He lifted to her mouth again, his hands sliding down her back until they reached her buttocks. He squeezed, and then he knelt a bit and picked her up. With a moan, she wrapped her legs around him and kissed him again, feeling his hard length at her aching center.
He carried her to the edge of the desk in the room and set her on it. He left her embrace to kneel before her, and she watched in amazement as he grasped her buttocks and pulled her even closer to the edge, kissing along her inner thigh.
“Nathaniel,” she said, her place aching, wetness pooling there, and he grinned up at her, looking more handsome than he ever had. “What are you doing?”
“What I’ve been wanting to do ever since I met you.”
To her surprise, he buried his face between her thighs, and Jane cried out. Leaning back on her hands, she felt his hot tongue lick inside her, his mouth suckling her soft skin. Pleasure stirred and sparked, and when he lifted one of her legs over his shoulder, she closed her eyes and sank into the ecstasy and heat of it all.
His mouth was gentle, but insistent, touching the place she most desired. Pulling pleasure with each suckle, she let go, and then she came. With sparks flying in her mind, she cried his name. His mouth continuing to suckle and his tongue lick against her secret space between her thighs until she shook, lost in ecstasy.
He got to his feet and stood between her legs again, his length pressing against her. She opened her eyes and saw him watching her. She looked down at his manhood, and her lips parted. So strong, so large and rigid. Would it fit?
“Don’t be afraid,” Nathaniel said softly, making her eyes return to his face. He touched a hand to her cheek. “Do you want this?”
“Yes,” she said, sliding her legs to his hips. “Yes.”
He held her hips, and then he pushed inside of her bit by bit. Jane held onto him, little whimpers coming out of her mouth until he was fully seated inside of her, the fullness of him so strange, yet so wonderful. This was what she had dreamed of, even before she had met Nathaniel. But now, there was a face to the man she saw in her heated dreams.
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” she said honestly. It had been brief, but as he pulled out of her, she yearned for him again, and then he slammed back into her. “Yes!” she cried, her fingers pressing into his strong shoulders.
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened, and his eyes darkened as he kept his gaze on her, his hips moving fast and faster, in and out of her,stroking that part of her that had needed him so much for so long.
“Lift your legs higher around my waist.”
She followed his instruction, tightening her legs a bit, pulling him deeper, making them both groan aloud. She saw the sheen of sweat on his face as he continued to thrust, ever faster.
“Jane, come for me again,” he said, his thumb coming between them to rub against her, and she let out a shaky cry once more, leaning her head back as he rubbed and thrust, pulling out her pleasure once more as if he had always known how to find it.
When she came, still trembling, Nathaniel propped his hands on the desk, and as she kept her thighs tight around him, his hips moved madly until he froze, groaning into her hair, holding tight as he spilled inside of her. When he pulled away, it felt like an age later. She was so sated, so happy, and she pulled his face into her hands.
“I think I’m falling in love with you,” she said, surprising herself and clearly him, for his brows lifted, and his jaw slackened a bit.
“I—” he pulled out of her and backed away, leaving her cold. “We should go, Jane,” he told her.
Jane’s lungs felt devoid of air. She had made a mistake, letting her tongue speak the words of her heart before it was time. He was not yet ready, and now he was pulling away from her, and she had made a grave, grave mistake. She got up, dressed quietly, and left before he could follow her.
Chapter 33
Two days later, Jane sat with Margaret in Margaret’s sitting room, her hands on her sketchbook, but she couldn’t bring herself to draw. It had been two days since she’d been with Nathaniel, and she’d been unable to release the tension in her chest ever since.
I said I love you, and he didn’t say it back. Then, we didn’t speak again.
“All right, what’s wrong?” Margaret said, putting her book down and folding her hands in her lap. “This time, I am trying to actually read, and you are sitting there looking as if you’re ill, and you wish to go home.” Margaret frowned, her blonde brows furrowing. “What’s wrong, Jane? Are you all right?”
Jane could feel the weight of tears behind her eyes, and the ache in her stomach and chest seemed like it would be a constant part of her. Swallowing, she knew that was why she’d agreed to come to Margaret’s. She had to tell her what happened, or she might burst.
“I did something bad, I think, Margaret,” she told her, putting down her book and sitting up a bit.
“What is it? Have you pulled someone else in to distract Lord Claridge so that you and Lord Balwood could have more private time together?” Margaret teased, fluttering her eyelashes, but Jane slowly shook her head, and Margaret’s smile fell.
“What is it, then?”
“Nathaniel and I…we made love,” she said, feeling a little weight slide off her shoulders. She turned to the window. “We made love at the ball, and then I told him I loved him.” She put a hand to her mouth, fearful that a cry of pain would sneak out of her.
She waited a little longer to compose herself. “I do love him, but I fear that he does not care for me. He looked shocked and practically ran away. And it’s worse than that…there was no barrier between us.” She brushed a tear away from her cheek. “Margaret, I don’t know what to do.” Her voice lowered as she said, “I could be carrying his child even now.”
