“Take your nightgown off, Rose,” Gil said in the same soft, neutral voice. She looked pained and reluctant, but when he kept staring at her silently, she raised her shaking fingers to the buttons and fumbled a few open. She looked up at him then, her eyes beseeching.
“Take it off,” he said again, somehow finding it impossible to be kind.
She closed her eyes, looking miserable, and sat up. In one swift movement, she pulled the nightgown over her head. He took it from her and dropped it on the floor.
“Lie down,” he said. Her fingers searched for the bedcovers, but he shook his head, and eventually she lay down as he wanted, uncovered and naked before him. He cast his eyes over her assessingly. Her body was thin but surprisingly enticing. Unmistakably a woman’s body. She had beautiful legs, and her small breasts were nicely shaped with dusky nipples. His cock stiffened obligingly, and he felt a bolt of intense relief. He would be able to do this.
Without looking at her face, Gil placed his hand on her right breast. It fit his palm snugly, and he played with it idly, watching as the nipple hardened beneath his fingers, ignoring Rose’s sharp gasp. He kept playing with her right breast as he dipped his head to the other one, rolling his tongue around the hard nubbin and sucking wetly, registering her faint moan with detached interest. If she got wet for him, it would make it easier, so he spent several minutes tonguing and teasing her breasts, his own excitement building as he did so.
After a while, Gil lowered one of his hands to Rose’s slightly parted thighs, insinuating his fingers between her legs and pushing them farther apart. She stiffened briefly but did nothing to impede him. Without ceremony, he slid his longest finger deep into her already wet quim, using his thumb to circle the fleshy pip at the entrance. Rose bridled, then calmed. A moment later, she moaned softly and whispered his name, a question in her voice. She was ready enough for him now, her slickness all over his fingers.
Gil took his hand away and covered Rose’s body with his own, settling himself between her parted thighs. He saw that she wore an expression of mingled shock and desire, and quickly closed his eyes. He didn’t want to look at her as he ploughed her. Instead, he distracted himself by kissing her, closing his eyes. It occurred to him, as his mouth moved over hers and he coaxed her lips apart, that this was their first proper kiss.
He didn’t want any illusion of romance arising in her mind, so he made the kiss a deep, sexual one, thrusting into her mouth with his tongue. His cock bumped against the entrance of her quim. He was becoming ever harder as he anticipated the pleasure of penetrating her. Rose had wrapped her arms around his neck, and some instinct was driving her to grind her pelvis against his cock. It excited him wildly. He wanted her. He felt appalled and relieved all at once.
Gil broke the kiss, sliding his hand between them to part her folds and guide his cock inside her. Christ, but she was tight! So tight that he wondered for a moment whether this was going to be physically possible. He had to push, and push hard.
Rose didn’t cry out as he breached her flesh, but a soft whoosh escaped her lips. She pushed against his shoulder, and when he lifted his head, she searched his face with panicky eyes, but he couldn’t look at her. Instead, he turned his face into her throat and thrust even harder, forging a passage for himself in her untried depths. He kissed the flesh of her throat passionately with his open mouth, trying to ignore the fact that Rose’s body had gone stiff and still; that her enjoyment had apparently evaporated; that she was just tolerating this now.
Through a supreme effort of will, he managed to ignore her discomfort, focusing on finishing as soon as he could. But even excited as he was, he winced when he heard a noise at the back of her throat that was plainly a suppressed cry of pain. Get it over with, he thought again. And he thrust again and again, driving into her, concentrating hard on his own pleasure, trying to bring himself to a swift completion.
After a few moments, he came fiercely, gasping. Despite everything, her discomfort, his resentment, her lack of allure, his orgasm was intensely pleasurable, and he felt ashamed when it was over.
Rose held herself very still beneath him as he regained his breath. As he levered himself off her, he saw disappointment and bewilderment in her eyes. But he quashed the incipient swell of regret ruthlessly.
He got out of bed straightaway and pulled on his drawers and shirt. For a moment, he hesitated, feeling he should say something. But what was there to say? Without a word, he gathered up the rest of his clothes and walked to the bedchamber door.
“My lor—Gilbert?” Rose called out. Her voice sounded tentative and very young. He turned around, an expression of polite enquiry on his face. She was sitting up, the bedcovers pulled up to her chin. “Where are you going?”