Chapter Seventeen

Nash kissed each of the dimples centered above her fine, round buttocks, then licked his way up her spine, smiling as Sophie wiggled beneath him. “Be still, my lady. I have not finished tasting every bit of you.”

“Are you quite certain, my ravenous lord?” she asked with a lazy giggle as she rolled to her back and guided him to her breasts. Arching into him with a satisfied moan as he tongued her nipple, she wrapped her legs tighter around his hips. “I feel as if I have been thoroughly worshiped by that wonderful mouth of yours.”

After sprinkling a trail of kisses across the swell of each of her breasts, he raised his head and smiled. “I will never finish worshiping you, my love. Never.”

A quiet pecking on the private servants’ door made him bellow, “Enter and die!”

“Nash!” She shook beneath him with a laughing snort, then cleared her throat and called out, “I shall ring when I need you, Marie.”

A subdued “Yes, my lady” came through the closed door.

“It is hours and hours past dawn, you know.” Sophie treated him to a long, slow kiss that encouraged him to settle back between her legs with a satisfied growl.

“Alas, my wife tires of me,” he said, jutting his hips and rocking into her hot wetness with insatiable greed.

“Never,” she groaned, matching him thrust for thrust. “Oh, never!”

He rode harder, feeling her bliss building and clutching to reach its pinnacle. “Take it, my love, take your pleasure.”

She cried out and bucked with a wildness he couldn’t resist.

A triumphant roar tore from his throat as he pumped harder, then poured into her until he was left shuddering. He collapsed, barely saving her from being crushed by catching himself on his forearms. With his forehead pressed to hers, he kissed her nose between gasping breaths. “My precious love,” he whispered.

She hummed a pleased sound, reminding him of a purring kitten. “We do have a precious love between us.”

“We do indeed.”

A strained growl rumbled up between them and made Sophie gasp. “Oh dear. I am mortified.”

Nash chuckled. “Why? Because you are hungry and need food?” His stomach chose that moment to make its wishes known with an even louder grumble than hers. “We did miss our dinner last night.”

She eyed him with a wicked arch of her brow. “Do you resent the sacrifice?”

“Not in the least, my love.” He nibbled a lingering kiss across the sweetness of her ruby lips. A heavy sigh escaped him as he lifted his head. “I suppose we must eat though to keep up our strength.”

“Yes, my lord, we would not wish to become weak and listless.”

He kissed her again, then gently stroked her cheek. “During breakfast, shall we discuss where to live and how to go about forging our future together? Are you up to that, my love?”

She smiled up at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I do not care where we live or what we do, as long as we are together and as happy as we are at this very moment.”

“I adore you, my precious swan,” he said in a rasping whisper, his heart and soul teeming with relief, thankfulness, and more love than he ever thought possible.

“I adore you more,” she said, then pulled him down for a long, slow kiss. As he went to lift himself off her, she pulled him back. “Once more before hot chocolate and toast?”

“As many times as you like, my love—as many times as you like.”