Distant thunder rumbled across the piazza and wind rattled the windows. The air hung thick, humid and heavy with electricity. When he turned, Ellie was standing in the center of his chamber like a gazelle on the prairie, wide-eyed and motionless. He gave her a wry smile. “I’m not going to attack you, El.”
She released a bark of laughter. “I know, of course.” She swallowed hard. “But I don’t know what to do now.”
Affection, warm and sweet like honey, flowed through him. “Come sit.” Henry took her hand and led her to the end of the bed. “You know you’re in complete control, right?”
She nodded.
“And you can stop at any time, and I won’t be upset or judge you for it.”
“Of course not.” She stared at him for a long moment. “Should I undress now, or…”
Henry exhaled a choking laugh. The vision of her slowly removing her clothing, item by item, never breaking eye contact—
“No, not yet. Not at all tonight, actually.” Ellie’s brows furrowed. “I wanted to ask you about your experience. It’s hard to know what to show you without knowing your past with Ashby.”
She cleared her throat and pursed her lips. “There isn’t much to say. There wasn’t any sort of romance or affection. He told me at dinner when he planned to visit me at night, and he did.” Her cheeks burned crimson. “I merely… endured it, I suppose, but it never brought me pleasure, mostly discomfort.” She turned to him, her eyes bright. “There must be more to the act, because so many find it pleasurable… I never conceived, so perhaps I’m not made right.”
Henry wanted to kiss her into oblivion, to provenothingwas wrong with her. “You most certainly are made right. Ashby was an arse who paid no attention to your needs.” He took her hand and squeezed it gently. “I want to take things slowly and start from the beginning. Intimacy is more than the act of intercourse itself.”
Ellie nodded as she considered his words. “Such as?”
“Kissing.”
Her eyes widened. “Kissing?”
“Kissing. It is the height of intimacy when done correctly.”And if she hates kissing me, I’ll know this attraction is all in my imagination.
Her pink tongue darted out to wet her lips, and he nearly expired on the spot. “So… how do I kiss?”
“You meant it when you said you had never been properly kissed.”
Nodding her head, Ellie dropped her chin. “Ashby never wanted to…”
Henry refused to bring that man into her thoughts. Not tonight. “To start, you find what you enjoy. Pay attention to what I do to you, and if you find it pleasurable, you can do that back to me.”
“And if I do something completely disgusting?” she asked, raising her chin to show a playful smile on her lips.
He chuckled. “I will give you the necessary feedback along the way. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Ellie replied, then puckered her lips out like a trout, her eyes wide open.
Henry began to laugh, then caught himself. “No, not like that.” She scowled playfully at him, but he ignored her.I will take this seriously, if nothing else in my life. I have never been entrusted with something more important than her care.He lifted his thumb to her lower lip and stroked it until she relaxed, her lips parting slightly. “That’s it,” he murmured as he lowered his mouth to hers.
Henry told himself he could maintain distance and remind himself she was hisbest friend, the person he trusted above everyone else, and nothing would change after this trip.
The moment his lips touched hers, Henry knew he would never be the same. Her breath caught at the feathery contact and Henry pulled back to catch her expression. “Continue?”
She blinked twice before responding. “Y-yes, I suppose.”
Henry cupped her jaw, lifting her lips to his and deepening the pressure. The kiss was far from the most fervent kiss he had ever experienced, but it shot fire to every inch of his body. His mind repeatedly told him to go slowly, ease her into it, but the moment her tongue tentatively touched his lips, he was done for.
He had never been a man of poetry, but he understood why men wrote sonnets over the power of a single kiss. The shaky exhale of breath over her lips, the eager noises in her throat, the taste of her, sweet like honey—knowinghewas the man to bring her this pleasure fulfilled him, bolstered him, made him want more, want everything the world offered. Starting with claiming more kisses from Ellie.
His fingers tangled in the hair at her nape, his other arm falling around her waist and pulling her close. Ellie’s hands pressed against his chest for a moment before clutching his shoulders. He should have known his Ellie would be fearless, would give in to her curiosity and explore freely. He flicked his tongue against her lips and she opened in response, meeting his caress with hers.
Henry couldn’t remember a time when he had kissed for so long with no other physical contact. Kissing had always been the prelude before the main event, butthis… This was unlike anything he had experienced, the kisses one read about in the poetry that made him roll his eyes at its nonsense.
Ellie was making sounds now, the soft noises in the back of her throat so like what she made in her dreams he went fully hard, desperate for her. He dropped his lips to her chin, across her jawline and cheekbone, nipping softly in the hollow beneath her ear. Her fingers laced into his hair, holding him in place and then directing him down her neck. He moaned with the headiness of the moment.
