Page 24 of An Accidental Elopement

She did not dare look at him but focused on his fingers on the yellow dressing gown. Her mother had always liked her in pale yellow and since it was a fitting color for an unmarried woman, Cecilia had not argued with her over it. Now she wondered what it would look like if she wore a dressing gown in a deep crimson or burgundy and Archie’s wide hands would be spread over her thighs. How stark the contrast between the gown and his fingers would be. He would probably like that as well and find her more... enticing. She should order a new dressing gown when she was next in London. If he had not tired of her by then.

“Cecilia,” he prodded, and she remembered that she had not answered him. Slowly she lifted her gaze to his eyes and nodded. It was only a minuscule movement of her head, but it had a profound effect on him: his shoulders relaxed, his mouth curved, and his hands moved a little higher on her thighs. “May I then... again?”

There was no way she could deny him this or hide from it. She wanted it and was afraid because of it. Again, she could only nod as she mesmerized followed his head move towards hers, how he closed his eyes, before his lips descended on hers. Cecilia belatedly remembered that she should probably close her own eyes too. When she did, she was better able to focus on the kiss and block everything around her. It was just their lips touching in a questioning manner; they still had to learn what the other person liked.

Archie’s hands had slid all the way up her thighs and come to rest on her hips. He gently tucked her closer to the edge of the chair until she was sitting flush against his chest with her legs wide on either side of his body as he was kneeling between them. She should be appalled by the position but in that moment, he licked her bottom lip and all she could do in response was moan softly and open her mouth to meet his tongue.

Their tongues were as searching and questioning as their lips while they tried to learn what the other person liked. Archie liked it when she ran her tongue along his lips just as she did and when she gently slid her tongue into his mouth to explore it. At least she interpreted the low sounds somewhere between moans and growls as appreciation.

Archie’s hand had been firmly rooted to her hips but was now starting to wander up and down her back, into her hair that was braided for the night. With a frustrated sound, he broke of the kiss and untied the ribbon of the braid.

“I have no idea why women insist on going to bed with this hairstyle,” he muttered, it seemed, mostly to himself.

Cecilia held her breath for a moment, as the thought of just how many women he had seen in exactly this situation hit her. But she was not going to break down now, not going to cry again over what would eventually happen. She had tasted a bit of what being with Archie would be like and she was determined to go through with it tonight. Thus, she said in a brazen voice that she hoped was flirtatious as well:

“So that our hair will not tangle... in our sleep,” she felt incredibly daring as she said it, especially the pause that she hoped he would interpret in the right way.

He had unbraided her hair completely now and had the mass of hair wafting over her shoulder. If Cecilia could decide for herself, she would have cut it much shorter. The vast amount of hair that reached the small of her back meant too much tedious work, but both fashion and her mother dictated that it was long. With a burst like champagne fizzing through her blood she realized that she at least did not have to cater to her mother’s wishes anymore. She was about to ask Archie what he would think if she cut a foot off it, when he leaned over and buried his head in it, inhaling deeply.

“I’m certain that I could ask Cook to bake a biscuit out of your hair,” he murmured.

His nearness, that was simply intoxicating, and his ludicrous statement made her giggle.

“Butter, vanilla, and cinnamon. You cannot need much more for a biscuit,” he nuzzled her hair aside as he spoke, and his lips found her neck. “Do you know that I have been thinking about tasting you since we first met?”

Cecilia could only shake her head as he traced openmouthed kisses down her throat and on to her collarbone. What he said made little sense, but then again not much did except how much she wanted him and how little she cared about anything else. Her breath was ragged, and she dared place her hands gingerly in his ice blonde hair as he slowly opened her dressing gown and kissed his way down her front over her clothes. His hands were working on unbuttoning her nightgown and she hissed a breath as his mouth landed on her bare skin just above her breasts. He dragged both the dressing gown and nightgown down her shoulders, slowly baring her bosom.

“And these,” he murmured without lifting his mouth from her skin. “These are just like ripe raspberries.”

Cecilia gasped as his mouth landed on the peak of her left breast. The humid sensation of his mouth there instantly sent sparks between her legs. Her hand tightened in his hair, and she could not help but press his head a little to her bosom. Archie’s hands had been freed from undoing her clothes on her upper body and was now at her feet, working their way up slowly to her ankles, then her calves. Cecilia’s hips rocked against him in anticipation of where they were going as his mouth moved to caress her other breast.

Archie’s hands rested on her knees below her nightgown, and he seemed content to simply massage them and the thigh just above them as he kept concentrating his attention on her chest. Sucking, licking, and even biting. Cecilia writhed beneath him, grinding her hips against his. Her older sisters had talked about pleasure, about something they called “a climax”, but she had never understood before now exactly what it meant. She could feel the want building inside of her, the feeling that it needed to culminate in one way or another and that only Archie could help her.

“Please,” she mumbled, as his hands were still completely still beneath her gown.

“Please, what?” Archie teased against her breast.

“You need to... if you could just... move your hands a little higher?” Cecilia felt herself turn crimson with the request. Especially because he lifted his head from her breast to look at her.

“Like this?” he said with a smirk and moved both his hands to lie just above her knees.

Cecilia’s lips thinned into a firm line as she shook her head. She felt her ears heat and the prickle in her neck as the blush spread down it, but she could not stop herself from encouraging him. Archie’s grin was practically wolfish as his hands slid higher up her thighs.

“Here then?” he asked as they stopped at the top of her thighs, so close to where she wanted them, but yet so far from giving her the release she craved. His dark blue eyes were fixed on her. He was clearly taking in every reaction to him she had but she was unable to tell how they affected him.

Cecilia quickly shook her head again.

“Where then?” Archie teased her and if Cecilia had not felt so vulnerable, she might have kicked him. He was a beast for making her say it. He was the one that had done this dozens of times before, probably hundreds or even thousands... no, she was not going to think about other women now...

“You know where,” she rasped. When she saw his mouth curve again and anticipated another teasing comment, she blurted again: “Please.” Her tone was needy and breathy and would have been completely toe-cringing if she had not been so caught in her own desire.

The teasing look disappeared from Archie’s face and one of concentration, and another emotion she was not certain that she was able to name, came over his face, as she felt his right hand slide the last few inches towards her womanhood. Pleasure exploded through her body as his fingers stroked the sensitive skin as if he was already intimately familiar with that part of her anatomy. Which he was of course because...

No, she had just promised herself that she would not think of whoever had come before her. Cecilia plunged forward to meet his mouth and thrust her tongue inside. His kiss was luckily just as eager as hers and she was able to banish all the other women to a small corner where they could not reach her right now. Archie’s left hand came to steady her back as she pressed her naked breast against his. The soft evening blue silk of his dressing gown brushed over her sensitive bosom, igniting her even further.

Archie’s hand between her legs was not just stroking anymore; a finger had found its way inside of her and Cecilia ground her hips to meet it, feeling almost frantic as she panted to meet her climax.

“Don’t come yet,” Archie rasped as he broke their kiss. “I still want to taste you.”