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Yet in that moment, it did not matter. Slipping his arm from around her, the earl removed a single glove and in the next moment his bare palm was cupping her face. "I feel your warmth and beauty could keep me safe all winter long."
They gazed into each other’s eyes and Julia felt herself melting into him, felt him reciprocating the movement. And then their lips were connected. Julia's stomach filled with butterflies and her head spun the moment that he kissed her.
As if cast into another world entirely where there were no rules and nobody to judge them, they moved like rabid animals, tearing at each other's clothes. Her cloak and his coat lay forgotten on the carriage floor, along with any sense of right and wrong that Julia had left.
Their kisses became so passionate that they were almost bruising to Julia's lips and she yanked off her gloves quickly so that she could run her bare fingers through his hair and grip the roots, holding him in place and terrified that he might stop kissing her.
He did not, but he did manoeuvre himself down onto the floor of the carriage, kneeling before her so that he could pull the skirts of her heavy winter gown up around her waist. She felt his hands, one gloved and the other not, grip hold of her thighs just above her stockings, urging them apart.
What is happening right now?A small and almost inaudible voice sounded in the back of her mind, but she forced it away. She didn't want to think. She merely wanted to feel. Opening her legs wide and invitingly, she felt his ungloved hand slip further and now more than ever she was glad she had given up wearing uncomfortable undergarments long ago.
When his fingertips brushed the most sensitive spot between her thighs, she felt a rush so powerful that it took her breath away. No man had ever touched her there before. In fact, she had rarely touched herself there. That was until she had met Lord Sutthers, and her desire had pooled there, making it impossible for her to ignore.
And yet his touch was far more than anything she had ever experienced before. He stroked so gently and yet the soft caress of his gentle fingers was enough to send pleasure shooting through her. And when he teasingly slowly dipped a finger inside her, she had to bite back a scream, certain that the carriage walls were not nearly thick enough. She was more than a little relieved that the lace drapes over the windows would at least hide what they were doing if she managed to remain quiet.
The mischievous smirk upon Lord Sutther's face as he stroked delicately at her sex made her wonder if he actually might like for her to scream and let the entire world know what they were doing. But just when she thought she might not be able to hold back any longer, he leaned forward and kissed her hard, practically sucking the sound from her lips in the process.
His gloved hand slipped down between their bodies and Julia caught on a glimpse of him undoing the buckle of his belt, unbuttoning his britches.
This is really happening!The small voice in her head was deafeningly loud then, and she knew without a doubt that she wanted to give herself over to him entirely. Instinctively, she shuffled her backside to the very edge of the bench, opening her legs wider than ever before.
In the moment before he slipped his manhood deep inside her, she managed to catch a glimpse of him, large and hard and pulsating in a way that made her panic. But there was no time to protest, no time to even come to terms with what was happening. And she was entirely shocked when the pain lasted only a moment before he started to thrust deep inside her and she felt an entirely new world of pleasure opening up inside her. All she could do was wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him, holding on tightly as he worked her body steadily toward a rippling, gut-wrenching crescendo.
Her heart pounding and head spinning, she clamped her lips together and pressed her face into his shoulder to muffle the pleasure-fuelled screams that were so desperately attempting to escape her.
Lord Sutthers’ breath grew more and more laboured and hoarse in her ear, and it was not too long before she felt his entire body growing stiff against her own. Urging her back with a nudge of his head, he buried his face in the ample curve of her breasts as if to muffle his own cries of pleasure.
And it was then that she felt something warm and wet and wonderful fill her up. She invited his essence into her, relishing the feel of their lovemaking and revelling in what they had just accomplished together.
Though it had been short and sweet, it had been passionate and filled with emotion and Julia realised that was all she had ever wanted in a true romantic partner. In those moments, she had felt more love than ever in her life, and it left her feeling entirely breathless.
"Well, that was certainly better than a dip in the lake," Lord Sutthers muttered under his breath, sounding as though he was still struggling to catch it.
"Excuse me?" Julia asked, raising an eyebrow. Disappointment hit her as the earl slowly slipped himself from inside her. As any true gentleman would, he dipped his hand into the breast pocket of his open jacket and removed a handkerchief to give her before he answered.
"Jonathan and I had a small accident in our carriage a few evenings ago," he admitted and Julia's skin crawled even when he shrugged his shoulders and added, "It was no big deal."
But then it hit Julia, and she exclaimed, "That was your carriage they dragged from the lake!" She had heard the rumours of a poor frozen coachman arriving at the door of the Belvoirs for help, but she had not realised the people inside the carriage had been the Tatford brothers. "You could have been killed!"
“Yes, almost as though somebody planned it,” Lord Sutthers muttered and from the look on his face, he hadn't meant for Julia to hear him. Cold dread washed over Julia and she came to remember his earlier accident when the pickpocket had stabbed him. Maybe that hadn’t been an accident or simple bad luck after all.
Seeing the look of horror on her face, Lord Sutthers gripped hold of both her hands in his and together they squeezed the handkerchief as he looked her in the eye and assured her, "All is well."
Julia nodded, trying her hardest to hold on to the good sensations of what they had just done and not the fact that now she had almost lost him twice.
As if he wished to change the subject, Lord Sutthers leaned over and pulled back the drapes of the window to check where they were. His eyes were round with alarm when he looked back at her and said, "We are almost there."
There was little time left to linger on what had just happened, and Julia used the handkerchief he had given her to clean herself up. He did not offer her any chance to think of what to do with it before he took it from her and tucked it away back in his pocket with a cheeky grin. "You don't need to worry about that. I shall dispose of it."
"Chelsea! I must talk with you!" Julia exclaimed even as she showed herself through the Walkers’ house upon being let in by the butler. She had safely left Lord Sutthers in his carriage, though she had not been able to leave behind what had happened there, nor what she had learned.
As she swept into the drawing room, she was unsure of what she wished to tell her friend first, that she had given herself to Lord Sutthers in far more ways than one, or that she feared for the safety of both their beaus.
Yet the moment she stumbled into the drawing room to find her friend sitting alone on the couch, she stopped dead in her tracks. Chelsea was staring longingly at a painting that had been propped against the couch beside her, a painting that Julia recognised well from the exhibition the night before.
"Where did that come from?" she exclaimed in surprise. "It isn't yet Christmas!"
"Oh, Julia! It is not a Christmas present after all," Chelsea explained with tears in her eyes, jumping up from her seat to hurry to her and grip hold of Julia's hands as though she never wished to let go again. "Nor is it from my father."
