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With a sob, she wrapped her hands around his neck and held on to him as he joined their bodies together. Despite her wetness, the pressure felt too alarming. He pushed his cock inexorably deep until he was all the way inside her. She felt overly stretched and breathed through the pinching pain.
He kissed her, and she tasted herself on his mouth; and, to her alarm, her arousal surged. He started to move, and the pain eased, leaving only bliss behind. Mina could not say for how long he kissed and murmured hot words against her neck, for how long he thrust in and out of her body. It felt like forever, and it also felt like it would never be enough. The pressure and the pleasure built together to an alarming degree, and she frantically clutched at his shoulders. This swell felt more devasting than the first as the tension knotted through her belly. His hips snapped in a deeply uninhibited rhythm stoking her pleasure to burn brighter until it consumed her.
She bit into his shoulder as she unraveled. Colin tried to pull from her, but she held him to her, for she had promised to never let him go.
Dear God, I have to let him go.
Amidst the most wonderful pleasure she had ever felt in her life, her throat burned with tears. With a deep groan and a few jerking thrusts, he emptied deep inside her convulsing body.
* * *
Colin had not sensedwhen Hermina slipped from his arms. It was the feel of warm sunshine on his face that roused him, and a bleary glance at the mantle revealed it to be close to noon. He shoved the coverlets from his legs and slipped from the bed. It was a disgrace to have slept in this late. Then he grinned, recalling the energetic night he had spent loving Mina. After their first bout of loving on the chaise in the library, he had lifted her into his arms and taken her to his chamber. There he had gently cleaned her, then wrapped her into his arms on the bed. They had chatted and laughed for a long time before he had made love to her again, this time careful to withdraw before his release. His plan had been to wake in a few hours and take her back to the ball before it ended and before his sisters came home. Those damn balls usually went until the crack of dawn.
How had she gotten back there? Concern curled through him. A sheaf of paper on the writing desk near the armoire caught his eye, and he walked over. His name was scrawled at the top in neatly feminine handwriting. His heart jolted as he picked it up.
Dearest Colin,
I wanted to thank you for a most beautiful night. I will cherish it forever in my heart. With the deepest of regret, I convey my resignation from the post of your etiquette teacher.
She was running. His hands shook at that realization, and he forced himself to hold still and finished her words.
Though I need this post, I realize I cannot be in your presence daily with how I feel. My feelings have grown to an alarming proportion, and it will hurt to see you seeking a wife while I look on. This is not a complication you asked for, and it is also one I never foresaw. I will do my best to search for a suitable replacement. I am also open to continuing a friendship with your sisters via letters. I will be leaving London and might not return to town for a while. I will send my new address to Lizzy and Fanny when I am settled with Aunt Imogen. I wish you good fortune in your hunt for a respectable and suitable wife for your countess.
Thank you again for your friendship.
Yours, Hermina Fernsby
Damn it all to hell. A twisting pain squeezed deep in his heart at the thought of losing her. Certain words caught at the edges of this thought. ‘Prime among those words were respectable, suitable, feelings for you.’ She had developed a tendre for him, as evidenced by the sweetly passionate way she had given herself to him last night, but Mina clearly believed he would not find her suitable to be his wife.
Colin scrubbed a hand over his face. Even the old dragon had warned him off from considering marrying her. Yet, for the life of him, he could not imagine growing old with another woman. He could not imagine another lady by his side as they lived out their lives. And who the hell was anyone to say Hermina was not suitable or respectable?
With a harsh curse, he rang for a bath. Colin did not linger, hastening to clean himself and dressing in his dark blue; this was a new superfine jacket, and he preferred its tighter cut. It presented a more fashionable silhouette, and he admitted to himself that it made him look much more the thing. He complemented it with a relatively austere waistcoat which was a deep grey silk with the only detail being a faint silver line thread running through the weaving. His cravat was impeccably tied, and his hair styled to the best of his valet’s ability, given it was in need of a cut.
Bounding down the stairs, he encountered Nicholas entering with the old dragon.
“Where are you off to?” Nicholas demanded with an arched brow. “I’ve come to discuss ah … that particular lord we conversed about the other day.”
Ah, the troubling mystery of Simon Gracely. “It must wait. I have urgent business to attend.”
The old dragon sniffed. “That business must wait. Have you ordered any flowers to be sent to the ladies you danced with last night? Certain obligations must be met when wooing a lady. I am certain Miss Fernsby informed you of this.”
He scowled at her. “I am not wooing anyone. Right now, I am trying to reach Miss Fernsby to convince her to marry me.”
Nicholas laughed at the old dragon’s expression. Colin did not wait around for the explosion but hurried from the townhouse to his carriage that had been brought around at his orders. Thankfully, Hermina and her aunt did not live far, and he should be there in less than fifteen minutes.
He bounded from the carriage before it even stopped and walked with sedate elegance when he wanted to run up the small steps. He rapped his knuckles on the door, a heaviness filling him at no answer. Had they already left to travel to this place she had mentioned in her note? Colin knocked again and again and was almost startled when the door opened and a lady framed the doorway.
Right away, he saw the resemblance between this lady and Mina.
“Yes?” she asked, staring beyond him to the waiting carriage.
He swept off his top hat. “I am here to call on Miss Fernsby.”
He braced for a scolding but relaxed when the lady smiled, her eyes brightening.
“Please come in, Lord Celdon. I was hoping you would come.”
Mina had told her aunt about him. It filled him with a ridiculous rush of pleasure.
