As the feeling grew, she lowered her face to nuzzle his shoulder and inhaled, taking in the spicy scent she’d caught whiffs of before.
‘You always smell wonderful,’ she murmured.
‘Always?’ He laughed again. ‘We will discuss that later, I think. For now I am wondering if you’ve always wanted me to touch you here.’ His fingers stilled.
‘I…’ She had not. She’d not even dreamed he would. But she was in no mood to explain how little she knew or how small her dreams had been.
‘Do not stop,’ she urged. If they could just stay like this for ever, she would never ask for another thing from him.
He spread his fingers over her. They slid easily against her skin, over, between and slowly inside.
Her eyes widened in shock, as he moved again, gliding out and back again.
‘Oh, my.’
‘Oh, my,’ he agreed. ‘Have you ever touched yourself this way?’
‘No,’ she admitted in a shaky voice.
‘In the future, when you are alone, think of me,’ he said. ‘Do this.’ He withdrew, circled and teased a spot so sensitive that her body jerked as he touched it.
‘There,’ he said, his voice smug. ‘Like this.’
Short strokes against her, better than kisses, better than anything.
‘Imagine me filling you, here.’
He was inside her again, a reprieve and a promise.
‘Losing myself inside you.’
The stroking began again.
‘Making you mine.’
Another thrust with his fingers.
What happened next came in a dizzying rush that left her clinging to his arms, afraid to let go as she convulsed against the pressure of his hand. He was kissing her hair, calling her his darling as she came back to herself and the awareness of his hand still holding her.
‘Did you like that?’ he asked tenderly.
‘I thought it would hurt,’ she said, dazed. ‘From what little I have read of the first time…’
He bowed his head and laughed against her neck, but surprisingly, she was not embarrassed. She liked the unsteady quality in his voice, as if he was as overwhelmed as she was.
‘What we did was not all, Louisa. What I did with my hand I could do with my body. I am afraid that it can, sometimes, hurt. But only once.’
‘Will it hurt you, too?’ she said, running her hand down the lapel of his coat.
‘No. I will feel as I think you do now.’
‘Then we should do that,’ she said.
He laughed again. This time he sounded almost desperate. ‘That would be very wrong.’
She grabbed the other lapel as well and stepped clear of the stones, backing between them and pulling him along after her.
‘Nothing is wrong, here. It is a different world.’
