Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

C ooper told himself to take this slow and enjoy it. Enjoy Noelle, her body, her soul, and all that she had to offer him.

But he was having a hard time holding himself back. She was just too damn tempting.

He unbuttoned his jacket and slipped the sleeves off his arms before setting it on the chair beside him, remembering somewhere through his haze of desire that they would have to redress later.

But that wasn’t anything to be concerned with at the moment.

As Noelle turned to shut the door behind them, he reached out, sliding his hands around her hips. She inhaled sharply as he moved with her across the room until they were sitting in front of the dresser, where he turned her around and pressed their bodies flush together.

“I know that it isn’t Christmas quite yet,” he murmured in her ear, “but I think we should start a new tradition along with our marriage.”

“What is that?” she asked, her voice breathy.

“Unwrapping a gift a day early,” he said.

“Oh?” she said, her voice raspy. “What kind of gift were you thinking of?”

“You,” he said, tracing his thumbs over her hip bones. He could get used to this style of dress, which allowed him to feel her every curve when he slid his hands along the fabric.

A beautiful pink flush began to stain her skin, blossoming out of the dress and running up her neck until it flooded her cheeks.

He wanted to gather her in his arms and hold her close, while at the same time her sensuality was impossible to ignore. She was everything he had ever wanted but hadn’t known would ever be within his reach.

And, unlike the reason why this all started, it had nothing to do with her social standing or who her father was. He would have married her all over again if she had lived in the same neighborhood where he was born.

He finally allowed his eyes to dip down to focus on the creamy expanse of her bosom that was pushed up over the bodice of the gown. It had been covered earlier with her mantle during the ceremony as they had walked outside, but the moment she had removed it during the wedding breakfast, he had nearly jumped across the table and carried her upstairs.

Thankfully, he had learned to show restraint, only now he couldn’t help the way his cock was thickening in his trousers.

He stepped back, unbuttoning his shirt slowly, a smile tugging at his lips as he watched how she lifted her hand to the back of her neck when he began to show her some of his skin. Good. She should be as taunted as he was earlier.

Her eyes danced over him without any shame as he enjoyed exposing himself to her.

“You are a confident man, Cooper.”

“It’s easy when I’ve captured a woman like you.”

He could tell how much she wanted him, although he didn’t think anyone could desire anything more than he did her.

“Your turn,” he said, reaching out and running his fingers along that tempting bosom, and she shrugged one arm through her sleeve before following with the other side. Her skin was pale against the fabric of her thin chemise below, allowing the outline of her nipples to peek through.

His heart raced in anticipation, which had truly been building since the moment he had laid eyes on her weeks ago at that charity ball.

“Need some help?” he asked, and she nodded, turning around to allow him to slip the fastenings through the holes at the back of her dress. When he reached the last one, the dress slid down to the floor, and he took a moment to bend down and lay it over the other chair.

By the time he returned, she had lost her chemise, and he was overcome once more by her incredible beauty. How perfect her breasts were, the pale pink nipples calling to him.

And now, she was his in truth. He didn’t have to hold himself back. He reached out, gently stroking her breasts, his thumb gliding over her nipples, her breasts generous in his hands. Her curves were soft, supple, and made for his touch.

He dipped his head, wrapping his lips around one nipple, sucking it deeply into his mouth as her cinnamon scent invaded all of his senses. She threaded her fingers into his hair, her nails scraping over his scalp, causing him to tremble.

Finding her too low beneath him, he picked her up and deposited her on the surface of the dresser before him, moving his lips to her other breast.

“Cooper,” she sighed as she stretched her legs out, circling his hips and pulling her toward him. She reached down, wrapping her hand beneath his jaw before lifting his face to hers. The moment their lips connected, she swirled her tongue into his mouth, the desire a heady taste that made him desperate for more.

He slid his hands up her bare legs, laughing when he found she still wore the boots she had donned for the wedding in the chapel. He unlaced them with one hand while continuing to kiss her, before throwing the boots behind him, allowing them to clatter to the floor.

Once those were discarded, he picked her up, his hands palming her bare bottom, soft and made for his hands. He laid her back on the bed as gently as he could, while she reached between them and began to stroke him through his trousers.

It nearly did him in right there, and he lifted himself up, his hands fisted on the mattress beside her head.

“One moment,” he said as he undid the fastening and rid himself of them rather clumsily for a man who did so every day. She seemed to have taken away all the rational thought he usually held.

Her eyes were heavy on him as he threw them to the floor to join her boots, no longer caring about their state when they redressed later. Hell, he would prefer to stay in bed until the arrival of the new year, anyway.

She bit her lip and moved backward up the bed, spreading her legs for him. He had never seen anything so damn perfect.

The mattress dipped under his weight as he crawled toward her, wanting to pounce on her but knowing that he needed to take this slow. It was hard to remember that this was her first time, after all they had shared.

When he finally reached her, he held himself above her as he ran a hand down her body until he found her hot, ready center. She squirmed when he began to caress her gently but then pushed him farther down, encouraging his fingers harder, deeper. She rode his hand, and he nearly choked at his amazement. He had never met a woman who was so unabashedly herself, who didn’t hold back from showing what she wanted and how she liked it.

He thrust in and out as she arched her chest toward him, and he dipped his head, giving her breasts the attention they deserved. His fingers and mouth moved in rhythm until he found he nearly couldn’t take it anymore.

Apparently, she felt the same, for she pushed him up away from her as she wrapped her legs around him again.

“I need you now. Please, Cooper.”

She didn’t need to ask twice.

He removed his fingers and positioned his cock between her thighs. As he slowly pushed into her, she bit her lip, and while she felt fucking fantastic around him, he also knew that he shouldn’t rush her, reminded himself that this was her first time.

She was slick, tight, and yet she stilled He couldn’t lose control.

Not yet.

He breathed deeply as he waited for her, until her eyes met his. Despite the slight hesitancy held there, she nodded to him.

“You’re all right?”

“Fine,” she breathed. “Just fine.”

He reached down, circling her sensitive bud again to try to remind her of how good this could feel, and soon enough, she was arching her hips off the bed, her breasts straining toward him.

He took that as a sign and began moving again, slowly at first, but as she rocked with him, her breath quickening, he soon found that he couldn’t hold back any longer, and he thrust in hard, deep, fast, until she was crying out his name and clenching around him as she came.

It was all he needed to let go, and he pressed his face into her neck as he emptied inside of her, shaking with an unmatched intensity.

He stayed within her for moments, long enough to return to himself, until he finally rolled to the side. He had enough wherewithal to stand and find her linen, helping her clean up before moving back on the bed beside her, watching her as she came down from their exertions. Her cheeks were flushed, no longer just pink but a deep red.

“Noelle,” he said, taking her cheeks in his hands. “Are you all right?”

“More than all right,” she said, her brown eyes sparking delightfully. “That was all that I could have wished for and more. Yes, it hurt initially, but Cooper, I never knew such pleasure could be possible.”

His grin was so wide it nearly split his cheeks.

“Well, we can do it again, as often as we like,” he said before turning serious again. “Listen, I know the nobility likes their separate bedrooms and formalities, even between married couples, but I like how it is where I’m from. We spend every night together, sleeping or not.”

“I think I can get behind that,” she whispered as she stared into his eyes.

“Good,” he said, “because I wasn’t going to prepare you another bedroom when we get home.”

Home. It felt so good to think that they would soon share one.

“Does this mean that you want to amend our contract?”

“Just which contract is that?” he said, raising a brow as a lock of hair fell over his forehead, and Noelle reached up to push it back. “We’ve signed a few now.”

She laughed. “When we decided to marry in truth, you had said this would be a marriage in name. That I could go about my business, and you would not be concerned with coming home to me. Is that still our plan?”

His eyes searched hers. “Do you want it to be?”

“No,” she said, boldly lifting her head to him, even as her heart beat quickly, waiting for his denial.

“Then it won’t be,” he said simply. “We will live as a husband and wife are expected to live.”

That was still open to interpretation, but Noelle would take it for now. It was better than the original agreement.

“Are you any closer to determining who might be the murderer?” she asked, not wanting to think of it but also knowing that they couldn’t truly move on while under threat.

“I have a few ideas,” he said. “All I need to confirm my theory is to determine who owns the land we discussed. I should receive the letter at any moment. I do know, however, that it can’t have been Lord Bingly. Someone set him up. Just like I think I would have been set up had you not provided me such unbreakable verification for my whereabouts.”

“Which led to our marriage,” she said, shaking her head, for she would never have guessed this would be the result of that impulsive declaration and yet was so grateful it had turned out this way.

“It was the best decision you ever made,” he said with a laugh.

“Speaking of marriage,” she said, “do you think anyone would notice if we just… oh, I don’t know, didn’t return to the party for the rest of the day?”

He sighed. “I wish I could say that it would be fine, but I have a feeling that they would miss us, especially since this is our wedding day.”

“Oh yes,” she said. “There is that. And Christmas tomorrow.”

“We shall have to light the last of the yule logs, and I assume there will be church and dinner,” he said. “And then… well, real life will begin.”

“I can hardly wait,” she said with a smile, tugging him close and kissing him again.

“Truly?”

“Truly,” she said, stroking his face as she smiled at him.

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her what she meant to him, but he couldn’t find the right words and wasn’t sure if this was the right time. He had never been a man to say much about his emotions. It was hard to find time to say how one felt when the family was trying to survive the day.

But he would have to learn how soon enough because this woman was remarkable, and he needed her to know it.

The right time would come.

He would have to be patient.