Touching him.
Now, he was on fire.
Never in his life had he ever known a woman to be so immediately and insistently intoxicating. There was something about Christin that drove him mad the minute he touched her, as if he’d always meant to have her, as if they’d always been meant to be.
Nothing had ever felt more natural.
The front of her gown came down to her waist.
Now, his mouth was on her nipples, suckling her furiously as he laid her back on the bed. Christin didn’t put up a fight. She lay down, with him on top of her, arms around his neck as he nursed her breasts, first one and then the other. All the while, she was gasping with pleasure, her hands in his hair, until her fingers tightened around the strands and she yanked him up. This time, her mouth claimed his and, somehow, in all of the kissing and fondling, he ended up on his back with her straddling him.
He was more aroused than he’d ever been in his life. His hands found their way under her skirts, which were merely a shift and a surcoat, so there wasn’t much resistance. His hands gripped her hips at first before sliding to her buttocks, tender and soft. Christin didn’t flinch, allowing his hands to roam as she continued her role as aggressor, suckling his lower lip, responding when his tongue probed her mouth. Everything he was doing to her, she was responding and then some.
In fact, Alexander could hardly believe how responsive she was. He pulled his mouth away from hers and resumed suckling her breasts, partially sitting up as she sat upon his lap as a man would sit upon a horse, with her legs parted. The harder he suckled her, the more she bucked and gasped until his hand moved down her belly to the thatch of dark curls between her legs.
Since she was straddling him, the jewel between her legs was an easy target and he stroked her gently. His touch in a very intimate place caused her to start, unfamiliar with someone touching her in such a place, but she didn’t try to pull away. She let him stoke her as he suckled her breasts, one hand her holding against him while the other went to work between her legs.
God, he knew he should stop. He should stop at that very moment but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She was alluring beyond measure, unafraid of his touch, brave as he’d never see a maiden in this situation. Visions of Christopher de Lohr running his sword through his gut had occurred to him, but they were fleeting because some things were worth dying for.
Christin de Lohr was one of them.
She was already very wet and hot, and he carefully inserted a finger into her. Christin gasped at the tender intrusion but didn’t try to shake him or pull away. In fact, her head rolled back and she closed her eyes, experiencing the tender trials of his touch. One finger went into her, thrusting gently, before he inserted two.
Christin shuddered.
“Cissy,” he murmured against her breast. “I should not go on. You know I should not go on.”
Her response was to roll her pelvis forward, awkwardly, but the message was obvious. “Please don’t stop,” she breathed. “Please, Sherry… I am yours. I will always be yours. Give me all of you to remember during the time we shall be separated. Will you not continue?”
He sighed raggedly. Her nipples were in front of his face and he leaned over, taking one between his teeth and gently tugging at it.
“You already have all of me, Cissy,” he whispered. “But what you are asking… are you certain this is what you want?”
She thrust her pelvis against his hand again and Alexander had his answer. Therefore, he untied his breeches and freed his engorged manhood. Grasping her hips, he pulled her forward so she could feel the long, hard length of him.
He thought it might give her pause, but it didn’t. She had simply found something to rub her wet heat against and Alexander moved his member so the tip of it came to bear against her virginal passage. Christin was so highly aroused, but so inexperienced, that she thrust her hips forward again to capture him and he ended up sliding nearly his full, long length into her.
The sting of possession brought a yelp from Christin. All of the fondling and suckling had been pleasurable, but the actual act of mating had been something different. She came to a halt in her wriggling, her head dropping to his shoulder to bite off her gasp of pain, and Alexander grasped her hips again and held them steady as he thrust hard, all the way into her.
With a groan, torn between pain and pleasure, Christin wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in the side of his head. He could hear her breathing heavily in his ear and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
“You are more courageous than any woman I know,” he whispered. “Relax, sweetheart. I promise you will like this.”
He nursed at her breasts to distract her as he recoiled and thrust again, moving in and out of her gently at first but with increasing power. Christin remained straddled on his lap, her legs spread wide as she welcomed him into her body for the first time. He was skilled and he was gentle, and he succeeded in building a heat within her loins that had bursts of lightning surging through her. The lightning grew stronger with each successive thrust.
In very little time, Christin was experiencing her first release. Her body was young and highly sensitive, and Alexander held her tightly as wave after wave of ecstasy rolled over her. Just as she was catching her breath, another climax hit her and she cried out, loudly enough that Alexander had to put his hand over her mouth so others would not hear her groans of pleasure. But her pleasure fed his own and after one great and powerful thrust, he quickly removed himself from her body and spent himself on her coverlet.
Even when he was spent, he didn’t want it to be over. It had been such a soul-baring experienced that he thrust into her again, gently, and continued to stroke in and out of her, feeling her warm wetness surround him, feeling her climax yet again as her body bucked and shuddered involuntarily. He had to smile, thinking that it was quite miraculous, all of it. Amazing, even.
She was amazing.
And he was marked for life.
“Are you well?” he asked huskily. “Did I hurt you?”
Her arms were still around his neck, her face in the side of his head. She mumbled something but she was so muffled that he didn’t hear what she said. He shifted so she had to loosen her grip on him and lift her head.
“What did you say?” he asked, amused.
Her hair was hanging in her face. She even had a piece of it in her mouth, which he pulled out. When he pushed her hair away from her face, he could see that her eyes were still closed. He started to laugh.
“Cissy?” he said. “Say something.”
She grinned, peeping her eyes open. “I said that all is well,” she said. “And I think I love you.”
Her arms tightened and she kissed him again, deeply, and he responded instantly. It was a kiss of desire, of emotion, and most of all, of joy.
Of two people who had finally found one another.
“Am I truly so fortunate, sweetheart?” he breathed against her mouth. “Do you truly?”
She pulled her lips away long enough to look him in the eye. “I think I have loved you since before I met you,” she said softly. “My father and uncle would speak so highly of Alexander de Sherrington and when we met, I knew I already loved you. I admired you so much that the admiration became something else once we came to know each other. I cannot explain it better than that. I have been yours since the beginning, Sherry, only you did not know it.”