Chapter Twenty
L ennox climbed the steps behind Flora at a much slower pace. He chuckled at the way his wife became flustered by his teasing nature. He loved every facet of her personality, from the giggling lass running with him through the rain, to the shy lass flustered from his attention in front of the servants, to the vixen he would find once he entered his bedchamber.
When he walked through the door, it was to find his wife didn’t disappoint him. She stood near the window, peeling away her garments as if it were an everyday occurrence between them. When the floor creaked as he moved forward, she stared at him with heady desire. He was at her side within seconds. They needed no words between them because their passion conveyed everything.
However, he held himself back. Lennox watched as Flora slid the buttons undone on the side of her dress with a slow precision that left him longing to tear the damn garment from her body. Once the dress pooled around her feet, he couldn’t wait a second longer to press their bodies together. He ached to feel her soft curves molded around him. He lifted her in his arms and carried her to his bed. After he laid her down, he tugged his clothes off with swift urgency. Still, the lass wore too many clothes.
Lennox flicked his hand through the air, down the length of Flora’s body. “If you do not remove your chemise, then you will own one less in your wardrobe.”
Lennox’s tone of voice rang clear of his determination for Flora to lie naked on his bed. She should add most demanding to his characteristic traits. But she would allow it that time because of the promises his demand held—and because the chemise was a treasured garment she had kept from her wedding trousseau.
Flora rose to her knees and slid the delicate silk off with gentle care. As she held it in her hands, she glanced around at where to lay it. However, once her gaze connected with Lennox’s, she stilled. He had paused from undressing to watch her. A new flame of desire blazed from his eyes, catching her on fire with an untamed passion burning out of control.
She no longer cared about keeping the condition of the chemise pristine. Her only need was for Lennox to claim her as his. Flora tossed the chemise behind her and reached out to help him finish disrobing. Her fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt until they popped free. She dragged the shirt over his head and tossed it toward her chemise. She sighed as she coasted her palms across the breadth of his massive shoulders and molded them around his sculpted muscles. Michelangelo’s David held nothing on Lennox. His indrawn breath when she guided her hands along his chest toward his stomach brought a vixenish smile to her lips. His confession in the park only intensified her need.
The minx was a vexing distraction when she inched her chemise slowly off her body, displaying her creamy skin. The smile gracing her lips should’ve warned him of her wanton thoughts. Lennox was at her mercy, a willing victim to her desires, for they matched his to perfection. Her touch drove him to act upon every one of the fantasies he had held since she left him. There weren’t enough hours in the day for him to satisfy his cravings. However, they had that moment to create memories to replace the time they lost.
“It would seem, my lord, you are the one who is now overdressed. Allow me to assist,” Flora murmured.
Lennox didn’t know what caused him to lose control: her husky whisper or her hand brushing across his cock as she undid the placket of his trousers. When she pushed them over his buttocks and wrapped her hand around his hardness, he brought her flush against him and ravished her with one devouring kiss after another. He licked her lips before striking his tongue against hers in a relentless attack on their senses. No matter how many times he kissed Flora, it would never be enough. He would forever attempt to quench his thirst, only to walk away still craving her sweetness.
Lennox growled when Flora’s breasts pressed against his chest. Her nipples hardened as they brushed back and forth, crumbling the remaining resistance he held to take their lovemaking at a slower pace. However, her touch alone pushed him over the proverbial edge. They could enjoy each other at leisure after they appeased their appetites. If he didn’t remove her hold on his cock, he would spend himself before he could slide deep into her warmth.
Lennox pulled her hand away. “While I love your attention, lass, I cannot hold out much longer.”
Flora brushed his hold away. “Perhaps I wish to pleasure you in other ways, barbarian.”
Lennox groaned at the thought of Flora pleasuring him to the height of satisfaction with what she implied. His knees almost buckled at the very concept. However, he wasn’t too selfish of a bastard to deny her the pleasure her body radiated. Her skin flushed to a pink hue with her built-up desire and the moans passing from her lips spoke of an ache only he could satisfy.
“You wrapping your legs around my waist will give me immense satisfaction.”
Flora pouted. “’Tis not what I intended.”
Lennox growled. “Lass, I would not survive what you intended at this moment. I barely cling to my control as it is. Now do as I say.”
Flora wrapped her legs around Lennox’s waist and clung to his shoulders. “You are a demanding barbarian. We need to discuss this unbearable trait of yours.”
“We can discuss the reason for its merits later. For now”—Lennox slid his cock into Flora’s warmth with one push—“it works to my advantage.”
Flora’s wetness wrapped around his cock and guided him deeper. It would seem his wife didn’t hold the capability of refuting him by the way she threw her head back in ecstasy, moaning in pleasure. She was exquisite to admire in the throughs of passion. She embraced their desire with an uninhibited abandon that captured him even more under her spell. He gripped her buttocks and thrust in and out of her with a slowness that left them breathless.
Flora dug her fingers into Lennox’s shoulder to anchor herself from the onslaught of passion he released on her. His arrogance when he made his demand had only captured her in his charms. He swung her around and pressed her back against the bedpost as he increased the rhythm of his strokes. She pressed a kiss to his shoulder, trailing a path along his neck to nibble at his ear.
“Lennox,” she moaned.
His response to her breathy whisper had her gasping with a fresh wave of pleasure. He cupped her breasts, and his fingers pinched her nipples until they hardened with an ache she needed him to appease. Flora raked her nails against his nape, urging his head to her breasts. When he captured her nipple between his lips, she melted into his embrace. She exploded into a million tiny pieces when his teeth scraped against the bud with his ferocious appetite.
“More! More!” Flora demanded.
Lennox chuckled, staring up at her as he soothed the rosy bud with his tongue. “Who is the demanding one now?”
Flora’s eyes darkened with untamed passion as he drew her bud between his lips and sucked with a tenderness that drew out her soft sighs. Her pussy throbbed and tightened from the attention he devoted to worshipping her. The warmth of her desire coated his cock. She guided him to her other breast for the same attention. He obeyed her silent command, enjoying the slight pressure she kept on his nape to keep him firmly in place.
His wife might be an innocent in many aspects about the pleasures one could seek in the bedroom, but she wasn’t shy about declaring her desires. They didn’t require any words between them when their bodies were fluent in their own unspoken language of love, desire, and passion all rolled into one.
Lennox left Flora incapable of answering his teasing because he sent them spiraling over the edge with his relentless strokes of passion. He bent his head to roar his release in the curve of Flora’s shoulder to muffle the noise. She felt herself floating backward with him capturing her before she fell. Flora had been oblivious, caught in her own grief and didn’t recognize Lennox had been her hero all along.
Lennox laid them across the bed and kissed Flora with a gentleness that collapsed the walls that kept him away from her. Their passion had spun out of control. It was a sporadic whirlwind of emotions they had kept repressed because of their stubborn pride. Their doubts had kept them apart, but their love would bind them together for an eternity.
Lennox had never given her a chance to confess her love before. Nor did he act like he expected her to. But Flora could no longer contain what she felt in her heart and within every inch of her soul. She not only wanted to profess her love, but she also needed to.
She rolled on her side and captured his hand into hers, bringing it to her lips to press a kiss against his knuckles. However, before she confessed her love, Lennox teased her with another kiss.
“Be gentle with your reprimanding,” Lennox teased.
Flora pressed her finger against his lips. “Silence, barbarian.”
She mentioned nothing about his need to behave, only requesting his silence. He swirled his tongue around her finger, drawing it between his lips. His devious grin widened when Flora closed her eyes with a sigh. It would appear he wasn’t the only one whose desire still flared with an unanswered need. He trailed a path across her palm to nibble at her wrist. The rapid pulse beat against his tongue, displaying her eager anticipation of his next move. He drew her hand to wrap around his neck as he continued his onslaught of kisses.
However, his vexing wife had other intentions when she pulled at his hair for his attention. “Behave, barbarian.”
Lennox growled. “Keep calling me barbarian and I will show you how much of a barbarian I can be.”
Flora shivered at his threat. Not from fear but from an eagerness to push him to ravage her again with his unleashed passion. Her body still tingled from the delights he had gifted her. She was a greedy wife wanting Lennox to ease the fresh ache consuming her. But she also wanted his full attention. Their teasing nature between the bedsheets only fueled the flames of their desire. However, she wished to speak from the heart before they continued to explore the passion between them.
While Flora’s gaze shimmered with her unrepressed need to unlock their hidden desires, it also held a sincerity she wished to express with him. She had been on the verge of confessing her love earlier. However, the rain had offered him the opportunity to show Flora how special their connection was. Now she wanted to open her heart to him, and he tried to prevent her from doing so. His actions to stall her only showed what a coward he was. His doubts would be his downfall.
Flora’s hand drifted across Lennox’s forehead, brushing the hair from his face. Her gentle touch stilled as she realized he feared what she might say to him. He held doubt she didn’t return the same sentiment he had expressed to her at the park.
“You foolish man.”
Lennox frowned but didn’t reply. Her soft touch had his heart racing with dread. He braced himself for her rejection. While she gave her body to him in wild abandonment, it didn’t mean she would do the same with her heart. And he didn’t blame her in the slightest, not after all she had endured from his insensitivity.
“I love you.”
Lennox almost didn’t hear Flora’s whisper over the roaring sound of his heart beating. But when she repeated the sentiment with a softness in her gaze, the words settled in his soul. Those three words were the most significant he had ever heard, especially since Flora not only whispered them past her lips but also held them in her heart.
Lennox gulped. “I do not deserve ye.”
Flora teased. “Perhaps not. But one day ye shall.”