You’re so beautiful, El, so sensual.
I want to be the only one who makes you feel like this.
Her mind reached out for the last one, but the words were gone too quickly on another crest of ecstasy, Henry’s tongue still busy at her center, his fingers driving her higher.
She lost track of how long she laid with him worshiping her, tumbling under waves of pleasure again and again before she rolled away, damp with perspiration and breathless, her nerves pleading a rest.
“Henry,” she gasped as he settled at her side, pulling her against his chest. “What did you do to me?”
She had meant it as a joke, a way to lighten the intensity of the mood, but his next words were earnest, striking a chord deep in her heart. “You should always feel desirable, El. Don’t settle for anything less than being adored, worshiped body and soul.”
Was that what Henry felt for her? Adoration? Of her mind, perhaps, but as a lover would?
Take the risk before it’s too late.“Make love to me, Henry. Please.”
He closed his eyes for a long moment and doubt crept into her mind, making her wish she had stopped before she made her request.
But when he met her gaze, his eyes were reverent, filled with something stronger than lust, something that made her heart swell to bursting as his hands fumbled with his trousers. Henry kicked them off, stumbling over his own feet before he tumbled into bed and pulled the sheet over them both. He stroked his broad palm along her side, the heat of his touch burning through the thin fabric of her shift.
“I tried to find protection, shields,” he said, his eyes uncertain, “but… there are none to be had here, a Catholic state and all.” He swallowed hard.
Ellie felt a kick to her gut, the acknowledgement that this carnal act could result in the one thing she had failed at so terribly. “I’m barren, Henry,” she said, her voice flat. “But I understand you wouldn’t want the risk.”
He cupped her cheek, stroking his thumb along her jaw. “I promise I’ll protect you. I’d never let you get hurt.” He released a low laugh, then met her gaze with wide, searching eyes. “I’ve never done this without protection. Can I have you with nothing between us?”
How could she refuse?Nothingbetween them, no clothing, no pithy remarks or witty rejoinders, no expectations except care and affection?
She bit her lip. “A first for both of us, then.”
Of course. It has to be Henry.
He stood, and she gasped at the loss of his warmth as he crossed to his closet and rooted around before returning with a glass vial in his palm. Sliding back into bed beside her, he removed the cork and poured a small amount of viscous liquid into her palm. “It’s oil.” He ran his thumb through the substance, then dragged it along the swell of her breast, leaving a smooth, lavender-scented trail behind. “I bought it in the market this morning. It can help make things easier for you… to take me. And lavender is supposed to be calming, so—”
Heart full to bursting with affection, she pressed a kiss to his lips, the herbal scent filling her nostrils and soothing her. “How thoughtful,” she whispered against his mouth. “Thank you.”
Beneath the sheet, his fingers caught the hem of her shift and dragged it up, helping her lift her torso so he could take it over her head while her body lay hidden by the bedclothes. The touch of his skin against hers was molten, the contrast of their bodies driving her to madness. The rough hair and taut muscle of his thighs against the soft flesh and slick skin of hers. The hard planes of his chest against the give of her stomach and breasts. The heat and steel of his arousal against the silky texture of her opening.
Pouring more oil into his hand, Henry slid his palm between them, smoothing over her folds and slipping his finger inside her once more. She felt empty, overwhelmed with want and need for him.
“You’re perfect for me.” The words escaped her lips before she could censor them, and Ellie’s cheeks warmed.
“I am,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “You’re perfect for me. You always have been.”
Ellie knew she would deconstruct and analyze those words for hours, days, weeks to come, but now she could only feel as he slid his erection along her cleft, slicking himself in her moisture. “Guide me in, darling. I’m yours.”
Her fingers wrapped around him and she moaned from the pure eroticism of the sensation, the power Henry gave her. She only allowed herself seconds to revel in the velvety skin before she brought him to her opening, rocking her hips to bring them together.
Together. One simultaneous moan of relief, as though every moment of the past six years in which they had been apart had been wrong, and only this joining was right.
“El, you’re—you’re so—”
Her mind scrambled over the myriad ways he could finish the sentence, but he didn’t give her doubts a chance to find purchase.
“You’re soright.”
Her heart leapt and tumbled, then stopped altogether. It ceased having a purpose, because it no longer belonged to her body. It belonged to Henry completely.
Her breath caught and her body responded as she lifted her hips, pulling him deeper, giving herself over to his control more and more. But with no fear, no worry, no shame.
