“I don’t know what pleases you.”
“You don’t think I can tell you?”
She shrugged again. He stroked his fingers down her cheek, brushing his thumb across that spattering of freckles.
“I’m your husband, Maddie. Nothing that happens between us is going to shame you or hurt you or make you cry.”
“You don’t know that.”
He cocked his head to the side and pulled her braid over her shoulder, sliding his hand down, his knuckles brushing the side of her breast.
“Of all that, which is the one you think I don’t know?”
“Whether I’ll cry.”
He supposed she was right. “Well, if you cry, you can take me out to the shed and shoot me.”
“You don’t have a shed.”
“Then behind the rock yonder.”
Not even a smile.
“Is there anything I can say to calm you down?”
She shook her head.
“In that case, maybe I should just do what I do, and we’ll see how it goes.”
She nodded. “Oh, please.”
Not the hottest invite he’d had into a bed, but it was still an invite. He leaned up over her.
“What are you doing?”
“I thought I’d have a kiss.” He considered it a victory she didn’t remind him that she didn’t kiss. Leaning down, he gently brushed his lips across hers, rubbing them softly, licking at them, bussing the corners and the middle before fitting the edges together. And she lay there and let him. Obviously he was going to have to bring his patience along with his best tonight.
Sliding his palm back up her side, he cupped her breast through her dress. He took her gasp to his soul. Maddie, the hardened prostitute who gasped when a man touched her breast. He shook his head. Such a crime she’d known so little pleasure. Keeping the pressure light and easy, he teased at her lips until they parted, inviting his in. With the same gentle persistence, he coaxed a response from her, keeping his hand on her breast, his thumb on her nipple, not forcing anything. He let her get used to the weight and feel, searching for that passion she’d felt before that, right now, was buried under so much fear.
It took a few minutes of soft kisses, delicious kisses, sweet kisses, Maddie kisses, for her muscles to relax. Caden smiled at the subtle shift of her body into his hand. He killed the instinct to squeeze and fondle. It was too soon. But damn, he wanted to. Maddie had the sexiest body, plump, delicious, soft, curved in all the right places. A feast for a man’s senses. His senses.
He kissed her again, pulling back just a little, seeing her eyes open, smiling down into her face.
“Hello, Maddie mine.”
She blinked and smiled back.
“You feel up to giving me a hug now?”
Another blink. Then those little hands came up around his neck and pulled him down, holding him incredibly tight, clinging to him as if he was her sanity.
“That’s it, Maddie. Hold on to me.”
Her mouth worked and he shook his head, forestalling whatever it was she wanted to throw between them. “You don’t need to say anything, honey.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“You want wild and exciting.”
He kissed her quiet. “I want you, Maddie. However it is between us. You can lie there stiff as a board and it’ll be all right.”
She frowned at him. “You’re lying.”
He shrugged. “A little. But the truth is, this is just the first time. It’s not every time. It’s a beginning, not an ending. I’m going to make love with you as sweet as I can, and I’m going to give you as much pleasure as I can.”
He could tell from the look in her eye she had no idea what he was talking about.
“And when it’s over, I’m going to hold you and fall asleep with you in my arms a happy man. And when you wake up in the morning, I’m still going to be here, holding you, waiting.”
She looked at him as if she wanted to hope, shoving the pain from her eyes. He wanted her to start thinking in give-and-take and not just him taking and her giving, but both of them together.
“What would you be waiting for?” she asked.
He could tell she already knew, but if she wanted to hear it, that was fine with him. He’d tell her every day how much he wanted her kiss if that’s what it took. “For my morning kiss.”
Moisture gathered in her eyes. Shit. If she cried, he’d lose his hard-on for sure. But she didn’t cry and she didn’t run away to that place she escaped to. Instead, she scooted closer and lifted her face to his. “I’d like that.”
Ah, his Maddie was one in a million. “Good.”
This kiss wasn’t as shy, but he liked that, too. Cupping the back of her head in his hand, sliding his fingers gently over the sides of her breasts, he tilted his mouth to hers.
“Like this.”
She not only followed, but she participated, too, copying his moves, sliding her tongue across his, tickling the insides of his upper lip, biting at his lower one, her nails digging into the back of his neck. And it was his turn to moan, her turn to smile. She liked pleasing him the same way he liked pleasing her.
“Shit, you are one hot woman, Maddie Miller.”
She jumped at the sound of her married name. He smiled at it. He liked that she was his, wore his name. If he had his way, he’d put his brand all over that hot body. His.
He kissed his way across her cheek to her ear, catching the lobe between his teeth, biting gently. She shivered from head to toe and gasped and then did the most incredible thing: she turned her head a little, inviting him to do more.
“Ah, Maddie. You are so mine.”
He did it again, obliging her, running his tongue behind her ear, nibbling his way down her neck, walking that delicate line between passion and calm because this was new to her. He could tell. It was there in every hesitant sigh, every pause before every action. She’d have him believe she’d done it all, but what he saw was a woman trapped in memories, trying to break free, and he wanted to be there to catch her when she did, to bring her into the sun, to teach her to fly, to watch her burn in his arms.
“I can’t imagine going to bed without you in my arms,” he told her, unfastening the buttons on her dress as he kissed the hollow of her throat. “To wake up in the morning and not have your hug, and not hear you laugh, to not see your smile, I don’t want to know what that feels like.”
But he would because tomorrow he was going to drop her off in town. It wasn’t safe for her here. And that was going to kill him.
“I’ll never leave you,” she told him, her fingers twisting in his hair, her body twisting under his mouth, her legs parting unconsciously. He settled himself between, his cock throbbing, his pulse pounding. His balls aching. He caught her lower lip between his teeth, imagining what it would feel like to slide his cock into that pretty mouth.
“Say you’re mine.” He needed that at least.
She sighed into his mouth. “Yes.”
The buttons on her dress gave easily. So did Maddie, lifting her breasts into his hands, the tension in her fingers telling him what she wanted to do.
“Go ahead,” he said. “You know you want to.”
“What?”
“Invite my mouth to your breasts.”
She shook her head, bit her lip.
“I’m not going to do it if you don’t ask me, Maddie. Nothing’s going to happen tonight unless you ask me.”
She moaned and looked around. “Ace.”
“Ace is on guard duty.”
She moaned again.
“What do you want, Maddie? This is for you. Tell me what you want.”
Her fingers grazed his lip. It was enough. He undid the ties on her camisole, pushed it down beneath her breasts. Such beautiful breasts. He wanted to see them in daylight, but this wasn’t bad. Pink. Her nipples were the palest pink set atop high, white breasts. Plump, soft nipples he wanted to feel harden against his tongu
e. Her hand slid between them. He shook his head.
“No, honey.” Taking her hands in his, he pinned them over her head beside her shoulders before taking her nipple into his mouth. He sucked softly, gently, the same way he kissed her, teasing and coaxing until he got the response he wanted and it hardened on his tongue. On the flick of his tongue, her breath stuck in her throat.
He let go of her hands. They didn’t move and he smiled. Cupping her left breast in his hand, he rubbed his thumb over that nipple as he sucked the right one. He started out light, very light, just the barest of sensation. He could tell it wasn’t enough.
“Ask me,” he told her, giving her just a little bit more pressure, letting her sense what could happen if it was just right.
“Oh.”
He’d give her anything she wanted, but she had to ask. He wasn’t going to force her, and he didn’t want her looking back thinking she was forced.
“Caden...” The throaty purr in her voice made his cock throb and jerk against the inside of his pants.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“What?”
Her fingers yanked in his hair. “I don’t know what.”
He hadn’t considered that.
“Would you like it harder, Maddie mine? Do you need me,” he asked against her nipple, “to suck your breasts harder?”
“Yes.”
“Then ask me.”
There was only a slight hesitation. “Please, do it harder.”
At last, the permission he wanted. He took the tip of her lush breast in his mouth, plumping the nipple against his tongue, settling his teeth slightly around it, feeling her arch immediately. Fear, not passion. He stroked his finger down her cheek, catching it on the corner of her mouth, sliding it inside.
“Easy, baby. This isn’t about me taking or you hurting. This is about a husband showing his wife how much he appreciates her and making her feel good.”
Her start at the word wife was a mystery until she whispered, “I’m supposed to be making you feel good.”
“What makes you think this doesn’t?”
“I’m not touching you.”
“If I’m not enjoying myself, then explain to me why I’m about to come.”
She didn’t have an answer for that, and it was just as well. He was about out of sensible talk.
He unbuttoned her dress the rest of the way.
“Lift up.” He tugged it down her hips. She lay before him in her pantaloons and camisole, lush and beautiful, everything he wanted.
“Do you mind if I undo this braid?”
She looked up at him. “I did it so you could.”
It took him a minute, busy as he was at her breasts, to process that.
“Maddie, you aren’t by any chance playing a role for me, are you? Slipping into your fantasy?”
“I’m not pretending.”
“But you are playing a role for me.”
“You said I was a virgin. You know I’m not.”
Yes, he did. “Honey, I said you were a virgin in the context of you don’t know what this is all about.”
“I know what to do.”
He took one of her hands, clenched as it was beside her head, and brought it to his lips.
“You don’t know shit. You know what it’s like to be taken. You know what it’s like to be forced. You know what it’s like to service a man, but you don’t know shit about how it should be between us.”
“Should it be different?”
“Between us it needs to be natural, an even give-and-take of pleasure.”
She was licking her lips again, a sure sign she was nervous.
“What now?”
“I don’t feel pleasure.”
How the hell could she have? No one had bothered to give it to her. “No reason you should up till now. But now is different. Now is us going forward.”
“Making our own life,” she said, her tone lightening.
He could tell she liked that. “Yes. Making our life.”
Her expression grew serious. “What do you want me to do?”
He’d say nothing, except he had a feeling that wasn’t going to get him where he wanted to go.
“I want you to close your eyes and relax, and every time it feels good, I want you to let me know.”
“How?”
Screaming, biting, scratching, all those came to his mind. “How about giving me one of those little sighs and smiles I like so much.”
She nodded. “All right. But what if it doesn’t feel good?”
“Then I’m going to have to change my technique until it does. That’s all. Nothing too difficult about that.”
He touched his tongue to her breast and looked up. He had to wait a heartbeat and give it a little wiggle, but then he got that smile he was looking for.
“You like that.”
She nodded. “I don’t know why. It just kind of feels good.”
“Real good or a little good?”
“Little good.”
So he needed a bit more pressure. “Wonderful. Let’s see if we can add to that little good now.”
She was like a banked fire in his arms. All it would take was the right touch, the right persuasion, and she’d burn out of control. He wanted to find that for her, that spark that would crackle into flame.
Rolling onto his back until she was propped above him, her pussy cushioning his cock, he whispered, “Come here, baby.”
She went, her mouth finding his with an enthusiasm that had him pushing up. “That’s it.”
She licked her lips, giving him a view of that little pink tongue. He had visions of it stroking across his cock. He groaned as her hips wiggled on his. Her eyes widened as the sensation streaking through him shot through her. He smiled into her face.
“You have that effect on me. You make me crazy, baby.”
“Any woman could do that.”
He shook his head. “I’m not saying I don’t enjoy bed sport as much as the next man, but lately fucking for fucking’s sake just doesn’t work for me. I find—” he pushed loose tendrils of hair back from her face, taking her braid in his hand as she propped herself above his chest, working the tie free before slowly sorting the strands out “—that I’ve been wanting something special, someone special.”
“I’m not special.”
He shook his head at her. “That’s for me to decide.”
“But I get to find—”
This time he put his finger over her mouth more firmly. “You’re my wife. Our future starts here, and I need you to pay attention, because I want to do this right so it’s a good beginning, so when you look back and our daughter asks you what to expect on her wedding night, you’ll smile.”
“Oh, dear.”
“What?”
She shook her head, her nails digging into his chest. “Hold me.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
He did. “I’ll do better than that. I’m going to love you.”
He worked her pantaloons over her hips, pushing them down until he could catch them with his toes, taking them the rest of the way off. She lay passively on top of him when he wanted fire. Sliding his hands down her back, he cupped them on the inside of her thighs and pulled them apart, nestling his cock between, pushing up until she was sitting in his lap, his cock still trapped in his pants, pressing hard against her pussy. He rocked his hips, catching her gasp in his mouth as the rough fabric of his trousers abraded her intimately.
“Feels good?”
She nodded and gasped, “Very good.”
He groaned when she wiggled. It’d been a long time for him and she was so hot, so sexy.
“Easy, honey.”
In response she wiggled again.
“Fuck.”
She laughed.
“Wench.”
She leaned down and whispered in his ear, “You have too many clothes on.”
So he did. Setting her to the side, he stripped so fast a bu
tton popped. Before he could come back down, she reached out and caught his cock in her hand. He covered hers with his, shaking his head.
“This time’s for you.”
She looked at him and smiled a witchy smile that sank deep into his lust, stoking it almost as much as her throaty “I know.”
She didn’t let go of his cock. Instead, she moved that soft hand up and down his shaft, from base to tip, palming the head, coaxing a bead of pre-come to the tip. It’d take a better man than him to move right then. He closed his eyes and let her have her way. He expected her to touch him with a whore’s practiced hand, but instead she seemed to be experimenting, even playing, and he realized for her this was another first. Enjoying a man rather than servicing him.
She looked up. It was his turn to smile. “Nothing better than your hand on my cock.”
She licked her lips, those full lips, and dropped her lashes over her eyes. Though she leaned in and he’d seen her take another, he’d swear that shyness wasn’t feigned. And maybe it wasn’t. He was far from a virgin, but he felt shy with her. Because this mattered. He stopped her before her mouth could touch him. One touch of those lips and it would all be over for him, and there was a whole lot of pleasure he wanted to give her before that happened.
“Later.” At her look he explained, “I want to taste you first.”
She blinked.
“Hasn’t anyone ever tasted that sweet pussy of yours?”
She shook her head.
“Ah, honey, we’re going to have so much fun.” A twist of his body was all it took to flip her over onto the bedroll. Her hair tumbled about her face, adding a luminosity to her eyes. Peace surrounded by fire. He leaned down and kissed her.
“Maddie mine.” Trailing that kiss across her cheek to her neck and her shoulder. Her nipples pressed against his chest, little points of heat. More evidence of that fire he wanted to coax from her. He worked his way down, sliding one hand under her thigh, wrapping it around his hips, getting her to hold on to him, to cling to him.
When she moaned, he whispered, “Good girl.”
“I’m not a child.”
He cupped her full breast in his hand, plumping the nipple to his mouth. “No, you’re not, but you’re still good.”
She moaned and nodded. He drew on her nipple hard. She arched off the ground, giving him the opportunity to slide his hand under her back and press her closer still.
Caden's Vow Page 18
