Marry the Man Today (31 page)

But when she reached for the top of his trousers, he grabbed her hands and put them around his neck, then pulled her against him, which only made his rock hard penis more prominent.

More thrilling.

"You'd best let me do that, wife."

"Why? Yours aren't the first set of men's trouser buttons I've encountered."

"
Is that so?"

"Well, there wasn't a man in the trousers at the time, but I figured it out on my own." And so she went to work on the topmost button, hampered somewhat by the fact that she couldn't see what she was doing because the man was kissing her fiercely.

"Have you figured out that I'm bursting for you?"

"Definitely." He groaned against her mouth as she brushed up against his arousal, nibbled at her lips as she slipped the top button through its hole.

Then, curious beyond measure, Elizabeth dropped to her knees in front of him and reached for the next button. But Ross caught her hand and drew her to her feet.

"No, Elizabeth."

"Then how am I going to get your trousers off?"

"You're not."

"You simply can't take a bath in your clothes, sir. And your paid-for night in my harem includes a personal bath."

"Personal bath?" He raised his brows, smiled broadly, then, without losing a beat, hauled off his trousers and his drawers, his shoes and socks, all at the same time.

And when he was finished, he stood naked in front of her. Gloriously naked.

"Much better, husband." Though her cheeks were afire and her pulse was thumping against her ears. "Much bigger." Thicker.

Grand!

And waiting for her.

Chapter 18

And on her lover's arm she leant,

And round her waist she felt it
fo
ld,

And far across the hills they went

In that new world which is the old.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Day-Dream,
1842

_A
nd she really ought to encourage him to get into the tub, but she hadn't any words at the moment. They were stuck in her belly, like a whirlwind of embers.

But he was already making his way there, the muscles of his backside flexing as he moved, as he stepped into the water like a beast out of legend.

And groaning all the way down, until he ducked under the water, stayed overlong, then came up scrubbing at his hair, shaking his head like a water dog.

His skin gleamed gold in the light of the candles, inviting her touch, but sending her heart into a plummeting spin when she noticed a thick, uneven scar running at a downward angle across his left shoulder,
fr
om the ridge line well into the muscle of his upper arm.

Graphic proof of her husband's vulnerability in his work, as well as his courage.

She went to his side and pulled a candle closer for a better look. "No wonder your shoulder gets sore now and then."

"If it's sore at the moment, wife, I can't feel it." His smile was wolfish as he leaned back against the tub. But as she began massaging the thick muscles, his head fell back and his mouth dropped open with a moan. "That's jus
t
. . . oh, you're so fine."

She worked on his shoulder, kissing his ear and his neck, cupping his jaw for a better purchase for her kiss against his mouth.

"I like this, wife. Being here in your harem." He held her face with his wet hands, held her mouth against his, romped there. "Pampered and massaged."

Fondled, my lord.
But that was to be a surprise for later
.

"A wife's responsibility," she said, her hands soaped now and scented with lemon.

"To create a harem for her husband in their bedchamber?" He sighed even more deeply as she worked the slickness of the soap into his shoulders and along his arm.

"A one-woman harem, sir, though she would, of course, soon come to expect the same intimate treatment from her husband."

"Wise woman."

That's when the soap slipped out of her hands, landed on his chest, then slid downward into the soapy darkness between his widely spread legs, where it hit the bottom of the metal tub with a clunk.

"Oops," was all she could manage.

He looked up into her eyes as though challenging her courage to go after it.

She not only had the courage, but a burning, deeply abiding curiosity.

"I'll get that, Ross." Hoping for the best, yet not quite knowing what that would be, she judged his position under the water then stuck her bare arm between his legs.

"Careful." He was gripping the edge of the tub as though he feared she would pull him under.

She found the soap immediately, but, like the shameless hussy she was, pretended she hadn't while she gathered her courage and kept her hand down there, having to lean her breasts against his knee.

He focused a narrowed, suspicious eye on her. "What are you doing, wife?"

"I'm trying to remember the suggestions from my booklet."

"Which suggestions would tha
t
—
o
h, God! What are yo
u
—
o
h, Elizabeth!" He bucked.

"Oh, Ross!" Oh, my, his erection was splendid! Hot and thick and stiff beyond her imagination. And his scrotum was a marvelous wonder, along with all the other shapes of him.

"Careful where yo
u
—
a
hhhhh!
"
He was sitting bolt upright, breathing hard and fast, like a tethered beast, holding onto the rim of the tub with a white-knuckled grip.

"Now I remember! 'Tend to his every part in the bath, fondle his manly shapes, linger where he seems to most enjoy your touch.'"

"And that's enough fondling, for now, sweet!"

"So soon?" Disappointment deflated her. But only until Ross grabbed her upper arms and rose out of the tub, drawing her upward with him.

"Barely soon enough!" He stepped out of the water and snagged the nearest towel.

"I should be the one to dry you off, my lord. After all—"

"Not this time. Can't risk it."

"Then you owe me."

"And I always pay my debts." Elizabeth loved to see him in such a tempest of passion, striding toward her in full rut, the towel tossed aside, his nostrils flaring.

"But, good sir, I haven't given you anywhere near your donations's worth tonight."

"You will, my love, you will."

A thrilling threat, a breathtaking promise from a man who was huge and stark naked and looking too pleased with himself as he engulfed her with his embrace.

The steaming heat of him seeped through the silk of her trousers, his penis a rod of fire, rolling against her belly, making her want to reach down for him, to touch him again.

But when she tried, he growled and dipped her backward over his arm, exposing her neck to his mouth, to his trailing kisses, her name whispered again and again.

"Oh, Ross . . . that's, oh!" Her skin was alive and on fire for him, his hands skimming everywhere along her silky trousers, shaping her bottom and against her belly, cupping her between her legs, a touch that drove the air from her lungs and dizzied her.

Just when she was about to beg him to ... to do something more intimate, faster or slower, he hooked his deft fingers through the loop holding her vest together between her breasts and popped the button right off.

The sides of her vest fell away to each side, and when she looked up he was the wolf again, staring hungrily at her breasts.

"There they are," he whispered, "the sweet things."

She was ready for anything, but when his mouth closed over her nipple, she nearly fainted with the force of the pleasure. It shot through every part of her. The more he nuzzled and squeezed and tugged, the tighter he was winding her. Like a watchwork spring in her belly, winding and winding, growing hotter and hotter.

He held her suspended backward, exposed to the sweet torture of his mouth and his tongue as she writhed her hips into his steamy hot erection, clutched at his shoulders and called out his name in a most shameless way.

"Is this among your
Unbridled Embraces,
my dear wife?"

"No, but it should be. Will be!"

Ross wondered how he'd gotten so damned lucky in his brashness. Dutifully rescuing a rebellious woman from a prison sentence and finding a brazen, wanton wife instead.

She was nearly singing his name, taking tiny little gasps of air with his every tug, grabbing his bare buttocks and urging his hips and his hardness against her belly.

The vest was long gone, but the woman was still wearing those Turkish trousers, still hiding her scented mysteries beneath the silk.

He straightened with her, pulled her against him, belly-to-belly, roused by the growing urgency of her wriggling.

"Did you know, wife, that there are techniques a husband can use in order to please his wife in their marriage bed? An 'Unbridled Embraces for Men.'"

Her mouth was rosy and thoroughly kissed. "Making love to his wife as though she were his mistress?"

"Exactly." He found the two buttons at the back of her trousers and freed them a moment later. "It's time for these to come off."

She lifted her arms over her head, and swayed her hips in a little dance as he spread his fingers over her hips and slipped the trousers slowly down. He knelt as he went, his efforts tantalizing him with the softness of the silk, the sight of her bare belly, then her fleece and the sleekness of her legs as the silk gathered in a pool around her bare feet.

"You're beautiful, Elizabeth."

She gazed down at him, still swaying, though completely naked now. "You make me feel that way."

The woman did that all on her own. And here he was, on his knees in front of her, with a tantalizing view of her womanhood, and a driving hunger to taste her.

"Hold on, wife."

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Indeed we are." He reached his hands around her hips to her bottom and splayed his fingers across the coolness of her cheeks. He planted kisses on her flat belly and then moved his mouth downward.

"Oh! Ross! Oh!" She gasped with every inch of his descent toward her curls at the cleft of her legs, her fingers winding tighter and tighter into his hair.

He kept her close with one hand on her bottom and began to toy at her mound with the fingers of the other. Playing among her curls and the slickness he found there, gently sliding a finger inside her where he wanted to be thrusting his throbbing erection.

"Ross, what are yo
u
—
o
h!" She grabbed his shoulders, then his hair again, her hands unsettled and pulling him closer as he stroked and plunged with his fingers.

But when he plunged with his tongue, delving deeply with his strokes, her knees buckled against his arms and she let out a keening moan that would have thrown her backward in a free-fall if he hadn't carried her safely to the ground onto the pile of pillows.

"Oh, Ross! Shall I add this one to my
Unbridled Embraces}'"
Her knees were bent, her hips thrusting upward and writhing into his kiss, pulling at him as though she couldn't get enough of him.

But bringing her too close to her climax. Too soon for the first time.

"We'd best keep this marital suggestion between us." He kissed his way from her belly all the way to her mouth, until they were face-to-face, and he could see the dizzying passion in her eyes. "Or we'll both be locked up for distributing salacious materials."

"They'd never believe me anyway." She was crooning against his cheek, rolling his hotly distended, much beleagured erection against her belly, inching him ever closer to her sheath with her determined squirming. "Take me there now, please."

He felt suddenly like he was falling. "Where?"

"Wherever it is you were taking me. Because I don't think I can wait any longer."

And there would always be other times with this remarkable wife of his. Tomorrow. An hour from now. Other nights in their own special harem.

And she was so eager. Wouldn't want to frustrate her the first time around.

So he rose up on his elbows and let her find him with her fingers, with her impatient grasp, which nearly cost him dearly.

"Here?" she asked, fitting the tip of him unerringly against her cleft, then sliding it back and forth along the slick heat of her until he caught her hand.

"Let
me."

"Oh, yes!" She lay back like a cat lounging in the sun and wrapped her legs around his hips.

"I see you're ready."

"Mmmm
m
.. . ready for you." She closed her eyes and brought her heels against his backside.

Slick and open and, dear Lord, this might just kill him.