Her Secondhand Groom(87)

“Why are you making me shame myself this way, Drake?” she cried. “Do you want me to say it aloud? Fine, I will. I like having relations with you. I like it when you touch me, and kiss me, and for as shameful as it is, I find the most intense pleasure imaginable when we join.” Her face flushed crimson, and she pulled her hand from his now loose grasp then fled behind the dressing screen.

Heart pounding at the meaning of those unversed words, Patrick forced himself to follow her behind the screen. “Juliet―”

The sight of her red-rimmed eyes and tearstained cheeks stopped his words and his nearly-bursting heart at the same time. He’d never seen her cry before.

She blinked rapidly. “I―I need to go―”

He cut her off with a quick kiss. “You don’t need to do anything, but be here with me.”

She refused to meet his eyes, and her shaky hands fumbled to secure a heavier dressing gown. “No, I must―”

He kissed her again, this time with purpose and passion. He moved his hands to frame her face and hold her to him, granting him better access to her mouth. He pulled back, panting. “Juliet, I didn’t mean to shame you. I―” he swallowed convulsively― “I just didn’t believe what I was hearing, and I wanted to know I wasn’t mistaken.”

“Mistaken?”

He nodded. “I feared I’d pressed you to feign enjoyment, and I didn’t want that, Juliet. I want you to act like you enjoy it because you really do enjoy it, not because you think it’s what I want. Then when you implied you did enjoy my affections, I was stunned and needed to make sure I heard you right. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I―”

Now it was her turn to cut him off with a kiss. Her arms came up and looped around his neck. Not breaking their kiss, Patrick lowered his hands, clasped them around her waist, then picked her up and carried her straight to the bed.

Depositing her on top of the fluffy counterpane, Patrick continued Juliet’s quest to divest himself of everything down to his smalls then climbed onto the bed, and used his hands and knees to crawl up Juliet’s body until his lips were perfectly aligned on top of hers. He eased his body on top of hers and brought his head lower to brush his lips across hers. She sighed and he moved his right hand over to cup her breast. He squeezed that perfect globe, exerting more pressure when she arched beneath him, and pressed her breast more firmly into his hand. Bringing his lips back down to hers, he let his hand leave her breast to pull the chord wrapped around her waist that kept her robe on. Freeing the knot, he released the sash and pulled aside the fabric of her dressing robe to reveal that gauzy nightrail she had on beneath.

“Drake,” Juliet gasped against his mouth as his hand shaped her firm breast again.

He kissed her lips once more, then trailed a row of kisses from her mouth to her chin, then down her neck. She rolled her head back, granting him better access to the smooth column of her neck. He kissed and nipped right above her clavicle from one side to the other before closing his mouth around one gauze-covered, taut nipple. Sucking it into his mouth, he sucked and licked until she was writhing beneath him. He abandoned that peak, and sought the other. She sighed, and he increased the pressure of his lips on this nipple while his other hand came up to caress her recently freed breast, kneading and massaging the supple flesh until she was twisting in pleasure.

Relinquishing his hand’s hold on her breast, he reached up and grabbed the material that formed the V in the top of her nightrail. With a savage growl against her breast, he jerked his hand down, tearing the filmy fabric of her nightrail as he went. Reluctantly, his mouth released her hard nipple so his hands could push the offending fabric off her.

“You’re so beautiful,” he rasped. He moved down her body, dropping kisses as he went; kissing along the slight curves at the bottom of her breasts then to the sensitive skin on the side of her breast just above her ribs. Finding a particularly sensitive spot, that made her writhe and buck, he moved his hand past her waist to tangle in the thatch of brown curls that covered her most intimate area. Patrick parted his lips and pressed open-mouthed kisses along the side of her ribs, getting ever closer to the spot just above her hip that always made her jump.

He pressed his lips into that sensitive dip above her hipbone, and used his teeth to scrape the skin, followed by his lips and tongue to sooth it.

She bucked and twisted her fingers into the counterpane. “Drake.”

“Hmm?” he said against her skin, not daring to take his mouth off her. He scraped and nipped her again.

She arched her back and her skin quivered. He loved having this effect on her. Taking advantage of her excitement and position, Patrick dropped his hand lower and ran one lone finger along, then in between, her silky folds. He moved his thumb to join the exploration, gently squeezing and massaging. Circling her opening twice more, Patrick slipped two fingers in. Her muscles clenched around him, and he groaned. Without hesitation, he found that familiar deep and swift rhythm she enjoyed. Kissing a trail back to her breasts, he changed the position of his hand and ground the heel of his palm against her swollen flesh while his fingers continued their steady pace.