But this time it was bare flesh to bare flesh. And he didn’t just stop at rubbing against her, but slid one finger inside her, then began to push it in and draw it out, mimicking the mating act. She gasped in shock. It was indecent. She was sure what he was doing to her was indecent, but her whole body was clamouring for more. She was aching with wanting. Trembling with it.
And a strange, compelling tension was building where he was so skilfully manipulating her with his fingers. She moaned and clung to his shoulders as he ground the heel of his hand against her once more.
They had gone too far now for her to protest that this was more than just the kiss she’d agreed to. All she could manage was another tortured moan as her hips bucked against the heel of his hand, which he was circling at the apex of her building pleasure. And though part of her was a little shocked at what she’d instinctively done, it had felt so right that she bucked again, more deliberately. And again. And he kept on pushing against her and thrusting into her. And then instinct took over completely. It was like being on a runaway horse, with no stirrups and no reins. All she could do was hang on to its mane until the beast itself decided to shudder to a halt.
Though she was the one who was shuddering. And pulsing. And something like lightning was striking from the place where she was bucking against his hand, streaking up her spine and radiating throughout her entire body. Only it wasn’t over in a flash, but kept on pulsing and flaring, until she thought she would not be able to bear the exquisite radiance a moment longer.
Then she rather thought she might have screamed, but somehow Lord Deben had his mouth over hers and was swallowing the sound even as she uttered it.
And then, instead of a peal of thunder, a wave of total bliss followed in the wake of the lingering lightning, rolling her over and over and washing her up on the shore where she lay gasping for breath.
* * *
Now was the time to bring all his planning to fruition. They didn’t call it the little death for nothing. She lay sprawled amidst the cushions, panting, her arms limp at her sides, thighs lax, lips parted, her eyelids lowered as though she didn’t have the strength to open them fully. She was barely capable of even voicing a protest, let alone making a move to defend herself.
He could have his breeches open and be inside her before she was even aware of what he was doing. And then it would be too late. The brief pain of losing her virginity would rouse her from her stupor, no doubt, but since she was still quivering from the bliss of her first orgasm, he’d soon be able to reduce her to mindless compliance again. She had not the experience to resist the power of what he could unleash in her body.
Oh, yes, he would make sure she enjoyed it.
Physically, at least.
Afterwards—well, when she was capable of thinking straight and her moral senses returned—he would reassure her that of course he would marry her.
She wouldn’t refuse him, not once he’d taken her virginity. The act would make her his. Irrevocably his.
She was so honest, so straight about things like this, that once he’d had her, she could never marry another man. She’d feel obliged to confess to anyone who might propose to her that she wasn’t a virgin, and even if the man was prepared to overlook it, she wouldn’t.
Besides, by the time he’d finished with her, he would have convinced her that she’d only capitulated because she’d fallen in love with him. She’d seize on that excuse to salve her sensitive conscience, and then...yes, then she would be his.
He slid his hand from between her legs and went to unfasten his breeches.
But the action roused her a little. She stirred and turned her head to look at him, and smiled at him, shyly.
Trustingly.
His fingers stalled on the second button.
Nobody had ever trusted him before, because he was such a complete bastard. Not in the way his siblings could be described as bastards, because of what his mother had done, but because of his utter selfishness. He was a bastard by nature. He’d always done whatever he wanted, without considering anyone else’s feelings. He’d habitually taken women for sexual gratification, then despised them for letting him use them.
But this was worse than all of that. Worse than anything he’d ever done before.