Page 43 of Is This Real or Just Pretend?

Then she hurried over to the closet and threw open the doors. After rummaging around for several moments, she pulled out a packet and disappeared into the en suite bathroom to insert the cervical cap.

When she emerged, Lucien was still on the bed but eyeing her closet. “Should I be concerned that you have such a large collection of prophylactics in your bedroom?”

Alex lifted her chin and crossed her arms. “Only if you take issue with a woman managing her reproductivity.”

“No,” he said quickly. “Not in the least.”

“Madame LaSalle and I help distribute them to women’s groups across the city,” she explained with a smile, putting him out of his misery.

“Ah,” he said, visibly relaxing. “Let me stress that I have absolutely no issue being with a woman of experience, but I was already feeling woefully out of my depth.”

“You have nothing to worry about on that front,” she said as she moved toward him. “I assure you.”

“Still, I know I… I can’t possibly measure up to Benjamin.”

Alex was willing to wager her entire personal fortune that Benjamin had given very little, if any, thought to her pleasure. “You do not need to worry about that at all.”

“That is most encouraging,” Lucien said, then grunted as she straddled his lap.

“I will admit our time together was not entirely without pleasure—”

“I am less thrilled to hear that,” Lucien cut in.

Alex smiled at his petulance and pressed him down onto the bed. “But, and this is the important bit, so listen closely: He never made me feel as good as you did with only your fingers.”

“No?” His wide-eyed hope filled her with such fondness she nearly lost her breath.

Alex leaned in until the tips of their noses touched. “Not. Even. Close.”

Lucien responded by capturing her mouth in a deep, insistent kiss. “Good,” he rasped. “I want you to forget him entirely by the end of tonight.”

She threw back her head and let out a throaty laugh. “Please do.”

His hand cupped the back of her neck as he brought her toward him for another lush kiss.

“I have been wondering how you’re so good at kissing,” she admitted once he finally released her.

He shot her a sly smile. “I don’t have quite the same qualms about kissing as I do for the other bits,” he said as he began to leave a trail of kisses down her neck. “And it seemed that Paris was a good place to learn how to kiss properly.”

Alex laughed again as she craned her neck back to offer him better access. “Lucky me, then.”

“I’m very glad you think so,” he said as his hands slid along the exposed flesh of her thighs where her nightgown had ridden up to pool around her hips.

Just as that ache began to build between her legs, Alex shifted and began to unbutton the front of his trousers.

Lucien said nothing but he stared at her face with an intensity that was nearly overwhelming on its own.

Then together they pulled his trousers down past his hips.

She took him in hand then, and though he was already impressively hard and hot, she stroked him a few times for no other reason than to hear the surrendering gasp escape his lips.

“Alex,” he panted. “ Enough .”

She smiled. “Very well.”

He caught her eye and his hands tightened on her hips. “You know what I want.”

She rose on her knees and positioned him at her entrance. As soon as the tip of his erection brushed against her overheated flesh, Lucien let out a hiss and squeezed his eyes shut.

Alex paused, holding herself still as she stared down at him. “Shall I continue?”

He let out a pained nod and gently tugged at her hips. Slowly, so slowly, she began sliding down, down, down until finally he was in her to the hilt. She gasped in surprise at how he filled and stretched her. How good it felt to have him inside her.

She began to rock her hips, chasing that flutter of pleasure at her apex, and Lucien let out something that sounded very much like a whimper.

“ Alex ,” he murmured and dug his fingertips deeper against her flesh.

She moved a little faster then, finding a rhythm that caused the flutter to bloom. She let out a gasp and leaned her head back.

“Look at me,” Lucien suddenly commanded. Alex had been so focused on what she was doing that she hadn’t noticed his heated stare. As their gazes tangled, the intimacy of the moment nearly overwhelmed her but she fought against the urge to look away.

“You are so beautiful,” he breathed.

A different kind of warmth bloomed in her chest and she smiled down at him. “Touch me. Please.”

Lucien nodded eagerly and together they pulled the nightgown off her overheated skin and his warm hands immediately closed over her breasts.

Then she showed him how to fondle her nipples just the way she liked as a new wave of pleasure crashed over her.

He began thrusting upward and it felt like stars were gathering behind her eyes.

“Harder, Lucien,” she gasped and he readily obliged, both with his thrusts and with his fingers. Alex let out a gasp, then moved her hand to the sensitive bundle of nerves and began to touch herself. She was close now. So close.

Lucien let out a reedy curse. “Alex,” he said, his voice sounding both rough and weak at the same time. “I can’t last. Not when you’re doing that.”

She failed to hold back a smile. “Then we’ll just have to come together.”

Lucien threw back his head and pumped into her even harder while Alex rode him until her orgasm suddenly crashed over her in a blinding light.

Alex’s deep moan seemed to push Lucien over the edge.

As he came inside her, the feel of his hot seed filling her set off a second, deeper orgasm and Alex saw stars.

White hot pleasure fanned out through every limb and it took several moments for her to fully come back to herself.

Well, that had certainly never happened with Benjamin.

She collapsed on top of Lucien, laughing at the thought, while he bound her in his arms, holding her with a fierce tightness she had never experienced before.