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But it wasn’t the same as before, and she didn’t really know why. ‘It feels different this time.’

She continued her slow rhythm, trying to achieve the same effect. Alaric was caressing both breasts now, and she couldn’t deny how good it felt.

‘What do you want, Charlotte?’ he asked, moving his hands down her spine.

‘I don’t know.’ But when she thought back to the first night they had been together, she remembered how good it had felt when he’d used his fingers.

She reached for his hand and brought it between her legs, to the place where his mouth had worshipped her earlier. Her husband’s eyes seemed to darken, but he stroked her gently. When he found a sensitive place, she gasped, nearly coming apart with the fierce pleasure.

She stopped moving, arching to make it easier for him to touch her. The feeling of his length buried inside her while he caressed her folds was shocking. She tightened her body around him, feeling herself growing wetter.

He groaned and rolled her to her back, still embedded inside her. Then he continued circling the hooded place that made her body come alive. He pressed his thumb there and began thrusting gently in a motion that made her dig her nails into his shoulders.

‘Alaric…’ she moaned, crying out as he continued to move in a slow and deep rhythm.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t string a single coherent thought in her mind, but she wrapped her legs around his waist, meeting his penetrations. Never had she known that pleasure like this existed. She was straining, surrendering to him, until suddenly her body shattered and pleasure roared through her.

A cry broke from her lips, and as she gripped Alaric, he continued his thrusts until he abruptly pulled out and released upon the sheets.

For a time, she couldn’t seem to catch her breath, but she loved the sensation of his warm body against hers.

‘The book never said anything about this,’ she murmured.

He rested his forearms on the bed and regarded her while he was still inside her. ‘What book?’

She blushed furiously. ‘The book I bought about lovemaking.’

‘Charlotte Wyndham. Do you mean to say that you purchased a naughty book?’

Her face was still heated, but she met his gaze. ‘How else would I learn how a wife is supposed to please her husband? Clearly, I didn’t do that well the first time. After you left me, I had no choice but to find out.’

He started laughing as he moved to lie on his side. ‘You thought to study the subject, like mathematics or poetry?’

‘Well, the book made little sense to me.’

His smile lingered, and embarrassment made her reach for her dressing gown. ‘Please don’t laugh at me, Alaric.’ It was embarrassing enough that she knew so little, but it wasn’t meant to entertain him.

‘I want you to bring the book when you come to me tomorrow night,’ he said, his voice deep and resonant. ‘It might be that I can give you lessons.’

‘Tomorrow?’ She covered herself with the dressing gown. ‘Then you want this to be more than once a month?’

‘Don’t you?’ He slid a hand over the silken fabric of her robe, and her breast seemed to blossom beneath his touch.

Very much, she thought. And yet she wondered whether this was the right choice for them.

‘All right,’ she agreed.

‘You needn’t worry. It won’t change our rules at all. There is no reason why we cannot enjoy the physical aspects of marriage and still live our lives as we choose.’

She rose from the bed, still clutching her dressing gown. ‘I will see you tomorrow, then.’

‘At breakfast,’ he reminded her.

But as she left his room and returned to her own, she sensed that the ground beneath them was shifting. And despite his insistence that they could live their lives separately, she wasn’t so certain anymore.

Alaric didn’t see Charlotte at breakfast after all. He didn’t press her, for last night had indeed been both satisfying and exhausting. A line had been crossed, one that he hadn’t intended. He’d almost considered asking her to stay in his bed—and after he’d awakened in the middle of the night yearning for her, he’d wished that he had.

It went against Rule 1, but he didn’t think Charlotte would mind. And there was still tonight. Perhaps he would visit her room instead, and they could continue getting to know one another.