Page 20 of The Blind Lyon (The Lyon’s Den Connected World)

“Peregrine…” How glorious was the sound of his given name in her voice?

The dear woman parted her legs to allow him better access, and as he spread her folds to uncover the swelling pearl at her center, she whimpered.

Her back arched again. She held his other hand to her breast, pressing it to the nipple.

At the first pass of his fingers, she moaned.

The shiver that went through her delicious body transferred to him.

By the second, she was shaking. Allan circled that tiny bundle of nerves, experimented with varying levels of friction as he worked it over, and all the while, he kissed the side of her neck, plucked and rolled her nipple.

When her breath came in labored pants, he grinned and whispered words of encouragement into her ear.

There was no need for sight; pleasuring a woman didn’t require it. Everything was based on emotions and sensations, on touch and connections, on intuition.

And still he worried that swollen bud, rubbed it, flicked it, circled it as if that were his only purpose in life just now.

“Mmm, yes.” His wife writhed against his body, and his hardened length pulsed with a need of its own.

“Dear God, Peregrine, I’m going to be swallowed up by these sensations.

” There was both marvel and fright in her tones, but at this point, he didn’t think he could try to separate one from the other.

That was a task for another day.

Instead, he sought to soothe her, push her toward the brink, so he left off working her nubbin in favor of slipping two fingers into the honeyed heat of her passage.

A ragged moan left his throat. Damn but he couldn’t wait to claim her; she was warm and tight, and as he stroked into her, her body greedily pulled at his digits.

“Fly for me, Annette.” In and out, in and out he thrust into her. “Let yourself go. I’m here and nothing bad is going to happen to you. Lord knows you need the break from reality.”

“I don’t…” Her head thrashed on his chest. “It’s just there… Almost.”

“Shh.” Renewing his attentions at her breast, Allan withdrew from her passage only to bedevil her nubbin with greater intensity. “Don’t think about anything except what you feel, at the sensations zipping through your body.”

“Oh!” A shiver racked her form, but he didn’t let up on the friction, the play he did to her button or her nipple.

“Ah!” When she fell into that release, she did it in spectacular fashion.

Put simply, Annette shattered in his arms. A low keening cry left her throat as her body stiffened then relaxed.

The sound went straight to his stones. She clutched his arm, tightened and released, while contractions and waves of pleasure no doubt stole through her person.

It was one of the most glorious things he’d ever been a part of.

But he wasn’t done with her. Not by half.

As soon as she came back to herself, Allan resituated her so that she straddled his waist. Now that the front of her body rubbed against his chest, his arousal grew more acute, but he tamped on the need to immediately claim her.

“Dear God, you are incredible.” He followed the statement by caressing his fingertips over her face and her hair that had half escaped the pins holding it up.

“Like a dream.” Putting his hands on either side of her neck, he drew her to him and kissed her, slowly at first because he was in awe of her, and then once urgent heat roared through him, he deepened the embrace.

Annette broke it to explore beneath his jaw with her lips.

She nipped the skin, licked everywhere she’d just kissed, and one of her hands drifted to his chest. Every touch and connection shuddered through him, brought him close to the edge with such awareness he was sure he hadn’t been truly living before.

“Though I have pictured you naked in my dreams more than once, the reality is so much better.” Then she flicked the flat disc of his nipple with a fingernail, and his world tilted sideways. “What will I dream of now?”

Damn but he hoped it was still him.

Needing more of her, he took her breasts in his hands, rubbed the pads of his thumbs along her nipples, and as they hardened, he rolled those distended tips until she moaned her approval.

She was soft, warm, and willing; every breath she took told him that he was doing everything right.

Then because he wanted to feel everything, Allan laid her back on his bed and he joined her.

His hands went down her sides and at her buttocks, he held them, further spreading her open, and he reveled in how she felt against him. “I want you.”

“There’s nothing stopping you.” She kept him cradled between her bent knees, then the saucy minx took his painfully rigid shaft in her hand. “We are married, after all.”

That touch nearly had him shooting off his wad. Need careened down his spine. He curled a hand about her hip. “Annette…” A warning growled through his voice.

“Hush, Masterson. I know you have a good amount of patience.” She stroked her hand up and down his length. Bliss was so close and held literally in her palm. At his gasp, she giggled, leaned up then pressed her lips to his.

Unable to remain parted from her any longer, he fit the head of his member to her opening, and slowly, so damn slowly, he speared into her body until he’d fully penetrated her.

She gasped. “Oh, this is one of my favorite parts.” The words were hushed and almost reverent as she clung to him.

“Dear God.” Her honeyed heat was nothing short of heaven, so snug and welcoming. Allan gripped her hips and withdrew merely for the wonder of thrusting into her body once more. “You feel so good.”

“I’d say the same, but I have no words.” Annette shoved her hands up his chest, and when she clutched his shoulders, he leaned over her, moved within her until they found a rhythm.

A moan escaped her while wild sensations flooded him.

“I have missed this sort of intimacy so much.” The words were breathless and almost tearful.

“Shall I continue?”

“Please!”

He couldn’t help but grin. Seconds later, he kissed her again in the hopes it would cool the heat in his blood.

But the dear woman wasn’t content to let him pleasure her.

Oh, no. Her hands were seemingly everywhere, and each flitting touch, every caress sent him careening closer to the edge before he’d properly claimed her body.

He’d barely gotten his fill of teasing her nipples with his mouth when she’d sneaked a hand between them to fondle his bits. Need tingled through his stones, and the gentle teasing she gave him added another layer to the already frenzied urgency surging along his nerve endings.

“Annette…”

“You are not the only one who can be cheeky tonight,” she whispered against the side of his neck. “But do get on with it before I go mad. It has been far too long.”

“Quite the managing baggage, Lady Masterson. I had no idea.” Allan encouraged one of her legs upward.

Was she smiling? Flushed with passion? Were her eyes sparkling?

Though he’d give worlds to know, it wasn’t all that important after all, for he could hear her satisfaction in her voice and feel it in her touch.

Then his mind was gone, for he thrust into her welcoming sheath once more. His groan mingled with hers.

The hold on his control snapped; he could keep back the inevitable no more.

Again and again, he stroked into her, went as deep as possible.

She held onto his forearms. As the rhythm between them evolved, she canted her hips, met each of his pushes, wrapped her arms about his shoulders.

Hot, frantic need slammed through his body.

Over and over, he claimed her, showed her with his actions that she wasn’t the fearful woman that she thought.

Then she shifted position, wrapping her legs about his waist, and he leaned over her.

The new angle was apparently pleasing, for she caught her breath, tightened her hold at shoulders.

Tiny pinpricks of pain from her nails digging into his skin urged him onward, as did the sounds of delighted pleasure she made.

Damn but those utterances were everything; his confidence soared. Perhaps he didn’t need to please society, not when this one woman seemed all too happy to be with him.

All too soon, the unrelenting pressure came due.

Tingling need went through his stones and shaft.

He pistoned his hips faster, thrust into her with so much purpose that the sound of flesh hitting flesh blended with the nighttime world around them.

Annette’s hold on him slipped. With a cry her body stiffened.

She contracted around his length so intensely that it pulled him into his own release.

With one more deep stroke, he shattered hard.

A strangled shout left his throat, and then he collapsed into her as his length pulsed.

“Bloody hell, Annette. That was… Well, now it is I who have no words.” He wrapped his arms around her, content to hold her, and with something akin to awe, he pressed tiny, feather-weighted kisses to her cheeks, her chin, her forehead, her closed eyelids.

Salt came away on his lips; she was softly crying.

“Please tell me I didn’t hurt you in my enthusiasm. ”

“You didn’t. It was lovely.” She slipped a hand to his nape and found his lips with hers. “Merely an excess of emotion about… everything.”

Perhaps they both needed the release, and damn if he didn’t want another coupling merely to experience the joy of belonging again, to hear the sounds of pleasure she made as she fell over the edge, wanted to have her beneath him, or hell, take her against a tree, on a sofa, pin her to a wall…

“I’m glad you enjoyed this,” he whispered into the side of her neck. Never would he have enough of that satiny skin. Then worries sneaked back in to mar the moment. Now that she’d had the immediate need of desire quenched would she return to hiding in her room?

“Very much so.” Amusement and exhaustion threaded through her voice. “If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t mind another go.”

“Ah, Annette.” He kissed her forehead before rolling onto his side, where he tucked her against him with an arm beneath her head and the other slung across her hips. “Allow me an hour to rest, for I am not a young man any longer.”

“How fortuitous you introduced this topic. What is your age?”

He chuckled. “I turned forty today. Nearly ancient, yes?”

“Do stop.” She turned in his arms, so her backside was flush to his front, and damn if the first inklings of renewed interest didn’t shiver through his member. “Many happy returns of the day, Peregrine. I’ll be sure to make our next coupling better as a celebration.”

How was that possible when what they had just shared he considered perfect?

With a kiss to her forehead, he held her as his pulse returned to normal and his breath regulated.

What would happen now? There was no way of knowing, but he’d be damned if he allowed either of them to return to past behaviors.

The new path was in front of them. It was time to move forward.

Finally.