Her eyes went wide. “Together? You mean you don’t—”
Bailey cut off her question with his kiss, having also decided that they’d talked enough for a while.
He knew himself to be young, eager and very much in love, which was why he carefully tamped down the eager part of the equation that was Bailey in their anticipation-of-marriage bed.
He kissed Alana, again and again; softly, deeply, teasingly. He kissed her hair, her cheek, her throat, her heartbreakingly sweet mouth. He took his signals from her, advancing when she seemed to melt against him, holding her close when she would stiffen slightly in his arms before beginning again with the patient kisses, the ever more intimate touches that had her relaxing into him once more.
Her nightrail was gone now, not ripped from her in one frustrated tug, as the carnal side of Bailey wished, but kissed down and away from her body, inch by tantalizing inch, until Alana actually kicked it the rest of the way off herself.
He worshipped her with his mouth, his hands, trailing his lips down over the curve of her breast, capturing her nipple in his mouth even as his fingertips skimmed across her lower belly. He pressed his palm against her just above the sweet nest of curls, and she responded by lifting her hips slightly, her body signaling that what he was doing was good…but the placement of his hand perhaps could be better.
“I know, sweetings, I know,” he whispered against her breast, and then continued his
journey of discovery, placing kisses against her soft, heated skin, dipping the tip of his tongue into her navel, being encouraged by the way her hands reached down to touch him, but not to stop him.
“So nice…so good…”
“Yes, sweetings, I know,” he repeated. “But there’s so much more. Just relax, Alana, let me give you more.” He cupped his hand over her sex, although her thighs remained firmly closed against him. “Let me in, sweetings. Let me touch you. Let me take you where your body longs to go. Please, Alana. Trust me.”
She whimpered, turning her head side to side, her breathing rapid and shallow as he claimed her nipple once more, dragged his tongue across it as it sprang to instant hardness. She was close, so close.
He moved his hand, pressing his fingers against her, stroking at her, hinting of what could be if she’d give over, give in, open to him.
“Oh, God…” he moaned against her as slowly, while her body seemed to relax, she spread her legs for him.
She was silk and fire, and so warm and tight. So maidenly and modest, yet equally eager to feel, to know, to experience.
Once again he went slowly, kissing her, coaxing her, as he dared each new intimacy, until at last he felt encouraged enough to rise up over her, take her mouth once more, and strip away the last barrier keeping them apart.
“I love you, Alana. I love you so much. Forgive me, but the pain will only be a moment,” he said, and then plunged home.
She stiffened against him, but then the moment was over and he was deep inside her, holding her close, kissing her and kissing her, again and again, until her bones seemed to turn to liquid and she cried out his name in mingled joy and confusion.
She was his sun and moon, and now, together, they had flown to the stars.
EPILOGUE
“THE DOWAGER TOLD you that?”
Alana snuggled more closely into Bailey’s arms, still unable to rid her face of the smile it had been wearing this past hour or more. Every time she thought she could say with conviction that she loved Bailey Armstrong with all of her heart, she found herself loving him more. That she had just shocked him by relating something the dowager countess had told her delighted her…and now she was wondering if she would ever dare to take the woman’s words and put them into action.
She felt fairly confident she could. And would. Perhaps even tonight. She was fairly certain Bailey, for all he’d sounded faintly stunned just now, wouldn’t protest.
“Oh, yes. She explained that and a lot more. But she failed to mention how good this feels. Lying here in your arms. I think I may like this part even more than anything else. Just…just being here. With you. I love you so much.”
“And I love you,” Bailey said, pressing a kiss against her hair. “Will you do me the great honor of marrying me this Sunday, Miss Wallingford?”
“I would, sir, yes, thank you. I do believe I’ve quite given up any thought of the convent—oh, Lord!” She pushed her hand against his belly, nearly knocking his breath from him as she sat up, looking into his eyes, her own gone very wide. “Kate!” she exclaimed, and Bailey quickly looked toward the door, clearly thinking the woman had actually just magically appeared. “No, no, not here. But—when are we going to tell her the truth, Bailey? She was only trying to be helpful. Although she really didn’t have to look quite so smug when we first entered the drawing room, did she? As if we were puppets, with her holding all the strings. Still, poor Kate.”
“Yes, having to face her brothers tomorrow morning with the mess she thinks she made rather than the triumph she thought she’d managed.”
“Oh, but that’s awful. Max and Valentine will tease her unmercifully once they know we tricked her. We really must get dressed and go wake her now, and tell her.”
“Now?” Bailey asked, rolling her onto her back so that he could begin blazing a trail of kisses down her throat, onto her bare shoulder and lower. “Do we really?”
Alana closed her eyes and tipped back her head, enjoying the sensation his touch provoked. “Yes. Really. Although she did seem to be enjoying herself entirely too much, or at least she was at first, believing her plan had been so brilliant.”
“We’d never have heard the end of that brilliance,” he reminded her just before he licked her nipple, and then he closed his mouth around her, drawing her in.