She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. A dark temptress. Her face flushed. Eyes liquid-dark as she worked toward her own climax. Pressure gathered at the base of his cock. He was close.
He gripped her hips, helping her along now, setting her at a faster clip. Harder. Their flesh met with satisfying smacks that grew louder as their movements became wilder. She was so close. She shook in his arms . . .
Then she cried out, dropping all her weight down on him. Her channel tightened and convulsed around him and he was lost. His hands curled around her shoulders, pulling her down, holding her tight as he spilled himself inside her.
They remained just so for several moments, trembling in the aftermath. Air escaped their lungs in ragged saws of breath. He felt dazed. In a fuzzy state of euphoria. He wanted to roll over, pull her against him and fall asleep buried inside her.
A curse exploded from him.
She jerked in his arms.
There was a frozen moment in which he could not say anything. Or move.
And then, horrified, he was moving, yanking her off him and depositing her on the seat across from him. Tucking himself back into his trousers, he stared at her as though he didn’t know her. Or rather . . . as though he didn’t know himself.
She worked to set her clothing to rights, too. The front of her gown sagged loose and he recalled the sound of ripping seams. She pulled her cloak around her shoulders, shielding herself from his view.
Something softened inside him when he noticed how her hands shook. Until what he had done, once again, hit him like a brick in the face.
He dragged a hand over his head, rubbing at the back of his neck. He had released his seed inside Aurelia. He had never down that before. He had never even come close to losing himself before.
This just proved what he already had accepted. She was different. Special.
He brought both hands to cover his face and expelled a heavy breath. How could he have forgotten? He lived by a code.
“We’re here,” she said abruptly.
Then she was out of the carriage. She didn’t wait for the groom to open the door and assist her. He barely had time to lower his hands before she was gone. A blue blur of silk and streaming dark hair.
He took off after her. “Aurelia.”
She didn’t stop. She ascended the front steps, rushing past the butler. He sent him a nod of greeting and then followed at a more sedate pace. He didn’t want to alarm the servants by running her to ground. But catch her he would. They needed to talk about this. They needed to make sure it never happened again.
He stopped her in the empty corridor outside her chamber, circling a hand around her wrist and forcing her around.
“Aurelia—” He stopped at the wrecked expression of her face.
She shook her head, her dark waves tossing wildly. “That was the most humiliating . . . the smallest I’ve ever felt—”
“No.” He cupped her face, pushing strands of hair back off her face. “It wasn’t you . . . it was me. I lost control because it was so good. Perfect.” He kissed her softly, something twisting inside him at her unresponsive lips. “I reacted badly. You know how I feel about—” He cut himself off, feeling as though he were drowning in the ocean of her eyes. “I realize it’s unlikely just this once, but the risk that we could have created a child—”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” she said in a flat voice, her eyes like flint. “Ease your mind. You have nothing to worry about on that score. You didn’t get me with child tonight.”