Page 15 of Lady Elizabeth’s Winter Stranger

“You’ll survive,” she said, pleased to see him in such a dither.

Finally he tugged his breeches down and cast them aside without looking. Elizabeth didn’t notice where they landed either. She was too busy staring at the impressive column of flesh rising against his flat stomach.

“Goodness me,” she whispered. Would that fit inside her? No wonder Mamma said that the act would hurt. She pressed her thighs together as virginal nerves, temporarily absent, surged anew.

He laughed and kneeled over her. “Has my rampant manhood awed you into silence?”

“Yes,” she said in a scratchy voice.

“I think you need reassurance,” he said gently. He kissed her again, lingering. He went back to stroking her between the legs, until she forgot her trepidation. She was too busy trembling her way through reactions that she’d never experienced before tonight.

This time, when Tom eased his finger into her, her body gripped him in preparation for the ultimate union. Her hips bumped upward, as the blood rushed in her veins.

Rising on his arms, Tom shifted until he lay between her legs. Through the shuddering storm, she felt something blunt and hot press into the junction between her legs. She hooked her hands over his broad shoulders and stared up into his eyes. “It’s happening?”

“Yes.” His voice was strained. So were his features. His gaze burned down into hers, as if he could see right through to her soul. “Bend your knees.”

She obeyed and tightened her grip on his shoulders. As he inched inside her, the pressure increased. He breathed erratically, and his gray eyes turned opaque. She ran her hands down his arms, feeling the way his muscles hardened. He was struggling for restraint.

“Are you all right?” he asked jerkily.

So far, the act was uncomfortable, but not painful. “Yes. Don’t stop.”

He bent to kiss her, then edged further forward. Her body stretched to accommodate his slow advance. Elizabeth bit her lip, as pain sliced through her. Despite her determination to endure, a muffled whimper escaped.

He stopped moving. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Already the pain faded. She traced the line of his spine and caught his hips. With every second, his possession became easier to bear. “It hurt for a moment, that’s all.”

He kissed her with an open-mouthed appreciation that flooded her with pleasure. Her tension eased, and her body fitted itself more naturally to his hardness. She sucked in a deep breath of air redolent of their desire. Musky. A trace of sweat. Rich and animal and before tonight, unfamiliar.

Elizabeth slid lower in the bed and felt how that changed his angle. She made a faint murmur of curiosity as Tom shifted deeper. No pain this time.

Now that the initial shock passed, she was mostly conscious of the transcendent intimacy of what they did.

The vicar had spoken of them becoming one flesh.

She’d assumed the phrase was poetic, but that was how this felt.

As though this act united the formerly separate Tom and Elizabeth into one being.

The insight was moving, and she blinked away tears as she stroked his lean flanks with more tenderness than passion.

“I should stop.” He frowned down at her. “You’re crying.”

With a choked laugh, she lightly dug her nails into the skin covering his ribs. “Don’t you dare.”

“But…”

She gulped back a sob. She didn’t want Tom going anywhere else right now and if she burst into tears, he might. He already looked ready to bolt. “I’m crying because I love you so much, and because this thing we do is so beautiful, and because I’m so glad I waited for you to come into my life.”

She watched his face change, as he listened to the torrent of words. He bent and kissed her with a devotion that she couldn’t mistake. “Oh, my beloved…”

He raised his head and pushed forward with purpose, going to the hilt.

When their bodies first joined, her heart had clenched with overwhelming emotion.

But this closeness carved a rift so deep inside her, it marked her forever.

She was his. She would always be his. On a broken sigh of surrender, she arched until her breasts brushed his chest.

“That’s…wonderful,” she whispered. And it was. The momentary discomfort didn’t count against the wonder of him filling her emptiness with his love.

When he shifted back, she couldn’t muffle a disappointed whimper. She pressed up to prolong the contact. “Don’t go.”

His laugh was husky. “I’m not going anywhere. You’ll like this.”

She did. For a rapturous interval, his body rocked in and out of hers, launching her on a glorious flight to the stars.

It was like when he’d touched her between the legs, but better.

She panted, as she strove to attain some goal that lay just out of reach.

Every time he slid fully inside, she verged closer to that peak.

Until on a blast of heat and light, she crossed the last barrier and soared free.

The explosion of ecstasy outmatched anything that she’d ever imagined possible.

She cried out his name, as she wallowed in transforming sensation and her body spasmed around him.

He gave a grunt of approval and kept moving, until he shuddered in her arms and lost himself inside her still-quivering body.

Tom kissed her thoroughly, then rose on his elbows to stare down at her with eyes that shone with love. “I adore you.”

Elizabeth touched his face, noting how his expression had changed since they’d mated. She could tell that he, like her, had touched paradise tonight. They’d experienced bliss together, just as together they’d advance into their new life. This was a love that would endure. “I love you, too.”

He pulled free and rolled to his side, wrapping his arms around her and nestling her back against his chest. Tom’s love surrounded her. It was the best feeling in the world.

Or perhaps the second best. She rested against him, her mind awash with memories of what had just happened. It seemed a gift beyond measure that they could do that again and again. She smiled into the candlelit room.

Behind her, Tom’s rough breathing eased. The quiet interval had Elizabeth’s eyelids drooping. Drowsing in her magnificent lover’s arms was sheer delight. The night’s discoveries came thick and fast.

She was almost asleep when Tom murmured into her rumpled hair. “You called me Stanton.”

“Hmm?”

“When we made love, you said my name. Not Tom.”

She shifted a little but kept her eyes shut. “I was carried away in the moment.”

“I liked it.”

“I liked what you did.”

Male satisfaction tinged his grunt of amusement. “I’ll do it again, once I’ve caught my breath.”

On a shiver of anticipation, she curled her fingers over the hand that spread across her midriff. “Ooh, yes, please.”

With a weary laugh, he pressed a kiss to her crown. “You’ve married a man who can’t get enough of you.”

She bumped her rump back against his stirring rod. “I approve.”

His next laugh sounded like he was more awake. She was also losing interest in sleep. Who wanted to sleep, when a passionate man lay beside her, ready and willing? Not Elizabeth Morley-Bridges, Viscountess Fairchild, that was for sure.

“I’ll be gentle. You might still be tender.”

She laughed and turned around so she could see him. “I’m tender. And grateful and overwhelmed with what we just did. I’m starving for you. And I love you more than words can convey.”

His eyes glowed with a joy that warmed her to the heart. “And I love you, Elizabeth. Let me show you how much.”

And he did.