“Why should I believe that?” Cecily threw back at him. “Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because it’s the truth,” he insisted, not knowing what else he could say. “There has been no other woman for me, Cecily, since the moment I saw you stealing food from Mildenhall’s buffet. Dear God, woman, you’ve led me a merry dance since then. When do you think I could even find the time for all these mistresses?”
“You met someone the day you went up to London. I know you did!” she accused him outright.
“I met a man,” he replied, remembering his meeting with Lord Holt and not wishing to talk about it now. “Not even a man I particularly like.”
Cecily took a deep breath, her cheeks pink and her chest heaving. “Then why?—”
Nathaniel held up a hand. “Enough, Cecily. I married you. I made vows to you in front of our families. You are my wife.”
“Am I?” she challenged, her tone somewhere between mutinous and pleading.
Several golden-brown curls had fallen over her forehead as they argued, and the flush on her face was spreading to the milky-white swell of her breasts in their frame of gold-embroidered white silk.
Nathaniel thought she had never looked so beautiful. Slowly, he reached out a hand and caressed her face. She gasped but did not pull away, instead leaning into his touch.
“Yes, you are my wife, Cecily,” he murmured, brushing his fingers across her soft pink lips and feeling them part slightly at his touch.
“If you are expecting me to get down on my knees and apologize to you, I will not,” she declared willfully, although the movement of her lips against his fingers was definitely a kiss, and one that sent a bolt of pleasure straight to his cock.
“I want no apologies, Cecily,” he told her, his heart pounding hard. “However, I do want you on your knees, this very minute.”
Her eyes widened in confusion, the pupils already blown with arousal.
“What do you mean?” she asked uncertainly.
Nathaniel slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, far closer than Lord Keenan had held her during the waltz. He kissed her full on the mouth, his lips and tongue questing hungrily.
Cecily belonged to him, not to Lord Keenan or anyone else.
“Oh, Nathaniel,” she moaned as he gripped her dress and drew it down to her waist, exposing her exquisite breasts in the candlelight. “I don’t understand you.”
She did not protest his kisses or his handling of her breasts, although her confusion was written as large on her face as her excitement.
“You will understand soon,” he breathed. “I promise. Now, down on your knees.”
This time, she obeyed and sank down to the floor before him, looking up at him with hungry and bewitching dark eyes. She was utterly captivating in her state of deshabille, and his cock was already throbbing for her.
“Unfasten my trousers and my undergarments,” he instructed her, and she obeyed with trembling fingers, unfastening eachbutton carefully and glancing up for his approval. “Now, take me in your hand.”
Here, she hesitated, so he reached down to stroke her hair encouragingly, loosening it further over her bare shoulders.
“You have seen it before,” he reminded her gently, although his voice was already roughening with lust. “It is past time that you made a closer acquaintance, don’t you think?”
As she reached into his undershorts and finally took him into her warm palms, he groaned with pleasure.
“Yes,” he told her. “Feel how hard I am for you? You do that to me.”
He groaned appreciatively once again as she squeezed and caressed his cock, now fully hard and eager for her attention.
Looking down, he saw fascination on her face as she stroked and explored him, even reaching down to cup his balls in her other hand. She had never seen an adult man naked and aroused before, and Nathaniel was glad that her curiosity and desire outweighed any nervousness.
“Kiss me now,” he instructed her, delighting in her quick response of pressing her lips to the throbbing head of his shaft but amused that they remained closed. “You must also open your mouth for me.”
“Should I put it in my mouth?” Cecily asked, looking up at him with a shocked expression that made him chuckle, especially considering the unashamed nakedness of her breasts beneath her scandalized visage.
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Remember how I used my mouth on your pretty little quim? There is something similar that you might do for me.”
