A Merchant's Daughter

by Arabella Sheen

  She wanted Aaron to make love to her. She wanted him to take her and make her his. She wanted only him.

  His tongue teased her lips apart, and as he probed inside her mouth, his hands pushed aside the blanket that was draped protectively around her shoulders. He was exposing her scantily clad body, and the cool of the night air rushed over her. She trembled with longing.

  His gaze devoured her, and the covering of her thin, cotton chemise was no barrier for his caressing fingers and searching mouth.

  “Miss Brentry…”

  Daringly, she began releasing the buttons on his waistcoat, and it was soon cast off and tossed aside to join the other discarded items of clothing.

  “Yes…Mr. Trent?” She sighed.

  The hurried rise and fall of her breasts as she gasped for air was clearly inflaming his desire. Having kissed the hollow at the base of her neck, he rested his head against hers.

  “Emma…we cannot continue. We have to stop. I have told you, I cannot marry you. I cannot marry anyone. I have nothing to offer,” he whispered. “What we are doing is wrong, and I would be a cad if I took advantage of your innocence.”

  She gave a nervous laugh and caressed his cheek softly with her hand.

  “But this is what I want. Truly it is.”

  “You are too young to know what you want,” he told her.

  “I am four-and-twenty, and I know my own mind. I’m determined that you shall take me…or whatever it is a man is supposed to do. Aaron, if you will not be my husband, then be my lover…for one night. Just one passionate night. That is all I’m asking of you. Make love to me, please. Teach me what a woman must do to satisfy a man. Show me how a man takes his pleasure.”

  Instinctively, Emma knew Aaron would guide and initiate her in the ways of love with tenderness. And so far, much to her delight, he had been nothing but kind and considerate.

  The way he cradled her tenderly in his arms gave her hope. He had not refused her fumbling advances. And as his fingers gently caressed her body, it seemed he had not totally rejected the idea of making love to her either.

  Aaron’s thumb moved across her lower lip. “You are lovely. You are intelligent. And you will probably marry Stratton, and then―”

  “Aaron, I do not know what awaits me when I return to Bath. More than likely I shall indeed be coerced into accepting an unhappy marriage with Lord Stratton, or someone of similar birth and rank. If that comes to pass…well, that will be my fate.”

  “You do not seem the type of person to accept such a disastrous conclusion.”

  “Generally, I’m not.” She sighed and nestled close against him. “I once had the luxury to pick and choose a partner. I do not have that privilege now. Age is against me. Men do not wish to marry someone my age, and I’m told bearing children might be a problem. If honest, I have to say I’m happy as I am. I do not need a husband…and I do not need a man. But I realize my father has expectations, and having thought carefully about my predicament, I’m quite at peace with my decision. An arranged marriage of convenience will be best for all concerned. Neither party need have false expectations, but first, before I am to enter into a loveless marriage, I would like to experience true desire and true passion with a man of my choice, even if it is only for one night.”

  “And you think I am the man to share that experience with?”

  Aware of the size and power of his manly body beside her, a violent shiver of desire ran through her.

  “I know you are,” she said decisively. “No strings. No ties. Just one night of passion is all I’m asking for.”

  To gain Aaron’s sympathy, Emma had indeed stretched the truth. She’d implied she would be forced into a loveless marriage, but in fact, she would never be so weak in character to the extent she would consent to marrying just anyone. She was strong-willed. Strong-minded. And she intended to marry to an advantage.

  If she must marry, then she would do so with her head and not with a heart full of false hope. She knew Lord Stratton wouldn’t offer love. He was after one thing and one thing only―the wealth she might bring to the marriage. But if she could find someone with whom she could live comfortably, someone who wouldn’t demand too much from her, she would be prepared to compromise.

  Over the years, many admirers hoping to win her hand had come and gone, and her father, a doting parent, had indulged her reluctance to marry. He had waited uncomplainingly for her to find someone she could love, but so far, no suitable candidates had appeared. She had refused all offers. But the time had now come for her to take a husband, and she knew there could be no more delays and no more excuses.

  With dauntless confidence, Emma leaned forward and kissed Aaron’s lips. She sought to deepen the kiss, and as their mouths opened, their tongues invaded and explored. She was instantly aware of the hard, jutting force of his arousal pressing against her thighs. She was exciting him, and she felt a sense of womanly power. She was affecting him and making him want her, and to know that was exhilarating.

  “Do you think me a wanton woman or just a fool for coming to the barn in search of you?” she asked.

  Pushing aside his shirt and placing her hands on his chest, she caressed the smooth contours beneath her fingers. He felt warm to the touch.

  “Neither,” he said softly. “If anything, I think you are too naïve and unknowing of what you do. You have no idea what you are about to unleash if you stay with me tonight.”

  Aaron’s fingers pulled the pins from her hair, causing total disarray. Her curls tumbled and cascaded around her naked shoulders.

  “True, I do not know what is to happen, but I would like you to show me. I know you will be a good lover, and I sense you will be kind to me in your lovemaking.”

  Her heart was hammering. Daringly, she placed her hands against his groin. She felt him stiffen, and then she kissed him, long and hard. He didn’t reject her advances as her hands explored.

  “Are you sure?” he whispered.

  “Aaron…please. Please, pleasure me. Tomorrow we must part, but just for tonight, I would like you to teach me all the things I have been missing with a man.”

  Chapter 6

  It had been a while since Aaron had lain with a woman. Of course, he’d had the occasional brief encounter and illicit liaison during the Napoleonic war years, but those amorous trysts had been with camp followers and not ladies of respectable birth. War wasn’t an ideal climate in which to have meaningful relationships, and as for the pursuit of marriage, the chance of matrimony was practically non-existent when serving on a battlefield.

  When Aaron had first met Emma, he had felt only a gentlemanly need to protect her. He’d been eager to do anything she asked. And when she had wanted him to retrieve her belongings from the roadside, he had stepped forward, ready to help. But tonight, she had asked him to make love to her, and his willingness to coldly do as she wished was against all his gentlemanly beliefs.

  It would be recklessly wrong to deflower her simply because she had asked him to, but there was also the demon urge to satisfy the manly desires growing in his loins. The need to take her, purely on a physical level, had become all-consuming.

  He wanted to show Emma the delights of lovemaking, but if he was indeed her first lover, he was concerned she might feel a sense of shame and loss once their lovemaking was over. Her wide-eyed innocence was something that could never be returned. If he took her virginity, he had to be certain she would feel no pangs of regret afterward. Once they started on their impassioned journey, there could be no turning back.

  Emma undulated in slow, rhythmic movements beneath him. The scent of expensive French perfume drifted toward him and his senses were stirred.

  Her rounded breasts were pressed firmly against his chest, and with their bodies touching, his thin shirt and her almost transparent chemise were no barriers for the heat of their inflamed desires. He could feel her warmth. And as hands rested around her waist and traveled up toward her breasts, he heard her give a sharp intake of breat
h and knew he’d aroused her.

  He was going to take it slow. He didn’t want to scare her. And while she lay trustingly beneath him, the feel and taste of her soft skin as his lips explored was having an effect on his self-control. Strangely, he felt clumsy and inept. For the first time in ages, he felt the need to impress like never before. His manly rod was becoming even harder at the thought of burying himself deep inside her, and he knew he had to curb his hungry passion and keep a tight rein on his carnal urges, for Emma’s sake. But he didn’t know if he could.

  For Aaron, it was important Emma enjoyed her first time with a man, and he wanted their lovemaking to completely satisfy her. Not wanting to rush things and run the risk of wounding her, he linked his arms around her slender waist and began gently deepening the intensity of his kisses as his lips and tongue explored.

  He worked his magic.

  “What do you want me to do? How can I please you?” She sounded nervous as her fingers played with the drawstrings on his shirt.

  He didn’t answer. Instead, he tilted her face up and looked deep into her eyes.

  In her own way, Emma was pleasingly pretty. She might not have the classical, exquisite beauty of some debutantes he had known, but there was an attractiveness that made him want to protect her while at the same time totally possess her until she was completely his. He was no longer in possession of his urges, and it was a new experience for him.

  A heady scent of roses drifted to his nostrils. She smelled fresh and fragrant, and when his lips found the delicate lobe of her ear, she tasted sweet.

  Once again, their lips touched. As he kissed her long and hard, he slipped his fingers beneath the fine décolletage of her chemise and caressed the soft curves of her full, rounded breasts. Gently, he pried the orbs from their protective covering, and in the glow of the moon’s light, he could see the taut, rosy buds of her nipples and the dark areolas surrounding them.

  “Are you sure you would like me to continue?” He spoke gently, wanting to be certain that this was what she longed for.

  “Yes…yes, please,” she pleaded.

  When her hips lifted invitingly upward and pressed near his groin, he stiffened. She was a natural. Instinctively, she knew what was needed.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Nothing will happen that you do not consent to. And tonight, I promise, you will become mine, completely and totally, and we will be joined as one.”

  Emma squirmed beneath him, and when the sound of an agonized whimper escaped from between her parted lips, he knew she was enjoying his caresses and wanted more.

  Aaron wanted to make Emma cry out with pleasure at his touch. He wanted her to beg for release, and only then was he prepared to fulfill her wishes and take her.

  Slipping his fingers beneath the straps of her chemise, he pulled her shift from her shoulders, easing the soft fabric down to her waist. Both breasts were completely exposed to his searching caresses. Her nipples were ripe for sucking, and dropping his head, he found an erect bud and drew it eagerly into his mouth.

  Her skin tasted salty, yet there was also a delicious tang to it. He moved from one nipple to the other and trailed a hand slowly down her body to the most intimate part of her pelvis where her loins met. He had reached the hot, wet, sensitive area between her thighs; her womanly crevice. Gently, he began to caress her there.

  Her chemise was in the way, but when he went to remove the garment completely so he could explore her body unhindered, he felt her stiffen.

  Emma’s moans of pleasure stopped. She was tense. He could tell she was anxious about what was to come, and he tried to soothe her.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “Touch me. Touch me here.” He hauled her against his body.

  Loosening the tail of his shirt from his pantaloons, he placed her hands beneath the folds of his clothing until they rested against his hot, burning skin. Of her own accord, Emma began to caress his torso. As she stroked his chest, his penis jerked into action. Her touch excited him. The feel of her hands caressing his body stirred his passion, and he longed to bury himself deep inside her womanly cavern.

  His leg pressed against her thigh, and as he continued kissing her breasts, Emma arched her back and offered herself up for his kisses. His hands squeezed her round orbs together, and burying his face in the deep valley, he inhaled her scent into his lungs on a sigh. Her fragrance was intoxicating, and she smelled so good.

  It had been such a long time since he had been this close to a woman that his senses were reeling with a lustful craving to part her legs and take her hurriedly then and there. But he had to wait. He wanted to bring her to a fever pitch of longing before he brought her to a final climax.

  Emma looked enticingly seductive, and a burning heat churned in his groin. Her hair cascaded loosely around her shoulders, and in her innocence, she was unwittingly tempting him with her body. Her smile was bewitching, and when she ran her hands caressingly across his shoulders and down his back, the ache in his loins grew all the more intense.

  He was desperate for her, but he knew she wasn’t quite ready for him to take her…not yet.

  Longing to feel her skin next to his, he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it carelessly aside. Then, pressing himself back down onto her body, with his weight, he pushed her into the warmth of the blanket beneath them and held her close.

  He was bared to the waist, and although Emma’s torso was also naked, she was still wearing too much. Her chemise had to go. Taking a firm hold of the sheer fabric in both hands, he tore it in two, revealing what he most wanted to see. Her womanly body exposed in all its glory.

  Emma’s breasts were large and heavy. Her waistline tapered to the rounded swell of her shapely hips, and her slender legs met at the top of her loins, where a triangle of soft, feather-down hair could be seen.

  Unable to resist, he ran his fingers up her thighs to the central core of her being.

  “You are so beautiful,” he said with raw passion in his voice.

  His lips were clamped against hers, covering her mouth, silencing any protests that might come. But no protests came. Instead, Emma raised her arms and locked them around his neck. With wanton eagerness, she moved shyly against the length of his body, and he sensed the urgency in her growing need and inner turmoil.

  He was sure Emma could feel the hard, solid mass of his penis inside his pantaloons. The way his thick rod thrashed about waiting to be released was too obvious to be ignored. If he didn’t act soon, he would spend his load and their chance of climaxing together would be gone.

  Positioned over her, he slid another knee between her thighs and spread her legs wide. His hand reached between them, and when his fingers became entangled in the soft, curly hairs that covered her mons, he heard her give an aroused gasp of pleasure. He had hit the spot. The spot that all women loved to have touched.

  It was clear she liked what he was doing.

  Parting her womanly lips and dipping a finger into the warm moistness seeping from her crevice, he found the hard nub of her swollen clitoris and began to rub his thumb and fingers rhythmically in slow, circular motions. She shuddered.

  Emma lifted her hips from the blanket. Offering herself up to his unspoken commands, her head thrashed from side to side as the pace of his fingers quickened. Rubbing vigorously, he was bringing her to a fever pitch of excitement, and as she squirmed urgently against his teasing fingers, he knew she wanted more.

  “Yes…oh, yes, please. Harder,” she begged.

  He was trying to stay calm and hoping to keep a semblance of aloofness as he struggled to maintain control, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. This was supposed to be a fleeting encounter. Tomorrow they would part. But at this very moment, all he could think about was how she had bewitched him and how he had to complete their journey of passion together…and soon.

  His mouth came down on hers and as their tongues explored further, so too did his fingers. First, he pushed one finger deep inside her moist slit, and then
a second followed. She was tight. Her muscles clamped down hard, and he knew by the way she tensed that she wasn’t ready for him to enter her with his shaft. She wasn’t relaxed enough.

  But when his thumb grazed against her throbbing clitoris and flicked from side to side, he soon had her bucking and writhing with pleasure.

  Blood pulsated throughout his shaft, and the time had come to take Emma to a higher level of fulfillment. He couldn’t delay much longer. As she lay open to him, vulnerable and completely exposed, he knew he had to introduce her to the true delights and pleasures of lovemaking.

  Softly, he stroked the inner walls of her vagina, and her whimpering grew louder. His fingers were covered in her juices, and her arousal was clear.

  Kneeling between her parted legs, he dropped the fall flap of his pantaloons and released his erect penis from the confines of its prison. His shaft jerked free. Positioning himself before her wet opening, he wedged his rod firmly against her entrance and prepared to enter.

  Her hot juices coated the crown of his shaft, and with one forceful thrust, he penetrated smoothly past her barrier and sheathed himself deep inside.

  Emma cried out and froze.

  Embedded and joined as one, they lay entwined.

  Emma had indeed been a virgin, and having entered her hot, wet cavern, he had in one fell swoop, deflowered her.

  * * * *

  There was a fleeting sensation of pain as Aaron broke through her maidenhead. He had penetrated her, and the hard length of his thick shaft grew even bigger inside. He filled her. And as the pressure increased, she let out a soft moan of discomfort and dug her fingers into his shoulders. It was almost too much to endure, but there was no escape. She tensed, and as he cradled her, holding her close in his arms, she trembled.