In response, her fingers danced down his body until they reached the towel and then she parted the fabric, reaching between them and wrapping her hand about his rod. Nearly every part of his mind turned off, the blood rushing south. He thrust into her hand, desperate for release and she seemed to understand, letting her hand slide along his staff.

“Do you like that?” she asked.

“Bloody hell,” he ground out. “Charlie. You’re so naturally good at…” He squeezed his eyes shut. He had to gain control. He’d tup her before he’d thought it out and then he’d have to marry her. “I can’t do this.” But he couldn’t make himself pull away, either, as one of his fingers sank into her wet channel.

She moaned, melting into him even as she kissed him again, stroking her fingers up and down, making him pulse with need. “Is it because of your first wife?”

Those words were like a bucket of icy water dumped upon his head.

Chapter Eleven

Charlie felt him withdraw a second before he actually jumped away from her. Her hand caught on the towel about his waist and he stood back completely naked, his hands coming to his hips.

Her skirts were still up, her legs parted to accommodate his body. Charlie didn’t bother to close them or push down her skirts. He was still far more exposed then she was and that was what this conversation was really about. Stripping away the barriers between them.

She dropped the towel and pushed up onto her elbows. His shoulders lowered a bit as he looked from her breasts down to the area between her legs, now completely exposed to him.

For her part, she attempted to keep her eyes off his member jutting out from his body. It was both intimidating and exciting and she longed to hold it in her hand again. Even taste… She snapped her gaze back to his eyes.

“Pull down your skirt,” he said through clenched teeth.

In response, she pulled the hem higher, allowing her knees to fall further apart. “I want to know the truth. Why won’t you marry again?”

He made a deep rumble in the back of his throat. Then he reached out and grabbed her ankle, pulling her closer to the edge of the bed. “Is that the game we’re playing?”

She shook her head. “Actually, I wanted it to be the opposite of a game. Just you and me and the truth.”

One of his eyebrows went up. “Sans clothing?”

“Well, that is one way to strip down…so to speak.” His fingers skimmed back up her leg.

“Very well.” When he reached the top of her stocking, he traced his fingers along the edge. “I married my first sweetheart. Her name was Jennifer, but I called her Jenni.”

The next words caught in her throat. “Were you in love?”

“Yes,” he answered, his fingers stilling.

“What did she look like?” She swallowed a raw lump, her voice barely working. Now she wished to close her legs but she held still.

“She was very fair, and very fragile, and I tended her like a rare flower.”

S

he winced, those words hurting far more than she’d expected. The love he’d felt for Jenni was so obvious that she could barely breathe. “And then what?”

He raised a shoulder. “She became enceinte. Pregnant with my child. Neither made it through the birth.”

Charlie ached for him. Her own jealousies were forgotten as she scrambled up onto her knees, her skirts falling back over her legs and she wrapped her arms about his neck, holding him tight to her chest. “I am so sorry.”

Slowly his arms wrapped about her too as his face buried into her neck. “I didn’t expect your response to be sympathetic. I—”

She shook her head. “I told you I lost my parents when I was thirteen. They left a giant hole in my heart and in my life.”

“Try to understand, Charlie. I was responsible for them. Both of them. And I failed.” He shuddered against her and she held him tighter.

“You can’t be responsible for that. That is life.”

He leaned away then. “I suppose it is. But you have to know that I’ve coped with that loss by being a rake of the first order.”

Tags: Tammy Andresen Romancing the Rake Historical
Source: readsnovelonline.net