AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes sparked with something she couldn’t decipher. “I want to give you sweet words. I want to give you all the good things I can tonight.”
While we’re still alive.
He didn’t say the words, but they hung between them, heavy with foreboding. Neither of them knew for sure what tomorrow would bring, but there didn’t seem to be any way out of their prison that didn’t end with Jacob getting rid of them for good.
Leaning down, he pressed his lips tenderly to her forehead then gently touched her throat, which surely must be bruised from Jacob’s arm. “Get some sleep. I’ll be just over there if you need anything.”
She caught his hand as he pushed to his feet. “What about you? You’ve slept even less than I have.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “After you’ve rested, we can trade places again for a while.”
Still, she didn’t let him go. “Can you lay here with me a while? Can you kiss me again?” She swallowed convulsively. “I’m so afraid, Drake. I’m afraid that tonight might be my last, and I don’t want to spend it alone.”
Where had that come from? She hadn’t even known she was going to ask that of him until the words had exited her mouth. But now that she’d said it, she didn’t want to take it back. The kiss they’d shared had been unlike anything she’d ever imagined. She knew that making love to this man would be completely different than it had been with Jacob. This was the kind of passion her friends had found, and it seemed wildly unfair to her that she’d only had a taste of it now, when it was too late.
“Heather...” His dark gaze met hers, and what she saw there took her breath away. “I know you’re afraid, but I’ll keep you safe. I promise. I just don’t want you to do something you’ll regret once we’re safely away from here.”
“But what if that doesn’t happen?” She tugged harder on his hand, and he sat wordlessly back down beside her. “What if he really kills me tomorrow? I’ve had so few beautiful moments in my life. But what we shared earlier... it was so beautiful.”
He groaned and gathered her up against him, crushing her against his chest as his lips hungrily found hers, kissing her with all the passion and intensity he’d shown her before. She straddled his hips, wrapping herself around him as though he was the only port in the storm that had become her life.
His kisses, his touches, they made all the terror and guilt go away. Tomorrow was an eternity away. All that mattered in this moment was now. Tonight. Because tonight, he wasn’t the son of a marquess and she wasn’t the bastard daughter of a lady’s maid. They were just two people who cared about each other. Two people who wanted for this brief moment in time to be one.
He skimmed his hands up her bare thighs, never breaking the kiss, and she moaned into his mouth as his fingertips brushed the soft curls guarding her sex.
“Tell me if I do anything you don’t want,” he whispered roughly as his finger delved within her, a sweet pressure that she’d never expected to enjoy. “I don’t want to hurt you, Heather, but the first time can be a little painful.”
Heat stung her face, but this didn’t seem to be the right time to tell him that she was not a virgin. For right now, for tonight, she just wanted to pretend that she deserved a man like this, that she’d waited, that this was their wedding night.
As he moved his finger gently in and out of her, his thumb circled the little bud at the apex of her thighs, making her squirm and press against him, wanting more but also embarrassed that she seemed so... damp down there. Was she bleeding?
Before she could break away, he lifted his dark gaze to hers. “You’re so damp, Heather. So wet.”
“I’m sorry,” she gasped, trying to close her thighs, flushed with embarrassment that he’d noticed. She should have known that she couldn’t even dothisright.
“No,” he breathed, taking her lips in a long, lingering kiss. “You’re supposed to be. This is how your body prepares itself to take mine. It’s a good thing. It means you want me. I can’t wait to slide through your wet heat and bury myself deep inside you.”
Jacob hadn’t said a word when he’d taken her virginity. He’d just pushed himself brutally inside her. She was nearly certain that she hadn’t been damp then. But now she could see how it would have helped. Oh, how she wished she’d had someone to tell her what to expect.
“Thank you for telling me,” she whispered, gasping as his thumb once more swiped across the spot where all the delightful sensations seemed to be centered. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Just enjoy it,” he told her. “I plan to make you feel so good, Heather. So good that the whole world falls away.”
As he spoke, he put another finger inside her, his thumb still working its magic, making her moan softly and grind against him, feeling on the verge of something she couldn’t name but instinctively knew was the reason her friends had been willing to risk everything for it.
“Relax,” he whispered. “Let yourself go, beautiful girl.”
She had no idea what he was trying to do, what he wanted from her. Why wasn’t he putting himself inside her?
But she pushed those thoughts away and focused on nothing but the pleasure, the feeling of being... cherished. His tenderness made her almost believe that he truly cared for her.
And then he swiped his thumb over her one more time, curling his fingers inward, and the combined sensation made her bite on her lip to keep from screaming as a wave of pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known rocked through her, radiating out through her fingers and toes.
“Dear God,” she gasped afterward, little shocks of awareness still curling her toes. “What was that?”
“Pleasure,” he said with a cocksure grin. “That’s how a man should always make a woman feel when he makes love to her.”
“I’ve never felt anything like that,” she breathed, tingling all over. “But that’s not what I thought lovemaking was. I thought you put your...” She trailed off, having absolutely no idea what one was supposed to call it. “...in me,” she finished weakly.
