One True Love (16 page)

No, she could not put
that
on. Perhaps she should wear her ordinary gown that covered every bit of her skin when buttoned to her throat, save her hands and feet and face. She could slip beneath the covers and pull them to her chin. Her mother explained that her husband would most likely pull the covers down and pull her gown up. She shivered at the thought of her nightgown rising above her waist to reveal her most private parts.

The air left the room which left her heated from head to toe, and throbbing in a particularly sensitive spot. How could she do this when her husband was so angry with her? It was not her fault that Mr. Parker came to the house today.

She wanted to throw herself on the bed and scream into her pillow. It would be her luck her husband would choose that moment to enter her bedchamber. How long would he make her wait?

Cassie wished William would come up and get on with it. She walked over to the window and pushed it open. The cold air slapped her face and cooled her heated body. She reached to undo her buttons, but could only manage the first few. She needed Katie to help her out of her clothes, or perhaps her husband would help her.

Flushed with heat, she moved to the table beside her bed and poured a glass of water from the pitcher. The tepid liquid did nothing to cool her insides. Cassie sat on the side of the bed and wrenched her hands together for what seemed like ages before she jumped back up and retreated to the open window. She embraced the cool night air as soaked through her clothes into her heated skin.

The sound of the nightingale's song, the lover's call, mingled with the sound of his footsteps as they approached her room. The creaking of the door, the click of the lock, the deep breaths she expelled as he came to her caused her to shiver with anticipation.

William wrapped his arms around her, drew her to him, and kissed the nape of her neck. She turned her head to give him better access, and to allow him the freedom to trace his tongue on the outside edge of her ear. Moans escaped her throat. Fire burned low in her belly as his hands found the buttons she could not reach.

One by one they released, baring her skin to his eyes and his touch. The brief contact of his fingers brushed the skin on her back and made her tremble, but his when lips followed the same path, she groaned.

Cassie's stormy emotions were stripped from her as he stripped her of her clothes. She wanted him, wanted his mouth on her lips, on her body. She craved it all, needed it all, and she prepared herself to beg him to give her everything.

She never knew such sweet torture existed. She never understood what a man could do to a woman's body, to her heart, and to her soul. Oh, she had enjoyed Mr. Parker's tingling kiss once, but
this
...this made her want to scream with need and desire.

The material of her gown brushed across her shoulders, over her breasts, then slid to the floor. The cool outside should have chilled her skin, but she was warm; hot. William swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed. She fell into the deep, soft mattress, and looked into his eyes to something dark and burning with desire.

She licked her dry lips and noticed the tense rise of his shoulders. She laid there before him, in her unmentionables, a material so thin he could surely see the duskiness of her nipples and the golden thatch of hair at her private entrance. Her nipples peaked, reached out, stretched against the silk fabric, and ached for his touch.

Cassie watched her husband remove his coat and tear off his cravat. He unbuttoned his shirt, slowly revealing a mass of dark curls that narrowed to a path beneath his breeches. She swallowed the lump in her throat, and rose from the bed to pour another glass of water. He tugged his shirt from his pants and removed it.

His well muscled body appeared to be sculpted by a master artist. A wide chest, strong arms, and tight stomach made her insides melt from a raging fire. She squirmed, desperate for his touch. She reached her arms out to him in invitation. He kneeled down and kissed her, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She wanted to feel his body connect with her own.

"Patience, love." He sat on the bed and pulled off his boots, which gave her time to study his strong back and broad shoulders. She reached up and touched his skin, but pulled her hand back as if burned. He turned and smiled at her. "You are free to touch me. Do not be afraid, my ladywife."

Did he see the wanton fear in her eyes? He might think her too forward, but he said she could touch him. He gave his permission, and she wanted to touch him so very much. She licked her dry mouth, then reached out and drew a line down his back with her finger.

He groaned.

Cassie smiled.

Chapter Nine

No other woman ever made his cock feel so hard, so near to bursting. He could not take her like a widow or a wanton. She was his
ladywife
, the woman he would spend the rest of his life adoring, the mother of his future children. He must make this night special, make it last, and erase Parker from her heart forever.

Cassie's eagerness pleased him, as well as confounded him. Just today she met with her first love, her former betrothed. He was certain she argued with Parker. He imagined his fist smashing the man's face in for upsetting her.

William stretched out next to Cassie's incredible body. He vowed to take her slow and easy. Her smile took his breath away, encouraged him to continue, and gave him reason to hope. He cupped her face with his hand and bent to taste her lips. Could anything have ever been so sweet?

He touched her shoulder, then used his finger to swirl a path of circles across her chest, and to the tops of her breasts, before swooping his hand across her stomach, over her hip, and down her leg.

She reached up and tentatively pressed her hands on his chest, which burnt an impression on his skin. Her cool slim hands were exquisite as they touched him. She slid her hands across his shoulders before she plunged her fingers into his hair. He deepened the kiss, and swept her mouth with his tongue, then brought his hand back up to rest on the side of her breast.

He pulled away and whispered, "Do you know what is going to happen between us?"

"I have some idea, but I am not afraid."

Gently his lips met hers again for a few lingering kisses before he raised his head. "The first time might hurt. I will be gentle, and I promise it will only get better, no pain, only pleasure."

She nodded and reached up of her own accord to meet his lips, to match his fever with her own and draw him into a heart stopping kiss. After several moments, he broke and began to show her other ways to kiss. He moved his lips across her jaw, down the side of her neck, and across her chest until he reached her soft mounds of enticing flesh. He scattered kisses across the tops of her breasts. She twisted in his arms, moaning in pleasure.

He scraped his teeth over her nipple. The cloth created a friction that sent her spiraling and caused her to cry out. He smiled and took her breast into his mouth, through the fabric. He suckled and nipped at her until she squirmed against him. He left one breast and reached for the other. He pleasured her with his mouth, while he reached up to her other already sensitive breast, and squeezed it, then flicked his fingers across the tight bud.

Cassie dug her fingers into his hair and held him to her. Her lemony scent tickled his nose, bittersweet, yet perfect. He raised his head and gave her a brief, but lingering kiss. "I am going to remove your chemise. I want to see you, all of you."

A tiny gasp escaped her lips, but her wide eyes were pools of dark green passion. He sat up and took his time as he slipped her chemise over her shoulders, and peeled it away from her breasts. As she started to cover her breasts, he grasped her hands and said, "No."

He continued pulling the silk from her body, down her stomach, past the golden triangle, and along her legs until he swept it from her feet onto the floor beside the bed. He took his time and breathed in her scent of lemons and sunshine. He admired her plump breasts and dusky tight-buds that led to her flat stomach, and the place between her legs where he wanted to drink of her nectar. He ran his finger from her throat down between her breasts, circled each nipple and continued down her stomach, then briefly fluttered his hand across her womanly mound.

William lay atop her letting her breasts rub against his chest. He captured her mewling sounds with his mouth before moving on to her breasts. He took one into his mouth and laved the soft flesh with his tongue. He encircled and suckled the tip while attending to her other breast with his hand. She writhed beneath him. Her hips naturally swayed upward and met the hardness of his body.

He ached to remove his breeches and free himself to plunge into her sweet, tight depths, but he refused to give in to his own desires. Not yet, not until he loved all of her, showed her how it could be, how it would be between them. Switching his attentions to her other breast, he continued his sweet torture. She reached for him and wrapped her arms around him. She dug her nails into his back, and cried out in pleasure, and he rejoiced in it.

William trailed kisses across her stomach, licked and kissed the path he created, then reached past her golden curls, and moved his way down her legs, along her thighs, all the way to her toes. He retraced his path, and nudged her legs apart in order to kiss and lick her inner thighs. She wiggled beneath him, and cried out and moaned, as he came closer to her secret depths.

He wedged his shoulders between her legs, and opened her to his gaze, to his touch. She tried to sit up, to see him at the apex of her thighs, and cover herself, but he shook his head. She fell back against the pillows. He used his fingers to pull her folds apart, to find her bud, and gently massage it. Her hips lifted from the bed to meet his caress with all of the pent up passion she stored inside. He swirled his finger around her bud with the gentlest of motions, and wanted so much to suckle her there. Yet, he did not want to frighten his innocent wife. He continued to move his finger along her wet depths as he slipped his body up against hers, and once again he met her breasts with his chest.

William kissed Cassie deeply, mimicking the circular motions of his finger with his tongue in her mouth. To think he only dreamed of this a few days ago. He never believed she could be his, or that he would be able to touch her in this intimate way. He never dreamed he would see her nude body damp with passion across his bed. Her hands explored his body, and gently caressed his shoulders. She swirled her fingers through the dark curls on his chest, across his tight nipples, and down his lower abdomen. He sucked in a breath as she came close, but not quite reaching the hard length of him. Her shy touches sent him spiraling and pumped his blood so hot he was sure it would boil over before he could remove his breeches and sink into her.

He slipped a finger into her wet, hot depths. Her feminine core tightened with tension, and she gasped from the invasive shock. Then she melted against him. "This is where I am going to enter you." He recreated the in and out motion with his finger of what would come, then stretched her with two fingers to prepare her entrance to take him in. In slow motions, he pumped his fingers into her and pulled them almost out while he circled her tiny bud with his thumb and battled her tongue with his own.

Cassie scraped her nails across his back as she reached the pinnacle and soared into that heavenly place where her body shivered and shattered with delight. He broke their kiss to watch the passion sweep across her face, to watch her rise and fall, and shutter back down to earth. He removed his fingers and opened his breeches. Then he slid them down and off his legs. He climbed over her, and pushed her legs apart. He touched her core with his length, and pushed against her opening.

"We are going to join now. Relax and let me enter you."

Cassie closed her eyes and moaned as he inched his way into her hot, tight sheath. The pleasure was unbearable. He had to strain himself to keep from losing control, and to keep from thrusting inside of her and tearing her maidenhead. He pushed further into her then paused before breaking through her innocent layers. She cried out, but he felt her body relax as he remained still within her until she adjusted to him.

"Please...," she begged.

He moved within her, and created a rhythm she soon learned and followed. They moved slowly and sensually to an ancient tune that increased in tempo until they climaxed together. The world exploded into a million shards of brilliant light, as they merged into one. Then he spilled his seed deep into her womb. Together, they cried in unison before he collapsed on top of her. Their breathing and heartbeats mingled into the last notes of a symphony known only to them.