Page 92 of Bane Bloom

Gradually she uncoiled, and I moved up and gathered her to my chest, feeling her quick breaths and racing heart against my skin.

Her breaths were still short a few moments later as she said, “That was—astonishing, frankly. But I think . . . that is, I believe, there must be more.”

I let out a slow breath, trying to maintain some control over my arousal. “There can be more. Is that what you wish?”

She nodded, and my heart pounded. I reached down and unbuttoned my trousers, and I took one of her hands and guided it to me.

“Heavens,” she uttered. “That must be painful!”

I let out a strained laugh. “That need not concern you, lass. Only think whether you are certain. If you are, then let me hear your voice.”

One of her fingers lightly stroked me, and I almost choked. “Yes, please,” she said.

I wished to remove her dress so that I might see all of her, but my control had reached its limit. I tilted her onto her back and kissed her, long and deep.

Then I covered her hips with mine, used my legs to part hers, and I slowly, gently opened and filled her.

She let out a short gasp, followed by a shuddering breath. Her legs wrapped around me, and she reached up and touched my face.

Choices

“Have I hurt you?” he asked, voice low and gentle.

“Perhaps a little,” I admitted, tracing a thumb over his full bottom lip.

“Forgive me, lass. I believe it’s usual for it to be like that the first time. I don’t think there will be any more pain now, but if there is, we’ll stop.”

I tightened my legs around him and said, “I don’t want you to stop.”

He smiled, and he bent and planted a soft kiss on my temple. Then slowly he began to rock against me.

The fullness and heat of it soon had me panting with need. Grasping and pulling at his shoulders and arms. His face dipped to my neck, and I felt his breath growing more labored.

“I fear it will come quickly,” he said in a husky voice.

Sensation was building at my core, as it had when I felt his lips and tongue between my legs. It swelled with his rhythm, pulsing and coiling, and the next thing I knew, heat and light exploded inside me. Squeezing my legs, I pulled him deeper still, quivering around him. As the bright, exquisite sensation began to fade, he reached back and removed one of my legs from his waist and pulled quickly out of me.

“What are you doing?” I whispered, afraid something was wrong.

“Leaving you a choice.” His words tumbled out in a breathless gush.

He shuddered and filled his lungs, and again he gathered me against him.

Pale light came through the window above us, washing over our tangled bodies. Dawn had crept in during our distraction.

“A choice?”

His voice was rough but steadier as he replied, “Not to bear a child you cannot possibly want.”

The words echoed around in my thoughts.

Had my mother known a moment like this? A moment of passion too strong to resist? One that changed her life forever? Or would have, had she not fled.

Oddly enough, none of this had really occurred to me before, so captivated had I been by our dance in these last days. So overcome with wanting him. Would I, like Prudence, have given birth to a fairy child who, like his father, would be forever bound to this place?

No wonder he’s always pushing me away.

It may have seemed strange that I was less concerned about what a child of Thomas’s would be, but the truth about Thomas had in no way lessened my feelings for him. I was fairly sure it’d had the opposite effect.