Page 22 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge (Safely in Scotland #3)

R eese pulled back slightly from their kiss and looked her in the eye. He needed to be sure.

“Once we do this, you will no longer be a virgin.”

“I know.”

“It might hurt.” He’d never deflowered a virgin, but that was common knowledge.

“I’m aware. I’m ready.”

“How can you be ready when you don’t know what it will be like?”

She smiled and shook her head.

“I’m ready to find out what it will be like.”

“You’re sure, Lo? For if you regret it, I will likely fling myself over the cliff to the sea.”

“So dramatic,” she chided before kissing his throat. She pulled away. “Can Belle come live with me if you throw yourself into the sea?”

“You are horrid,” he teased with his words as he fingers teased her nipple through her thin night gown. “You could pretend to be distraught over my concerns.”

“I know my own mind, Reese and I want this. I want you.”

Those were the words he’d been dreaming of hearing her speak. He’d not try to dissuade her again. And not only because he didn’t want to. But because Harlow was not a spoiled princess giving into a selfish whim.

She’d gained perspective from her brush with death and he knew from his own experience how it made people want more from life than they’d had. This was what she wanted and he would make sure she was not disappointed.

He kissed her again and again, surprised by how much he enjoyed it.

Kissing had always been nothing more than a precursor to the next step.

The better step. But kissing Harlow was more than that.

He, of course, wanted to do more with her, but if she’d not wanted anything more than kissing, he would have been eager to spend the night with nothing but his lips and tongue touching hers.

Her breathing had picked up and the green in her eyes had gone vibrant with lust as he slipped her night rail off and looked down at her body.

He’d known she was beautiful, but seeing her like this with the candlelight touching her curves, he thought her a goddess sent from the heavens just for him.

His hands fit her body perfectly. Her breast filled his palm, as he explored it thoroughly with his mouth.

She groaned softly and the sound set him ablaze. He wanted to remove the restriction of his breeches, but he knew to do so would send him into a frenzy and he wanted to take his time. Instead, he adjusted his frustrated cock.

Harlow must have noticed his discomfort for she pulled away to look at the very place the fabric did little to hide. She reached out and placed her small hand on the bulge, causing him to gasp with surprise. His body lurched out at her of its own accord.

Rather than pull her hand away, she wrapped her fingers around him, turning his gasp into a moan. If he was not careful, he would spend from just her touch through his breeches.

Reaching down, he gently pulled her hand away.

“You do not like to be touched there?” she guessed incorrectly.

“Oh aye, I like it too well. But if you continue touching me like that, I’ll not be able to do all the things to you I’ve been dreaming of. And that would be a travesty.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that, but if it keeps you from speaking of throwing yourself in the sea again, I shall stop.”

He chuckled, enjoying her humor even in such a serious moment. He could easily see himself spending his days happy with her. For now, he had tonight. And he would make it perfect for her.

*

Harlow’s heart was racing. She didn’t think she’d ever been so nervous or excited in her life. All the antics she’d gotten up to with her brothers were nothing compared to this feeling.

Reese had kissed her until she worried she might go mad, and then he’d abandoned her lips only to torment all the other parts of her body.

Her neck, her breasts, her ribs, and hips.

Even the spot behind her knees seemed wrought with pleasure and she knew she’d never had such an issue in that place before for she’d touched it many times.

It was him. Reese. He seemed an illusionist for when he touched her, it felt like every body part was directly connected to the throbbing place between her legs. It was mystifying.

Eventually when she began to sway and worry she’d fall over, he swept her up into his arms and carried her to his large bed. When he placed her down on the mattress, he followed her down. His hot body pressed against hers.

Instinctively, she raised her legs on either side of his slim hips and the movement allowed him to press closer to the place she wanted him most. She felt that hard ridge in his trousers against the soft warmth of her body.

“Please,” she said. My but this man brought her to begging much too easily, but she couldn’t care at the moment for he’d retreated. “No.”

She reached for him, wanting to bring him back to her, but he reached down for the falls of his breeches and she realized he was going to remove the rest of his clothes.

Since she very much wanted to see more of his body, she let him go. He stood and stripped away the fabric, revealing a body part she’d never seen before.

She understood this part of him would go inside of her, but she wasn’t sure of the how of it or even the where. She would have to trust him to show her.

He returned to bed, his warm weight pressing her down in a wonderful way. That part of him lurched against the inside of her thigh, rousing her to lift her hips in welcome.

And then he touched her… there. Not with his fingers or his mouth, as he’d done before, but with… it. She felt a fool for not knowing the proper words for their body parts, but such things weren’t often shared with maids. She would ask Reese and he would tell her. But not now.

Now she didn’t wish for him to be distracted by anything.

“More,” she said. It seemed she was reduced to only two words. More and please. Oh, and his name, which he seemed to enjoy hearing her say. There was no earl, or Lord Breckenridge, this evening. He was Reese.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

She nodded, though there was no real way for him to know for sure if she were ready. As he’d pointed, out she didn’t know anything. But she desperately wanted to.

“Yes,” she said, hoping it would move him along.

She was not disappointed when he reached between them, grasping himself and rubbing that hot part of him against her.

Her eyes fell closed from the pleasure as he continued for a few moments. Then he adjusted himself over her and pressed slightly. So this was where he would enter her body.

While it felt right in many ways, it also felt somewhat impossible. For his fingers had been inside her there and it had stretched her in a pleasant way. This part of him was much larger than his fingers.

“This will work?” she asked, wanting him to assure her.

“Yes. It will. And it will be wonderful. I promise.”

She nodded, trusting him completely. With a sudden thrust, he was inside her. She gasped this time with the pain of it. She blinked in confusion for she’d been in the throes of pleasure one moment and now that was all gone, replaced by pain.

She shifted to get away and he pulled back slightly, but the burn relented only a fraction.

“I’m sorry, I hurt ye,” he said. “I thought getting that part over with quickly would be best.”

She wanted to tell him how wrong he’d been, but then she recalled hearing that losing one’s virginity caused pain. He’d mentioned as much before they began and she’d assured him she was aware.

And even as she was thinking she’d not been prepared for this amount of pain, the sting faded. When he pressed in again, it didn’t hurt as bad and by the fourth or fifth time the pain had relented and that warm throbbing had returned.

He continued to move slowly, until her body became unhappy with his pace and began to rock up to meet his.

He smiled down at her. “Is it better now?”

“Yes. The pain is gone now.”

“Good, then we can do better than this.”

When she opened her mouth to ask what he meant, he kissed her, his tongue taking advantage. He held tight to her as he began to move faster, each thrust coming quicker than the one before.

She didn’t stop her movements to meet his every push into her body. When before she’d worried he’d never fit inside her, now she only wanted him deeper. And faster.

With each press of his body she felt herself being pulled closer and closer to that place she’d only learned about hours before. And then she was soaring.

It was even better than it had been before because at the same time her body pulsed, his body spasmed, sending a heat deep into her body.

This man had changed her forever. He’d worried she would have regrets, but there were none. There never could be.