After her mother’s cold account of the sexual act, she’d dreaded her husband’s attentions. Now she began to suspect that her mother had neglected the most important information. The section about how her husband could drive her mad with anticipation. Blair’s kisses had always promised pleasure rather than shame and submission.
Now the delight she found in his arms was astounding enough. Even more astounding was that yielding to Blair’s passion was an act of heart as well as body. Every brush of his hand or glance of his lips lured her far beyond the physical realm.
“Oh, my beautiful sweetheart—” he groaned, grazing her neck with his teeth.
She cried out at the tingling response. Her eager hands tested the hard ladder of his ribs, his narrow hips, the powerful thighs. Daringly she ventured lower, toward the part of him that remained a mystery.
He groaned again as her hand brushed his silky heat. Briefly cowardice defeated curiosity. She withdrew and curled her hands across his back. He buried his silky head in her shoulder and breathed in great gusts that shook her with their force. Their kisses in his dressing room hadn’t prepared her for the powerful intimacy of lying beneath him.
“Should I stop?” Philippa asked shakily. Her inexperience made her feel suddenly awkward. She had no idea what a man liked a woman to do to him.
“Hell, no,” he gasped on a warm puff of breath that set off a fusillade of sensation inside her.
“I may touch you?”
His laugh was edged, as if he was in pain. “Please.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
Another difficult laugh. “I hurt with wanting you.”
The jagged admission banished the last of her timidity. With more confidence, she curled her hand around him. He felt alive and strong and dauntingly big. How on earth would he fit inside her?
“Goodness gracious,” she breathed, tentatively running her hand down the hot, satiny column, feeling vitality in the raised veins beneath her fingers.
Liquid heat flooded her at her bold forays. She shifted, feeling sleek and needy. More slowly she moved her hand up until she brushed the swollen tip. He was damp, too.
As all the new experiences of the night crashed down upon her, she snatched her hand away.
She felt fretful, needy, hungry. This wasn’t at all what she’d imagined after her mother’s advice. She’d pictured herself lying back while he took control. This degree of involvement felt threatening, like she surrendered more than just her body. And however much she liked the man she’d married, she didn’t yet trust him as the keeper of her soul.
She’d recognized Blair’s emotional power over her yesterday when she’d seen him with Amelia. Now fear and desire battled for supremacy, and she wasn’t sure which was stronger.
***
“Trust me,” Erskine said softly. When he’d asked Philippa to trust him before this, she’d never failed him. Let her trust him now.
He’d never imagined that introducing his wife to pleasure could carry such importance. Dear God, let him do this right. Let him show this innocent, gallant girl bliss. As he rose above her and stared into her brilliant eyes, his desire for his wife burgeoned into an emotion strong enough to shake kingdoms.
He sucked in a shaky breath. Her scent filled his senses. Lemon and flowers. Arousal. A trace of sweat. The mixture was as intoxicating as brandy.
“Yes,” she said simply, and relief struck him like a blow.
“I’ll be gentle,” he promised, praying that it was true.
His hand drifted down from her face, lingering to test the kick of her pulse at her collarbone. She had a beautiful body, small and slender and graceful with high, round breasts that fit his hands as if created for the purpose.
“Oh,” she gasped as he kissed a particularly sensitive place on her neck. “I like that.”
He loved the taste of her skin. Clean and fresh and warm with life. Tonight he awoke the sensuality that he’d always suspected lurked inside her. He loved watching her amazed wonder at every new experience. He loved watching her confidence build with every sizzling moment.
“Good,” he whispered, fighting the urge to rush to fulfillment. Patience now would reap untold rewards. “I hope you like everything else I’ve got planned.”
To his delighted surp
rise, she giggled. He’d never heard his serious little bride giggle before. He nuzzled his way across the slope of her breast, drawing in her scent, so much warmer and richer there. “You’re quite delicious, you know.”
“You sound like a hungry lion,” she responded breathlessly, curling her fingers over his shoulders.