Page 32 of The Blind Lyon (The Lyon’s Den Connected World)

“Mmm.” She caressed his arse, and he nearly shot off his wad prematurely.

“I don’t know what it was that finally convinced me to give my heart to you—the flowers every day, your cat, or the fact that you were so determined to encourage me into your life.

” The cheeky woman giggled as she squeezed one of his buttocks.

“Damn.” Sensation streaked through his member. It tingled into his stones. Allan groaned and nipped at her collarbones. “I only knew that you had the potential to be my everything, and I was right.”

Several moments went by as they each exchanged fondling, licking, nipping, and suckling various portions of each other’s bodies.

Eventually, he gained the upper hand, laying her onto the mattress and latching his lips onto an erect nipple.

A light bite had her both crying out and gasping.

No, sight wasn’t required to make love to his wife, for she was already everything he could have wanted.

“Dear God, I need so much more.” Annette arched her back. “I want to feel you so hard and so deeply that you’ll imprint onto my soul. After tonight, I need that reassurance.” She wrapped a hand around his nape and encouraged him closer.

“I can manage that, for you are already etched upon mine.” His shaft throbbed painfully against the front of his trousers.

“I’ll return in a twinkling.” With a lingering kiss to her mouth, he lifted off her body.

Never had he yanked off his breeches faster.

There was something about her that would forever captivate him, even into his dotage.

“Aw, sweeting, just once I wish I could see you with my eyes,” he said as he joined her on the bed once more.

“I think you would be disappointed. I rather like knowing you’ve seen me with your fingers and your imagination.

There is a certain comfort in that.” When he fondled one of her breasts, she uttered a soft moan.

Seconds later, she bent her knees and opened her legs for him, she sighed as he settled in the cradle of her thighs. “Let me touch you.”

“Later, love. This will not be the only time I bed you before we rise on the morrow.”

She huffed. “Sometime soon, I will explore you to my leisure.”

“I look forward to it.” Allan caught her hands in his and brought them up over her head.

He could just imagine the look on her face.

Did she have love reflected in her eyes?

“I’ll no doubt go insane under your torture, but it can wait.

” He pressed her hands to the pillows on either side of her head.

“In this moment, my only goal is to claim you, make you realize how damn fortunate I am to know you are my wife.” Slowly, to tease and torment, he thrust into her warm passage.

“Oh… you.” The words held a tinge of tears, and she attempted to free her hands, but he threaded their fingers together and held her steady. With a tiny sigh, she canted her hips, sending him deeper. “What am I going to do with you, Masterson?”

“This.” The second he withdrew from her welcoming body, he penetrated her all over again, just as slowly as before even though the friction hurtled him closer to the edge because it was so deuced lovely.

“Ah!” She matched his movements and soon they worked together in a leisurely, unhurried rhythm that brought pleasure but in a deliciously exaggerated fashion. It was much different from the other times they’d coupled, yet equally satisfying.

Moans broke the silence and blended with the sound of the rain beating against the window.

Sweat rolled down his back and along his skin from his exertions.

And still, he didn’t rush his strokes. There was the distinct feeling of being connected to her in the deepest and most intimate of ways.

It was quite soul binding and gave a renewed edge to every jolt of bliss that shot through his veins.

I love this woman with everything that I am. How odd but comforting it was that claiming the emotions made this act so much more satisfying.

“Allan.” Her breathless utterance brought him out of his thoughts. She tightened her fingers in his, wriggled her hips, which sent him even deeper. “Finish me. I want all of you.” She squirmed beneath him in an effort to make him hasten his pace, no doubt. “Now and always.”

“I’ll wager you already have me.” His chuckle died quickly as need swept into his shaft.

Release was near, which was far too soon than he would have liked, but it only meant they would do this again.

“You are mine, Annette, and I have never been happier,” he said in a barely audible whisper, didn’t even know if she heard him.

He increased his pace as urgency tingled through his stones.

Each thrust went deep, penetrated hard, and irrevocably joined them.

“Please say you’re ready.” Desperation ravaged his voice. It wouldn’t be long.

“Yes, soon.” She drew her legs up toward her chest. “If I could just touch my pearl…”

“God, you’re touching yourself?” It was the most erotic thing he’d ever been a part of.

“Yes.” Barely had she experimented with varying degrees of friction than a gasp escaped.

“Yes!” A keening wail came forth from her throat.

The tremors flooding her body transferred to him and further dragged him into the storm they’d created.

Her breathing changed to pants. “Please. Give me more of you.”

“Gladly.” He adored it when she begged for release. It made him feel as if she’d accepted him as he was. Need tightened his stones, making them heavy and pulling close to his shaft. Awareness raced up his member. It throbbed, primed and ready. “Come with me.”

For the rest of my life.

Once.

Twice.

Three times he stroked while she undulated her hips, meeting him.

A scream ripped from her before she muffled it by burying her face in the crook of his shoulder.

Her muscles fluttered around him, squeezing his length, drawing out his descent into madness.

Allan stifled his own shout and thrust one last time.

His grasp on reality shattered. The release surprised him, and he ground his hips into her to prolong the pleasure as well as the emotional connection they’d formed.

Then, he let go of her hands and collapsed on top of her body, wrapping his arms about her and then he brought them both onto their sides.

Her breathing warmed the side of his face and neck. The heat of her palms from where they rested on his chest had awareness shivering through him again, as if he were a young man again. “You never disappoint.”

The sensation of falling assailed him. Allan chuckled. “That is good to know.”

Annette uttered a shuddering sigh and relaxed next to him.

“Thank you for rescuing me, bringing back from the dead as it were.” Then she surged up against him and claimed his mouth in a kiss that seared her memory into his mind forever.

When she paused to breathe, she smiled against his lips.

“I didn’t realize how far gone I was until you came along.

” Then she kissed him again, and what sort of gentleman would he be if he didn’t return that gesture?

Eventually, he flopped onto his back, completely sated and quite exhausted in the best of ways. Annette had burrowed into his side, resting a hand on his abdomen, and every movement she made sent shivery sensation through his blood.

“I’ll take you to Brighton for our wedding trip. It is more easily accessible than the Continent, but eventually we shall do that as well.” Then he pressed his lips to her temple.

“I will be content no matter where we go, for you will be there too.” The gentle stroke of her fingers caused his muscles to clench, but he required rest before he could put her through her paces again.

“In the event you wondered, you rescued me on our wedding day as well. You gave me a purpose, convinced me to stop hiding and using my blindness as a crutch.”

“We both needed a little push, I think.”

“Perhaps.” He slung an arm across her hips. “Life is messy and difficult and sometimes frightening, but it’s also enlightening and joyful and filled with exquisite moments that will tug at your heart. All of which are made better because you are here with me. Stay married to me?”

“I absolutely will, for you occupy my heart.”

“Do you promise you love me and that I’m not replacing Timothy in your heart?”

“Oh, Peregrine.” She pressed her lips to his shoulder. “I promise that when I tell you that I love you, I mean it. You are my present and my future. I’ll always remember Timothy, of course, but I am living for you.”

“Ah, sweeting.” His own heart skipped a beat. “There is so much I wish to bestow upon you: jewels and gowns and anything you can ever want.”

Before she could answer, Romeo jumped onto the bed, announcing his arrival with a resolute, “Meow!” Then he demanded pets from them both.

Annette’s laughter blended with his. “I would like another cat. As for the rest, I’ll trade them for a wedding trip. Brighton will be lovely, even more so because I have you.”

As Romeo sat on his chest, Allan closed his eyes with a grin.

Fate might be a fickle mistress as she switched paths in front of him without warning, and sometimes a man needed a push in the form of someone like Mrs. Dove-Lyon, but unless he truly wished for that change in his own life, nothing would ever happen in that regard.

However, he could wait to discover what his future would hold now that he’d put his heart into the keeping of the most perfect woman he’d found for him.

Odd, indeed.