He allowed himself a few more strokes, just a few more moments to experience the unholy perfection of being inside of her. Then, he pulled out and flung himself back on the pillows beside her, breathing so heavily, he thought his heart might burst from his chest.
Annabelle’s eyes flew wide, and she leaned up on one arm to look at him. “Was that…? Did you…?”
David took her other hand and placed it over her heart. “Do you see what you’ve done to me?”
A frown wrinkled her brow. “But did you…? Feel the same way I did?”
She was asking him if he’d had an orgasm, and going about it in the most adorable fashion. “Annabelle,” he breathed. “There are many ways to make love. That is only one of them.”
“But you didn’t…” Her voice trailed off and her cheeks turned pink. She buried her head against her shoulder.
He cleared his throat. “If I had…ahem…finished, it’s possible you would end up with child.”
Annabelle peeked out one eye. “Oh. I suppose I didn’t hear that part when I was listening at the door as Lady Courtney was telling Marianne about it.”
David’s eyes flew wide. “What?”
She kept her nose pressed to his shoulder. “I wanted to know how it worked, so I listened at the door.”
“And you learned what exactly?” he asked tentatively.
“Enough to know that it was a lot like the horses at Bellingham Hall, but clearly not enough to know how a baby is created.”
Despite his still-labored breathing, David chuckled. He leaned up on his arm and kissed her forehead. “Promise me you won’t ever change, my darling.”
Annabelle frowned at that. “But David, you still need to…”
David had flopped back onto the mattress. He eyed her from the corners of his eyes.
“You said there are many ways to make love.” Her cheeks were pink again, but she held his gaze.
“So I did.” He glanced down at his cock, still standing at attention, more than ready.
“Show me,” she said, leaning over him and kissing his lips. “Tell me what to do.”
David stared up at the canopy for a few moments. Was it the proper thing to do to teach one’s future wife what he had in mind? Probably not, but in this case, he was the tutor, and she was the pupil. What a heavenly turn of events.
“Are you certain?” he asked, praying she said yes, but perfectly willing to stop if she had any doubts.
“Yes.” She nodded.
He said a brief prayer of thankfulness before he let his hands drop on either side of his hips atop the sheets. “Very well.” Nearly panting in anticipation, he tried to control his voice. “There are at least two other things we can do that would produce the same result without creating a child.”
She leaned toward him, eyes wide, clearly interested in the topic. Thank Christ.
“What things?” she asked.
He closed his eyes and expelled his breath. “The first is…you can…touch me.”
“Touch you?” she repeated.
“Yes. Take me in your hand, the same way you did when I first took off my breeches.”
“Ooh!” Her eyes became even wider. Then a sly smile covered her face, and she moved her hand down his bare abdomen until she wrapped her fist around his length.
David swallowed and opened his eyes again. He was slowly breathing in and out, trying not to lose his mind.
“Like this?” she asked.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Exactly like that.”
“Now what? Should I squeeze it?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Str…stroke it.”
When Annabelle began slowly moving her hand up and down his cock, David stopped breathing. He fisted his hands in the sheets near his hips and clenched his jaw.
“Am I doing it correctly?” she asked, her voice a tentative whisper.
“So correctly,” he whispered back on a groan.
She stroked him again and again while David’s hips were captive to her hand. He thrust up into her clenched fist, while she watched in obvious awe. She stroked him again and again and again, while he bit the inside of his cheek, praying that he didn’t spill his seed in her hand.
“You said there was another thing to do,” she whispered in his ear. “What is it?” Her voice held a wicked note of debauchery.
If propriety was his goal, he was positive he shouldn’t tell her the next thing. But the overwhelming desire to see Annabelle’s full pink lips covering his cock was more than he could bear.
She stopped stroking him, waiting for his next lesson. Her hand remained wrapped around him.
“Tell me, David,” she prompted. “What else can I do?”
David briefly said another prayer before meeting her gaze and saying in hoarse whisper, “You can suck me.”
Unmistakable desire flared in her eyes as she moved to straddle him. Her knees on either side of his hips, she leaned down and kissed his mouth, then her lips moved to his cheek, his ear, his neck. Oh, God. She was doing to him exactly what he’d done to her. She ran her tongue down his chest, lightly scraping her fingernails against his nipples, before lapping at his abdomen and then going even lower.
The breath caught in David’s dry throat when her mouth hovered over his cock. He bent his neck to look down at her. It was an even more erotic sight than he’d guessed it would be. He throbbed.
She wrapped her thumb and forefinger around him before leaning down and licking just the tip. His hips nearly came off the bed. “Damn it, Annabelle. Don’t tease me.”
Her smile was sly. “Isn’t that what you did to me?”
His breath was coming in short pants. He couldn’t nod, couldn’t speak, all he could do was watch as her lips lowered over him, and she took the head of his cock fully into her mouth.
He gripped the sheets in both hands again and prayed for mercy. But when Annabelle’s mouth began moving up and down his length, every thought flew from his mind. An unrecognizable sound came from the back of his throat. It was half groan, half growl. A plea.
She stroked him with her mouth, the same way she’d done with her tongue, and David was mindless. He tried to keep his hips from moving, but they undulated on their own accord. When she began to stroke him with her hand and suck him, he reached down to pull her away. She was too fast of a learner. There was no way he wouldn’t finish if she kept at it.
Annabelle squirmed away from his arms, resisting his attempt to stop her. She lifted her lips off him and said, “I want to keep doing this until it happens.”
He eyed her warily. How much did she know? “Until what happens?”
Her mouth quirked up. “The same thing that would happen when you were inside me.”
He expelled his breath and rubbed both hands roughly through his hair. Jesus Christ. How would he ever explain this?
“Annabelle, you don’t understand. If you keep doing that, I’ll—”
“You’ll expel your seed,” she said, matter-of-factly.
David swallowed. Oh, God. He couldn’t laugh. Not now. Perhaps he should have explained all this before they began. Regardless, there was no going back now. “Yes,” he replied simply. But he wanted to be certain she understood. “In your mouth.”