deep inside her, the pleasure so intense, she could not keep a helpless sound of pleasure from escaping her lips. The bliss shooting through her was so acute she could scarcely think.
Somehow, his fingers had slipped between them yet again. He toyed with the aching bud of her sex as everything inside her tightened to a painful crescendo. Their kisses deepened. Carnal now. A frenzied rush. There was no patience or finesse.
There was only the electric charge of their connection. Of his hardness burrowed inside her, where he belonged. The carriage slowed, rocking as their feverish lovemaking went feral. Each downward movement had her breasts bouncing in the confines of her corset, making her eager nipples abrade the soft satin. She could not wait for his mouth to claim them. For now, it was as if her entire body and everything surrounding her was conspiring to render her as desperate as possible.
One more flick of his knowing fingers over her pearl, and she went careening into her crisis. This time was more intense than the last. She moaned into their kiss as she slammed down on his cock one last time, lodging him within her so deep, she thought she might shatter into pieces from the sheer concentration of the pleasure.
Beneath her, he went rigid. Tearing his lips from hers, he buried his face in the hollow between her throat and shoulder. On a groan, he pulsed inside her, finding his release in almost the same moment. The warm rush of his seed flooded her, making her tremble and quake with the petite aftereffects of her own shuddering orgasm.
They clasped each other tightly, hearts pounding together, breaths ragged. He was still inside her, her wedding skirts belled around them and likely hopelessly marred by wrinkles. But as Hyacinth held her husband, she did not care about anything but him. Him and the small life they had created together, their own sweet miracle.
As if he had been privy to her thoughts, Tom raised his head, his expression dazed with passion, his eyes glazed. “Dear God, Hyacinth, the babe. I should not have been so rough or impassioned. I could have hurt the both of you.”
Her heart gave a pang. She cupped his cheek. “The babe is fine, Tom. As am I. You cannot hurt either of us, nor would you.”
The difference between the husband she had chosen for herself and Southwick was as disparate as night and day, winter and summer. Where Southwick had wanted to control and dominate her and had ruled her with fear, Tom wanted only to love her. One had destroyed her garden, and the other had given her the means to rebuild it.
But Tom was grimacing now, his expression torn. “What a cad you have married, my love. Could not wait for the wedding night or until reaching the comfort of home and a clean bed. You ought to have chosen better for yourself.”
She kissed him to soothe the furrow from his brow and raised her head once more. “There is no better choice for me than you, Tom. You are the finest gentleman, with the truest heart, I have ever met, and I shall be forever grateful Lady’s howling led you to me that night in the gardens.”
He kissed her swiftly. “I shall be forever grateful as well. However, it has come to my attention that our carriage has stopped. We are likely arrived at Somerton House. We had best straighten our appearances lest the entire household suspect Lord Sidmouth has been ravishing the new Lady Sidmouth on the way home.”
With a smile, she scooted herself from his lap, attempting to wrest her skirts back into some semblance of order. “Or, as would be more accurate, that the new Lady Sidmouth had been ravishing his lordship on the way home.”
“Undoubtedly, the servants would never believe such a thing of their new mistress,” Tom said, grinning back at her as he hastily rearranged the fall of his trousers. “After all, she bears the beauty of an angel and certainly has the heart of one.”
A knock sounded on the carriage door before she could form a response.
“Lord and Lady Sidmouth, we are arrived,” announced the muffled voice of a groom.
“You heard the man, sweetheart.” Tom helped her to tuck some stray tendrils of hair behind her ear and kissed her lingeringly once more. “We are home.”
Home.
Yes, Hyacinth quite liked the sound of that.
Epilogue
Where the devil had the little furred minx scampered off to now?
“Have you seen Lady?”