And maybe it was because he wasn’t looking at her that he let out a tiny shudder of relief and pressed a kiss on her shoulder.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
A further instinct told her that he needed to prove himself after that moment of vulnerability, so she put on her most arch voicewhen she said, “You canshowme your gratitude if you please, Your Grace.”
She felt the energy change between them, the places they touched starting to practically radiate with smugness.
“As my bride requests,” he purred into her ear.
And then he threw her back onto the bed again. She would have objected to all this manhandling if it didn’t make her want to press her legs together just for the friction of it.
But she couldn’t have done so even if she’d tried, because then Aaron was there, atop her again, with nothing between them this time. He kissed her thoroughly, his hands on her cheeks, holding her in place as his tongue plundered her mouth—as though he had been a privateer, not an admiral. She couldn’t have gotten away from him if she’d tried.
She didn’t try.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he grunted his approval before biting gently at her lower lip.
“Careful, sweet,” he told her. From this angle, she could see the starbursts of different colors in his hazel eyes. “If you press against me like that too much, this will all be over before it begins.”
This felt like a taunt more than a genuine concern, and Phoebe narrowed her eyes at him.
“What are you waiting for, then?” she tossed back, her bravado not quite covering up the frisson of nerves that she felt at the idea of finally, fully becoming one with her husband.
Aaron’s expression sparked with challenge, and he slipped a hand between their bodies, reaching down until he could touch her where she needed him the most. She gasped at the sensation of his caress, then moaned when he slipped his fingers inside her, testing her readiness for him.
“God, the feel of you,” he groaned as her eyes fluttered shut with the feeling of his movements. “You say I’m beautiful, but—fuck, Phoebe. Have you ever seen yourself? Glorious, glorious woman.”
His words caused a surge of pleasure to jolt through her, but that was nothing compared to what she felt when he took himself in hand and slowly began pressing himself inside her.
“Oh,” she murmured, her head dropping back at the feeling of inexorable pressure, of remarkable fullness?—
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice tense with the effort of holding back. “Do you need me to?—”
“No,” she gasped. “Don’t stop. Keep going.”
“Thank Christ,” he muttered, which was almost comical except Phoebe was too busy feeling every other emotion in the world to find the humor in it.
Because the feelings that were assailing her… They were new and strange and wonderful and more than a bit overwhelming. She felt her muscles stretching to accommodate this new purpose, and it wasn’t comfortable at first, and then it was, and then it was more than comfortable—it was incredible and…
And in very little time at all, Phoebe found that pleasurable tension curling in her low belly.
“Oh God, Aaron,” she said as she stretched her hips wider so that she could give him even greater access to her. “More, please.”
“Yes,” he grunted, sounding mindless, but he had enough sense to follow her instructions. His pace increased, and his thrusts grew more forceful, each movement sending little sparks through Phoebe.
She clutched at his back, her fingertips digging in when his muscles bunched with effort, able to do little more than hold on as he possessed her fully—body and soul.
“Aaron,” she whimpered because his name was the only word she knew any longer. “Aaron, I—oh.”
Her voice broke with the collapsing of the tension inside her, and she shuddered through the pleasure that overtook her. Vaguely,she registered that her husband’s movements were growing erratic as he chased his own pleasure, and then he was grinding his teeth, the tendons on his neck standing out in stark relief as his own climax shook him.
“Phoebe,” he murmured into her hair as he collapsed atop her. “Oh, Christ, Phoebe. My gorgeous, gorgeous girl.”
They panted against one another, their breaths mingling as their bodies cooled, like melted puddles of wax blending into something new entirely. Aaron’s weight felt good on her, and then, just when it started to be a little too much, he seemed to sense this and shifted his weight off to the side so that he was curled around her but not crushing her.
She missed the feeling of him inside her from the moment that he slipped free of her body, but there was something lovely about the way he tangled his legs with hers with the way that he tucked her head under his chin so that he was everywhere, the feel and smell of him surrounding her, the taste of his kisses still in her mouth.
It reminded her of his promise not to leave.
