She closed her eyes, squeezing his hand that lay against her face.
“Keep your eyes closed,” he whispered, and Amelia complied. She lay there, trembling with anticipation as his warm hands skimmed along her calves, stopped at her knees, and continued up to her thighs. His palm rubbed against the high inside of her leg, so near her most private place that she shuddered. Then, he slowly began to roll down her stocking. He eased it over her knee and calf, and then pulled it off her toes.
“Can I open my eyes now?” she asked shakily.
“No.”
She shivered again.
His strong, sure hands moved to her other leg, caressing upward until they met with the top of her second stocking. He hooked one finger under the fabric and gently rubbed back and forth against her inner thigh.
Amelia sucked in her breath. He was so close, so close to touching her where she most desperately wanted him to.
“Now?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
She blew out a breath, tried to relax. This was turning out to be so much fun.
Thad slowly rolled the second stocking down her thigh, his palms skimming along her bare skin. Amelia bit her lip and wriggled her hips.
The sound of buttons coming undone nearly made Amelia look. He was taking off his breeches, she could feel it. Anticipation hummed along her nerves.
Next, his strong hands were at her hips, shimmying up her chemise past her thighs. She was bare to him, exposed. He was looking at her naked body and it felt…delicious. He pulled the garment up over her head and it swished to the floor.
“Now?” she pleaded.
“Not quite yet.”
Amelia was intensely aware of the fact that they were both naked, but she couldn’t look at him. Not yet. She reached for him, wanting to touch him. He grabbed her wrists and imprisoned them next to her hips. The bed shifted under his weight as he moved down…down…down.
By the time Amelia realized what he was doing, her entire body was quaking. Her teeth tugged frantically at her bottom lip. She tried to regain control of her hands to cup his head, but Thad refused to let go. Holding her wrists firmly against the sheets, he nudged her knees apart with his head and then pulled her down to lay flat on the bed. She slid easily along the satin sheets, her breath catching in her throat.
She couldn’t see him, could only feel, and when his lips settled between her legs, she gasped.
“Thad—” She struggled to sit up.
“Shh.” His hot breath feathered against her thigh. “Let me do this, Amy. I promise you’ll enjoy it.”
She pressed her shoulders back onto the mattress. Well, when he put it like that…
Her breathing hitched again, however, when his tongue found her. Its hot sweetness was nearly her undoing. She chafed against the hold he kept on her wrists, wanting desperately to run her fingers through his hair, to feel him, to hold him.
His tongue lapped at her, rough, hot, wet, perfect. There were no words. He brushed heavily against her once, twice. She moaned deep in her throat. “Thad,” she said again, but this time it was a plea for him not to stop.
His hot, rough tongue made her hips writhe, her knees clamped against his head. She gasped, her head thrown back against the mattress. It was all the more sensual because he wouldn’t release her wrists. Wouldn’t allow her to touch him. But why?
He kissed her there, repeatedly, licked her, teased her with his marvelous mouth until Amelia thought she would burst into a thousand tiny flames.
He finally released her wrists, and her hands shot into his hair, holding him steady against her.
“Can I look now?” she begged.
“Yes,” came his reply. She opened her eyes, adjusting them to the dimly lit room. She looked down to see Thad’s head between her legs. He glanced up at her. The look on his face overwhelmed her. There was such love and tender reverence reflected there.
He moved up then and she was afforded a glimpse at his finely sculpted body. He was bigger and more muscled than she’d even imagined. His thighs were strong and wide, his hips narrow and taut. The muscled flat plane of his abdomen made her want to touch him. He was magnificent and that was before she saw his throbbing member jutting impressively from between his legs. Oh, but he was well endowed in every way. Just like she’d known he would be when she’d imagined this moment a hundred times.
“Thad, you’re beautiful.”
He smiled at that. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I mean it. Your body… You look like a sculpture.”
“Being a prizefighter pays in more ways than one.” He kissed her then, kissed her and reminded her of where his mouth had been just moments earlier.
She shivered again and he pulled back the sheets, then gently tugged them over them both. His hand moved to the juncture between her thighs and she gasped. One strong, sure finger entered her. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her aching nipples against his chest. “Oh, yes,” she murmured against his neck. “Touch me.”
His finger moved, slowly at first, and then his thumb rubbed against the most sensitive spot between her legs, the same spot his mouth had been. Amelia’s knees trembled. Her body shook. His thumb moved in perfect unerring circles over and over. A fine mist of sweat broke out across her skin.
Just when she thought she could stand no more, Thad turned his hand slightly and hooked his finger, touching a spot so perfect, so sensitive, that her hips nearly shot off the bed. “Oh, God, yes.” She groaned against his chest, her entire being shuddering into a series of spasms that left her gasping for breath.
It took several minutes for Amelia’s breathing to return to normal and in that time she clung to Thad’s rock-hard chest. He’d just made her feel the most intense feeling of her life. And she knew, right then, that was the real secret of a wedding night. She couldn’t help her slight smile. And what a selfish secret to keep.
She slowly opened her eyes and stared at Thad with wonder. The feelings this man was capable of making her feel…they might have frightened her once. But she was anything but frightened now.
And it was finally Thad’s turn.
* * *
Thad clenched his jaw so hard he thought it would snap in half. Watching Amelia come had been the single most gratifying sexual experience of his life. She was beauty and grace and love and wit all rolled into one. And he adored her. He no longer worried about his blackened reputation. A bit of whitewash could always be employed, and he happened to know just where to get it. At the altar of his grandfather. He would go there, if he must. He’d do anything to give his new wife—yes, she would be his wife as soon as he could procure the license—the life she deserved.
Amy shuddered against his shoulder again and he did his best to forget about the insistent throbbing in his cock. He wanted her unlike he’d ever wanted anyone or anything in his life and he intended to take Lord Colton’s advice. He would never let her go. Not again.
There was no more guilt. This afternoon, their lovemaking, would ensure that she would be his. He intended to bind her to him with his love, body and soul.
He was on fire for her, but above all things, he didn’t want to frighten her. This was her first time and she had heard awful things about the act of lovemaking. He’d been intent upon making it good for her, and he’d done that, but now there was no choice but to hurt her a little. And he regretted that with every muscle in his body.
“Amy,” he whispered. “I never read that pamphlet, but you do know that it may be a bit…uncomfortable, the first time. I promise to be gentle though.”
While he’d been talking, she’d rolled over and was lying fully nude atop him like some goddess dream come to life. Her riotous curls spilled over her shoulders and pooled on his chest, looking like molten gold.
“I promise to be gentle too,” she murmured, just before she slid down his abdomen and covered his cock with her perfect pink mouth.
Thad nearly arched off the bed. His mind couldn’t
comprehend it. It was Amy, sure, sweet, lovely Amy, sucking his cock. He clenched his jaw harder and breathed in deeply, his nostrils flaring. “God damn it,” he breathed.
Her mouth worked like a sensuous muscle, pulling, tugging, squeezing. And every single moment of it was exquisite torture. Thad’s hands tangled in her hair while her tongue slid enticingly up and down the hard length of him. Where in the hell had she learned that?
From me, he thought wryly, fighting his body’s demands to keep from spilling himself in her hot, wet mouth. He would not do that to her. She deserved a calm, sensitive lover, not some overripe schoolboy who couldn’t control himself.
With that thought in mind, despite wanting the torture to go on forever, Thad reached down and hooked his hands under Amy’s arms, pulling her up.
He silenced her resistant denial by covering her mouth with his. Then, he turned her roughly in his embrace and rolled over atop her. “I can’t wait any longer, love,” he whispered in her ear.
She looked up at him with such love in her eyes, but tears shimmered in their bright blue depths. He braced himself on his forearms and took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. He turned her face to him. “Amy, what is it? Are you frightened?”
“No,” she whispered. “Not at all.”
“Then why the tears, darling?”
“Because I never thought I deserved such happiness until now,” she quietly replied.
Thad kissed her again then, long and deep, hoping she could feel every bit of love he had for her in his body’s reaction to her, in his mouth’s desire. He pulled away. “You deserve every happiness.”
His hand moved down to play with her breast. God, she had perfect breasts. Full and round, they were like satin globes. He leaned down to take one nipple between his teeth. Amy arched her back to give him better access. He loved it when she did that.
He rubbed his palm against her other nipple and she moaned. She reached down between their bodies and wrapped her fingers around his hot length. When she began to move her hand up and down, he knew…that was it. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to have her. Now.
He shifted his weight atop her and probed her thighs apart with one leg. He nuzzled against her neck. “I’m sorry, Amy,” he whispered into her lily-scented hair.
She nodded, once, and he slid slowly, carefully into her.
The look on her face told him that she’d felt the sting.
“Are you all right, love?” he asked, kissing her forehead, her cheek, her ear. His body was clamoring for release but he couldn’t move too quickly. He didn’t want to hurt her.
“It feels so…” She wrinkled her nose, and for a moment Thad thought she was going to say something awful. “Wonderful,” she finished, wrapping her arms around his neck and offering her mouth to him. “Perfect.”
Thad groaned. “Oh, God, Amy.” He withdrew and pumped into her again, doing so with a bit more force each time. “Amy, I love you,” he murmured against her neck as his body tightened against the gathering storm. “I love you so much.”
He pumped into her, again, again, again. And Amy’s soft cries of pleasure were an aphrodisiac.
Sweat broke out on his brow, his muscles strained, his breathing labored. Nothing, none of the sexual exploits he’d had in his younger days, could compare with this moment here with Amy.
He slid into her one last time, letting himself go, and the force of his orgasm tore her name from his chest.
Then he collapsed against her, hugging her close. “I’ll love you forever,” he whispered into her shining curls.
* * *
“That was absolutely anything but frightening,” Amelia said with a giggle moments later after Thad kissed her on the forehead and rolled away from her. She pulled the sheets up over her chest and eyed him with an impish grin. “I shall just have to tell Lily Morgan that she needs to write the Real Secrets of a Wedding Night. Ooh, or perhaps I should write it.”
Thad let out a loud laugh. “You should.”
“After what you just showed me, I have a feeling a great many young ladies would like to know these secrets.”
He pulled her into his arms. “Only for you, my love. Only for you.”
Amelia propped herself up on an elbow and traced the line of his cheekbone with a finger. “Thank you, Thad.”
His brow furrowed. “For what?”
“For saving me from myself.”
He wrapped one of her curls around his finger. “You have nothing to thank me for. I should be thanking you. You’ve made me see that I’ve spent the last three years atoning for a sin that didn’t exist.”
“No,” she agreed. “It didn’t. And you didn’t have to become the best boxer in London to atone for anything.”
Thad pulled her into his arms. “I’ve been a fool about a great many things. Specifically for not compromising you and insisting you marry me the moment you came of age.”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be in keeping with your roguish reputation?”
“A reputation I must retire, I’m afraid.”
She glanced up at him, her eyes widening. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t very well be a respectable gentleman with a wife if I still run a boxing saloon, can I?”
She snuggled closer to him. “But I don’t understand. What will you do with the saloon?”
Thad rested his chin on the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her. “I think I’ll keep it open. I just won’t run it myself. I have plenty of people who work for me who can maintain the place.”
She titled up her head to look at him. “Thank goodness, because I have my doubts as to whether Mama will allow Papa to give me my dowry now.”
“Bah, who cares about a dowry? Besides, I think it’s time I went to the country, took a look at the estate my mother left me. Settle down. Become a respectable member of Society.”
Amelia raised herself up on one elbow. “What? I had no idea your mother left you an estate.”
He sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s rather difficult to be the grandson of a duke, even the black sheep grandson of a duke, without acquiring a certain amount of wealth and property.”
“So you never needed your saloon as an income?”
He shrugged one muscled shoulder. “No. It was just for fun. And for penance.”
She grinned, rolling over atop him and giving him a kiss on the nose. “Let’s not tell Mama you have property. It would please her too much. We can let it be a surprise.”
He laughed out loud at that. “I like the way you think, future Mrs. Hammond.”
“And I like the way you…” She cupped her hand over his ear, whispering the rest.
He gave her a positively wolfish grin. “Believe me, I’m more than happy to oblige.” He tossed up the sheets and rolled them both over so he was on top. Then he gave her a long, deep kiss. “And to think. This never would have happened if you hadn’t come to me with your wicked, secret proposal.”
Read the novels in the
sensational series by
VALERIE BOWMAN
SECRETS OF A WEDDING NIGHT
SECRETS OF A RUNAWAY BRIDE
Available from St. Martin’s Paperbacks
About the Author
Photo By: Mary A. Behre
Valerie Bowman grew up in Illinois with six sisters (she’s the youngest) and a huge supply of historical romance novels. After a cold and snowy stint earning a degree in English with a minor in history at Smith College, she moved to Florida the first chance she got.
Valerie now lives in Jacksonville with her two rascally dogs. When she’s not writing, she keeps busy reading, traveling, or vacillating between watching crazy reality TV and PBS.
Valerie loves to hear from readers. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.ValerieBowmanBooks.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
“A S
ecret Proposal” copyright © 2013 by Valerie Bowman.
All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover art © Barry David Marcus
eISBN: 978-1-4668-2860-5
First eBook Edition: January 2013
A Secret Proposal Page 10
