Son of a Duke (33 page)

"Do you want?"
 

"I think so."
 

She thought so?
 
"Nora, I-"

"I get this weird feeling when I'm around you.
 
Down here."
 
She took his hand and put it low on her stomach almost-

He pulled his hand away.
 

"Nora, I-"

"Would you light a candle, please?"

A candle?
 
She wanted to light a candle now?
 

He rolled over and got the flint out of drawer of the table beside the bed and lit one of the candles on the tabletop.
 
It's light flickered faintly, barely casting an orange glow beyond the tabletop.
 

He went to roll back toward Nora, but she was moving.
 
She had her arms and most of her head under the covers, pulling at something.
 
He lay on his back and waited, suddenly terrified that he knew what she was doing.
 

Her nightgown came up over her head, and she flung it off the bed.
 

Nathan could not move.
 
He wanted to reach out and...and...touch.
 
But he did not know where his hands were or if his fingertips would be able to feel anything.
 

Nora was sitting up, and she pulled the braid of her hair around to untie the ribbon holding it.
 
She shook back her head, and the strands loosened, spraying around her shoulders in straight trickles that barely touched her breasts.
 
The candlelight flickered over her pale skin and the brownish tips of her nipples.
 
Her ribs stuck out a little as she twisted to throw away the ribbon.
 
He sat up then and touched the lines of her ribs, skimming his fingertips over them.
 
She twisted back, and the lines disappeared.
 
She looked up at him, her eyes shadowed as he blocked the candlelight.
 

"I want to take care of you," he said, his fingers still on the place where her ribs had been visible.
 
The skin under his fingertips moved as she breathed.
 

"I want you to take care of me," she said in response.
 

He kissed her, bringing his other hand up to hold her head.
 
She leaned into him, her small breasts crushed against his chest.
   

And then she pushed him away, hard.
 
He fell back against the pillows, his heart thundering erratically.
 

She was smiling.
 

Impishly.
 

His heart almost came out of his chest, and the room spun.
 
Or maybe it was just his head.
 

She leaned over him and nipped his lower lip before moving to his jaw, then his neck, and then lower.
 
She pressed her lips in a searing line down his chest, her hands kneading the muscles along the way.
 
He thought she would stop at his stomach, but she kept going lower.
 
And lower.
 
And-
 

He grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up.
 
She squeaked, and he loosened his grip on her.
 

"What are you doing?" his voice was scratchy and sounded not at all like himself.
 

Her eyes grew wide, and her voice came out feebly, "Am I doing something wrong?"
 

"Not wrong.
 
Just dangerous."
 

"Dangerous?"
 
She had the nerve to smile at him.

And then she licked her lips.
 

He growled, actually growled, and flipped them, so Nora was pinned underneath him.
 
He took her mouth, plunging his tongue inside, no longer caring if he was being gentle or not.
 
It appeared his wife was more ready than he had thought.
 
Nora rose up against him, and he used his hands to push her back down, smoothing his hands down her sides and back up, coming painfully close to her breasts only to pull away and make her groan.
 
He liked that sound.

She pulled on his hair, and he tilted back his head, surprised.
 

"This isn't fair.
 
I started this," she said, gasping for air.
 

"Fair?"
 
He raised his eyebrows.
 

He was making love to his wife, and she wanted to discuss fairness?
 

"Yes, it isn't.
 
I had an agenda here, Mr. Black, and you are seriously deviating from it."
 

"Is that so?"

"Yes.
 
It is."
 

She reached down and grabbed his fully erect penis.
 
He sucked in his breath and tried to pull away from her.
 
Her hand slid down the length of him, and his eyes rolled back into his head.
 
His arms gave out, and he fell down, just avoiding crushing Nora.
 
She came up on her elbow over him, her hand still stroking him slowly.
 

"That's more like it," she said and disappeared out of his vision.
 

Nora had never done what she was about to do before, but she had seen it done.
 
Accidentally, of course, but she had seen it.
 
That was all that mattered, was it not?
 
And the man had enjoyed it; at least he appeared to enjoy it.
 
And she wanted Nathan to enjoy himself.
 

So she took him into her mouth.
     

Nathan neither moved nor made a noise, and she was afraid she was not doing it right.
 
She noticed the fistful of sheets he was attempting to shred and felt much better.
 

But then Nathan grabbed her again, pulling her up the length of him, which really felt pretty good, so she was not going to complain.
 
He rolled on top of her, taking her mouth again before settling himself between her thighs.
 
She felt a tiny spasm of fear and resolutely pushed it away.
 
There was nothing here to be afraid of.
 
This was her husband, and she loved him.
 
She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips.
 

The pleasant pain began to throb again in that place that she never touched, not even in the bath.
 
It started as a low hum and built to a swirling crescendo.
 
She pushed on Nathan's shoulders to get his mouth off of hers.
 

"It's happening again," she said, heaving in gulps of air.
 

"What's happening?" Nathan's eyes had grown wide and frightened.
 

She shook her head furiously.
 
"Not that.
 
The pain, it's there, and it's getting bigger, and I don't know what it is."
 

Nathan's face relaxed into a smile.
 

"Oh, that's happening again."
 

His hand slid down her side, across her stomach, and between her legs.
 
He touched her, and her hips came off the mattress, pushing harder against him, a tiny pulse of air escaping her lips.
 

"That's supposed to happen, sweetheart," he whispered against her ear and then entered her.
 

The pain stopped all at once, and she dropped her legs from around his hips.
 
Now she just felt full and not the least bit thrilled at the idea of continuing.
 

She tapped Nathan's shoulder.
 

"Could I have a moment, please?" she said once Nathan stopped nuzzling her neck.
 

He nodded and stayed still above her, watching her face.
 

"What?" she asked.
 

"I'm giving you a moment."
 

"Oh."
 

She took deep, slow breaths, willing her muscles to relax.
 
Nathan kept watching her.
 

"You know I don't believe I've ever talked this much while making love to a woman," Nathan said, making himself comfortable above her.
 
He framed her face in his hands, skimming his thumb along the outline of her lips and over her cheeks.
 

Her relaxing muscles suddenly clenched, and Nathan cursed, sucking air in between his teeth.
 

Nora winced.
 
"I'm sorry, but that felt good.
 
Did I hurt you?"
 

Nathan smiled tensely,
 
"Yes, but it felt good."
 

Except he no longer touched her face.
 

Nora adjusted her hips, letting her body become fluid again.
 

"All right," she said.
 

Nathan had been staring at the headboard and flinched when she spoke.
 
He looked down at her.
 

"All right?"
 

His voice was oddly squeaky.
 

"Yes.
 
Nathan, are you going to be all right if we do this?"
 

"I'm afraid probably not."
 

And then he began to move. Not a lot.
 
Just a little.
 
Just enough to make her muscles compress again, but softer this time, as if her body were stroking him.
 
The pain started once more, low and pulsating...blooming.
 
Nathan was sweating above her with his jaw taut.
 
She brought his mouth down to hers, easing away the strain.
 
The feeling grew towards something, but what it was she did not know.
 
She lifted her legs around his rocking hips, and the pain stabbed at her.
 
She moaned against Nathan's mouth, urging him to move faster, to move her toward whatever it was that was crashing around inside of her just out of her reach.
 

And then it was there, and she ripped her mouth away from Nathan's to scream but nothing came out.
 
She dug her nails into his back and hung onto him as he pounded into her.
 
He stiffened and collapsed on top of her.

She stared at the ceiling as the delicious spasms continued to rock her body.
 
She held onto Nathan as her heartbeat slowed with his.
 

She watched the candle send shadows dancing across the ceiling, and she said to those shadows, "I love you."

~

I love you.

Nathan had been almost asleep, but he had heard her just fine.
   

She loved him?
 

They had known each other for little more than a week, and she loved him?
 

But then why would he doubt it since he had just recently come to the same conclusion?
 
Did people really fall in love in little more than a week?
 
His father always said he fell in love with Jane in just a look, so perhaps a week was too long to fall in love.
 
Maybe he was really lazy when it came to love.
 

Since his bones had most certainly just turned to water, he did not mind feeling lazy.
 
But he was crushing Nora, so he reluctantly pulled himself off of her, which was more a chore than he thought as she clung to him, her grip unbelievably strong for a woman who had just been thoroughly loved.
 
Maybe he had been lazy, but then Nora was a lot stronger than he ever gave her credit for.
 
He really needed to change that.
 

He settled Nora against his side, her head falling into the hollow of his shoulder, one arm slung over his stomach.
 
He thought he should reach down and find the sheet, but the strength necessary for such a move was not to be found, so he just lay where he was, enjoying the feeling of holding his wife.
 

And wondering if he should tell her how he felt as well.
 

But then there was that whole issue of telling a woman you loved her for the first time before, during, or after one made love to her that was always a little skeptical.
 
Did anyone really believe such a statement in that situation even if one really meant it?
 
Nathan believed Nora when she said it because Nora did not think in such complicated ways.
 
She was simple and straightforward.
 
She said what she was thinking, and she acted on what she was feeling.
 
Had she not just seduced him?
 
He smiled and tightened his arm around her.
 

The rain still beat against the windows while the clock still ticked in the hallway, and the candle flicked shadows around the room.
 

And he wanted to tell his wife that he loved her.
 

"Nora?"
 

Her breathing never faltered, and her heartbeat was a steady pulse against his side.
 

"Nora?"
 

He tilted his head and found her to be soundly asleep.
 

He sat up, carefully sliding her head to the pillow, and pulled up the sheets around her.
 
He extinguished the candle and leaned back against the pillows, sitting against the headboard.
 

He watched his wife sleep and wondered how he was going to take care of her.
 

~

It was nearly dawn when Nathan pulled his wife toward him.
 
He woke her slowly with a kiss.
 
She hummed in her throat, and her arms came fiercely around him, startling him with their intensity.
 
They were facing each other, and he slid into her, finding some resistance because she was not ready for him.
 
But he moved against her, letting the friction of their bodies bring her fully awake.
 
He ran his hand down her back to the cleft of her buttocks and relished the shudder that went through her before her eyes flew open to stare at him.