Adrian sat back for a moment. His eyes roved where they pleased, from the curve of her thighs to the shadow between them, taking in the slight dips of her hips and the undulating flesh of her abdomen, up to her full and heaving bosom, before finally letting his gaze settle upon her face.
What am I doing?she worried briefly, for she did not know if she should feel emboldened or self-conscious about her nakedness. It was not as if she had ever been naked in front of a man before.
“Perfection,” he purred. “You are perfection.”
Her eyes widened at the intensity in his voice and the appreciation in his eyes. All of her womanhood, she had been the wallflower, overlooked by eligible gentlemen at every ball, every dinner party, every occasion. Her father had said such harsh and horrible things to her over the years, disparaging her looks, her demeanor, her character, her entire being, or so it had often felt. Everything she was, was wrong in her father’s eyes.
To hear that she was ‘perfection’ was a gift she had not known she needed—or, indeed, wanted. To hear it fromAdrian, a gentleman so handsome, even with his scars, that he resembled a sculptor’s slightly scraped masterpiece, was a compliment she did not know how to process.
All she knew, in that moment, was that she did not want to be parted from someone who had made her feel seen and beautiful and worth having around for the first time in her twenty-two years.
“But,” she said, reaching for his waistcoat, “it is a little unfair for me to be… like this, and for you to be clothed.”
He allowed her to undo the buttons. “Perhaps,thatought to be your penalty.” He hesitated. “Or, perhaps, it is in your best interests.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, undeterred, as she eased his waistcoat over his broad shoulders.
A frown furrowed his brow as her fingertips pulled away his cravat and began to unfasten the buttons at his collar. “Nothing. Be warned, you might not like what you see.”
“I do not believe that,” she replied firmly, each opened button revealing more of his athletic physique.
With the last button unfastened, she smoothed her hands over his chest to push the two sides of the fabric apart, exhilarated by the brush of his warm skin against her palms as she eased his shirt over his shoulders and arms. Indeed, she was so focused on her sense of touch and exploring the lines and contours of muscle that it took her a few moments to actuallylook.
“Oh…” A breathy gasp left her lips.
If the scars upon his face had been a footnote of what he had suffered during his time as a soldier and a captive in the war, then his body was the full and detailed account. A ragged scar cut beneath his ribs, almost the entire way around, as if a rope had eroded him over time. A constellation of scars were grouped upon the right hand side of his muscular chest—burns, perhaps. Down his left side was a long and particularly angry-looking scar, while the rest of him was covered in smaller, silvered slashes. More than she could count.
“I did warn you,” he said, misunderstanding her shock, his hand reaching for the shirt that she had tossed aside.
In a rush, she grabbed his hand to stop him, her other hand cradling the side of his head to pull him down as she met his lipsin a searing kiss. He did not immediately respond, as though he could not quite comprehend what was happening.
Then, his mouth moved, his kiss hot and fierce and hungry. His tongue danced with hers as he grasped her close, Valerie’s heart thundering, her desire soaring to untold heights as she savored the press of his bare skin against hers.
With a wildness that spurred her on to cast aside any doubts or anxieties, Adrian pushed her back down onto the sheepskin rug and enjoyed her as she had daydreamed he would. Leaving no part of her unkissed or unsatisfied, tasting, kissing, relishing in the nakedness of her.
His mouth closed over her nipple, sucking a moan out of her as heat pooled between her thighs and her hips bucked. When his fingertips brushed against her secret bud, she thought she might explode right there, so overcome with want that she feared she might go mad if he did not claim her.
Indeed, emboldened by the sudden, fierce rush of pleasure that burst like fireworks in her stomach, she reached for the fastenings of his trousers. As he held himself up on his arms, she tugged those tight trousers down the contours of his muscular backside and powerful thighs, until he kicked them off, along with his boots.
Oh… oh, goodness…
Glancing down, she swallowed thickly. A mystery had been revealed, intimidating and exciting in equal measure, the sight of his manhood making her sex pulse with anticipation.
It would be one way to solve my problem,she reasoned, knowing that if she gave herself to him now, she would be ruined in the eyes of society. And not caring at all if she was. Perhaps, itwasa kind of madness, but she needed to feel him more than she had ever needed anything in her life.
Before, she had never understood what ‘giving oneself to a man’ entailed, but after all he had already taught her about pleasure, she could guess.
Anxious that she might talk herself out of what might happen next, she wrapped her arms around Adrian. He kissed her with renewed fervor, his breaths hot and ragged as he began to slowly rock his hips, the heat of that hard flesh gliding across her bundle of explosive nerves.
“Oh, Adrian… yes… oh, God, yes!” she cried out, her head swimming at the grip of ecstasy that tightened its hold upon her.
He took his time, the ebb and flow of his hips, his manhood, pushing through the slick folds of her, teasing her until she did not know how much longer she could bear the anticipation.
For a moment, there was pressure against the entrance of her silken depths, his hips pulsing slightly, that feeling echoed against that secret part of her.
Spurred on by something primal and feral within herself, she tilted her own hips up to draw him inside her.
“Oh… oh…” she panted, her fingernails digging into his upper arms as, for half a second, she felt him begin to ease into her.
