to the hilt before pausing, turning his mouth to kiss along her cheek, seeking her mouth. She went to him, accepting his kisses and his soothing murmurs. The stinging pain eased, and the pressure did not feel so terrible when he moved. Another glide, and the spark rekindled low in her belly.

Oh!

David started to move within her, and Emma gasped at the wonderful pressure. A throb of pain lingered beneath the sensations striking at her, but the evocative pleasure was greater.

"Wrap your legs around my hips…but keep them slightly open…just so," he sensually hissed when she complied.

Emma did not close her ankles around his back but kept her legs up and bracketed at his hips. Somehow this allowed him to bury his manhood deeper inside her sex, dragging heated whimpers from deep inside her. His groan was different now, coarse and raw. Emma held onto him, kissing his lips and jaw as he plunged over and over, tossing her toward madness. Sweat slicked their skins as their mutual groans and sighs of passion filled the glass house. The coil gathering inside her like a storm snapped, and she burst apart with bliss, crying out his name. David groaned, pulling from her to release on the soft of her belly, crushing her inside his arms as he found his own pleasure.

Emma never imagined anything could be this satisfying.

"I am going to take you inside, draw you a bath, and then you'll sleep in my bed."

"Feed me first," she murmured, her stomach rumbling.

"How does lemon cake sound?"

She kissed his shoulders. "Wonderful."

"I might be able to find some roasted pork."

Emma smiled when he gently pulled from her and reached for a handkerchief in his discarded jacket. David tenderly cleaned her, then helped her dress. He would not allow her to walk but lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. She yawned, closing her eyes, and falling into a deep sleep before they even reached his bedchamber.