his efforts with his tongue and her mind emptied of all but the need for fulfilment. He sucked at the hot swollen bud between her thighs.
She fell apart. Wave after wave of delicious pleasure washed through her.
Her reward for the truth.
Yet why did she have the sense it was also a punishment? Perhaps it was the hard set to his jaw as he drew her nightdress over her head and looked down at her nakedness. Or the way he roughly settled in the cradle of her hips and brought his hard flesh into her body, filling her deliciously. He drove deeper, and the ache he’d assuaged a few moments before, began again. If anything it was more intense. Slowly he withdrew, and she moaned at the thought he would leave her, fastening her legs around his hips, twining her arms around his neck to hold him close. He made a sound in his throat like a groan of defeat and thrust into her, deeper, harder, over and over. It was like riding the back of the wind in a storm, caught up in a vortex and circling higher and higher. All she could do was hang on tight and let whatever drove him carry her along.
He knew her name, had stripped her bare of her secrets, and now she was completely in his power.
She surrendered to his strength.
Lost herself in the pleasure he visited upon her.
Triumph filled his eyes along with regret.
A nerve jangled. She wasn’t a leaf to be picked up by a gale and tossed hither and yon where it willed. Passive was not in her nature. Nor was surrender.
He must suffer the consequences of the fire he had lit. Arms wound around his neck, she pulled herself up against a broad chest damp with sweat. The heat of him against her breasts spurred her on. She swirled her tongue in his ear, and his grunt of pleasure tugged at her core, even as she tilted her hips to meet his next driving thrust. Waves of pleasure once more caught her up. She nipped at his earlobe and, recalling the pleasure of his mouth on her skin, licked the salty skin, his corded neck and the soft part of his throat. She no longer received his driving force deep within her centre; she set the pace with the lift of her hips.
The rough sound of his breath against her shoulder increased in tempo. He sounded in pain. She ran one hand down his back, found the rise of his buttocks and the hard bone of his hip. As he withdrew to pound into her again, she slipped her hand between their bodies and found the base of his shaft and cupped the softness beneath, caressing there as he had played with her breasts.
‘Holy hell,’ he said in her ear. ‘You’ll make me…’ He caught her hand and pulled it free, returning to stroke and press her sensitive flesh at their joining.
Her body flew apart in pleasure. Her mind darkened, leaving only intense flashes of white heat in her veins.
Breathing hard, Garth pulled away, groaning as if it pained him to leave her, his body convulsing and heavy on her body, his forehead pressed against her shoulder. He rolled off to one side and a moment later she felt him rubbing her at her stomach with the sheet. She glanced down. ‘What is it?’
He shook his head wearily. ‘It is nothing. A bit of a mess.’ He looked…stunned.
He rolled on to his back and pulled her against his shoulder. ‘Rest. And don’t think for a moment about running off.’
The man really did like to issue orders. ‘Am I your prisoner, then?’
He gave a soft rueful laugh. ‘If you are, then I am also yours.’
An odd thing to say. She was too tired to question him further, but as her breathing slowed and her skin cooled, she shivered.
He reached down and pulled up the quilt, covering them both.
‘Do you want me to ask Pelham for the miniature?’
Oh, dear, now he finally believed her. Guilt racked her. She shook her head. ‘It isn’t there. It was a fool’s errand.’
By never saying the words out loud to another person, she’d somehow clung to the hope that Grandfather was wrong. That Father hadn’t thought his daughters unimportant.
The hot burn of tears welled up and, furious, she brushed them away. She would not believe it. Could not. Something had prevented him from keeping his promise. Something beyond his control.
It was just too cruel otherwise.
‘Why