Nothing had ever felt as right or as good as joining his body and his life with Faith’s. He took her to her peak with a slow rolling and thrusting of his hips, her cry of release washing over him, making him want to stay forever, but in the tight heat of her body, her gasps and shudders pushed him into his own soaring climax.
o0o
Aftershocks of pleasure shuddered through Faith as she lay beneath her husband, breathing in ragged gasps, her mind and body stunned. Iris had told her the difference between intercourse and making love, but now Faith knew for herself. She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d just made love for the first time in her life.
With her husband, her lover.
She kissed Duke’s neck, loving the smell of his skin and light cologne. “I didn’t see fireworks,” she whispered in his ear. “Ifeltthem.”
He pushed to his elbows and looked down at her, his hair mussed and adorable. “I wanted to take it slow for you, but seeing you like this, so beautiful, so willing to please me” —he brushed his knuckles over her jaw— “it just bowled me over.”
“I love this part of being your wife.”
A pleased look lit his eyes. “Am I too heavy for you?”
“No.” She smiled and stroked her hands up his back. “I like you in my arms.”
“Good, because I’m not going to be able to keep my hands or body off you.”
He kissed her tenderly then rolled to her side and pulled her into his arms, holding her against his warm body.
But she felt her secrets lying between them.
The peepers outside their window serenaded them, and nothing could be more perfect than being held in her husband’s arms, hearing the strong, steady beat of his heart assuring her she wasn’t alone, that she was desired, and possibly even loved. They had so much . . . to lose.
She shuddered as warm night air drifted across her skin, scenting the room with cut grass and a hint of their lovemaking. She stroked her husband’s shoulder, wanting to remember everything about this night—his smooth skin and flexing muscles, the sound of his ragged breathing when he’d consummated their vows, the taste of wine on his tongue, and the contented look in his eyes.
“Are you tired?” she asked, needing his arms and the assurance that he was real, that this was real.
“Not with you beside me.”
“I want more,” she whispered. Heat shimmered in his eyes and leaned to kiss her, but she drew back. “I want to learn how to please you.”
“You please me by being here.”
“I can do better.” Shewoulddo better. “Lie on your stomach.”
“I don’t think I can.”
She looked down and gasped.
A naughty chuckle rumbled in his chest. “There’s the hard evidence that you please me.”
She stared at him, surprised but deeply pleased they would share bawdy humor in their marriage bed. Maybe they could share more someday. Maybe when she was assured of his love, when she knew he could understand and accept the truth, she could tell him.
The admiring look in his eyes made her yearn to touch him. She splayed her hands over his broad chest and urged him onto his back, taking her first good look at her husband, the man behind the badge and the clothes. On her knees beside him, she smoothed her palms over his wide shoulders and dark-haired chest, then down the hard ridges of his abdominal muscles. “You’re like bronzed steel . . . strong . . . beautiful, a handsome warrior,” she said, pleased that her touch was making his body react and his breathing grow ragged. His thighs were rock hard and feathered with hair, tensing beneath her touch, and inviting her to explore his glorious maleness.
He groaned low in his throat and pulled her down beside him. Their mouths fused with urgency, and they explored each other with tender wonder and intense ardor. And when he pulled her beneath him, she sighed with pleasure and a fulfillment she’d never known. In her moment of soaring passion, she knew she would tell him the truth—when he was ready, when their future would be more important to him than her past.
Chapter 27
“When do they go to bed?” Duke mouthed to Faith, who was sitting on the sofa with Cora, inventing a story about a moose with one antler. Adam sprawled on the floor with his chin propped on the heel of one hand, studying a book.
“Soon,” she mouthed back with an intimate, heart-stopping smile that brought his body roaring to life.
He folded his newspaper and put it on the coffee table. After thirty-one years of living in his parents’ home, it felt deeply satisfying to be sitting in his own house with his own family; but he was more than ready to take his wife to bed.
“Daddy, do you know a story about a moose?”
