Chapter Nine

B lanche smiled. If he’d called her beautiful earlier, when they’d first met, she wouldn’t have believed him. It would’ve been too similar to Tobias. But now, after he’d dried her tears and helped her breathe, after he’d shared some of the secret parts of his soul with her, it meant everything.

How she wanted to kiss him again. This was her chance. He’d be gone tomorrow, hopefully escaped, and she’d never see him again. But if she kissed him, would he change his mind about her? Would he think her a slut? He was in this problem because she’d let another man take her.

She’d somehow fallen in love with him in these few hours. The Blanche of two months ago would’ve laughed at her. But now she’d known love and betrayal and heartache. Now she could tell a good man from a bad one. Now she knew that while she had loved Tobias, she had never felt safe with him like she did with Dennis.

She nuzzled his neck beneath his collar, breathing in his scent.

Dennis’s hand swept down her head, neck, and back. It drifted lower, to her bottom. It didn’t move. Blanche froze, afraid if she moved he’d pull away from her. The heat of his skin radiated through the thin cloth of her nightdress.

He gripped her backside, sighing. “Blanche, you have no idea how much I want you.” But he wouldn’t act on it, she realized. For the same reason he wouldn't marry her.

In the pitch blackness, Blanche kissed his throat. She started with a soft kiss, and his pulse leapt against her mouth. She offered more kisses—open ones, wet ones. She nibbled and sucked her way up his throat until she reached his lips. Her core heated and began to throb, and she wanted to be closer to him.

“Blanche,” he rasped, then devoured her. He kissed her everywhere . He nipped her lips, he peppered her cheeks, he sucked on her earlobes. The sensation of his skin sliding against hers was so overwhelming her toes curled.

“Yes,” she gasped. “More, more.” She ran her fingers through his hair, returning his kisses as best she could. She licked his dimple. “I’ve wanted to do that all night,” she whispered.

He growled in response and bit her gently on the curve of her neck and shoulder. “And I’ve wanted to do this.” His hands moved from her back to her front. He found the first button of her nightdress and undid it. Inch by inch he revealed her to his touch, and she loved it. When he slipped his hand inside to palm one breast she gasped and arched her back, shocked by the intimate feel of him. She’d never felt like this before.

Blanche wished she could make him feel as good as he made her. But she’d only done this once before, and she didn’t want to think about that time while Dennis was with her. “I don’t know what to do with my hands,” she admitted as his second hand came between them to grasp her other breast.

“Whatever you want,” he panted, placing a kiss above her heart. “I like them in my hair.”

Blanche smiled and threaded her fingers through his hair again. “I love touching you.”

Dennis chuckled, and the hot breath against the tops of her breasts made her squirm and the throb between her legs began to ache. He kissed further, until he latched his mouth onto a nipple and sucked.

“Oh!” Blanche thought she might faint from pleasure. “Yes, that, please.” This was new. She’d never considered how wonderful a mouth on her breasts could be. She gripped his hair in response.

His hand began to stroke and play with her other breast. He thumbed her nipple, then plucked and rubbed it while he laved the other with his tongue. “So sweet,” he murmured. “So fucking sweet. I knew it.”

Blanche couldn’t remain still under this onslaught of passion. Her hands slid under his collar, scraped down his back, and scratched, giving him just as much as he gave her. “Dennis, this is amazing.”

Dennis kept nibbling at her breast while his hand slipped down to her calf.

She jumped at the unexpected touch, and his hand stilled below her knee. He pulled his head away from her breast.

“Blanche?” he asked quietly. “Do you want this?”

“Yes, of course!” Blanche stroked his back. “It surprised me, that’s all.”

Another pause in the darkness. “How far do you wish to take this?”

Blanche blinked. What sort of question was that? “I thought that once a man’s passions had been aroused, we had to complete the act. It was impossible for a man to stop, or if he did it would cause pain.”

His grip on her calf tightened. “No,” he growled. “That’s not—just—disregard anything that bounder said when he seduced you. He was manipulating you for his own selfish pleasure. Don’t trust it.”

Blanche expected anger to surge at this revelation. But she focused on Dennis, and gratitude welled inside her chest at his honesty. “We will never see one another again after dawn, and I’d like as much of you as I can to remember.”

“I want that, too.” Dennis surprised her with a swift, hard kiss. His head went back to her breasts, and her arousal spiked as his hand trailed past her knee and up her thigh.

In search of relief against the throbbing ache, she squeezed her legs together. Her arousal slicked her thighs, and she needed his hand on her like she’d never needed anything before.

She licked his earlobe as his hand went up over her hip and then found her maidenhair. She groaned. This felt so much better than she remembered.

Dennis eased her onto her back, and he leaned over her, kissing her with long, drugging kisses and tangling his tongue with hers. His hand tenderly combed through her curls now that he’d rucked her nightdress up to her waist.

Blanche didn’t mind the dark now, for it was the reason they explored intimacy.

“Spread your legs for me,” Dennis whispered in her ear, and she did. He slid two fingers down into her wet folds, then up and across a tiny nub near the top. She nearly flew out of the bed at the jolt of feeling.

“What was that?” she gasped.

Dennis chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. “That is how I’ll make you come.”

Blanche was intrigued. She’d heard of women finding pleasure, but it had never been put in those terms before within her hearing. Could she have a paroxysm of pleasure, similar to men? She relaxed in the bed, sliding her legs a little wider.

His hand delved between the folds, slipping between and dipping inside her. He gathered wetness from her and brought his hand near their faces. Blanche smelled her arousal on his fingers and blushed.

But based on the sounds and movement, Dennis stuck those fingers in his mouth and sucked. “Mmm,” he groaned. “Like honey. I knew it.”

Blanche stared where she assumed his head lay. “Did you just taste me?”

“Yes, I did.” His voice came smug and unrepentant. “It’s better than ratafia.”

“I cannot believe you did that.”

“Oh, Blanche, my darling.” He gave a wicked laugh. Tingles shot down her spine at the sound, and she curled her toes. “There is so much more of you I could taste if we had the time.”

Before she could ask further questions, his mouth laved her breasts again and his hand returned to between her legs. He stroked and pleasured her, whispering encouraging words into her ear when he moved away from her breasts.

“That’s it,” he whispered when she gasped and all her muscles went taut for a heartbeat. “Do you feel the pleasure growing?”

Blanche searched with her hand until she found his other hand, bracing him up on the bed. She twisted her fingers between his and held on for dear life as he wrought nearly painful tension and rapture from her. Still it kept building, the release she sought just out of reach.

“Relax,” he whispered. She could hear his smile. “We have time. If it takes a while, it takes a while.”

Blanche loved that he wanted her to enjoy herself. But he was wrong; they didn’t have time. Dawn could come at any moment and rip him away. At that terrifying thought something peaked inside her body and she tumbled down, down into her paroxysm. She gripped Dennis’s hand as she went, wishing to bring him with her. She gasped as the sensation rippled through her, from her fingers to her toes, and she thought for a moment she might perish. She hadn’t experienced this last time! She’d never forget if she had.

When the paroxysm ended, she found herself curled up on her side, face buried in Dennis’s shirt. He stroked her hair. “So lovely,” he whispered.

Blanche stretched out again and hooked her arms around his shoulders, tugging him over her. “You’re so good at this.”

“Are you sure?” he asked as he settled between her spread legs.

I’ve already lost my virtue. I might as well enjoy what comes with being fallen. “Please,” she whispered.

He moved around, then came the sound of trousers being shucked down and a shirt pulled up. She grinned. She felt his hand between her legs once again, slipping two fingers inside her.

“So wet,” he moaned. Then he nudged her with his cock. And slowly, ever so slowly, entered her. When he rested fully within her, he dropped his head, so their foreheads touched. “Good God,” he muttered. “You feel like paradise.”

Blanche pulled her legs up so her feet rested flat on the mattress. “Are you going to move?”

He huffed a laugh. “Eventually. When I can be sure I won’t spill right now. I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of you.”

Blanche kissed his mouth gently. “You could never do that.”

He began to move in her, thrusting gently. She sighed in delight, and he slipped his hand between where they joined. Once again he thumbed the nub of nerves near the top of her sex, and she lit up.

As he moved faster, she wrapped her legs around his waist to make sure he couldn’t leave her. His shuddering breath told her he liked it, and his thrusts went deeper. After several moments, she neared a second paroxysm. “I think I’m going to come again!” she gasped.

Dennis let out a strained laugh. “I certainly hope so!” He renewed his efforts and shifted his hips at a different angle.

Blanche gave herself over to the sensation of sexual congress in the darkness, and suddenly the paroxysm slipped up and over her, pulling her down into a deep pool of pleasure she never wanted to leave.

Dennis panted above her, his forearms on either side of her head. “So close,” he gritted. Suddenly he pulled out of her. Before she could protest, hot liquid sprayed on her bare thighs.

“Did you spill your seed outside me?” Blanche asked.

Dennis sat on his haunches between her legs, panting heavily. “Of course I did. I wouldn’t want you to get with child.”

Surprise washed over her. Tobias had spilled inside her. She’d never thought a man would do otherwise. But Dennis had withdrawn. Because he was kind enough to make sure he’d not leave a baby behind. Because he was leaving. Because he didn’t wish to marry her. Especially since her uncle was driving him toward it.

She lay still, letting him take the edge of a bedsheet and wipe her thighs clean, then slide her nightdress back down around her legs. I love him. I don’t know how or when, but I know why. In the short time they’d known one another, he’d been kind, he’d stood up for her, he’d searched for ways to keep them both safe, he’d laughed and played silly parlor games. He’d shared his heart and his past with her. If she could pick anyone to marry, she’d pick him.

Dennis fumbled with his clothing, then lay down behind her. He curled around her and tucked an arm around under her breasts, anchoring her to him. “In some ways,” he whispered, and she felt his breath on the nape of her neck, “This is the best night of my life.”

Her heart cracked open. “I’m glad your Christmas wasn’t ruined,” she whispered back.

For several moments they didn’t speak. If we marry he won’t love me. He’ll have chosen to save his life, not chosen me . But perhaps that can be enough. I’d certainly be happier with him than Uncle. One day maybe I can convince him to love me. Blanche took a breath and whispered, “I don’t want you to die. If you choose to propose, I will say yes.”

But no reply came.

“Dennis?” she whispered. “Are you awake?”

Soft, steady breathing behind her told her he had fallen asleep.