by Marie Force
“Good.”
Derek smiled. “What is good? That I have lain with women or that I have not lain with many?”
“Both. I should hate for neither of us to have any idea what we are to do, but I am glad to have only a few of whom to be jealous.”
“You need not be jealous of any other woman. I have never wanted any woman, or anything, for that matter, more than I want you.”
She gazed up at him, her heart in her eyes. “How can that be when we have only just met?”
“I cannot begin to understand it myself. I only know that after the first time I kissed you, I knew I would never again want to kiss anyone else.”
“Oh, Jack,” she sighed, her hands moving with provocative intent over his chest. “You say the sweetest things.”
“You are certain you wouldn’t rather wait to have relations until after we are married?”
“Is it possible to be married soon?”
“I will apply for a special license today, so perhaps by tomorrow, the next day at the latest, we can have the local vicar marry us.” There would be hell to pay with Lindsey, but Derek would worry about that later. He couldn’t yet think of the hell he’d have to pay when his wife discovered whom she’d really married. That, too, was a thought for another day.
“If that is the case,” she said, trailing a finger from his chest to his belly, “does it really make a difference if we wait?”
“I wish to treat you only with the utmost respect and decorum, but I seem to keep failing in that regard.”
Her eyes narrowed with what seemed to be despair. “How can you say that? You have provided me with safety and shelter and more affection than I have received in longer than I can remember.”
“But I have also been forward and improper at times.”
“And I have encouraged your forwardness and impropriety, so we are equally guilty.”
Derek smiled. How could he not? He had never been happier or more content. Finally, he had found a woman whom he could not only talk to, but who endlessly entertained him and fired his desires like no one else ever had. Since they had worked out as many of the details as they could at that moment, he decided to attend to those desires. He reached for the first button to her dress.
Catherine gasped at the brush of his fingers over her sensitive skin.
“I don’t wish to hurt you,” he said, kissing a trail from her neck to her upper chest.
“You couldn’t.”
“The first time can be painful for a woman. Have you, did you, your mother . . .” Sighing, he rested his head on her shoulder. “You turn me into a bumbling fool.”
She giggled softly at his distress. “You wish to know if my mother ever spoke to me about what transpires between a man and woman in their marriage bed.”
“Yes,” he said, relieved that she had been able to express it so eloquently.
“She did not speak to me for she had no reason to. Ian was killed weeks before our wedding.”
“So you don’t know what to expect?”
“I never said that.” She flashed that coy smile he was beginning to love. “I have read. Somewhat extensively.”
“Ah, yes, the six-hundred books.”
Her cheeks flushed to a delightful shade of pink. “And I have worked with horses.”
“Well, then, you are as prepared as any lady can be.”
Her stern expression made him want to laugh. “Are you mocking me?”
“No,” he whispered, returning to the sweet succor of her mouth. “I am most assuredly not mocking you.”
“Jack,” she said, sighing, “when you kiss me that way, my entire body trembles.”
“Then I suspect you will like when I kiss you elsewhere.” Derek yearned to hear his real name whispered from her lips in the throes of passion, but he reminded himself that he couldn’t tell her. Not yet. Not until he had assured her safety. He finished unbuttoning her dress and helped her up so he could slide it off her shoulders. The thin muslin of her shift did little to hide her enticing curves, and once again, Derek had to remind himself to savor when he would’ve preferred to devour.
They worked together to remove her dress and his shirt. She stared at him with reverence in her eyes. “You are so beautiful.”
“Men are not beautiful,” he said, embarrassed by her effusiveness.
“You are the exception.” Running her hands over his chest and arms, examining each muscle in detail, she had him on the verge of release within seconds.
Desperate to regain control, Derek helped her up to remove her shoes and roll the stockings down her legs, leaving her covered only by the shift and thin drawers. He took her delicate foot in his much larger hand and pressed a kiss to her arch.
She giggled uncontrollably.
“Is my darling ticklish?” he asked.
“Terribly.”
“Then I shan’t torment you any further.” He moved his mouth to the inside of her ankle before turning his attention to her calf. By then she was no longer laughing, but rather panting and squirming. Derek loved her responsiveness and was delighted to know that she desired him every bit as much as he desired her.
“You have found a new way to torment me,” she said as he paid homage to the back of her knee.
He chuckled softly. “I have only begun to torment you, my love.”
“Am I your love, Jack?”
“I do believe you could well be the love of my life, Catherine. The very reason I was born.”
A shudder rippled through her entire body as she attempted to blink back tears. “I had despaired of ever finding you.”
“I have been right here,” he whispered against her trembling thigh, “all this time. Waiting for you to find me.” Moving slowly, so as not to startle her, he slid her drawers down past slender hips and long legs and flung them over his shoulder. He smoothed his hands along the creamy skin of her thighs, pushing the shift up as he went. When he uncovered the thatch of pale blond hair at the apex of her thighs, his mouth went dry and his heart all but leapt from his chest.
She watched everything he did with eyes open wide with passion and shock and what he hoped was pleasure. He wanted nothing more than to sate her with more pleasure than she’d ever imagined possible. Pushing the shift up farther, he revealed her a bit at a time by laying a path of hot, openmouthed kisses on her belly. Just as he was about to uncover her breasts, she stopped him, and he noticed she was suddenly breathing hard.
“Do you wish me to stop, Catherine? We don’t have to—”
“No, I don’t wish to stop. I just need a moment to catch my breath.”
He pressed his lips to the softness of her belly. “Take all the time you need, my sweet.”
She surprised him a minute later when she reached for the hem of her shift and tugged it over her head, leaving her completely bare to his worshipful gaze.
“I have never seen anything more beautiful.” His eyes skimmed over her, settling on her copious breasts with pretty pink nipples. He cupped the satin mounds and ran his lips in circles around the crowns, denying her the contact she craved. Her hips surged against him, driving him mad with desire. Finally, when it seemed that neither of them could survive another minute of teasing, he dipped his head and sucked one nipple deep into his mouth while rolling the other between his fingers.
She cried out, but held his head tight against her chest, letting him know he was to continue. It was just as well since he couldn’t possibly stop now. Not after sampling her sweetness. He sucked and licked and lightly rolled her nipple between his teeth. By the time he raised his head to sample the other side, her well-loved nipple had turned a deep, dark pink. Derek blew on it, drawing another cry from her.
“Oh, Lord,” she whispered as he gave her other breast the same attention. “I had no idea it would be so . . .”
“So what, love?”
“Consuming. All-consuming.”
“It isn’t always. Not like this.”
“Then we are a good mat
ch?”
“We are a very good match,” he said, eager to prove to her just how good a match they were. “Do you trust me, Cat?”
“Oh yes. Yes! I trust you with my life, Jack!”
“Then let me show you how truly all-consuming it can be.”
Chapter Nine
As Jack suckled and licked the tips of her breasts, Catherine was quite certain she had died and gone straight to heaven. That this big, beautiful, thoughtful man wanted her so desperately still came as a shock after living most of her life in the shadow of her younger and much more attractive sister. Wait until Madeleine feasted her eyes on the man who would be Catherine’s husband!
Her husband! Jack Bancroft. Mrs. Jack Bancroft. Catherine Bancroft. Oh God, she thought, as he continued to cup her breasts while kissing his way to her belly.
Did she trust him? Good Lord, she had never trusted anyone more than this fine, wonderful man who had been so incredibly good to her. She would give him anything he asked for, anything at all. But surely he couldn’t mean to . . . “Jack!”
“You trust me, remember?” This he said as his broad shoulders forced her legs farther apart than Catherine had ever had them. What a shameful and sinfully good feeling to have his chest hair tickling her most sensitive region.
“Yes,” she stammered. “I trust you, but certainly you can’t . . . Oh! Oh God!” His tongue scorched a trail between her legs—long, sensuous licks of heat and fire. “Jack!”
“Relax and let me love you, Cat.”
She loved that he had chosen a nickname for her that no one else had ever used. Kate and Katie, yes, but never Cat. That belonged only to him. She tried to heed his advice, but the sensation of his tongue, licking her there . . . How did one ever relax when that was being done to them? And then he found a spot that seemed to be the very center of her, a place she hadn’t even known existed until she met him and began to feel those odd twinges and tingles and throbs right there. Oh, yes, yes, yes!
At this point she no longer cared that she must resemble a total wanton. Her legs flew open even wider, her hips came off the bed to get closer. Oh what, what was happening to her? “Jack! Jack!”
And then he slid a finger deep inside her, and Catherine imploded, shattering into tiny glimmering pieces of the person she had been before him, before them, before this. As aftershocks ricocheted from her hands to her feet to her breasts to her core and everywhere in between, her body glistened with sweat, her heart galloped relentlessly and she was reborn. Here, in the stark light of day, he had changed her forever.
“Jack,” she whispered.
He kissed his way from her belly to her breasts and then her mouth. “I am here, love. I am right here.”
She tasted her essence on his tongue as he kissed her deeply. “Wh-What happened to me?”
“You experienced fulfillment, my sweet.”
“It was so . . .”
He laughed at her fumbling attempt to describe the indescribable.
“Spectacular,” she decided. “It was spectacular.”
“Yes, it was.”
She was finally able to bring herself to make eye contact with him, and heat flooded her overly sensitive body. “Did you too?”
“Not yet.”
“But you said it was spectacular!”
“Watching you reach your fulfillment was perhaps the most spectacular thing I have ever experienced.”
Imagining how she must have appeared to him caused her face to go hot with mortification.
“Don’t be ashamed, Cat. Don’t ever be ashamed of how we express our love for each other. Promise me.”
“I promise, Jack.” She reached for him and ran her hands over his back, coming to a stop at the waist to his breeches. “Can we, are you, do you want to—”
He kissed the words off her swollen lips. “Yes, I want to.” Reaching for the buttons, he freed himself and kicked off his remaining clothing. “I really, really want to.”
At the sight of his straining member, Catherine’s eyes widened and her heart quickened. “But it will never fit!”
“Oh, believe me, my love,” he said, laughing, “it will fit.”
“How?” She squirmed about in an effort to get free of him. “How in the world will it fit?”
He lay on his side and turned her to face him. “You said before that you trusted me?”
She met his gaze and nodded, even as a surge of fear nearly took her breath away.
“Then trust me when I tell you it will fit, and it will only hurt for a brief moment before it feels very, very good. I promise.”
Though she wanted so badly to believe him, Catherine shook from head to toe. Nothing had ever seemed more tempting or more off-putting at the same time. While she anticipated the pain, he seemed to be in no particular hurry, starting all over again with carnal kisses that began the throbbing between her legs anew.
The sensation of his much larger, much stronger body pressed tight against hers, the feel of his hands caressing her breasts, his warm, clean, masculine scent overwhelmed her. Her every sense was on full alert, waiting and anticipating. Now that she knew what to expect at the end she wondered if it would happen again. He hooked her leg over his hip, opening her to questing fingers that slid in and out of her effortlessly.
“Do you feel that?” he whispered. “Your body is ready for me.”
Catherine tried to believe she was ready for him, but still she trembled uncontrollably. “You will be gentle?”
“Always.” He shifted them so he was poised between her legs.
The blunt head of his shaft pressing against her swollen flesh made her tense up. “Relax, love,” he whispered in her ear. “Let me in.”
Catherine took a deep, ragged breath and tried to force her lower body to relax.
Jack pressed harder this time, and her body burned and stretched as it accommodated him.
When he retreated, Catherine knew a moment of relief before he entered her again, surging deeper this time.
“That’s it, my love,” he whispered. “That’s it.”
His face was rigid, his eyes closed tight, his lips parted. To Catherine, he had never been more fiercely attractive.
She framed his face with her hands and brought his mouth to meet hers as he pushed forward before retreating again. Just as she became accustomed to the pressure below and the thrusts of his tongue into her mouth, he pressed into her again, farther than before, and a deep, searing pain stole the breath from her lungs. She tore her lips free and cried out, tears seeping from her eyes.
He held her tight against him. “That was it, my darling. That was the beginning and the end of the pain.”
By now, Catherine was drenched with sweat, some hers and some his, as he slid into her again before retreating almost completely. When he didn’t come back the way he had before, she forced her eyes open to find him gazing down at her. “Why did you stop?”
“I can’t bear to hurt you. It hurts me almost as much as it does you.”
At that moment, Catherine was certain that she loved him. She found his waist and shifted her hands lower, cupping his muscular buttocks and encouraging him to continue.
With a low growl he entered her fully.
“Oh!” she cried. “Oh you were right. It does feel wonderful!”
Her confession seemed to shatter what remained of Jack’s control. He pumped into her, urging her up again to that place he had taken her once before. The crisis grew and multiplied until there was nothing left but him, deep inside her, taking her where she could only go with him. Catherine raised her hips from the bed and met his final thrust, the one that completed her transformation and made her his forever.
* * *
Derek knew he should move, that he must be crushing her, but nothing in his body seemed to work anymore.
Her hands moved languidly over his back in light caresses that made him feel loved and cared for and finally, finally home. She was his home, and he was ever more grateful that he had never b
uckled under the enormous pressure to marry someone acceptable to everyone but him. For now he knew that no one but Catherine McCabe would have sufficed.
Dragging himself out of the stupor, he remembered that he needed to care for her. Somehow he managed to raise his head. Her eyes were closed, and her lips curved into a satisfied smile that warmed his heart.
Derek bent his head and kissed that smile.
Her eyes fluttered open, and for a long breathless moment, they simply absorbed each other.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I am divine.”
“Do you hurt?”
“It was worth any discomfort.”
“Was the discomfort substantial?”
Her fingers danced over his face, as if she were memorizing every plane and texture. “The pleasure was substantial.”
Despite her moan of protest, he finally withdrew from her and kissed her again. “Stay here. I will be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“Do not fret, my love.” Still unclothed, he went to the fireplace in the sitting room to heat a pan of water. When it was warm, he moistened a towel and carried it back into the bedroom, wishing he’d had a water closet installed here when he’d done so at the main house. Catherine had covered herself and rolled onto her side.
Derek brushed the silky strands off her face and kissed each closed eye. “I need to tend to you.”
Her eyes flipped open. “How do you mean?”
He eased the covers down.
She tried to stop him.
Reaching for her hands, he moved them to her sides. “A little late for modesty now, is it not?” Chuckling, he watched a blush color her fair skin as he finished uncovering her and eased her legs apart.
“Jack, honestly. This is not necessary.”
Derek applied the warm compress to her tender flesh. “Oh, oh. That is heavenly.” He smiled, transfixed by her ardent reactions to every new experience.
“Open for me, love.”
Catherine eased her feet farther apart, and Derek bathed her with loving care. “You are never to be embarrassed by how we express our love for each other, remember?”
“I never imagined we would express our love in this particular way.”
