Properly.
He stared down into his wife’s trusting eyes, his swallow even rougher than before. He focused on the slight protrusion of her lower lip. The more he focused, the further his memories of Viv slipped away.
He widened his parted legs, nestling her into the space between his thighs. She went completely still as she stared up over her shoulder, eager for whatever would come next. Though when he hadn’t any roadmap to follow, she appeared certain he knew exactly how to proceed.
“Tell me more,” he found himself saying, “about your dream.”
She tilted her head to the side, presenting the pale, tempting column of her neck.
Slowly—giving her ample time to protest—he encircled her body, and then he untied her bonnet. The silky ribbon slid softly through his fingers before he lifted it off. He set aside her hair covering, then he brought his lips to her ear.
Her sweet-scented hair was damp at her temples. The warmth of exertion and desire radiated from her skin. Still, her back remained stiff and she held herself apart. Just as well, he supposed.
He didn’t want to frighten her away with his own stiffening extremities.
“Please?” he added. “Tell me what images those mischievous fairies of night delivered?”
“You kissed me,” she repeated.
As she exhaled, her breasts brushed against his arm. His desire spiked, and with the spike, came an invigorating surge of confidence.
“So, you said.” He brought his lips to her ear. “Properly.” A little freckle on her jaw blurred as he drew in, ever closer. The scent ofher, not just her hair, filled his nostrils. A heady, rich scent. “But properly how?”
“On the forehead first.” She touched a place just beneath her ear. “Then here.”
He pressed his lips to the place she’d indicated.
She dragged her hand across her cheek. “All along here, too.”
He drew back. “Did I eventually find your mouth?”
She audibly exhaled. “Yes.”
“And then?”
“And…then the dream ended.”
She’d paused just long enough to let him know she was lying.
Very well.
She was not ready to tell him more. He’d learned enough. Fornow. Of true intimacy, they were both ignorant. But surely, together they could find their way.
He moved a little to the side so she could turn more comfortably in his arms. He suppressed a shudder as his cock jerked…a protest, he guessed, of the increased space between them. But what he was about to do didn’t concern the satisfaction of his member, at least not yet.
His aim was the seduction of her mind.
He placed his hands on her shoulders, urging her to shift her position. As she did, he briefly held her gaze. Then, he kissed her forehead, just as she’d described.
Her warm sigh tickled his neck and seeped into his collar.
Holding back a deep-throated groan cost an inordinate amount of will.
His forehead brushed along her temple as he lowered his lips back to the side of her ear. There, he improvised. A light nip on her tender lobe caused her full body to quiver in abandon.
Potential unmoored him, as if he were a dinghy ripped free of an anchor by a building storm. The other night, when she lay accommodatingly, but unresponsively, beneath him, he hadn’t imagined she possessed such an arousable nature.
Blindly, he followed the line of her jaw and then…
