Page 17 of A Lover for Lady Jane (The Welsh Rebels #5)

Chapter Nine

G riffin woke up with Jane’s hand wrapped around his cock. Outside, dawn was already breaking, and yet it felt as if he’d only been asleep a moment.

“What are you doing?” he croaked. He was hard, possibly harder than he’d ever been in his life.

Whether that was due to it being the morning or because her dainty fingers were holding him so intimately, he didn’t know, but one thing was sure.

As long as she kept holding him thus, his shaft would not soften.

They were lying side by side, both naked and she was breathing down his neck, her desire audible.

What man would not be aroused in such circumstances?

“I want to try again,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. How long had she been awake, watching him, waiting for him to wake up so they could resume their lovemaking? His whole body trembled at the thought.

“Jane, we?—”

She interrupted him by giving his hardness a squeeze.

“Since I am not a virgin anymore, it won’t hurt.

And I want you, even more than I wanted you last night.

Please. You didn’t reach your release, and yet you brought me untold pleasure twice.

I want this. I want to feel you inside me this time, when I… ”

Instead of finishing her sentence she hid her face in the crook of his neck—and bit him.

It was a gentle bite, but he felt it all the way to his toes.

In that moment he knew he would take her.

As she’d just said, he had not reached his release last night or the morning before, and his control had been tested to its very limit. He needed her.

“Tell me what you want,” he rasped. “We don’t have to do what we did last night, there are other ways you might prefer.” Would she rather take control? If that was the case, he’d be too happy to let her and watch her sumptuous body while she rode him, breasts jutting forward and back arched.

He felt her shake her head. “I know there are many positions lovers can use, but I want to be under you, I want to watch as you thrust inside me. I want to open my legs wide for you, I want to feel your weight above me, like I did last night. I want you to be the one in charge, because I don’t know what I’m doing, and I want this to be good for you also.

Please, take me as you need to take me.”

Dear God in Heaven, why had he asked her to talk? Never had he heard a woman say more shocking, arousing words. It was as if she had poured liquid fire down his veins. She wanted it to be good for him? It would be good, no matter what.

“Jane,” was all he said before rolling over her.

Her legs instantly came to cradle his hips, the gesture proving both her readiness and her impatience.

“Wait. First, I needed to prepare you.” This was going to cost him what was left of his sanity, but he would do the right thing by her.

Being in charge didn’t mean being rough.

“You need to be wet, I’m not risking having you?—”

“I’m already wet. I…touched myself as you slept, looking at you, imagining you inside me and it got me unbearably aroused. I’m ready for you.”

Bloody hell.

Griffin stared at her; his body taut as a bow string.

This had to be the single most erotic thing he’d heard in his life, and he had no idea how he’d stopped himself from coming there and then.

Instead, he positioned himself at her entrance and felt on the tip of his shaft the proof that she wasn’t lying.

The soft folds were soaked, ready to welcome him.

Unable to resist, he pushed in, slowly, inexorably. Ah yes, heaven.

“Christ, you’re so hot, so tight,” he rasped, his mouth at her temple. “You feel so incredibly good.”

He felt incredible too, Jane mused with the small part of her brain that had not been burned up by desire.

This was nothing like it had been the evening before, when she’d thought Griffin was tearing her in half.

Watching him earlier while he slept, feeling his manhood warm up and lengthen in her hand, picturing him poised over her, his eyes aglow with desire, had sent her to the edge of madness.

She had imagined him surging inside her and reaching his pleasure at the same time as her.

But as wonderful as the images had been, they could not begin to compare with reality.

Her whole body was on fire, and she knew she had made the right choice by asking him to be the first man to take her. This was perfection.

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” she heard Griffin ask, tension in his voice. He had stopped and was holding himself very still inside her.

“No. There is no pain this time.” Only wonder.

As if that was all he’d waited to hear, he started thrusting in earnest, bringing his mouth to her neck, where he deposited little, maddening kisses, licking, sucking at her flesh.

Jane arched her back, desperate to welcome him deeper, to feel every inch of his member as it plunged in and retreated, bringing her closer and closer to the bliss she had already experienced in his arms, first with his fingers, then with his mouth.

This would be different again, but just as spectacular, she could sense it.

“Yes, just like that,” she moaned. Now she knew what people meant when they said that making love was the most pleasurable thing a person could experience.

It was ecstasy.

For a moment she allowed her pleasure to build, then Griffin’s rhythm faltered slightly.

She opened her eyes and saw that his were glazed with indescribable emotion, something like desire and vulnerability combined.

Her insides rippled in response, and she knew her release would not be long in coming.

“More!” she urged, arching her body in search of the friction she needed.

“I… I have to withdraw, now, or it will be too late,” he said in a desperate rasp. “I need to— I’m going to?—”

“No! Wait, just another moment, please.”

He couldn’t leave, not yet, not now, when the wave was about to crash through her. Jane tightened her legs around him, locking her ankles behind the small of his back to keep him in place. She was so close, she just needed a moment more, just another thrust, another?—

It happened without warning. When pleasure finally overcame her, she bit Griffin’s shoulder to stop herself from screaming and alerting the whole village as to what was happening inside the barn. He stilled in turn, and groaned, his head thrown back, the sound agonized.

“Oh fuck, Jane, I…”

Heat scalded her insides, prolonging her ecstasy. When he collapsed over her, his breath coming out in short, ragged pants, she understood that her release had triggered his own, and he’d not been able to withdraw in time.

Though she should perhaps worry about the consequences of her folly, she could not bring herself to. The whole thing had been too perfect.

Griffin slid to the side, covering her left breast with a large hand. “I’m?—”

“Don’t be. If one of us is at fault, it is me.”

He had warned her, he had wanted to withdraw, and she had prevented him by locking her ankles behind his back. Well, she thought with satisfaction, at least this time he, too, had reached his pleasure. Her inexperience had not been a problem.

“Sleep,” she ordered, just like he had ordered her the night before.

There was no answer, no protest. Smiling, Jane watched as Griffin’s eyes fluttered and he succumbed to oblivion.

When he finally came to after the most powerful release of his life, Griffin was lying on his back, with the two blankets wrapped over his naked body—and on his own.

He bolted to a sitting position. How long had he slept?

And where was Jane? Surely she had not decided to leave for Castell Esgyrn on her own?

He knew she felt guilty about him escorting her home, so she might have decided to relieve him of the supposed burden she represented, now that he had ruined her.

He knew she had been the one demanding it, but he was still not convinced he should have agreed to bed her.

To think the day he’d met her he had thought he would have given anything to be in the position he was now! He hadn’t counted on the guilt that came with the incredible pleasure. He felt like a man who had despoiled a sacred place by entering with his shoes full of mud.

Putting on clothes that were still damp and cold was not pleasant to say the least, but Griffin barely paid it any heed. He had to find Jane, see that she was all right, see that she was still here at least.

Outside the sun was shining over the village, in complete contrast to the storm of the previous day.

Frantic, he looked around for a tall, graceful shape dressed in green.

Elegant as she was, she would stand out amongst the villagers as surely as an emerald amongst pebbles.

Eventually, he found her by the river at the back of the barn, staring into the distance like someone trying to find answers to an unsolvable problem.

Relief swept through him. She hadn’t left, she was still with him, she was safe.

Then doubt replaced relief. How should he behave?

He approached gingerly, unsure what to say.

“My lady, I?—”

“Don’t you dare!”

Jane swiveled around, eyes ablaze. Griffin’s heart plummeted at her forceful reaction.

Despite her previous assurances, it seemed that now her body had gotten the release it needed, she regretted having given herself to a poor farmer’s son.

He’d feared this might happen, and yet when it did, it tore his heart in two.

Not her, as well. Ffion had wanted nothing more than his seed; Jane had wanted nothing more than a chance to experience the pleasure her sister was getting with her husband.

She’d not wanted him for who he was. Well, of course she hadn’t. He was nothing compared to her.

“I—”