AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He untied the ribbon of her camisole without lifting his head and she heard his murmur of approval that she wore no corset. Surely he’d known that all evening, as close as he had held her.
He shrugged off his shirt, then brought her hands to rest on the belt at his waist. “Scandalous?” he suggested.
She unhooked the metal buckle and tugged down his trousers, waited while he shed shoes and socks and then skimmed his drawers off over his hips. She stepped out of her petticoat and bent to remove her stockings but he stopped her.
He lifted her, set her down on his bed and knelt before her. Slowly he rolled the thin lisle stockings over her knees and down her calves. Her flesh prickled when his fingers grazed her skin. His touch made her feel more than scandalous; it made her dizzy with wanting.
He swung her bare legs onto the quilt and began removing her hairpins, one by one, until her hair fell in waves around her bare shoulders. He wove his fingers into the curly mass, then stretched out full length beside her and began smoothing his hands over every inch of her body—her rib cage, her breasts, her thighs, moving in slow circles and following the path of his fingers with his mouth. He licked a slow path over her throbbing nipples and she sucked in her breath.
“Do you like that?”
“Yes.” Her voice was unsteady. On impulse she ran her tongue over his bare chest, across his flat brown nipples.
“Do you?”
“God, yes,” he whispered. “Oh, God, yes.”
He slid down, rested his palm over her mound and waited. “And this?”
More dancing stars. Millions more. She had never felt anything as glorious as Zane’s hands touching her. He slipped one finger inside her and she cried out. She heard his low, satisfied chuckle and that made her bold.
She brushed her fingers over his member and he hissed in a sudden breath and lifted her hand away.
“Do you not like me to touch you?” she asked.
“I do. Right now I like it too much.” He bent forward and slid his hot tongue back and forth across her entrance. Again she cried out.
“Winifred,” he said, his voice low and rough. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I’m so in love with you I can’t see straight.”
He rose over her, positioned himself and filled her with one swift thrust.
“I am yours, Zane. You know that.” She sought his mouth and rose to meet his thrusts.
“I don’t know how to survive without you,” he said against her lips. His movements were slow and deep but she could tell by his breathing he was at the edge of losing control. Instinctively she tightened her muscles around him and suddenly he stopped moving.
He panted for a few seconds and then thrust hard.
She was climbing, reaching for that exquisite pleasure she had felt before with him, and then she was floating, soaring on the crest of something shattering.
Zane caught her cry under his mouth and then he thrust deep and called her name. She clung to him, sobs racking her body. He brushed her hair off her forehead, kissed her eyelids, her face.
“Why are you crying? Did I hurt you?”
“Oh, no. I felt... I don’t know, something just welled up inside.” She reached up and pulled him down to her. “Don’t move,” she whispered. “Stay inside me.”
“Scandalous,” he breathed.
“Yes. It was not like this before, Zane.”
He moved to roll off her but she wrapped both arms around him and held on tight. “Don’t stop.”
“Winifred, I need to rest.”
She smiled up at him. “For how long?”
He laughed, and then sobered. “Ten minutes?”
“Too long,” she sighed.
He moved off her anyway. “Winifred, there’s something I need to say to you.”
“Yes?”
“I—I don’t think I can stand it when you go back to St. Louis.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
His entire body jerked. “Yes, of course I want you to stay. I didn’t want to press you, but—”
“Press me,” she murmured.
Zane wrapped her in his arms and lay still, trying to digest her words.
“You know that I love you,” he said at last.
She nodded.
“And I think...at least I thought, that you loved me.”
She nodded again.
“Winifred, look at me. This is serious. You know that, don’t you? I’m about to propose marriage to you.”
“Yes,” she acknowledged.
