As though he hated her. As though she was a total failure at being a woman.
Besides, she enjoyed the freedom she’d found as a widow. She had a lovely home and an allowance that allowed her to do whatever she wanted. Best of all, no man had power over her. No one could tell her what to do. Why would she want to give that up for even the most spectacular lovemaking? Especially when it meant she’d inevitably get her heart broken once again?
Shivering without the heat of Roman’s body to warm her, she crossed her arms over her chest, trying to get warm, though she feared that the chill that had invaded her spirit for so long had returned, never to leave again.
She’d wanted to know what it was like to make love to someone she loved, if only once, but she should have known that a taste of something wonderful was never enough. It always just left you longing for more.
SOMETIME NEAR DAWN she finally fell into a restless sleep, only to awaken to Roman gently kissing her neck, his warm body once again pressed against hers.
“Good morning,” he murmured, pressing the hard length of his erection against the small of her back. “How did you sleep?”
“Terrible,” she managed, even as all her vows to ask him to leave as soon as he awoke went out the window as fresh passion surged within her. She should still tell him to go, but would it really hurt to make love to him once more?
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he told her, sounding as though he meant it. “I slept quite well myself. I like sharing a bed with you.”
She buried her face in the pillow, tamping down anything she’d regret later. She couldn’t tell him how much she’d liked it too, how cold she’d been without him, not without making him think there was more to this than there could ever be.
He ran one hand lightly over her bare back, and she shivered at the sensation. Why did his touch have to feel so good? Why couldn’t he have been as much of a disappointment as the duke?
“Not a morning person?” he asked, with a laugh in his voice. “Neither is my cousin, Collette. I’ve learned that it’s best to let her be for at least an hour before trying to have a conversation with her.”
His hand dipped over her side and across her belly before his fingertips delved between her thighs, finding that magic spot that had given her such pleasure last night. “Is this all right?” he whispered in her ear. “I can’t help it, darling. I need to be inside you again.”
“Once more,” she managed, her body already racing toward the pleasure she’d known last night.
“Can you get on your hands and knees for me?” he coaxed. “I want to take you from behind. I want to gaze at that beautiful bum of yours as I enter you.”
She gasped, a bit shocked by his request. She hadn’t even known there was another way to accomplish the act. But she dutifully did as he’d asked, wanting to learn everything that she could before he left her.
Once she was on her hands and knees before him, he knelt behind her, gently rubbing his hands across her bum. She felt incredibly exposed and awkward, but when he began running his fingertips across her exposed sex, she moaned in unabashed pleasure.
“You’re so beautiful like this,” he said, taking his member in hand and rubbing it against her, showing her what he wanted. She understood now that the moisture her body created last night was there for a reason. It made the whole process far easier and more comfortable. Why hadn’t she known that before? Why hadn’t the duke done this for her? He obviously hadn’t cared for her pleasure at all.
When Roman finally drove inside her, it felt as though he was indescribably deep.
She gasped as he took her hips in his hands and began moving within her, slow at first but then faster. She learned how to meet him thrust for thrust, glorying in his powerful possession.
Then he reached around the front of her and rubbed his fingertips against that magic spot, and that pressure, combined with the feel of him moving so powerfully within her, was more than she could take.
She cried out, a low, keening sound she couldn’t believe had come from her, just as he gave a few more fierce thrusts and then collapsed against her, his arms braced on either side of her as she struggled to get her breath.
She felt boneless, weightless, so sated she never wanted to move again.
“I could get used to this,” Roman said quietly, finally moving away from her and rolling on his back.
“Please don’t,” she managed, moving off the bed and quickly covering herself with her robe, determined to make this cut as cleanly as possible before either of them was destroyed forever. “I had a wonderful time, but I don’t think we should do this again.”
“What?” He sat up, leaning against the headboard and staring at her in confusion. “I thought we talked about this last night. I thought we’d worked it out.”
She turned away, unable to look him in the eyes. “I invited you here because I wanted to know passion. I wanted to see what I’d been missing all these years. But now that I have, I think it would be pointless to continue to see each other.”
“Pointless?” He shook his head. “I know you enjoyed this. So how can it possibly be pointless?”
“Last night you said some things... You said you wanted to marry me.” She feared that what she was about to say might hurt him deeply, but better a small hurt now than a broken heart later.
He nodded. “I’ve never made a secret of that, Clarice,” he said, his blue eyes seeming to gaze into her soul. “It was you who walked away, not me.”
“My husband just died,” she said, trying to find the right words. “After years spent under the rule of such a tyrant, I want to be free. The last thing I want is to tie myself to another man. I thought you’d understand that. I thought given your reputation, you’d be perfectly all right with us just being lovers.”
