Page 27

She thought of Izzie’s schedule for the morning, the tactful trip to the apothecary to fetch what Diana needed to prevent worries over any unwanted outcomes of intimacy with Albie.

“This evening, I should be well disposed to more agreeable mischief.”

Rose petals were strewn along the lush rugs and the burgundy coverlet, while a lone rose rested at the foot of Albie’s bed.

Daisies and other fresh spring flowers spilled over from various vases, perfuming the room.

A bottle of sparkling wine, delicate biscuits, confections, and two crystal flutes were propped on the mahogany side table.

And the pessary she had inserted earlier, successfully after several unproductive attempts, was hardly perceptible. The device bolstered her confidence.

She could scarcely draw her eyes away from the canopied bed, which looked sensual, if imposing, with its solid frame upheld by thickset posts at head and foot.

Drapes, matching the burgundy of the coverlet and lush and velvety to her touch, hung from the tester, tied back with golden silk cords so they could easily hop onto the sturdy mattress.

Diana had never fainted in her life, but the thought of what would happen next made the very center of her body, her womanhood, throb with anticipation and longing.

Albion leaned back against the massive pillows propped on his bed, shirt off, and her mind wandered to the rest of him, to what awaited her when she joined him underneath the warm blankets.

“Turn for me, my Daisy,” he said gruffly. “Your beauty is unparalleled. I must see the entirety of your figure.”

“You have provided me with beautiful things… ”

“You would look as elegant in the simplest shift. But please turn.”

Her déshabillé made her shy, the sheer lace of her new night rail markedly different from the modest cotton she had worn to bed at home. Yet she only smiled, dipping her head modestly as she approached him.

She turned. Between her husband’s intense stare and her own mounting desire, she thought the night rail would dissolve and fall from her body.

As she climbed into the bed alongside him, the silken sheets cooled her skin. He placed a gentle hand on her knee and a rougher one on the back of her neck, pulling her toward him in that same deep kiss from before, but this time with greater urgency.

His hand cupped one of her breasts, and she let out a moan.

A bolt of lightning pierced her very soul.

Their tongues continued to meet in the delicious kiss, and his hand remained on the tender skin, tracing the light circles around her nipples.

Her hungry desire, dizzy and throbbing, needed him closer, needed him everywhere.

The sensations pulsing through her now were more primal and urgent than anything that had ever sparked in her before. His hand moved downward, along her thigh, and under the night rail. He tugged at the fabric, freeing her from it at last so that she was naked and exposed underneath him.

Diana wished for nothing more than for him to take her, body and soul.

His hand trailed across the small of her waist, his skin firm and smooth with little nubs between the fingers where his claws had retracted.

They could help her reach a peak of ecstasy that she had heard whispered about but not known for sure existed.

Until now.

“I want you,” he murmured, running his hand through the tangles of her damp hair, pressing his face into it, and inhaling deeply. “Will you submit?”

“Most willingly,” she said breathlessly. Diana was positively thrumming now. “Albie, I want all of you. I want to feel you deep inside of me.”

With a low growl, he reached under the pillow propped beneath her neck.

He produced a paper envelope and withdrew a long, thin sheath.

She remembered overhearing talk of such when a duo of matrons hadn’t noticed her eavesdropping at a rout last season.

She grasped hold of his little finger, still of a rather startling size.

“You’ve no need, for I took appropriate precautions,” she whispered proudly.

He grinned, suitably impressed. “How cunning of you, my lady. But I assure you this contrivance shall enhance your pleasure. To further provoke your lust.”

“I don’t know that such is possible.”

He pinned her hands above her head, both her wrists easily fitting in one hand. With his other, he ran his fingers over her sex, gently, finding a spot above the folds which she had only started to explore herself, which sent the lightning darting inside of her once more.

Her sex was wet and slick, ready for him. Ready for him to claim her. She was prepared to beg for it.

He explored inside now, his finger working its way up the sensitive channel inside her body, teasing her.

There was a spot inside there, one she had not known of before, that sent even more intense sensations pulsing through her.

Lust, her true nature, an almost animal condition, took over and she thrust her hips high, enthralled, enslaved by the pleasure.

"Albie," she cried, clutching the back of his neck. "Take me. Take me now."

He thrust his member, stiff and throbbing, inside of her, slowly at first. She clenched over it, taking him in deeper, and he began to move faster, pounding her, splitting her, and yet bound closely.

They were one now in their pleasure, and she thought they might die of it.

She didn't mind if she died of it. She only needed it to continue.

"You are so tight and so built for me," he gasped through his labored breaths. "Like we were always meant to be one."

A sharp pain jolted her as he broke through the last barrier of her life before.

But she had been prepared for this and the pain was no match for the waves of pleasure.

Albion took her buttocks in his hands, kneading them as they rocked together in this exquisite rhythm.

Her breath grew ragged. She felt carried into another existence, one that put everything that came before to rest. There was only her. There was only Albie.

He groaned and thrust again, the groans turning into a scream. As her body clenched around his, and her limbs tightened, the pleasure exploded like a million stars. She was certain she had reached another level of existence. Another way of existing.

She relaxed into herself, her body throbbing but calming slowly, loosening. She sank back into Albion.