A lusty smile spread across his face. “Are you ready for lesson three?”
“Will there be a test afterwards?”
“If you find your pleasure, I will give you the highest marks,” Miles said. “Take off your unmentionables and give them to me. Your next lesson is called, ’Who needs a bed?’”
“Here? Right now?” Her eyes were wide and she glanced at the closed double doors through which she had entered. The light from his lantern barely reached that end of the room.
“No one has reason to come in here at night.”
“But…they could. There is no lock.”
“The danger is half the fun. Besides, I’m not asking you to take off all your clothes. If anyone came in, they would see nothing more than you sitting in my lap. Take off your unmentionables.”
A myriad of expressions crossed her face before she made a decision. Andrea stood up, turned her back to the door and tugged up the front of her skirts to get to the string of her drawers.
“Come here,” he said when he saw her glance at the door again. He pulled the string and with a devilish grin yanked the cotton garment from her hips. “Leave your slippers on and step out.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she did as he instructed, dropping her skirts back in place as soon as he had her drawers in hand.
“May I gut the light?”
“You may lower it, but do not extinguish it. I don’t know why you are so worried. If I had not seen your skirt beneath the piano, I would not have been able to see you at all.”
She stepped over to the piano and lowered the wick until it put off a minimum amount of light. With a nod, she acknowledged his assurances.
As she returned, he unbuttoned the front of his hastily donned trousers.
“I’m shaking,” she said.
He smiled compassionately. “You’ll forget your nerves soon enough,” he said in hushed tones. “Besides, I told the crewman not to let anyone come down the passageway.”
“You planned this?” she said stepping back.
He held out his hand to her. “I didn’t think you’d want us overheard if we argued or if you cried, Andi. No one is coming in. I just thought we could see how it feels to be naughty.”
Andrea tentatively stretched out her hand, placed it in his and allowed him to draw her forward. “If that’s true, why are you whispering?” she said in an equally soft tone.
“It’s part of the game. We don’t want anyone to catch us. Lift your skirt and sit on my knees facing me.”
“Miles….”
“Andi… I find it hard to believe the brave young woman who ran away from her safe London home to go to America all alone, is afraid to sit on her husband’s lap behind closed doors.”
With her free hand, Andrea lifted one side of her skirt and slid her knee along the upholstery next to his leg. She released his hand in order to lift the other side of her skirt and quickly sat straddling his legs. With a pointed look, she glanced down waiting for him to withdraw it from his trousers.
“Andi, are you always going to be in a hurry to get it over and done with? Can’t we kiss for a few minutes first?”
When she sat up straight, he knew she had taken his question as criticism.
“I’m sure it’s easy for you to wait. You have had your pleasure so many times you have probably grown bored with it. I have only had mine three times. It’s a bit like a new dress; I want to wear it all the time.”
With a chuckle, he cupped her bottom and drew her forward. In the dim light, she could see his playful smile. “I love that you’re tall,” he said stretching his neck slightly to kiss her. His hands moved up her back and pulled her against his chest.
Even the parts of her body he was not touching began to tingle with excitement. After half a minute passed she pulled back. “But maybe I’m too tall or else we’d be the same height right now.”
“I’m not talking about kissing you. I’m talking about the way you can take all of me.”
“Take all of you? What do you…?” She gasped as it dawned on her what he meant. “Well it’s not as if it was the size of an elephant or even a stallion.”
“Andi!” he said with feigned horror. “I can’t believe you know how big an elephant or even a horse is.”
“What am I blind? I even saw a stallion mount a mare once. The way she screamed and pawed scared me to death and I was sure it was like that for women.”
He chuckled sympathetically. “Poor Andi, your mother was cruel to tell you such lies.”
As he kissed her again, a soft sigh escaped her lips. “I love your kisses,” she whispered as she threaded her fingers through his soft black hair.
His lips thinned with a smile. “They are even better when you aren’t talking during them.”
For a moment, Andrea felt chastised, but quickly realized Miles’s tone did not bear criticism in it but humor. As the feeling of his lips began to stave away all of her internal chatter, Andrea could feel her passion growing. Her breathing came in short bursts. Her back arched and her breasts longed for his touch.
She loved this man. She finally admitted it. How that had happened when she didn’t believe in love, she didn’t know. But she couldn’t deny her overwhelming feelings for him. Why else would she be doing this here? God, she just could not get enough of him. What had he said about making love? It was a tangible way of feeling his love. How true that was. And it felt so good to be loved.
His hand suddenly found her breast. He palmed it roughly through her clothing making her moan with desire into his mouth. His touch had never felt impatient before and she felt nearly weak under his aggressive stroke.
“Does Andi like that?”
“Oh, yes,” she panted. “She definitely likes that. Andi likes everything you do to her.”
He tried to put his hand inside the neckline of her dress to draw her breast out. However, when he found it was too tight, he quickly reached behind her and unfastened the top buttons of her dress. With an urgency neither one had experienced before, he grabbed the top of her gown and jerked it downward with two hard tugs that would have torn cheaper material.
As soon as her breasts were exposed, his mouth fell on one and his hand found the other. Gone were the gentle caresses of the day before. The calluses on his hands abraded the silken skin of her breast as he suckled hungrily upon her, forming both nipples into large hard pearls.
“God,” she gasped. Her whole sex clinched, making her hungry for more. Her hand tentatively reached for the protrusion in his pants.
A low primal moan rumbled out of his throat. “Harder,” he said, thrusting his hips forward.
His hand covered hers and pressed it into him to show her how to stroke the length of his erection. As soon as she found her rhythm, he reached into his trousers and pulled out his cock.
Suddenly Miles’s head lifted and he froze. “What was that noise?”
He craned his head in the direction of the doorway. Her hand continued stroking him even as she twisted around and pulled at her bodice with her other hand.
“God, it’s so dark over there. Someone could be standing in the doorway and we would never know it,” he said into her ear.
They were both breathing hard when she turned back to him. His lips immediately seized hers. “No one’s there, I promise,” he whispered pulling away for a moment. “But shall we pretend there is?”
Before she could formulate an answer, his large hands clasped her by her bottom. He lifted her and shifted their position until she was on her back on the sofa.
Suddenly, he was inside her to the hilt, buried in her warm moist heat.
“Oh!” It wasn’t the low throaty sound of passion she usually made, but more a higher pitched exclamation.
He stilled instantly and withdrew a couple of inches. “Did I hurt you?”
“No. Don’t stop.”
He began moving in the rhythm he taught her before.
“No, Miles. Not like that. Do it the same as when you
entered me.” Her breath was coming in gasping spurts.
“Fast and hard?”
“Oh, yes,” she moaned.
His first forceful thrusts were tentative as if he expected her to change her mind. He could feel the head of his cock flattening into the bottom of her womb. With other women, he would still be partially outside their bodies. Most women love his girth but some complained if he drove too hard because of the length. But Andi seemed to be built for him.
He felt her hand reach around him and lower until she cupped the round globes of his bottom. With every thrust, he felt her encouraging him to pump into her harder. It was almost too much for him to bear.
With gritted teeth, he found their new rhythm. He slowly dragged himself out of her long slick passage and slammed back forcefully. His balls slapped her ass and he ground his pubis into her clitoris at the apex of his thrust. When he did not think he could take any more, she began tightening her muscles the way he taught her. He silently prayed she would find her release quickly because he wasn’t sure he could hold off much longer.
Her head lolled to the side and he thought she was looking into the dark corner of the room at the doorway as she exploded into orgasm. Her back arched thrusting her breasts forward; her whole body froze in place as she rode out wave after wave of ecstasy. She had no control of the rising volume of her cries and after trying to hush her, Miles sealed his mouth over hers to absorb the sound.
As her climax began to wane, Miles’s body found his release. He shuddered with a grunt that sounded pained as he buried himself in her depths, unable to move for several seconds before he collapsed on top of her.
They lay like that catching their breath for more than a minute when she began to laugh. “I can’t believe we did that here.”
He chuckled. He couldn’t either.
“Did you really hear a sound?”
A boyish grin spread across his face. “No. Trust me if I thought anyone could see us, I’d cover you up and get rid of them.”
“Thank heavens. I was worried you had peccadilloes.”
He smiled inwardly at her choice of words. How polite to choose a word that had no more judgment to it than that.
“I’ve had three years of betrothal to think about you and what it was going to be like when we were married. Being watched has never appealed to me, but I wanted us to be so in love that when we found ourselves alone—like maybe in a carriage—we couldn’t help ourselves.”
She reached out, ran her fingers through his hair and brushed a lock off his forehead.
“I’ve thought about you too,” she admitted.
“Indeed? In a romantic way?”
Even in the dim light, he could tell she was blushing. She was slow to answer. “Perhaps—but nothing like this, mind you.”
“No, of course not. All this was beyond your scope of knowledge.” He shifted slightly and his manhood slipped out of her, making them both twitch and chuckle. Without getting up, he concealed his man-root inside his pants and pushed her skirts down. “Will you tell me?”
She shook her head, color flooding her cheeks as she pulled at her neckline of her dress, hiding her breasts away. A shy smile touched her lips and her eyes couldn’t hold contact with his. “It’s embarrassing.”
“Please.”
She hesitated and looked into his eyes. They were warm and loving and she knew he would never use her words against her. He made her feel that it was safe to confide in him.
“Do you remember when we stepped out on the dance floor and you bumped into me?”
“What a way to start a waltz.”
“Quite,” she said with a smile. “The contact made my things tingle.”
“Things?”
She pointedly looked down at her breasts hoping he would understand.
“Your breasts? Andi, you can say breasts to me. It’s not a dirty word. Regardless, you were saying, when I ran into you, it made your breasts tingle.”
“Heavens, I can’t believe I’m admitting this,” she said. Her hands flew to her face, covering her eyes, and she quickly finished in a rush before she lost her nerve. “Sometimes at night, as I lay in bed, I would think about you and I would press them to see if I could feel the tingling again.”
Miles couldn’t help but grin. Despite the foul lies her mother had told her, she could not suppress a mild curiosity about her own body. It was all very innocent and sweet and he had unknowingly played a very small role.
He pulled her hands away from her eyes. “So it was more about the sensation you felt when we collided, than about me?”
“I always thought about you when I did it. Moreover, I always hoped when I did marry, the man would be as handsome as you and smell as good. I thought if he did, it would make the marital bed more bearable.”
Coming from Andrea, that was a tremendous complement. He could not have hoped for more.
“Were you able to make your breasts tingle again?”
She shook her head. “I only feel it when you touch my breasts.”
He kissed her softly on the lips and was tempted to reach for her breasts, but he wanted to take her back to their cabin.
38
Andrea wore no unmentionables as they left the saloon. Miles had used her drawers to clean themselves up and stuffed them in his pocket.
He carried the lantern and held her hand as they entered the corridor. To her dismay, he did not take her straight back to their suite but went in the opposite direction. Was he doing it on purpose because he found amusement in her traipsing around without her unmentionables? Or did he have plans he had not discussed?
Her question was answered when he produced his keys and entered the galley.
“See if you can find a big bowl and a spoon,” he said, setting the lantern down and lengthening the wick. He glanced around the large kitchen and pointed Andrea toward one end of the room while he went to the other end. They were both opening cupboards and drawers. Andrea found the tableware and brought it to him as one by one he eliminated the cabinets he was searching.
“Ah,” Miles said finding his quest. He pulled out a large shallow earthenware pan and set it on the butcher block.
Andrea’s face lost all expression as she realized he had located the bread pudding.
“You lost a hand and now you must pay the boon.”
He took the bowl and spoon from her and filled the bowl until it heaped over.
“Please, not so much. I could not eat that much even if I were hungry.”
“It’s not all for you.”
She watched as he took one more spoonful right out of the center. “Your cook is going to be mad when he sees you have taken it from the middle.”
“We will make it right by telling him how delicious it was.”
She wasn’t so sure. “Maybe we should leave a note so no one gets blamed.”
“Do you have paper with you?” She shook her head. “Shall I leave your unmentionables as a calling card?” he asked, reaching his hand toward his pocket.
“No!” she squealed grabbing his wrist.
The alarmed look on her face made him laugh and he stole a quick kiss.
“I’ll tell him in the morning unless you think I should wake him.”
Miles carried the bowl back to their cabin to ensure none of it ended up in the sea due to an unfortunate, but no doubt, deliberate trip.
“You need new memories of bread pudding to replace the bad. Take off your gown and go lie on the bed.
Miles could tell by her expression and the slow fastidious way she undressed, she was unhappy. Nevertheless, she complied without complaint.
“Roll over on your stomach,” he said. “It is time for your next lesson. I shall call it, ‘Mouths are for more than kissing.’”
He moved her hair aside, took a spoonful of bread pudding and put it on her back between her shoulder blades. With two fingers, he smeared it down her spine leaving a lumpy trail of pudding.
“What are you doing?”
> “You shall see.”
He began licking the dessert off her skin. He started at the top and worked his way lower to the end of the line–just an inch or two above her bottom. She held her breath as he licked and when she inhaled again, it was with an airy sigh.
He put some on the back of both knees and she gave a little giggle as he lapped it up with his tongue.
Before he let her roll back over, he gave all the places a quick swipe with a clean wet cloth so she would not be sticky.
“And where would you like it next?” he asked when he began on her front.
“You know where,” she said.
“Do I?” he asked trying to encourage her to say the word breasts. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll have to guess.”
He held a glob on his first two fingers and let his hand hover over different spots. Her breath would catch when his hand neared her breasts or womanhood but he wanted to tease her a little first and wiped it on her neck.
She moaned as his tongue found her throat. “You are wicked,” she said.
“Maybe you would like to show me how you would do it.”
He watched the silent debate cross her features as she tried to decide if it would be worth it to have to eat hated dessert so she could experience this new bedroom game. “Yes. Yes, I think I would. Lie down on your back,”
Andrea sat up and took the bowl from him as he reclined on the pillows and waited.
“I feel like a two-year-old putting my hands in my food,” she murmured under her breath as she swiped one finger in the bowl picking up a small amount of the offending food. She looked a bit disgusted as she put it on his nipple.
When she looked at her unclean finger with disgust, Miles took pity on her. He grabbed her hand and put her finger in his mouth, gently sucking at it as he licked it clean.
“How do you do that?” she said after a sharp intake of breath. “How do you suck on my finger and make me feel it down there?”
“I drew really hard,” he said in such a serious tone that it took her a moment to realize he was making a jest.
She wondered if she had the ability to excite him the way he excited her. With a frown, she eyed the small glob topping the dark circle. Taking a deep cleansing breath, she steeled herself to lick it off.
Miles Before I Sleep Page 29