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CHAPTER FIVE

Dominic was a coward for saving his declaration of love for the moment she was poised to climax, her mind hazy and pleasure-addled. But when she looked at him, her azure eyes wide and seeking, full of wonder and worry, he couldn’t help himself, couldn’t restrain the words that he whispered.

I’m here for you.

I love you.

I believe in you.

And when her cunt fluttered then clenched around his fingers, her head fell back, and he kissed her, her lips and eyelids and neck and clavicle, then held her tight to him, protecting her as her body tensed and shuddered.

After a breathless moment, the waves of her release dissipated, and her body fell languid against him.

He rolled onto his back, quick to angle his hips away from her.

He’d be perfectly content if Lavinia fell asleep by his side and he spent the night staring at the ceiling with a weeping cock and a full heart, but his erection was a dangerous thing at this point.

He was fairly certain she was still an innocent, although he wouldn’t have been bothered if she weren’t, but he had no intention of startling her.

Lavinia, however, would have none of the distance between them.

She threw her bare thigh over his waist and was in the process of pulling herself flush with him when he stilled her with a hand—still damp from her release—on her hip.

“Vin—”

She lifted her head from his chest, her eyes hooded and brows furrowed. “Vin?”

“For Lavinia. A nickname.”

“I hate it.”

He sighed. “I’ll come up with a better one.” He kissed the pleat in her brows. “You should sleep. Tomorrow is an important one for you.”

She’d be leaving him.

“Sleep here? Are you certain?”

His heart fell. He shouldn’t be surprised, not with his reputation of meaningless liaisons, the trail of happily bedded women in his wake. He pushed the hair back from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of what this night means to me.”

Her eyes shuttered, and she pulled away from him so quickly the fabric from her robe sliced at his skin. “Of course,” she bit out as she stood beside the bed, righting her nightdress and pulling her robe over her chest. A deep flush climbed up her neck. “I shouldn’t have expected?—”

“ No ,” he boomed, uncaring if he woke the gents in the rooms adjacent to his, uncaring if all of Yorkshire, all of Britain heard what he said. He wouldn’t be a coward any longer.

He scrambled to the edge of the mattress and sat, grasping her hands before she was out of his reach. He couldn’t chase her with his injured ankle. “You mistake my intentions. Lavinia…”

Her lower lip trembled, and he hated himself for causing her tears twice in a single night.

“Lavinia, I want a second dance. I want to court you, to shower you with gifts and flowers, to send you terrible poetry that I toil over for days.” Her lips had parted, her eyes wide.

“And I waited too damned long to ask for what I want. I didn’t see what was right in front of me until you were about to leave. ”

She searched his face, as though looking for the conceit, some indication he wasn’t to be believed. “You waited until now to tell me you wish to court me?—”

“I love you.”

Lavinia sucked in a breath, her hands jolting in his, but she did not pull away, thank heavens.

“I want to court you because I love you,” he continued. “I lived for those dances, for our conversations and your touch. Your smile. And I was an idiot for not realizing it sooner.”

She was silent for long enough that he was certain she’d reject him. That she’d see through his charisma to the bleeding, desperate heart of him and find him insufficient, unequal to her brilliance. “You’re not an idiot.”

That was a relief.

She stepped forward and he spread his knees wider to accommodate her. He was certain she noticed the swell of his erection pressing mercilessly into the placket of his trousers, his desire for her becoming untenable.

“You love me,” she whispered, her voice tinged with disbelief, with wonder.

“I do,” he said.

Her breath escaped in a shaky laugh. “You love me.”

“Yes. And you?—”

“I think I love you.”

He cocked his head. “You think ?”

“I haven’t had the opportunity to study the phenomenon. I can’t make an adequate assessment of my condition without the requisite?—”

He tugged her forward, lifting her by the waist and settling her onto his lap. The pressure on his cock was exquisite misery. “Lavinia Fairfax, you are an incredibly capable woman and will be a phenomenal physician. But sometimes you have to trust your instincts.”

She raised one brow. “Do I?” She shifted her hips, and he shuddered.

“My darling,” he ground out through gritted teeth. “I, um… I don’t want to startle you, but—” He grunted as a pulse of pleasure nearly unmanned him. “I have no intention of being too forward, but my body reacts?—”

“Dominic,” she interrupted. “I’m willing to bet I could describe what is happening to your anatomy far more accurately than you could.”

He laughed and pressed his mouth to her full, kiss-swollen lips. “You’d win that bet. But I’m content as we are now.”

“Now you are being foolish.” She kissed his lips, his chin, the divot below his ear. “You love me, and I love you.”

“You think you love me.”

“I’m becoming more certain by the minute.

” The brush of her breath sent goose pimples blooming over his skin.

“And you must remember that your needs are mine as well.” Another deliberate roll of her hips, and he saw stars.

She stood, opened her robe and let it fall to the floor in a rush of fabric. “And I need you.”

He moaned, let his head fall back as she lifted the hem of her nightdress and tossed it aside.

“You should be resting your ankle.”

“You’re going to doctor me when you’re naked? Patently unfair.” Despite his objection, he shifted backwards until he leaned against the headboard.

Her shrug demonstrated no remorse. “I need you healthy for what I have in mind.”

His cock kicked, and he fought the urge to tear the placket open. “What do you have in mind?”

She climbed onto the bed on all fours, prowling until she straddled his hips before straightening. “Walks in the countryside. What were you thinking of?”

He couldn’t maintain his roguish bravado with her, not when her smile sent his heart thundering in joyous circles. “This.” He lifted his hips, his rigid cock grinding against the heat of her cleft, and her eyelids fluttered. “This is what I was thinking of.”

She met his gaze, and he spotted the moment her doubts crept in. “Yes, I—well…”

“Tell me everything, darling. I held back for far too long and wasted so much time.”

Her nose wrinkled before she spoke in a rush. “I haven’t done this before, by this I mean what I think we’re about to do, and that doesn’t matter to me so much as—as I want to be good at this, for you. Because you clearly have done this before?—”

“Clearly,” he echoed with a smirk. Christ, but she was adorable.

“And I don’t like not being good at something?—”

He bent at the waist and cupped her cheeks, kissing her soundly. “No matter what happens between us tonight, it will be perfect because it is with you.”

Her relief was palpable. “You’ll show me what you like?”

He kissed her again, deeper, his tongue sweeping past her lips to tangle with hers. “Better still, you can discover what you like.”

“A scientific inquiry, in a sense.”

“Precisely. We’re doing this for science.” He would have been a far more attentive student at Eton had a naked woman been instructing him. “For your first time, you should take me in like this.”

Her eyes widened then she glanced down in alarm. “Like this ?”

“Yes.” He eased his thumb between them to find the slickness at her cunt, then rubbed her swollen clitoris. “You can control the position, the pace.”

She shuddered against his slow caress, her eyes hooded. “Y-yes, I’d like to try that.”

“Good. You’ll have to undo my trousers.”

“I know,” she huffed. “But you’re rather…” She gestured towards the increasingly uncomfortable evidence of his arousal. “I realize this must be anatomically possible for the propagation of our species, but it seems rather intimidating.”

“Intimidating?” He unbuttoned his trousers with one hand, briefly marveling that he still had the dexterity to accomplish the task. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

He swallowed his moan of relief when the placket separated, his cock fell free, jutting from the thick nest of amber curls. Despite his wonder at having Lavinia in his bed, in his heart , he couldn’t help but preen as her lips parted.

Her tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. “It is an observation.”

“Rub against my cock like you were with my thumb.” His voice was ludicrously rough, his entire being exercising so much restraint he doubted how long he could last, particularly when she lifted on her knees and lowered her cleft against his heated flesh.

He wouldn’t last like this, not with her slick easing the movement between them, the slide delicious and heady, sending sparks down his spine?—

“Wait, my love,” he said, stilling her with hands to her waist. “I can’t—I won’t last long like this.”

A flash of trepidation passed over her expression. “You’ll help me?”

“Of course.” He didn’t mean the words to be flippant, and hoped she hadn’t interpreted them as such, but never had a simple exchange felt so rooted in his soul.

For the brilliant, capable, beautiful Lavinia Fairfax to ask for help, she was letting him see the fragility she held so close to the chest. Asking for it was far more meaningful than any declaration of love or devotion.

And he would always help her, just as he would always love her.

“You’ve gotten me wet, love,” he said, holding the root of his cock steady as she flexed her thighs, rising over him. “Guide me in. As slowly as you need.”

Her lower lip caught between flashes of white teeth as she rubbed the fat, swollen head of his cock through her folds. When it caught at her opening, she gasped. “Yes?” she whispered, holding his gaze.

“Yes, my love.” He wanted to offer poetic words, assurances and promises of their shared futures, but then she lowered herself onto him, taking him into the tight heat that threatened to choke the life from him.

He groaned, threw his head back and clenched his jaw.

“Christ—good god, Lavinia. It’s so good, so—” His hand trembled around his cock, but he brought the other to her hand, lacing their fingers together before he pressed their joined palms to his chest. “Perfect. Everything. God, words are impossible.”

“No words, then,” she managed, and he licked his thumb before bringing it back to her clit, the nub pushing out past its hood and desperate for his attention.

She bucked against his hand and took him further into his body, leaving both of them moaning.

“Does this feel good?” Please, let it feel good for her, let her love this, love him.

“Yes,” she hissed, and her head fell back, her pulse visible in her throat as she rolled her hips, and she took him to the hilt.

Dominic had never in his life experienced the pure erotic bliss of watching the woman he loved spread wide for his cock, her eyes widening before she moaned with pleasure.

There would never be another woman for him, nor a moment when he’d wish for his bachelor days, not when he could have this all-consuming sense of rightness.

“Lift yourself up,” he said. “Let me see where you’re taking me.”

She did, her eyes hooded as his cock slid out enough to see his organ glistening with her arousal, before she lowered herself again. “Like this?” Her eyes twinkled, as though she knew how much restraint he needed to see to her pleasure before he fell apart himself.

“Just like that,” he managed. “You’re a quick study.”

As he’d expected, she beamed, and his heart nearly burst from his chest. He would make her happy, move heaven and earth to put a proud smile on Lavinia’s face every moment of the day. What a fool he’d been to wait to tell her how he felt!

His beautiful Lavinia repeated the movement, moving her pelvis until she discovered a position that made her eyes roll back and stars dance in front of his vision.

She braced her hands on his chest, and he increased the pressure on her clitoris, feeling a flutter in her core. “That’s it, love. You take my cock so beautifully, so perfectly.”

Her response was a moan, her head lolling back as she rolled her hips more quickly, a sheen of perspiration gilding her neck and cheeks. She was a vision, a masterpiece as she chased her release, and he was the man lucky enough to give it to her.

Soon her movement stuttered, and she arched her back, her breasts pushing into his hands as her cunt clenched around him, choking him as she fell into ecstasy.

Dom pulled her down onto his chest and slid his cock free as his release pummeled him, stronger than any he’d had before, leaving tears stinging the back of his eyes as he spilled against her belly.

Several long moments passed as their breathing slowed, and she lifted her head to meet his eyes. Hers were hooded, her plait a disheveled mess from his hands, her cheeks flushed. He loved it, knowing he’d caused her to become undone.

He loved all of her.

A smirk bloomed on her kiss-reddened lips. “I say we try once more. For science.”

He chuckled, ignoring the pain in his ankle as he rolled her onto her back and kissed her again. “For science.”