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H arrington could not believe this was happening.

He was on a bed with the woman of his dreams, and through some strange miracle, she actually wanted him, too.

He couldn’t quite shake the conviction that she might change her mind at any second.

Although she showed no hesitation. She yanked his shirt out of the waistband of his trousers with brutal efficiency, her lips never leaving his.

While he cradled her face, marveling that she was letting him kiss her, she seemed bent on stripping him bare.

Which he loved . His deepest sexual fantasies all involved a woman who would boss him around, even push him around, tie him to the bed, and spank him, and then force him to pleasure her.

Ever since the day he had first spoken to Diana and had discovered how deliciously strict she could be, he had pictured no one but her.

Not that he would ever tell her as much. It was bad enough that he had these lurid fantasies. He would destroy any sliver of a chance that she would remain his wife beyond the scope of this house party if he let slip what a degenerate he really was.

But the monster inside of him couldn’t help but thrill as she yanked his shirt up over his head and tossed it contemptuously to the floor. She swung a leg around to straddle him, and everything inside him purred, loving that she had assumed this commanding position.

He leaned back on his hands, allowing her to explore his chest with eager fingers. It seemed as if she liked what she saw, because she growled like a lioness, fusing her lips to his.

He reached up, framing her face, and kissed her in earnest. Diana might be inexperienced, but she was a natural at this.

She had lined her core up with his straining cock, and as they kissed, she started rocking against him.

God , but she was killing him. He hadn’t been with a woman for a duration that didn’t bear thinking about, as the only women available on deployment were camp followers from whom the odds of catching an unmentionable disease were alarmingly high.

And, considering this was the woman who had been fueling his midnight fantasies for several years, he couldn’t take too much of her petting him like this without embarrassing himself.

Then, she went and made it a thousand times worse. With a cry of frustration, she grasped the hem of her chemise and pulled it over her head, hurling it in the same direction as his shirt.

Harrington’s brain ceased functioning, completely and utterly, at the sight of Diana in all her perfection.

Sweet Jesus . He had never imagined anything so beautiful.

Her skin was pale with a blue-veined, almost translucent quality.

She wasn’t what you would call buxom, but Harrington didn’t mind in the slightest, as the sight of her delicate, rose-tipped breasts made his mouth go dry.

Her limbs were thin. Delicate. Which was ironic, considering he had watched this woman fence her brother into the ground.

But these contrasts were part of what made Diana so utterly irresistible.

He managed to gather enough wits to notice that she was reaching for the buttons on his trousers. “No,” he said, clamping his hand around her wrist.

She scowled at him. “Will you relax? We already discussed this. We can touch one another without divesting me of my maidenh?—”

He silenced her with a ravenous kiss. “That’s not what I meant,” he said, pleased to note that she was dewy-eyed and stunned speechless.

“My God, Diana! Just look at you—you’re gorgeous !

I’ll tell you what is going to happen next—you are going to lie back on this bed, and I am going to worship you in the manner you deserve. ”

The corner of her mouth quirked up. “Hmm.” She made a magnanimous gesture. “I suppose I will permit it.”

“You’re damn right, you will.” With a snarl, he tossed her back onto the bed, where she landed with a breathless laugh. He climbed atop her, and she squirmed against him, clearly enjoying the feeling of his skin against hers as much as he was.

He let her enjoy that for a moment, then began kissing his way down her temple, across her jaw, and down her neck. He paused to worship her collarbone—who would have thought that a collarbone could be so erotic?—before coming to her breasts.

He couldn’t resist. With a groan, he sucked one of her pebbled, rosy nipples into his mouth.

She made a sound of pleasure and buried her fingers in his hair, and this was when Harrington discovered that she was exquisitely sensitive there.

He experimented with gentle swirls, flicks of his tongue, and deep pulls. Diana seemed to adore them all.

He switched to the other breast. God, but he could do this all day. After all, what man ever got sick of hearing his woman gasp, “Oh, Harrington! Please don’t stop—that feels so good !”

But all good things must come to an end, and slowly, the sounds Diana was making took on a note of frustration. Finally, she gasped, “Please, Harrington! Please, I need to come!”

He obliged at once, kissing his way down her stomach. “I take it you’ve touched yourself before?”

“Yes,” she panted, looking dazed.

He pressed a kiss against the inside of her thigh. “Was there a picture in that book of what I’m about to do?”

“There was. More than one.” Her heavy-lidded, pleasure-infused smile was beautiful to see. “You’re the one I liked to imagine doing it. When I was touching myself in my bed at night.”

That made two of them. It was gratifying to know that his infatuation hadn’t been entirely one-sided. “Let’s see if I can live up to your imaginings.”

She was so exquisitely aroused after his attentions to her breasts that she immediately knotted her fingers in his hair. He tried to be gentle, but her little rosebud was so eager for him, she was screaming his name and pulsing against his tongue in less than a minute.

He cradled her against his chest while she trembled, but as soon as she recovered, he kissed her cheek. “That was unfair, my darling.”

Scowling, she pushed a stray curl back from her damp forehead. “Unfair? Not at all. I fully intend to return the favor.”

He silenced her with a kiss. “That’s not what I meant. It was unfair in that it went by too quickly. I wanted to savor it. I insist that you allow me to do it again.”

He resumed his position between her thighs, pressing them open so he had full access. He knew she would be exquisitely tender, so he stroked gentle patterns with his tongue all around the little bud that was the center of her delight without quite touching it.

He kept that up for some time, until her breathing grew harsh, and her skin flushed. He chuckled in delight when she finally knotted her fingers in his hair and guided his tongue precisely where she wanted it, and he was treated to the beautiful sounds of her taking her pleasure once more.

Again, he took her in his arms. And again, he insisted.

“Please, Diana. Please. You’re so beautiful when you come.

Pleasure for me again, darling, that’s a good girl.

” It took longer that time, but Harrington didn’t mind.

When she reached her third peak, her leg cramped so hard she almost kicked him in the head, which he took as a compliment.

After she recovered, he tried to slide down her body once more, but she swatted him away. “Harrington! Behave. I’ll scarcely be able to sit tomorrow as it is.”

Damn if that didn’t make his chest swell.

He secretly liked the idea that the other house party guests might hear her screaming his name tonight and might see her shifting in her seat tomorrow.

That they would elbow one another and grin, knowing what the newlyweds had been up to, and that he had done a damn good job of pleasuring his wife.

“Just once more?—”

“No!” she snapped, but she was laughing as she pushed him down on the pillows and reached for the buttons of his placket. A wicked gleam came into her eyes. “It’s my turn now.”

“ Oh, my God ,” was all he could groan. Because how many times had he imagined this very scene? A naked Diana, opening his trousers and taking out his cock?

At the first press of her soft little hand against his sensitive flesh, he almost unmanned himself. When she slid low, making her intentions clear by planting a trail of kisses across his stomach, he whimpered aloud.

And when she pressed a kiss against the head of his cock, he almost died. It wasn’t that she was a practiced seductress. It was apparent that whatever information she had about the act she was attempting to perform had been gleaned from secondhand descriptions and naughty prints.

But Harrington had imagined this moment so many times that the reality of a naked Diana leaning forward to take his cock into her mouth was overwhelming. He was powerless to stop babbling nonsense or to keep his hips from twitching on the bed.

He lasted for less than a minute before the pleasure overpowered him. He would have warned her what was about to happen if he’d had even a sliver of presence of mind, but his climax was so intense, he almost blacked out from it.

When he was next aware of anything, a very smug Diana was smiling down at him. He grabbed her and pulled her down on top of him. She snuggled into his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her, feeling happier than he’d ever felt in his life.

After a few blissful minutes, she tried to slip from his grasp. He tightened his arms mulishly.

She squirmed. “Let me go.”

He released her at once. “Sorry. I understand if you want to return to your room.”

She rolled her eyes. “I do not want to return to my room. But turnabout is fair play. And I believe you are ready for round two.”

She wasn’t wrong. His cock was already starting to stiffen, and it swelled even more upon being informed that there would be a round two .

But Harrington pulled her close again, burying his face in her hair. “In a minute. Need to hold you.”

She yawned. “I suppose that would be acceptable.”

It was a damn sight more than acceptable, Harrington thought as he drifted off to sleep.