her lover glided back and drove forward repeatedly, at times shallow, and then wonderfully hard and deep. Pleasure mingled with erotic pain, and she clasped his shoulders and hugged him to her as he did what he promised. He rode her, and it was such a wicked ride filling her with such wildness and bliss. Acting on the wanton urge beating in her blood, she wrapped her legs high around his hips. His groan of approval filled her with pleasure, and despite this shift pushing him even deeper inside her body and making the pressure in her sex more overwhelming, she climaxed with soul-searing intensity. He kissed her and seconds later, he hugged her into a tight embrace, and with a groan, found his own release.
Chapter 10
The sun was lowering by the time Callie and Graham left the cottage. It felt like they had been there for days but according to his pocket watch, they had been missing for four hours.
Was that how long it took to fall hopelessly in love?
She stared at his patrician profile as he rowed them with powerful arm movements toward the shore. After her ravishment, she had lain in his arms, stunned at the enormity of what they had done. She had never understood how anyone could be carried away by passion and lead themselves to ruin, and now she realized how silly she had been before in her judgment.
From a kiss, he had consumed her, and she had willingly given him everything without reservation. Despite that, there was an anxious heaviness in her heart. He’d not said anything tender or anything that hinted he might want to court her. And it frightened her. Not because she had given him her virtue, but because he withdrew, and the possibility of happiness which she had seen as they laughed and talked over wine would vanish.
As if he sensed her stare, his regard shifted from the sky to her.
“The clouds are swollen,” he jested, “is your nose twitching by any chance.”
“No,” she said softly.
His mouth curved in a tender smile. “Ah, then there is the hope we might make it back before more rain comes.”
She nodded. Something wild and irrepressible in her had almost wished the rain had continued falling, forcing them to spend the night and not just a few hours together. They had talked some more in each other’s arms and shared more kisses, which almost took a passionate turn. But when he had slipped a caressing finger between her legs, she had gasped and tightly closed them, shutting out his questing touch.
Ah, you are sore.
She still blushed to recall that statement, but he had been correct. He’d kissed her forehead and murmured an apology for being an insensitive lustful beast. She had snuggled into his arms as they had laughed and gossiped about the guests under his father’s roof. As soon as the rain had eased, he had urged them from the bed, assisted her in dressing, and they tidied the cottage as best as they could. Then they had struck out. She worried her bottom lip as the boat drew closer to the bank and the main house. Callie detected no one on the lawns.
“Do you think our absence was noted?”
“Perhaps not. Everyone would have to be together for it to be noticeable. Some guests would have been playing billiards or cards. Others would be in the drawing-room playing parlor games, some outside in the gazebo. Only at dinner when all the guests gather could anyone say decisively that we are missing. And we have another hour before the dinner gong. There will be enough time to make ourselves presentable and fashion credible excuses should anyone query.”
“Do you…do you have trysts like these often?” a mortified flush ran along her entire body, but she would not take back her question.
His arms slowed, and the boat bobbed atop the waters of the lake. “We did not have a tryst,” he replied slowly, his gaze scanning every nuance of her face.
“Then what did we have?” she asked her voice a broken whisper, gripping her fingers together. Callie couldn’t understand what it was she needed from him, but her stomach knotted with dread. Everything inside of her ached.
“I do not know, but I have never had a lover where my entire body and heart was attuned to her,” he husked. “I fear it might ruin me for all others.”
“I shall celebrate it,” she replied, meeting his intense regard.
Their stares held as he reached the dock, and