Page 59 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge

Chapter Twenty-One

Reese paced his room long after Rupert had helped him dress for bed. His avoidance of the ladies had left him at a disadvantage. He didn’t know if she might return to his room tonight. Had he been able to steal a moment alone with her, he might have been able to encourage such a rendezvous if she’d been amicable.

After an hour of waiting, he wasn’t sure if the light tap at the door was real or if his anticipation had conjured up the sound, but he nearly ran the few steps to the door and opened it.

She was there.

Pulling Harlow inside, he only gave a moment of hesitation before his lips crashed down on hers. If she did not want him, she wouldn’t have come to his room. And she wouldn’t have looked up at him with longing in her green eyes.

If he needed any more assurance, she would definitely not be grasping tightly to his hair while her tongue explored his mouth in equal measure to the way he was exploring hers.

Then she moaned and he needed no further proof for she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. He was not quite so gentle as he’d been the night before. She was only one day out of being a maiden and might yet be sore, which meant he would be careful when they joined, but leading up to that point, slow was beyond him. He’d spent the entire day wanting her and not being able to speak to her the way he wanted. He wasn’t able to make her laugh or hear her stories. He pulled her shift off and moved her to the bed with haste and hunger.

She shoved at his clothes as if they offered some offence for simply being there. When they were naked, she looked down at his body when the night before she’d only looked at him.

Her hands lightly traced the line of hair of his lower abdomen so close to where he needed attention, but her fingers moved back up over his stomach to his chest and then across one nipple causing him to suck in a quick breath. Her gaze went to his face.

“Did that hurt?”

“Only in the way that great pleasure is almost unbearable before one gives into it.”

She smiled, seeming proud of herself for bringing him pleasure by her touch.

He kissed her again inadvertently trapping her hands between them. She freed them to wrap her arms low around his waist, her gentle touch moving up his back and then down. On her third circuit, she didn’t stop at his waist, she went lower to his arse and squeezed him while pressing her body against his.

That was the end of his thorough examination of her neck and jaw. He moved above her and looked down to see her dark hair reaching out across his pillow like seaweed on the beach. He’d once thought her a siren and she looked like she could be one still.

“Are ye sore from last night?” he asked and she shook her head quickly.

“Is this what ye want?” he asked when his body was lined up with hers.

She nodded and pressed up again from the mattress as if hoping to make the connection herself. Her impatience cleared his concerns and he slowly pushed his way inside her body.

She moaned in the way of pleasure rather than pain and he surely made his own sound. Joining with her this night was better even than the night before. Because all of the business of virtue and discomfort was gone. They were not doing anything this night that was so resolute or changing. This was simply good.

He knew somehow that if he had a thousand nights with her they would all be better than the one before. Just because it was Harlow.

He looked down to see her gaze on him and he smiled at her. Through the lust, she managed to smile back at him. His body was near to boiling with desire, but that simple exchange cracked his heart wide open.

He didn’t just want her in his bed. He wanted her in his life. When she pushed up against him again, he decided he would figure out how he could make her his sometime later. For now, he focused on her pleasure.

*

Harlow had expected it to hurt again. Maybe not as bad as the night before for she was no longer a virgin. But after inspecting his body more thoroughly this evening, she still didn’t understand how all of that had fit inside her.

But tonight there was no pain at all. Save for a small amount of soreness in her legs she’d not mentioned. She didn’t think that was what he was asking about.

When he’d slid inside her that first time, she felt as if she’d been waiting a lifetime to have him inside her again. She’d heard of blue ruin and the way men and women gave up their lives to drink, unable to do anything else. She wondered now if there was a similar affliction for this. For she could see herself giving up many things to feel this way.

Certainly she’d be willing to give up hours of needlepoint with the countess. She’d forgotten she was put out with the earl for leaving her with Lady Breckenridge all day. It seemed the moment he kissed her all of her ire burned away like the morning mist.

Reese did not seem to be as careful with her this evening. It wasn’t as if he was rude or reckless, he definitely saw to her satisfaction, but his thrusts were harder, his movements quicker. As if he were chasing something. Perhaps the same thing she pursued.

She began to feel that warmth growing as it had the night before. She couldn’t believe it had frightened her that first time. As if she’d not survive. Now she knew how good it would be when it finally arrived.

As if Reese heard her thoughts, he reached between them pressing against the very place that spurred the feeling. She broke around him and he pounded her relentlessly until he pulled from her and shot warm fluid all over her stomach.

When he collapsed on top of her, she stared up at the canopy while running her fingers through his damp hair. She needed this in her life. She needed this man in her life. But he’d made it quite clear today that he did not.