to him so he could sink his cock as deep as possible inside her luscious heat.
He was going to come.
With sheer force of will, he withdrew from her at the last second, gripping his shaft tight as he spent all over her cunny. He painted her pretty pink folds with his seed, marking her as his. It was primitive, but he had another reason for not releasing his seed within her.
“Mine,” he bit out, claiming his victory as he had claimed her. “Always mine.”
And then he rolled to his back alongside her, sated and boneless. His heart pounded in his chest, and he did not recall when he had ever come so hard in his life. Nell’s breaths were every bit as rapid and ragged as his. She too lay still, as if she could not move.
For a few, unguarded moments, they were completely at one, and he was utterly at peace, fooling himself into believing this pax between them could last forever. That surely this bout of lovemaking, so powerful and passionate, had changed her mind for good. That surely she could never want to go to another man after what they had just experienced together.
“You did not finish inside me,” she said suddenly, breaking the silence at last.
And just like that, reality returned to him.
“No,” he agreed, wishing he would not have to say more, hoping she would not make him acknowledge the possibility of his impending defeat.
“Before, when we first married, you did not either,” Nell persisted, turning her face toward him, her gaze questioning. “Because we were not ready to have a child. Yet, the other times we made love since your return, you did.”
“I lost control,” he admitted. “I had been so long without you that I…could not control myself.”
“You controlled yourself this time. Why?”
She was going to make him say it.
He sighed. “Because I will not entrap you with a baby. I would sooner grant you the divorce than to spend the rest of my life knowing you remained tied to me for the sake of a child.”
He had too much pride for that, but he also loved Nell far too much for that. He wanted, more than anything, her happiness. If it was not with him, the choice would be hers and hers alone. He was doing everything in his power to change her mind.
“That is…gentlemanly of you,” she said haltingly.
He wished he could read her countenance. Her face, ordinarily so expressive and easy for him to translate, was carefully blank.
“You sound surprised,” he observed, his tone as grim and bleak as he felt within. “I have told you before, I am not the beast you think me, Nellie. I love you. I loved you three years ago, and I love you today. That has not changed, nor will it ever. But I will not hold you to this marriage if you cannot love me back.”
“I do not know if I can, Jack.”
Her soft confession took him aback. It was a greater concession than he had expected from her, given the manner in which she continued to push him away.
“Your uncertainty gives me hope.” He could not resist touching her, reaching out to caress her silken cheek before trailing his touch down to settle over her wildly beating heart. “Perhaps you may find room here for me yet.”
Her lips pursed, and then she rolled away from him, presenting him with her back. “You should go, Jack. I suspect we are quite tardy for breakfast by now, and I will be needing to perform some ablutions and ring for my lady’s maid.”
She was dismissing him.
He stared in disbelief as she rose, presenting him with a mouthwatering view of her curved derriere. Her long, golden curls swung as her hips swayed. As irritated as he was with her for her subsequent withdrawal once more, he could not help but to admire her as she bent to retrieve something from the floor.
“Let me stay,” he said. “Let me at least tend to you.”
He felt suddenly guilty for his display of possession. What had she reduced him to? Was he a barbarian?
Clearly, the answer to that question was a resounding yes, because the thought of his seed, warm and sticky between her thighs—the knowledge she must feel him there still—pleased him. It also made his cock twitch back to life.
She rose and turned, tossing a pile of garments at him. Trousers, shirt, waistcoat, smalls, etcetera. It landed on his erection in rather symbolic fashion.
“I have told you