just below her ear. “I do not wish to punish you, but I do insist on your safety. You are my wife.”
“In name only.” She swallowed and looked away and he could have sworn that tears shone in her eyes.
He closed the distance between them. “I refuse to give you an annulment.”
“I will find someone willing. If you can pay off a bishop to change the date on our marriage license, then I can find one to dissolve our union.” She punctuated the last three words by jabbing a finger into his chest.
He reached up and gripped her wrist and held her to him. “No one will believe we haven’t consummated yet. You will be ruined.”
Her chin tilted upward a notch. “I could have a medical examination to prove it.”
Her words wounded him, he couldn’t deny that. But there was something shimmering in her eyes that gave him pause. “You would go to such lengths to rid yourself of me?”
Her green eyes met his, and the depth of color and emotion in that one glance nearly undid him. “You seem unwilling to lie with me. I understand I am not beautiful by Society’s standards, but if you recall, I did not beg you to marry me. You pushed this, and you never once hinted that it would not be a real marriage.”
“You think I do not want to be with you? In bed?”
She shoved at his chest with her free hand. “What else am I to think?”
He grabbed her other wrist and put them both above her head while he backed her into the door. He ground himself against her, letting her know in no uncertain terms precisely how much he desired her. “What are you to think?” He arched a brow, waiting for her to recognize the very hard proof of his desire.
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“That I want you so damned badly I’m terrified to touch you. I’m terrified I’ll hurt you with the fierceness of my desire, the sheer power of my lust for you.”
Again she said nothing.
“Do you have any idea how hard I am every time you are near me? Having you spread across my lap in there and spanking that sweet bottom of yours. Christ, Tilly, I want you more than I’ve wanted anyone or anything in my life.” He watched the black of her pupil as it swallowed the grassy depths of her iris.
Desire, hot and thick, pulsed between them. With both of her arms held above them, her breasts pressed into his chest.
“It made me wet,” she whispered.
“What?” his own voice cracked.
“When you spanked me. It made me wet. Down there.” Her eyes glanced downward.
He growled and lowered his mouth to hers. His wife was damned perfect. His tongue swept against hers and she slanted her mouth in response. In one swift movement, he’d picked her up, putting his hands under her skirts and palming her bare arse. Oh yes, she hadn’t put on her pantaloons. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he walked to the bed. He tossed her on the mattress, falling on top of her, his hard length pressing to the damp seam of her center.
He had to find some measure of control.
“I’m going to try to be gentle, Freckles. Just know I have no desire to actually hurt you.”
“I don’t need you to be gentle. Just have me. Take me, Sullivan, please make this ache inside of me go away.” She looked up at him, all brazen innocence, begging him to make love to her.
“Damnation, you have no idea what that does to me.” He unbuttoned her dress and peeled it off her, then followed with her remaining underthings until she sat before him, in the center of his bed in nothing more than a shy smile and a body kissed with a thousand freckles. “Even more beautiful than I could have imagined.” He ran his hands down her shoulders, across the ridge of her collarbone, then down the front of her breasts. He flicked her pert nipples and she gasped in response. “You’re perfect, Tilly, do you hear me? Totally perfect.”
Then he lay atop of her and kissed her again, deeply, with every ounce of passion he felt. She squirmed beneath him, her hands exploring his bare chest. Her palms ran up the flanks of his back and her nails bit into his shoulders when he ground himself against her.
He continued to kiss her and rock against her core. She spread her