Page 70 of A Fierce Wind

He smiled and pulled off his boots. His frock coat followed to be tossed on a chair. Then he untied his cravat and began to unbutton his waistcoat.

“Allow me,” she said, gaining confidence. “I am good with buttons.”

He laughed. “I’ll bet you are.”

She took her time, teasing him with each button. His intense gaze told her he was not enjoying the pace. “Oh, very well,” she said, finishing the last button. “Kiss me, Freddie, and make me forget everything but you.”

“Gladly.” He quickly unbuttoned his waistcoat, removed his shirt and drew her against his bare chest, slanting his mouth over hers. The kiss that followed awakened every fiber of her being and set her heart pounding. His warm skin under her palms heated her blood and his muscles flexing beneath her touch reminded her this man was now hers.

Eagerly, she opened her mouth to his probing tongue, experiencing the same ache in her woman’s center she had the last time he’d kissed her in this room.

He pulled back and stared into her eyes. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he lifted her into his arms and set her on the huge bed. “We’ve plenty of room.” She opened her arms to him and he followed her down to sink into the soft feather bed, half of him covering her.

“I have dreamed of this day, Zoé, for a very long time. We still wear too many clothes. I want to see you naked.”

“All right.” She wouldn’t have called what she felt just then fear but she did worry for what he would think of her body. With his eyes staring into hers, he lifted her shift over her head. She closed her eyes not wanting to see his disappointment.

“You are as beautiful as I imagined, Pigeon, even more so. Your breasts are perfect; your skin glows as if lit from within.”

She opened her eyes and nearly drowned in the longing and the love she saw on his face. “Now will you make love to me?”

“As my lady desires,” he said, grinning.

Her aunt had told her there might be little if any pain if her husband took time to prepare her. She had been right about that. By the time Freddie joined their bodies, she was half out of her mind with wanting him.

She awoke at dawn’s light, hungry and a bit sore from their night of lovemaking. Nibbling on cheese and berries, she curled up in a chair and watched him sleep. His auburn hair caught the sun’s first rays. She had always loved its color and imagined it threaded with gray. She would love him then at least as much as she did now, of that she was certain. How wonderful that she had married her best friend.

“Pigeon?” came his throaty voice from the bed as his hand reached out and found her gone.

“I’m just having a bit of food. Are you hungry?”

“For you. Come back to bed.”

“Is that my husband’s command?”

He rose on one elbow, trying to frown. “No, ’tis the wish of the man who loves you beyond reason.”

She was certain he was teasing her but with his bare chest rising just above the sheet, he was quite irresistible. The thought of cuddling into his warm body, of hearing again how he’d waited for her for so long, was too enticing. Freddie made her feel precious.

“In that case, the woman who loves you is coming with breakfast.” She picked up the tray and walked toward him and her destiny. Reaching the bed, she set the tray on the bedcover. “Did you want to eat now or later?”

“Later,” he said, pulling her onto the bed. “Much later.”