Page 4 of The Viscount’s Second Chance (The Lovers’ Arch: Later in Life)

N ora eyed the uneven dirt road, careful not to turn her ankle, as she continued on her afternoon walk. The late-Summer week had been remarkably hot and dry, and every step kicked up puffs of brown dust, coloring the hem of her pastel-blue dress. Her maid would have a fit about it, but it was far from the worst thing she’d gotten on her skirts. The prior week, she and Beth had stumbled upon some wild raspberry bushes and, while both girls had done their best to look contrite, they couldn’t regret the pink splotches covering their clothing and their fingers. Though both girls had just celebrated their eighteenth birthdays two weeks apart, neither could resist the occasional bout of childish mischief while they might still get away with it.

That afternoon, Viscountess Bexton had insisted Beth take a few hours of rest, which meant either Nora found something to occupy herself in the house, or she slipped out of doors to stretch her legs. With as glorious a day as this one, who would blame her for choosing the latter? Nora never felt as if her friend held her back, but, every now and then, it was nice for her to go as long and as far as she could until her lungs burned and her side ached from the exertion.

“A lady as lovely as yourself should hardly be wandering about unescorted.” A masculine voice made Nora’s head whip up and her heart leap in shock. It quickly dissolved into relieved amusement when she spotted Thomas seated on a stone wall bordering the road less than ten feet ahead of her. She’d been so absorbed in her progress that she likely would have walked past him without noticing had he not called out to her.

“Thomas! You startled me,” she admonished and approached him, suddenly wishing she wasn’t quite so rumpled and windblown from being out of doors. He wore nothing but a white linen shirt with fitted buff breeches tucked into his tall dark brown boots scuffed from use; even so casually dressed he appeared handsome beyond her wildest imaginings.

“You should be more careful walking these roads.” His tone was filled with dramatic severity. “All kinds of rapscallions wander these parts.”

“Do they?” Nora cocked a brow and propped a fist on her hip. She was so close she could smell the warm, heady scent of his skin. “Pray tell, what sorts of rapscallions are we discussing?”

Thomas pushed himself off the wall and leaned toward her as if imparting knowledge of great import. A lock of his dark hair danced before his piercing blue eyes as if it were being ruffled by a lover’s fingers instead of the warm breeze. “Any number of men who would be willing to take advantage of a beautiful lady. Highwaymen. Thieves. Kidnappers. Rakes.”

Nora couldn’t stop the laughter that burst free at Thomas’s seriousness. “Rakes? Are those the most dangerous of that group?”

“By far.”

“Is that so?” Nora leaned in as well until they were close enough to feel the heat of one another’s body, enjoying the way his pupils dilated and nearly swallowed the ice-blue irises. “And what have I to fear from a rake?”

“A great deal,” Thomas said, his voice even lower and graver than it had been. “For one…” He suddenly wrapped his hands around Nora’s waist and, even before she could release a yelp of surprise, he had her seated atop the stone wall where he’d once been propped. Where his feet had been on the ground, hers dangled just low enough to graze the tops of the grass at the base of the wall. “He’d be far stronger than you and able to get you exactly where he wants you.” Her hands gripped the rough edge of the stones on either side of her hips, but it was more to keep her grounded in reality than out of safety. She trusted Thomas to never allow her to fall.

“I could resist,” she teased, but the effect was lost in her breathless voice. Thomas’s lips tilted in a wicked smile and the tip of his nose grazed hers.

“Would you want to, though?” He covered her hands in his, bracing himself and pressing his narrow hips in between her legs. The position was scandalous…and exciting. It left her nothing short of breathless.

“N—No…” she sighed, wishing with everything inside her that he would kiss her. Instead, his lips skated over her cheek, barely grazed her lips, and then drifted lower as he inhaled the scent of her throat. Nora’s head fell back with a shiver and she would have clutched him to her had he not been pinning her hands.

“So you would allow the rake a kiss?” Thomas’s tongue darted out to taste the dip of her collarbone and she could only whimper in reply to his query. “I wonder…what other liberties you might offer the rake.” He pressed his lower body flush between her thighs as if he somehow knew a wicked, wet ache had begun to throb there. There were too many layers of clothing between them for her to feel much more than the foreign, yet delicious, pressure. She opened her thighs wider to urge him closer, barely registering what an utter wanton it made her. Thomas would not judge her.

In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

He nipped her throat in response before finally covering her lips with his and kissing her deeply. Their tongues stroked and dueled in a tantalizing rhythm that Nora didn’t understand, but she knew she liked a great deal.

All too soon, Thomas broke their kiss, sealing it with a small peck on the tip of her nose. “Come with me,” he murmured and then surprised her by vaulting over the wall in one graceful movement.

“Where are we going?” Nora asked as he helped her swing her legs over the wall and descend to the tall grass. She was still a bit unsteady from their kiss, but she felt much better when he wove their fingers together and tugged her along.

“Just up ahead,” he gestured with his chin toward the even line of trees ahead of them. Together, they laughed and dashed through the field, their bodies parting waving stalks of verdant grass like ships in the ocean’s swells.

At first, Nora was confused by the evenly spaced trees—nature did not work this way—but then she realized where they were. He’d brought her to the far side of the orchard. She and Beth had never ventured this far, nor had they viewed the lands from this vantage point.

“I was walking the orchard with the caretakers,” Thomas explained when they slowed their pace to weave in and out of the apple trees, still hand-in-hand. The air was heavy with the sweet, crisp pollen of the trees’ blossoms. It was the height of their season and, soon, the flowers would fall away in great showers of petals to reveal dainty apple buds. She and Beth would filch a few choice apples before the great harvest took place as the seasons melted from Summer to Fall. “We finished and I caught sight of your blue dress down the road.” “And you were so certain it was I?”

Thomas spun her and pressed her against the trunk of the nearest tree—not hard enough that the bark hurt her back, but firmly enough that she couldn’t easily slip away. “I would know you anywhere.” The deepness of his timbre made her nipples furl into tight buds against the confining fabric of her pleated bodice.

Emboldened, Nora fisted the loose fabric of his shirt and tugged him flush against her so she could stand on her toes and place a kiss upon his lips. Any surprise Thomas experienced at her boldness quickly morphed into appreciation. Their kisses and caresses evolved into something more and more passionate as the minutes passed. There, in the far corner of the estate, far from prying eyes and interruptions, they were free to explore.

Nora’s searching hands crept up the untucked hem of Thomas’s shirt, thrilled by the lean muscle and smooth, feverish skin she discovered. He was so hard where she was soft, yet his flat male nipples still pebbled against her touch, as responsive as her own body.

Meanwhile, Thomas learned the delicate curve of her waist, the sweetness of the cleft between her high, pert breasts, and how well she fit into his palms.

Both reveled in the way their bodies fit so well together—how her pelvis created a natural cradle for his. How they’d been made for one another.

It wasn’t long before their petting and panting reached an inevitable point and Thomas, ever the voice of reason, lifted his head.

“We should stop,” he breathed tremulously. Nora’s fingers remained tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck, preventing him from retreating completely.

“Why?”

Thomas released a shaky sigh. “Because if we continue thusly for much longer, then I do not believe I will have the power to stop myself from taking this further. And you deserve so much better than…this, Princess.” He looked around them to indicate the warm, sun-dappled grass seeping through the canopy above them, the tidy rows of trees with their dainty fragrant blossoms. A lazy bee hummed past them with its golden treasure on its way back to its hive. In truth, Nora could think of few places prettier than this one crafted by both man and nature working in harmony.

His eyes met Nora’s once more and she abruptly forgot the rest of the world. He was so close she could see the navy streaks fanning from the dark pools of his pupils.

“Thomas,” Nora breathed. “Thomas, I love you.” There was something so freeing about speaking the words aloud. This was no longer a girlish infatuation. Sharing the last several months with him, sneaking away whenever they could, jumping at the chance to practice dancing so they could unabashedly remain in one another’s embrace, sharing late-night whispered conversation and smothered laughter in the library long after the rest of the household had retired, had served only to fan the flames of desire lit by that very first kiss in the garden.

Thomas had hinted several times at an invisible line they might cross—one she could not quite fathom except in the most abstract of senses, yet one she wasn’t in the least bit nervous about approaching, so long as she was with Thomas.

Watching his eyes widen in disbelieving pleasure and his lips part wordlessly was unexpectedly rewarding. Nora forged on, “Do you wish to marry me someday, or am I merely a diversion until you return to Town?”

“Certainly not,” Thoms vowed, pulling their bodies more tightly together and meeting her gaze with open frankness. “There is no one else; there never has been and there never will be. I—I have fallen in love with you as well, Nora.”

Uncommonly pleased, she stood on her toes and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Then why must we stop?”

Thomas groaned and pressed his forehead to hers. “You are torturing me…fraying my resolve.”

“I wish to marry you someday,” Nora said and then punctuated the statement with another kiss to the front of his bare neck, causing his throat to bob violently. “And I trust your intentions because I know you…and I know you know Beth and I would both murder you if you were anything less than honest with me.” His deep chuckle was cut short when she pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the notch at the base of his neck. “So do not withhold anything from me, because I am prepared to give you everything.” Her eyes found him watching her raptly. “ Everything. ”

In one swift movement, Thomas bent and slung her in his arms, hiking her high against his chest. Her squeal of surprise and delight was like an arrow straight to his already painful arousal. Carrying her more deeply into the orchard, he searched for a comfortable place for them to sit undisturbed. The caretaker and other keepers had already left, thank God, so their only company were the birds, insects, and bushy-tailed squirrels darting to and fro.

“Where are you taking me?” Nora laughed her intoxicating, airy laugh as she slung her arms around his neck.

“Somewhere more private,” he replied over the hammering of his heart.

Finally satisfied that he’d located a decent spot, Thomas regretted that he had no coat to lay upon the ground and, instead, settled for dropping to the earth and propping his back against the trunk of a tree, still cradling Nora in his lap. If she felt the hard evidence of his arousal beneath her bottom, she made no indication.

She seemed satisfied to gaze down into his face. Her sherry-colored eyes and chestnut hair gleamed in the golden light. The fullness of her bottom lip begged to be nipped. He’d known Nora for five years and couldn’t precisely pinpoint when his fondness for her had transformed into something deeper, more primal. But the fact remained that he would do anything for her. She had the truest heart he’d ever known, a rapier-sharp wit, wildness beyond compare, and incomparable kindness. She’d astonished him from the very first day they’d met, when she’d been no more than a terrified young girl doing her best to protect her friend and hold herself together at the same time. He suspected that fierceness had sowed the very first seed of possibility in the back of his mind.

Each time she’d made him laugh, demonstrated her love for Beth while refusing to pity her, or caused charming mischief, that seed had been watered and nurtured. Now, the garden had overtaken him, mind, body, and soul. He was overgrown with need and desire for the young woman she’d become, and he hadn’t lied when he’d told her there would be no one else for him. It would still be a few years until he reached his majority and was free to marry, but he vowed to himself from their very first kiss that he would take only Nora Allen as his wife, his viscountess, the mother to his children.

He curled his hand behind her head, burrowing it in her soft tresses, and brought her lips down to his once more. Despite his body screaming for more, Thomas tasted her with infinite tenderness. He wanted to convey how much her trust meant to him—how honored he was to have her love. How he cherished it. How he cherished her.

His tongue stroked through Nora deep and slow, savoring her sweetness, sucking her tongue into his mouth. Her cool hands cupped his face and she kissed him back with unabashed eagerness.

She couldn’t know what she gave him permission to do, but he couldn’t deny her anything. He resolved to stop if at any point she seemed unsure or simply doing what she thought he wanted. Until they reached that point, he would enjoy this.

He lifted her skirts and helped shift her hips so her thighs straddled him, revealing pale expanses of bare legs. The intimate knowledge that she’d foregone stockings for her walk was enough to make him groan from deep in his chest. With a mind of their own, his hands wrapped around her thighs to caress the delicate skin and dip beneath the edge of her dress and petticoats.

“Your skin is so soft,” he moaned against her lips while his thumbs ran back and forth across her flesh. His heart and his cock throbbed in frantic desperation.

He wished he was more experienced for Nora. He wished he was confident in all the ways he could bring her pleasure. His knowledge of the female body was limited to boyish boasting filled with inaccuracies and exaggerations, and a single party at University where a hired doxy strode about mostly nude and performed favors for the young men gathered there. More uncomfortable by the display than aroused, Thomas hadn’t stayed long—though he had filed away a few tidbits of knowledge.

When Nora didn’t protest, he slid his hands up to cup the gentle slope of her naked hips and sank his fingers into the flesh to press her down into him as he ground up against her heat. Immediately, she gasped and sat up straight.

Thomas froze.

“Did I hurt you?”

Nora could only shake her head, several locks of her hair falling loose. “That was…I want more…” she breathed.

Needing no further urging, Thomas resumed guiding Nora’s hips to rock her lower body against his lap. It took several tries, but they eventually found a rhythm that suited them both with long, slow drags of her cleft against the underside of his turgid cock through the confinement of his breeches. There was no time for embarrassment or nerves when he held this woman in his arms. She was everything he’d ever wanted.

His eyes were drawn to her bosom heaving over the edge of her fitted bodice. Something primal within him had always been able to tell her breasts were high and firm, but he hadn’t been able to imagine the color of her nipples, and now, their current nearness made him salivate. Unable to resist, Thomas hooked a finger in the edge of her bodice and dipped it in the hot crevasse between the pale orbs. He tugged it down as much as he could until the shell pink edge of an areola was exposed. It took some doing, but he was able to lift her breast from her gown and expose the puckered bud of her nipple. He palmed her with his trembling hand and was spurred on when she arched into the caress as much as her corset allowed. The duced contraption was so bloody inconvenient. He wanted to see and touch all of her, but he had less confidence that he’d be able to properly lace her back into the thing than he was with everything else taking place. It was more important to him that Nora’s dignity remain intact than he receive an unfettered look at her flesh.

Thomas pressed a kiss on the virgin flesh of her ivory breast, then trailed his lips to the erect peak. She shuddered as he laved it, then cried out and clutched his head to her breast when he sucked the bud between his teeth. The delicious sting of her pull on his hair and the bite of her nails on his scalp made him practically wild with need.

His hand on her hip slipped between their bodies and he couldn’t stop his delighted moan when he discovered her thatch of curls protecting her sex fairly dripped with her innocent desire. A mere brush of his knuckles and she jerked against him, subconsciously seeking more. Thomas continued to run his knuckles through her slit, caressing the slick folds as he pressed the heel of his palm to his member. It was everything he could do to not spend right there. His orgasm stalked in his periphery, running razor-sharp claws along his spine, breathing down the back of his neck with hot, moist breath.

Nora whimpered his name while she rocked against his hand.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, his fingers blindly locating the fastening of his breeches. This was the point of no return.

“No!” she snapped, her desire mounting higher as she continued to move.

“Do you know what we are about to do? That this act will change you forever? There is no turning back from this.”

Nora opened her eyes and met his. Her pupils were dilated and her cheeks were as red as if she’d just run across the fields at full tilt. “I have many elder sisters; I know you…insert your manhood into my body. I know there may be some pain the first time, but I also know there can be pleasure.” She brushed a lock of hair from his forehead and kissed him there in an unbearably tender gesture. “I trust you,” she breathed.

Thomas swallowed hard, hoping he could live up to the love in her eyes. “I—I have not done this before either. I understand what is to be done, but I am…concerned that I will not give you the pleasure you deserve.”

“You already please me, my love.”

With that, Thomas freed his member from its confinement and gave it several rough strokes. He was already primed to explode and hoped several slow, deliberate breaths through his nose would help. All was lost, however, the first time his sensitive head met the slick petals of her sex. He hissed through his teeth, his every muscle clenched, and knew he would not be able to do this; his every muscle screamed for him to thrust home.

“I do not trust myself,” Thomas ground out as he positioned himself at her tight entrance. Exposure to even that light pressure and moist heat threatened his sanity. “You must do it. Lower yourself on me until you are comfortable. Take as long as you need to adjust.” And he prayed to every deity he knew of that she would not take too long.

Nora hesitated only a moment before bracing her hands on his shoulders and lowering herself in minute increments. Both of them gasped as the thick, blunt head entered her, stretching her, gripping him more tightly than any fist. He had to clutch the grass at his sides in an effort not to grasp her hips and plunge her down onto him fully.

“That’s it,” Thomas panted as she sank lower, her body’s moisture helping guide the way. He’d never felt anything like her tight, wet heat. Her body enveloped him in the most perfect way and continued to amaze him as she took more and more of his length. She was so hot and her inner muscles pulled and squeezed him, drawing him deeper and deeper until he was nearly seated fully to the hilt.

“I don’t think I can take anymore,” Nora whimpered with her eyes screwed tightly shut. “It’s too much.”

Despite the tremble in his limbs and the sweat coating his brow, Thomas reached up to cup her face and murmured reassuring noises into her neck. Half the words were nonsense while the other half were praise for her beauty and her bravery and her heart. Gradually, Nora relaxed enough that she sank until the taut curve of her bottom rested on the tops of his thighs.

They sat like that, staring awestruck into each other’s faces, allowing themselves to adjust to the new sensations flooding their bodies.

Then, Nora gave a small jerk of her hips and Thomas saw stars.

“Fuck!” he cursed and his hands flew to her bottom. Together, they found the same rhythm as before, but this…it was so much more intimate, so much more connected than either had anticipated. Finally, Thomas’s restraint snapped and he dug the heels of his boots into the earth to buck up into Nora’s grinding movements. She collapsed against his chest and clung to his shirt, eliciting little mewling cries as the crux of her sex came in contact again and again with his thrusting pelvis. Though they were not always in sync, they found pleasure in one another’s arms, tested the limits of their bodies, and it wasn’t long until Nora stiffened and cried out as she trembled from head to toe. Thomas felt her clench around him and it set off an intense zing in the base of his spine. What began as flutters quickly developed into great dragging pulls that milked his explosive orgasm from his loins and wrung him dry.

They collapsed beside the tree, spent, sweat-slicked, trembling, and content. Thomas wrapped Nora in his arms and held her to his pounding heart; his erection flagged and slid from her body, coating them both in the sticky warmth of his spend.

Never had he been more at ease in the world, exhausted in body, and content in the knowledge of the love the woman in his arms held for him.

His Nora.