Chapter 17

17

W hatever ache had throbbed at the back of Jasper’s skull was nothing more than a distant memory. He was far more interested in quelling a different throb now, one decidedly lower than his head. One now pressed against the softness of Elizabeth’s body as she rocked against him with an innocent’s frustrated longing.

How he wanted to strip her down and take her, plunge deep within her and make her his.

Except she was a virgin.

And not his wife.

She hadn’t even said she loved him in return.

If he could think properly, that might have bothered him. But her mouth was sliding down his throat as he’d done with her, nipping at the skin as she raked her hands down his linen shirt so her fingernails grazed the skin beneath.

Good God, this woman was his undoing.

He pulled at the ties of her dress, loosening the bodice and lowering it to reveal the firm roundness of her breasts, each topped with a pink nipple going firm in the cool air. With a groan, he closed his mouth over one, flicking his tongue against the bud before biting it ever so gently.

Elizabeth cried out as she had before, her hands moving to the back of his head before quickly releasing him.

“I’m fine,” he growled against her silken flesh.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she gasped out.

“Nothing hurts right now,” he assured her.

Still, he released her breasts and rolled her over onto her back, escaping the covers as he did so, freeing himself for everything he wanted to do her. For now wasn’t just for touching, now was also for tasting.

Bracing his body over hers, he pulled at the skirt of her dress, easing it up her legs to reveal her mud-stained stockings, and the silk ties securing them just over her knees. He bent over her, gripping the first with his teeth and pulling it free.

She gave a gasp of surprise.

The first of what he hoped would be many.

He liberated the other ribbon and pulled the stockings down, revealing her shapely calves before tracing his way back up her legs once more, fingertips teasing flesh he intended for his mouth to sample.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and leaned her head back. That’s when he bent forward, replacing his hands with his lips, kissing the sensual skin of her inner thighs.

“Jasper,” she gasped.

Before she could have a thought toward modesty, his mouth closed over her sex, his tongue gliding up her center, tracing the slit toward the swollen bud to circle with the tip of his tongue.

Something between a gasp and a moan escaped her, and all thoughts of modesty ceased as her legs eased open wider in silent permission for him to continue to please her with his mouth, his tongue.

She writhed beneath his attentions, her breath coming in panting cries. He swept his fingers against her entrance and she arched toward him. Tenderly, he continued to tease her with his tongue, tasting her arousal as his finger eased inside her. Once she became accustomed to the sensation of his finger, he thrust within her, loving her with the digit the way his body burned to do with his cock.

It would be so easy. She was so damn ready. So wet. So swollen with need.

Her thighs clenched and she turned to bury her face into the pillow next to her, the moans of her release muted by the thick down feathers as her sex clenched around his finger. He lapped at her a few more times, relishing the sensual allure of her until her hips bucked with sensitivity.

He grinned and pushed up on his elbow to gaze at the woman he loved, her wavy hair mussed, blue eyes bright with desire, her cheeks and lips flushed pink, breasts bared over the top of her bodice.

Good God, he’d never seen a woman more beautiful in his entire life.

Desire thundered through him, pulsing in his loins with a need stronger than any he’d ever known.

He lowered her skirts and crawled up the bed to join her, drawing her into his arms.

She leaned back, pulling away from him to look up at him. “Surely that is not all.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Don’t play coy with me, Jasper Fitzroy.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “There is more to what happens between a man and a woman.”

“When they are wed.”

She smirked. “Not always.”

His jaw dropped in shock and she laughed. “I told you rumors were scandalous things. I know far more than you think I do.” She nudged him in the ribs.

Then the look in her eyes shifted, the glint of playfulness slitted to a sensuality that made him burn.

“I want to touch you as you’ve touched me.” Her hands slid down his chest, his abdomen, to…to where she’d once tried to clean lemonade from the placket of his breeches before.

His cock lurched at the invitation of her warm hands, but he pulled his hips back. “You’re innocent, Elizabeth. I won’t ruin your reputation.”

“I would not call what was just done innocent .” A smile hovered at the corners of her lips. “Though I certainly enjoyed it.”

“Our engagement is to be broken.” He lifted a brow. “Is it not?”

She bit her lower lip and dragged her hands toward his stomach once more, then walked her fingertips lower to the edge of his breeches. “You haven’t asked me to marry you again.”

He swallowed, trying to remain focused. The woman was driving him to distraction in the best way possible.

“Will you marry me?” he asked, his voice husky.

She searched his gaze. “Do you love me?”

“I love you,” he breathed. “With everything that I am, I love you.”

She pressed her forehead to his. “And I love you,” she whispered against his lips. “I think I’ve always loved you. From when we first met, and certainly from the moment you saved me in the study by agreeing that you were my fiancé. I fell deeper in love when you spilled gravy on your cravat so no one would notice me. And finally, I fell irrevocably head over heels when you trusted me by telling me why you feared love.”

He kissed her then, without reservation, without holding back or giving a thought to her virginal state or his sordid reputation. They were a man and woman in love, a man and woman on the cusp of getting married.

And he had no intention of ever withholding anything from her ever again.

Elizabeth yielded to the passion blazing within her, kissing her soon-to-be husband back with all the love and desire coursing through her. As his mouth captured hers and then moved down the sensitive line down her neck, her hands played over his clothing, following the landscape of rigid muscle and arousal beneath the layers of cloth.

“I want you,” he growled against her skin, and she moaned in rely.

“Let me touch you.” Her words were breathy with lust, with eagerness.

He sat up, grabbed the back of his shirt, and unceremoniously ripped it over the top of his head, leaving his dark hair messy and his chest rising and falling with the frenzy of his breath.

Elizabeth sat up, letting her gaze roam appreciatively over the beauty of his body, the hard lines of carved flesh, hollowing shadows across his torso where the firelight didn’t touch. She ran her fingers across his soft, warm skin.

His eyes closed with pleasure, and he gave a little hum of approval as she stroked and explored his firm body with her fingertips, tentative at first, and then more boldly. Over the strength of his arms, down his powerful back, across the hard chest she’d laid her head upon, and down the valley of chiseled flesh to where his placket was fastened. A column strained against his breeches.

Her breath caught, knowing full well what that was, her heart hammering in anticipation. He leaned back on his elbows, gazing down at her where she kneeled next to him on the mattress, letting her decide how far she wished to go.

There would be no going back from this moment. And she had no intention of stopping.

She popped one of the buttons free. Then another. The placket shifted upward an inch. She lifted her brows, impressed, and he chuckled, the sound deep and throaty in a way that made her blood burn hotter.

The next two buttons almost sprang free on their own, releasing Jasper’s phallus which rose in a hard column from a thatch of dark hair, pulsing to a beat that matched the one between her legs. Looking cautiously up at him, she stroked her fingers up from the base to the tip.

Jasper sucked in a hard inhale.

Emboldened by his reaction, she curled her fingers around the shaft, his skin like fiery silk against her palm. His hand closed over hers, guiding her to move over his hard member, up and down.

His breath became labored, his powerful chest flexing with each stroke of her hand.

A sense of power washed over her, to know that she could give him the same kind of pleasure he had given her, even with her lack of experience.

“I have to have you,” he groaned. “If you keep going as you are, you’ll unman me before I can take you.”

“I want to please you,” she protested.

He exhaled a laugh. “You have, more than you know.” He sat up, pulling his breeches off, revealing strong legs dusted with dark hair, fully naked.

His voice was soft as he reached for the lacings of her bodice. “I want to see all of you too.”

She knelt on the bed in front of him, watching him as he pulled the ribbon free, as the silk gown was drawn down, followed by her chemise. His eyes roamed over her with appreciation, his jaw clenching as if restraining himself. When her clothes were pooled around her knees, he eased her to her back and slid away the garments, leaving her naked.

He stretched his body over hers, the silky head of his phallus nudging eagerly against her despite the slow progression of his kisses.

Elizabeth widened her legs to cradle his body and arched toward him. “I want you, Jasper.”

He paused, his expression furrowed. “I don’t want to hurt you. I have heard from others that the first time can bring pain.”

“Then be done with it, so there is no pain the next time.” She smiled coquettishly up at him.

“You minx.” He grinned down at her and eased slightly lower so the head of his sex pressed at her entrance.

Need roared through Elizabeth’s body. She moaned and pushed up to meet him.

He eased in slowly and a slight discomfort pressed around her pleasure.

“I’m sorry, my love.” His hips jerked, thrusting into her.

Pain cut through the haze of her desire, stark and intrusive.

But she knew from what she’d been told by others that the hurt was fleeting.

He bent to kiss her, holding his body in place as her body adjusted to the foreign feel of him inside her. Slowly, carefully, he began to move. Almost imperceptibly at first and then a gentle glide.

As he did this, his mouth moved over her collarbone, her neck, to the place behind her ear that made her skin prickle with goosebumps. And then, the pain began to yield to pleasure.

He was moving in her with a rhythm now, one she easily caught and matched with the rocking of her own hips, her breath once more becoming quick, catching on eager moans.

His movements began to slow, but she gripped his hips with her legs, trying to pull him against her more swiftly.

Then his hand was between their bodies, finding that glorious spot that made every part of her sing. A swirl of pleasure paired with the undulation of their bodies as they met again and again and again until she could stand it no longer.

Her body tightened with the now familiar sensation that preceded a release.

“Yes,” Jasper growled, his hips moving faster now, their bodies joining with a frenzy that shoved her over the edge as her world splintered apart.

He bent his head to her neck, groaning against her skin as his hips flexed against her in a jerking rhythm that he likely could not control any more than she could stop the clenching of her sex around him.

They remained locked together thus for some time, as the slamming beat of their hearts calmed to a slow, steady thud and Elizabeth’s limbs slackened with a sensual, languid tranquility of utter fulfillment.

Jasper rested his forehead against hers. “Now, when shall we get married?”

“Already?” She laughed.

He rolled off her and quirked an eyebrow. “And here I thought you read numerous novels.”

She laughed again, feeling happier, and more satisfied than she ever knew possible. “Of course I have. What kind of question is that?”

“You know how it is with lovers.” He lifted a shoulder. “If we wait too long to wed, I will meet some untimely demise and you will be left a young woman who never married, yet in a delicate way with my child.”

Elizabeth appraised this man who had stolen her heart and loved her in the best ways. “Perhaps you read more novels than I do.”

“Perhaps we shall discuss them together when we are man and wife.”

She beamed up at him. “I should love nothing better.”

“Nothing?” He skimmed a palm over her shoulder. Her skin warmed in response, her blood heating once more.

“Perhaps there are many pleasures to be shared together,” she breathed.

“And we shall enjoy them all, dearest.”