Page 35

That evening after dinner, the duke found her where she sat talking to Miss Pringle and drew her out onto the terrace.

It was a fine night; the weather had been unseasonably warm and dry, and the pattern was continuing.

She had seen little of him except in company the last three days, and she was gratified he sought her out now.

The intimacy they had developed while at her parents’ home had seemed to dissolve since they’d arrived at The Castle. He was absorbed into his daily duties of estate matters and host, and she was kept fully occupied by the duchess.

However, now he drew her away from the house to walk under the trees in the moonlight with his arm round her waist, and she rested her head against his shoulder feeling that harmony creeping back. It soothed the uncertainty in her heart.

“I feel as though I’ve barely seen you,” he said.

“I feel the same,” she admitted.

“Is Mama wearing you out?”

“There is a lot to learn.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve been neglecting you,” he said, looking down at her. His face was in partial shadow, devoid of color in the moonlight. They had reached a garden seat, and he drew her down onto it beside him. “I’ve missed you,” he said softly and kissed her.

Her heart lifted and fluttered at this admission as his lips captured hers in a soft, warm, deep kiss. She kissed him back, her arms going round his neck . Perhaps all my worries are unfounded after all?

She lost herself in the heat and languorous desire of his kisses. Finally, he broke the kiss and said, breathing quickly, “I know it’s only two more nights, but it seems like an eternity.”

“Until the wedding.”

“Yes,” he kissed the side of her face and her neck. “Come sit on my lap,” he said, tugging her closer. Somewhat shocked, she still let him pull her into his lap. He settled her, wrapping his arms round her. “That is better. I can kiss you and touch you better this way. Do you mind?”

She shook her head, slightly dazed.

“You’ve been driving me crazy, you know,” he said softly, tracing a line along her jaw with his finger, it made her skin tingle.

“I have?” Her voice came out slightly husky. There was a heavy heat sinking into her limbs; she could feel the magnetic pull of it coming off him in waves. She shifted in his lap, feeling hard heat pressing against her flank.

“You’re very innocent about some things, Sarah. It’s daunting for a man, that kind of innocence. Do you understand that?”

She shook her head, surprised by him approaching the topic in this way at this time.

“I want you to know that I will try not to frighten or hurt you. Do you trust me?”

Her heart was racing. Do I trust him? In this, I must. He was the one with experience, and she knew virtually nothing of what to expect beyond the basic logistics as she had told Daphne.

Daphne had indicated that it was the duke’s responsibility to introduce her to—to pleasure.

Was it that he alluded to? She swallowed and nodded.

“Good.” He nuzzled her ear and her neck with his nose and lips. “You like it when I kiss you?”

“Yes,” her voice cracked.

“Do you feel a—an aching heaviness here?” He cupped one of her breasts and ran a thumb across the burgeoning nipple.

She uttered a whimper and nodded.

He shifted his head and captured her mouth while his hand caressed and squeezed her breast. His tongue explored her and the aching heaviness he spoke of increased, and each time he touched her hardened nipple a shot of heat went straight to the burning place between her legs.

He broke the kiss, tracing kisses across the top of her bosom, exposed by the décolletage of her gown.

He slid his hand from her breast, down her belly to her lap. “And do you feel a wet, burning heat here?” he asked, his voice low and soft.

“Y-yes,” she managed, blushing furiously in the dark. How did he know to describe it so accurately?

“Oh, Sarah!” his voice had an aching cadence to it that sent shivers through her and made the place between her legs throb.

“Let me,” he whispered, “do something about that.” His teeth grazed her neck lightly, making her gasp, and his tongue soothed the spot as his hand pulled up her skirts, until she could feel cool night air against her exposed thighs. She stiffened with embarrassment.

“R-Robert?” half question, half protest.

“You’ll like this, I promise,” he soothed, his hand tracing tingling patterns over her thighs.

She gasped, her breath coming in pants, her skin tingling, the aching heat, the wetness, getting stronger. He adjusted his arm around her shoulders to hold her more securely and slid his other hand higher, toward the apex of her thighs and that aching, wet place.

“Part your legs a little for me, Sarah,” he murmured softly against her ear.

The intimacy of it, the strength of his arm around her, made her feel as if she were wrapped up in a cocoon of pleasurable warmth and safety.

She did as he said, leaning her head into his shoulder, her hand grasping the lapel of his jacket.

“Good,” he whispered, and finding her mouth again, he kissed her. She lifted her head, pushing into the kiss, parting her lips and giving him access to her mouth as she did to the place between her legs.

The feather-light touch of his fingers gliding between her nether-lips made her gasp, such a searing exquisite pleasure took her breath away and made her whimper. Her flesh jumped and her hips jerked.

He made a noise in his throat that she recognized as a groan. He’d groaned before, kissing her, and she knew it denoted his own arousal, as it had been accompanied by the growing hardness in his breeches. She felt it now, pressing against her hip.

His fingers continued to slip up and down the channel between her lips and her breathing became erratic as an itchy restless pleasure took possession of her body.

The achy desire built and built as she clutched at him more tightly, rubbing her face against his chest, squirming in his lap as her hips refused to stay still.

Little noises escaped her, whimpers, mewls, moans as his fingers increased their pace, and moving them higher, he stroked a place where the pleasure was so intense she jumped nearly out of her skin when he first touched it.

“Robert!” she gasped.

“It’s all right, I have you,” he soothed.

He swirled around that place, avoiding direct contact with it again, and the hot, hard desire built and built in her body once more.

The intensity of it was like nothing she had ever felt before.

Every fiber of her being strained toward something, she knew not what, as the feeling wound up to unbearably exquisite levels.

And then it burst, shattering her into a thousand pieces, her body going taut at the apex and then descending into a shuddering mass of quivering, throbbing pleasure.

A groan tore from her throat and then her body collapsed back against him, in languorous peace, her face nuzzling into him as the throbs and tingles gradually dissipated, leaving her limbs heavy and her body limp.

He removed his fingers, cupped her briefly, and then dropped her skirts back into place, wrapping both arms around her and cradling her in a rocking motion, kissing her hair. “I have you,” he whispered.

A sense of peace pervaded her as she leaned into his embrace, soothed by the calm and the comfort of his arms.

She stirred eventually and lifted her head, and he kissed her lips gently, a chaste closed-mouth kiss. “Recovered?” he asked softly.

She nodded. “I think so.”

He smiled. “Good. There will be a great deal more on our wedding night, but I wanted you to experience something that would, I hope, allay your natural anxiety?”

She bit her lip and stroked his cheek. If she had been teetering on the brink of falling back into love with him, she had lost the battle entirely now. To show me such consideration and care, such exquisite pleasure, and take none for himself?

“Thank you,” she whispered, her whole heart in the words. She flung her arms round his neck and hugged him.

He kissed her neck and stroked her back.

“We had best go back in before a search party is sent out to retrieve us,” he said.

She stood up, and he rose and turned away, to rearrange his breeches she thought. Not surprising. She felt oddly light and buoyant.

*

As they approached the house, Robert felt a surge of satisfaction, he had achieved his objective, he thought, of preparing Sarah for their wedding night.

She would now, he hoped, look forward to it with as much anticipation as he did.

His groin ached, and he hoped there were no damp patches on his breeches.

He would take care of himself later in the privacy of his room.

The key thing was that Sarah had achieved release and remarkably easily.

He had been prepared for it to take much longer, but she seemed highly primed and even attracted to him.

He had worried that she wouldn’t be and what he would do if she weren’t.

But her reactions tonight made him hopeful that their wedding night could be one of mutual pleasure.

He would certainly do everything he could to ensure hers.

This was a step in the right direction, surely.

He meant their marriage to begin on a good note.

And perhaps he had done something toward atoning for his previous errors.