“Oh! Oh, Thomas, yes!”
“Mmmmmmm.” She could feel Thomas’s smile against her swollen flesh. “I’ve missed hearing my name on your lips just before you come.”
And Nora proceeded to do just that.
Nora’s climax was as hard and furious as a sudden ocean squall. Thomas was keenly aware of how close he’d come to drowning in everything she was, but it was well worth the risk. He lapped up every drop of her ambrosial slickness, continuing his onslaught of her body until she begged him to stop and said she could take it no longer. Her muscles quaked beneath his hands and her body hummed with release. Looking up her limp and sated body to find her head lolling to the side, her chestnut hair half-damp, loose and wild, her eyes half-shuttered as she watched him, was Thomas’s tipping point.
He freed his cock from his breeches, gripping it tightly in his fist and pumping it hard. Sparks of desire flared out through his body like lit gunpowder as he gazed down at Nora, begging her with his eyes to give him permission.
Nora’s gaze met his and she nodded, opening her arms to him as if welcoming him home for the first time in many,many years. Leaning forward, he guided the broad head of his member to her slick folds, running it up and down until they both were gasping with need. He notched himself into place, grasped her hips, and pulled her to him as he thrust to the hilt in one powerful motion that made them both cry out in relief and desire.
He began to move without hesitation, pumping into her tight, wet sheath, angling and grinding his pelvis against hers to rub that place that set her on fire. She threw her head back and moaned deeply; she threw her arms around his hips to bury her fingernails in the flexing muscles of his buttocks, urging him on as one would a stallion during a punishing ride. He was only too happy to oblige.
Too long.
He’d been too long without her close to him and it had been like living half a life—a shell of a man without a purpose beyond those assigned to his status and title. When he was with her, he felt joy and love and excitement. No other woman had ever made him feel those things, and he knew no other woman ever would.
“I’ve missed you,” he growled as he leaned forward to grip the back of the chair. The position afforded him access to her gasping lips, and also better leverage to fill her deeply again and again with punishing, claiming thrusts. Her inner muscles rippled around him at his words and she kissed him back with equal fervor. Her tongue swept into his mouth and she devoured his lips as he had her body. His thighs slapped against her bottom; she was pinned between his pounding body and the sofa, and she didn’t seem to mind it one bit.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she sobbed against his mouth before breaking away with a cry. “I’m so close. I need—I need to use my fingers as well.”
He stopped her hand from wriggling between them and replaced it with his own, driven wild by the way she knew whatshe liked and demanded it. He longed to fulfill her every desire and learn all the facets of her pleasure. “Let me. I know what you need.” His fingers delved into her folds and, coating them in her honeyed nectar, he began to pluck and swirl just where she needed it most.
Memories came flying back to him. Their times spent exploring one another during stolen moments, learning to kiss and tease, to pleasure themselves and each other. There was freedom in his knowledge of her, and there was also excitement. He knew how she felt and how she looked when she came, and he also knew he’d do absolutely anything it took to get her there so he could experience it again.
Five strokes was all it took to send Nora over the edge once more.
Five strokes had her screaming his name as her body convulsed around his and he slammed his mouth over hers to keep his servants from overhearing.
Five strokes had her perfect cunny clenching around him and dragging his orgasm out in blinding wave after wave of ecstasy. His groan was soul-deep as his hips dug erratically again and again with each new pulse of his release. Nora held him until every last drop had been milked from his body; until his arms could no longer support him and he pulled her with him from the chair to the carpet before the hearth. He draped her over him, a leg on either side of his hips as they remained joined, his cockstand taking its time to flag.
He held her pressed to him, content to lie there before the crackling fire smelling comfortably of dry pine and woodsmoke, his nose buried in her hair, her hand pressed to his hammering heart.
Hours later, Nora was back in her bedchamber, swathed in her nightshift, dressing gown, and a blanket across her lap. The air was still humid and scented with honeysuckle from her bath.
Despite Thomas’s best efforts to convince her to stay with him after their bodies were disentangled, Nora had insisted upon returning to her house that evening.
She needed to clear her head.
He hadn’t been pleased—as evidenced by the repeated tic of his jaw muscles—but he, ever the gentleman, did not force her to do anything she did not wish. Above him wanting to keep her close, she suspected a great deal of his displeasure stemmed from the fact that her staff would not return to full duty for another couple of days.
“What about meals?” he’d grumbled, arms crossed over his broad chest as they lumbered back to her Townhouse in his carriage. He’d done his best to reassemble her ruined gown and then wrapped her in as many cloaks and blankets as he could find until she’d felt quite like a stuffed child’s toy sitting there across from him.
“I am quite capable of procuring my own food from the larder. I am not entirely without staff—one of the maids still stops by to check in and she brings items from the market.”
“I still don’t see why they wouldn’t all return to duty upon your taking up residence once more.”
“Because I wasn’t supposed to be back in London for another couple of days. I’d already promised them leave and I refuse to go back on my word. They are grieving too, Thomas. Just because they are employees does not mean they feel Beth’s loss any less keenly. We were like a small community on our own island after all these years.”
He fell silent, but she could see the thoughts scrolling behind his eyes and witnessed the flicker as something occurredto him. “You said a maid comes to check on you and the house. A single maid cannot draw a bath for you.”
“Well, no.” Nora averted her eyes. She was a bit miffed that she hadn’t thought of that before—so used to having her needs met when they came. Her next realization was even more embarrassing. “But that is beside the point because she already came and left while we were out.”
Thomas met her with a flat stare. “So you are saying that we left my perfectly well-staffed, efficient household for one without a single set of hands to draw you a much needed bath to keep this blasted chill from settling into your bones—if it hasn’t already?”
Nora winced. No reply was necessary.
She’d been so determined to return to her own home that she truly hadn’t thought it all through. It was one thing to be able to light her own hearth when needed and select whatever she wished from the larder when she was hungry, but it was entirely another to perform more strenuous household duties.
