Romancing the Rogue (167 page)

“Now I have you all to myself,” John whispered as he carried Carolina over the threshold to the little room he'd rented in Charleston until he could afford something better.

“Yes, and we can use the present from your brother and sister-in-law to help us decide how we should spend our first evening together,” she teased.

John set her down and plucked the book from her hand. “As long as the ideas come from Song of Solomon, I'm agreeable.”

She laughed. “You're incorrigible.”

“I know.” He moved his lips to the crook of her neck and between kisses said, “That's why you love me.”

“Indeed it is,” she agreed.

“You're not angry with me about that are you?”

Carolina shook her head and ran her fingers through his blond locks. “Why would I be angry with you because Edward and Regina gave me a Bible?

“Because it's my fault there was a scene,” he said sheepishly.

“You mean you told them to buy it and then bribed Alex to take it from me and start running around unwrapping it?”

“No. But I might have issued a challenge from which Edward had no intention of walking away.”

Ah, that explained it. “No. I'm not upset; nor was I embarrassed. I actually thought it was quite comical once I realized what it was; clever, too.”

“Clever? Edward?”

“Actually, it was from Regina,” Carolina corrected, pushing his coat off his shoulders. “The note only
implied
the book was inappropriate. But once I learned what it was, I realized her wording fit perfectly to lead me to think one thing, when it was actually something else. As I said, it was very clever on their part.”

John shook his head at her logic. “I have no idea what I did to deserve a woman like you, but I sure do love you.”

“I do believe I shall never tire of hearing you say that,” she said, pulling his shirt free from his breeches.

“Oh? And how do you feel about me showing you?” he asked, making quick work of the row of buttons that went down the back of her gown.

She shivered. “It's been a while. I might need to be reminded.”

His eyes darkened, and he pressed his lips to hers, his hands moving at a harried pace to remove her gown and untie her corset.

She sighed his name against his mouth, curling her fingers into his hair and pushing her body against his.

“Carolina,” he rasped. He pulled back long enough to undress her and then himself. Then his lips were back on hers, and his hands were gliding up and down her body.

She felt boneless in his hold and offered no protest as he carried her to the bed. He kissed a path down her neck and across her collarbone, his hands freely roaming her naked body. Her skin, which was already warm, heated to new heights when he bent his head and drew one of her nipples into his mouth.

She arched her back, offering him more.

But he didn't greedily take more of her breast into his mouth; instead, he went slowly, driving her mad with want. “You wicked man,” she said on a sigh.

He flicked his tongue across her nipple as if to acknowledge he understood her meaning perfectly, and he hadn't forgotten what it took to send her into a frenzy of need.

“Oh, you think to torment me?” she breathed, moving her knee to rub ever-so-lightly against the inside of his thigh and all the way to his—

“You minx,” he growled, leaving behind her right breast and turning his attention to the other. This time, his wicked ministrations were not so soft and gentle, as he sucked the crest of her breast fully into his mouth and began plying its budded peak with his tongue.

She cried out, and his only response was to bring his hand up to her right breast and cover it with his large palm.

Carolina's body reeled with excitement under his touches, and she tightened her grip on his hair when his mouth released her swollen breast and he pressed open-mouthed kisses down the bottom curve and to the top of her ribs, then down her abdomen. He guided her body down to the edge of the bed, leaving her legs to hang off the side, and then moved to stand between her parted thighs.

She watched him as he straightened and let his eyes linger slowly down her body, taking a measure of pride at the way his throat worked and his body reacted to the sight of hers. She loved that she could be the one to do this to him.

A slow, wolfish smile bent his lips. “Most people don't get a second wedding night. I'll have to be mindful to take full advantage of this rare opportunity.”

Carolina wrapped her legs around his waist and drew him closer to her, then reached up and pulled him down to her. “I'm sure you will. But have you forgotten that your bride isn't a missish virgin, and she might end up being the one to take advantage of you?”

“Don't make a promise you don't mean to keep, love,” he said, his voice raw and his eyes full of challenge.

Carolina tightened her legs around his waist and made a rolling motion with her hips, a silent acknowledgement that she'd accept his challenge.

He groaned and followed her lead, rolling onto his back and bringing her to sit on top of him.

She placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned forward, pressing kisses all over his hard, muscled chest.

“Carolina,” he breathed, bringing his callused hands up to glide along her back.

Her skin tingled and she continued to kiss his chest and then his neck. She nipped his shoulder in the way he'd done to her so many times when they'd first married.

He groaned and she pressed her bare breasts flush against his abdomen. “You temptress.”

She slid farther up his body until her lips were on his and her breasts were pressed against his chest.

He moved his hands up to her shoulder blades and used his thumbs to gently rub the sides of her breasts while she kissed and nipped his soft lips. He kissed her back, startling her. His hands stilled and he brought his right hand up to her cheek, digging his fingers into her hair.

She sighed his name against his lips and then broke their kiss, forcing herself to sit up. “Do you suppose...”

“I do,” he rasped.

She grinned and moved her hips down his body until she was straddling his erection. Using her left hand on his shoulder for leverage, she lifted up on her knees and moved him into position, then slowly sank down.

“Carolina,” he grunted, moving his hands to her hips.

She covered his hands with hers and pulled them away. “I said I planned to take advantage of you, and that is exactly what I'm doing.”

“No, you're torturing me,” he corrected, bucking his hips to push himself further inside.

She rose up on her knees just enough to almost separate them, but not quite. “That'll be enough of that, Mr. Banks,” she warned with a shake of her head.

He groaned again and threw his arms over his head.

Slowly, she sank back down, taking every delicious inch of him inside her, then rose back up on her knees again, repeating her movements. She had no idea who was tormented more by this and frankly didn't care. She leaned forward and placed her hands on his shoulders, her hair now falling down to drag across his abdomen and chest with each of her movements.

She locked her eyes on his face as she continued to move over top of him. She increased her pace and his face hardened, his eyes traveling back and forth from hers to her breasts, that bounced with every movement she made.

She bit her lower lip and sped her pace again, that familiar fluttering in her abdomen forming. John lifted his hands and cupped her breasts, shaping and caressing them in time with her movements. He moved the pads of his thumbs across her hardened nipples, and she cried out his name.

Carolina lowered her upper body closer to his, her energy waning but her desire still strong. As if he knew what she wanted but realized she might not be able to achieve it on her own, he slowly moved his hands to her hips and held her tightly as he began meeting her movement, pushing himself further into her than she'd been able take him on her own.

His shoulders grew tight under her hands, and his face contorted in what she might think was pain if she didn't know any better. “Now, Carolina.”

His ragged command was her tipping point and suddenly wave after wave of delicious euphoria came over her as she continued to move her hips in time with his. Somewhere through the fog, she heard herself give her husband the same raw command he'd given her, followed only a second later by a savage shout filling the air as John slowed his movements to a stop.

Breathlessly, Carolina collapsed on his broad chest and pressed her ear against his heart that was beating as rapidly as her own. “Perhaps next time my plan for torture will work,” she whispered.

John's big hand came up and pulled her hair away from her damp face. “You always have a plan, don't you?” he teased.

“Yes, and it always goes the opposite way I want it to,” she confided, repositioning herself to be more comfortable.

He idly ran his knuckles against her cheek. “How so?”

“I wanted to drive you mad with need, but it was me who ended up mad and you had to help...
you know...”

He lifted one shoulder up in a lopsided shrug. “I don't see a problem with that. In fact, I think it's a good thing we both need the other's help in order to find our own satisfaction.”

“Perhaps so,” she acknowledged, seeing the logic behind his words. “But that still doesn't make me feel better about all my failed attempts to gain your attention.”

He laughed. “Do you mean bringing me the water while I was working or having me find you swimming naked?”

She sat straight up. “W-what? You saw
me
swimming naked?” The memory of the day her mother had hosted that wretched supper and how she'd gone swimming earlier that day to forget about her anger over her mother's wish for her to marry Charlie flashed in her mind. “Is that why you decided to marry me? Because you'd seen me naked?”

“No. I've already told you. I didn't decide to marry you until just hours before I came to your room that night. But—”
H
e rolled her off of him and turned on his side to face her
.
“
—
my decision had nothing to do with seeing you naked. I'll admit it didn't deter me, but I was already in love with you before then
—
I just hadn't realized it yet.”

“Oh? And when did you realize it?”

He grimaced. “You don't want to know.”

“Yes, I do. I want to know if my plans worked.”

“This wasn't planned, believe me.”

Now she was more curious than before. “How do you know?”

“Because even you wouldn't stoop so low as to ask Charlie to play awful music just so you could show off your musical abilities.”

“How do you know?” she demanded, trying in vain not to laugh. He was absolutely right though, she'd have never done that to poor Charlie.

“Because that's not like you, Carolina,” he said, idly stroking her hair. “You might be a bit overly flirtatious at times and perhaps a little too spirited at others, but under it all, you have a pure and tender heart like I've never seen before. You open yourself up to be mocked by protecting someone else who doesn't know the difference, and you offer to be punished in the stead of someone you love.” He snorted. “You even rubbed salve on a sunburned man who'd been unnecessarily nasty and even brought him cool water and a picnic—”

“That wasn't my idea, it was Bethel's.”

He frowned. “What, tending to me while I was in bed?”

“No, I did that on my own. But before you were sick, she told me to bring you the water...and the picnic.”

“She did, did she? And what did your brother think?”

Her face heated. “He told me to stop annoying you and let you come after me,” she mumbled, still as unimpressed by his advice now as she was then.

“And did you ask anyone else for ideas?”

“Marjorie. But she was no help, either. When I told her what Bethel and Gabriel had said, she got this strange expression on her face but didn't tell me anything.”

“That's because there was nothing to tell,” John said, grinning. “Don't you see? What Gabriel told you to do, and Bethel helped you do, and Marjorie didn't tell you to do is exactly what you needed to do: just be yourself. Carolina, I won't lie. I don't like theatrics and openly expressing feelings. My mother and father did both of those things, for different reasons, of course, but their reasons weren't genuine. With you, it is. When you giggle or grin, it's because you're truly happy. When you cry, it's because you're genuinely upset. When you say something, no matter how blunt, it's because you mean it. Those are the things I love about you, Carolina.”

“I love you, too, John,” she said, bringing her lips to his.

“Good. How about if you show me at least once more, then we'll go to sleep so you'll be able to appreciate the surprise I've arranged for you for tomorrow.”

“Surprise?”

He nodded, taking her right breast into his hand and rolling her nipple until it hardened. “Didn't you wonder why I was a little late this morning?”