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“Y-yes, but it’s fine,” she answered, swallowing past the lump that had formed in her throat.

He gave a lopsided smile, leaning so close that she could smell the alcohol on his breath.

“So, you do not mind me having a dirty mouth?” he teased.

“I do not mind,” she answered boldly, squaring her shoulders. “It’s your mouth, and you can use it any way you wish.”

“Any way I wish?” he mused, his eyes roaming up and down her body.

She followed his eyes and saw that the light behind her outlined her body in the thin material of her nightgown.

“You do not know the things I wish to do with this mouth of mine,” he told her, surprising her. His voice was gravelly and almost strained.

“You can do them,” she answered. “I do not mind.”

His eyebrows rose to his hairline, but the look of surprise was gone in seconds.

“I don’t want you just to not mind, Helen.” He laughed darkly.

“Then what do you want?” she asked.

“I want to know if you want me to pleasure you.”

His raw honesty sparked the same from her, and she knew her reply shocked him when he stepped even closer to her.

“I want you to pleasure me, husband,” she answered, feeling empowered by the unrestrained desire she saw in his gaze.

His eyes roamed over her face and stopped at her lips, his nostrils flaring when her tongue darted out to lick her lips.

They’d kissed before, but her lips itched to have his cover hers and remind her just how well he kissed. She frowned, confused when she noticed him watching her.

Why didn’t he just kiss her already?

I will never force a woman into my bed.

His eyes seemed to be questioning, as he was giving her another opportunity to admit her desire.

She nodded and nearly lost balance when he pulled her to him, taking her lips in a kiss that coaxed deep groans out of them both.

He kissed her like a man who’d been long starved of food—messy, fast, and unstoppable. Her lips stung from how hard he nipped them, but rather than pain, she felt intense pleasure that sent shudders through her.

Her body was a mess of different emotions as her body made her crave things she had not even known were possible.

Her breasts felt heavy, and her nipples were painfully hard so that even the fabric of her nightgown rubbing against them caused her to hiss. A pulse between her legs was so furious that she struggled to keep still. There was a wetness in her sex that she had only ever felt with him that stunned and scared her.

When his hands trailed downward to palm her buttocks and pull her against him, she wrapped her legs instinctively around him.

She stiffened when he led them to the bed and placed her gently on it, his weight on her gentle and soothing.

He kissed her again, this time deep and slow, one hand moving from her face to run down her neck and then to palm her breast and lower to run up her calf to her thigh.

She gasped at the trail of heat his hands left in their wake. She squirmed, feeling shy with his hands on her, but he stilled her by kissing her slowly again. His kisses were like warm biscuits fresh from the oven, which she loved to indulge in whenever it rained.

His hands moved up her body again this time, and she felt him groan when he palmed her breast. He pinched in one nipple, and if he hadn’t been on top of her, she was sure she would have flown off the bed.

Her back arched as a moan escaped her lips.

How had she never known such spots existed in her body? she wondered as his hands and lips found new ways to drive her insane.