Page 83 of No Ordinary Lady

For now, Marian was his alone, and she seemed to revel in the grotto’s delights, the cozy atmosphere, the candlelight, the water sliding over her naked curves, and having his nakedness between her legs, too. Daniel had always thought the grotto would be romantic with the right partner, and Marian was the one.

He’d make love to her here and now, before propriety tore them apart again. He would propose later and give her his ring.

She’d already stolen his heart.

With Marian, he wouldn’t even have to put his scandalous habits behind him. Marian wasn’t prim and proper. She would be right by his side as he showed her the wonders of his world.

“You look very serious all of a sudden, my lord,” Marian murmured.

“I’m a serious man,” he told her, pushing back her hair.

“No, you’re not. That’s just what you want everyone else to believe since you came home. Especially her.” She shook her head. “But I know you now. You’re a wicked man, under all that finery. You don’t have to be anything other than who you are around me. Be yourself. The man who saved me,” she admitted. “The man who’s first thought has always been to wonder if he could lure me into his bed.”

“Who needs a bed? Debauching you here and now appeals to me.”

“Would that be so wrong? I know I’m not at all like other women. I’m not an innocent like her and⁠—”

Daniel put a finger over her lips to stop the flow of words. He was sure she was going to say something ridiculous. “Proper women have never appealed to me,” he promised her.

He kissed Marian again, and his heart rejoiced at the rightness of doing wrong with her.

How foolish was he to imagine he could change his preference just by coming home?

He held Marian more tightly in his arms and lost himself in the pleasure of her kiss. This was what he wanted. Passion with Marian and more days of bliss to follow.

He stood and waded out of the pool, carrying Marian in his arms.

He found a length of towel and laid it near the edge of the hottest part of the pool. And then he lowered them both down to the ground and continued to make love to her mouth.

He ended up on his back, Marian rising above him, gloriously naked, her body beaded with sweat and water.

Before he was even ready, Marian was bearing down on his erection and making love to him.

“At last,” she whispered, tossing him an impish smile.

He loved her impatience. “Eager to have me, were you?” he asked, strumming the tips of her nipples with his thumbs.

“I never thought I would be with you like this,” she answered, her face flushing as she moved up and down with more haste. “I thought you wanted her.”

“I never did. Not like this,” he swore.

Marian had the most luscious body of any woman he’d ever made love to, and he was grateful to be under her at last.

He let her have her way and lay back, one hand cushioning his head as she languidly stroked his cock with her innermost walls. With his other hand, he toyed with her nipples, her curves, and then slipped his fingers between her folds.

Marian quivered and gasped as they made love in the steaming air of the grotto. He watched her closely as her first climax neared, watched her lip’s part and her breath speed from her lungs as he teased her body to the very heights of desire.

When her release hit her, Marian dragged his own climax out of him, and he roared with the thrill of a perfect joining.

When Marian relaxed at last, she finally met his gaze. There was no regret, but a dazed smile of contentment that pierced his soul with immense satisfaction. What would it be like to have this woman look at him that same way every day, every time they made love, every time he returned to find her waiting just for him?

Daniel rolled them into the steaming hot water because he knew already that a happily ever after was possible for them, no matter that their lives had begun so differently. She was his fate. His one true love. His happiness.

Chapter Nineteen

The countess pursed her lips. “Miss Wilson, would you care for more tea?”

“Yes, thank you, my lady,” Amy Wilson murmured, thrusting out her cup to have it filled again. Her second that afternoon.