Husbandry

by Allie Ritch

  I leaned into his touch. “More Shakespeare?”

  “Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” He ran his thumb across my bottom lip. “From ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.’”

  I was lost. He was a master of seduction, and I was putty in his hands. A trickle of moisture spilled between my thighs, wetting my panties when they’d only just dried after my escapade with Charles.

  Doing my best to match his flirtation, I angled my shoulders enough to flash a bit more cleavage. “Poetry is nice, but why don’t you say something original? Tell me a secret.”

  “A secret?” His eyes twinkled, owing nothing to the candlelight. He always got excited when I engaged him like this. “How about a secret and a surprise?”

  “Mmm. I like the sound of that. Will you whisper them to me?”

  He feathered his fingers over my hand where he held it on top of the table. “I’ll only whisper the secret, my darling. You’ll have to wait for your surprise.”

  Without a bra, I felt my nipples rasp against the fabric of my dress. This game was fun, though the hunger it inspired was intense.

  I deliberately licked my lips. “What if I tease it out of you?”

  He leaned farther forward. “You can try, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This surprise is for your pleasure.”

  If we huddled any closer together, we’d be burned by the flame. My lips remained parted. I was breathing more heavily now, caught in a cloud of sexual tension that turned the air thick and humid.

  “Keep your surprise, then, but spill your secret.”

  “Anything for a beautiful woman.” He lowered his voice. “The secret is I plan to take you home and make love to you all night long.”

  Oh God. If I creamed any harder, I’d leave a puddle on the chair. Still, he held me with his gaze.

  “That’s hardly a secret.” I responded to him in a sultry tone that would have done a phone-sex operator proud. “I’m your wife. That pretty much makes me a sure thing.”

  “A sure thing requires no effort,” he retorted. “You’re worth a great deal of effort and should never be taken for granted.”

  Was it any wonder I loved him? His words inspired a feeling so much more powerful than lust—a passion and devotion that further fueled my attraction to him.

  No more words were exchanged as he paid the bill, though our body language spoke volumes. I nearly shook with anticipation as he came around to help me out of my chair and lead me to the car. He drove, which was just as well since I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. Tension mounted the whole drive home.

  The house was quiet when we walked through the door, though Chuck had clearly left the front light on for us. Chad led me upstairs to the closed door of the master suite.

  “Close your eyes.” He pressed kisses to my eyelashes to make me comply.

  I stepped into the room with nothing but the warm press of his arm around my waist to guide me. Then he disappeared for a moment, and a slow, sexy blues song filled the room. His arm returned, this time embracing me from behind and cradling me against his chest.

  “All right. Now open them.”

  My breath escaped me on a sigh when I did. The room had been completely transformed. Pearly satin sheets now covered the big bed, which was already turned down. Candles of different heights glowed around the room. When I inhaled, the lulling aroma of sandalwood washed through me.

  “How did you do this?” Romantic cliché or not, the setting was perfect.

  I felt Chad shrug behind me. “I know a guy.”

  “You do, huh?”

  He swept my hair aside to plant a kiss on the sensitive curve of my neck. The caress felt so good I tilted my head to give him better access and moaned when I felt him lower the zipper at the back of my dress.

  “Yes, I do,” he whispered against my skin. “And right now, that guy is busy watching a boxing match. He’ll be occupied for hours.”

  I’d wondered where Chuck was. Chad had obviously thought of everything.

  The kisses he planted down my neck and across my shoulder distracted me. I didn’t notice he’d pushed aside the straps of my dress until the garment suddenly dropped and left my breasts bare for his hands to clasp.

  Chad moaned behind me. “I love your body. Your skin is softer than the finest silk. Your firm, ripe breasts fill my palms to perfection.”

  I’d always thought I was a little lacking in that area, but his praise—and the passion-rich tone in which he delivered it—made me feel like a well-endowed siren.

  “And the curve of your waist.” He slipped his right hand from my breast and stroked my side all the way down to my hip. “Like the dip of the shoreline where she meets the touch of her lover, the ocean.”

  “Yes.” The word escaped me without thought.

  If anyone else, even one of my other husbands, had spoken like this, I probably would have found it cheesy. But Chad was too real, too genuine for that. Though aimed to seduce, his words weren’t just a gimmick. He was a true romantic.

  So I embraced the dream and responded the way I wanted to. “Take me to bed.”

  He pressed his lips to my ear. “With pleasure.”

  The way he scooped me up in his arms startled a laugh out of me. Beneath his shirt, those muscles he worked so hard to hone barely flexed as he took my weight and carried me to the bed. He laid me down in the center of those satin sheets, and I sighed as the smooth fabric brushed my bare shoulders and the backs of my legs.

  Still fully dressed, he stretched out beside me. “Embrasse-moi.”

  I did kiss him—a French kiss, no less. Lightly fisting his curls, I brought his head down to mine and devoured him. I dipped my tongue into his mouth and drank the intoxicating flavor of one of my favorite wines and the virile man behind it. His skillful lips softened beneath the pressure before giving back tenfold, taking me on a floating descent into pure desire.

  There was no rush; time had no meaning. We stretched that perfect kiss into forever before the yearning for more had us surfacing for air.

  His smile was so full of carnal promise it set off a tiny spasm high between my legs. I couldn’t wait for him to fill me.

  When he sat up, I reached for him, but I dropped my arms once I saw what he was doing. He unbuttoned his shirt without looking away from me and shrugged it off. Beneath the fabric, his chest was all smooth skin, the hair waxed off so as not to obstruct the view. His belt, shoes, and socks immediately followed. To my frustration, he kept his pants on.

  Chad crawled to the foot of the bed and lifted my right foot, which reminded me I still wore my high heels. The candlelight bathed us both in a golden glow. It deepened the shadows and highlighted his features so the muscles of his chest looked like they’d been chiseled there. He was the most stunning man I’d ever seen.

  “Relax, my love.” He pulled my shoe free with a flourish that reminded me of an unveiling.

  I had a flashback to what Charles had said about putting my body on exhibit. Had anyone seen me through his office window this afternoon?

  “You spend too much time on your poor feet.” Chad reclaimed my attention in an instant. “They must be sore.”

  They were certainly sensitive. I moaned and shifted my weight the instant he dug his thumbs into my arch. Before I’d married him, I’d never thought of my feet as an erogenous zone, but he could do things to my sole that nearly had me coming. When he slipped one finger between my toes, I swore I felt a phantom digit slide into my pussy. Then he braced my foot against his bare shoulder and massaged his hands up my calf and thigh.

  “Such long legs.” His voice was even deeper now. “I want to work out any twinges and make you nice and limber.”

  Thanks to my other two husbands, my thigh muscles were a bit achy, but Chad banished the pain within minutes. About the time I melted into the mattress, he moved to my other leg and started the whole process over again.

  I was loose and relaxed, aroused and beyond desperate. The need he inspired in me had me ready to scr
eam. When he set my feet down and slid both hands up the outsides of my thighs, I let out a tiny mewl of anticipation.

  Instead of bringing his body all the way over me, he stopped with his lips below my navel. His hungry gaze flicked up to meet mine as he lowered his head and grabbed the waistband of my panties with his teeth. I was captivated by the sight, unable to turn away when he slid back down my legs. His hands stroked me from hips to ankles as he went, and his teeth never released my underwear. Using nothing but his mouth, he pulled my panties all the way off my toes.

  He waited a beat before he let them drop. “Are you already wet for me?”

  Chad swept his hand back up to test my folds. He kept his touch gentle, barely grazing my damp curls with his fingertips.

  I squirmed and watched a blush spread over my chest.

  “Now I’m the one who’s flattered. ‘But better still, our couple’s chief delight, / Was mutual love and pleasure to excite.’”

  My mind wasn’t working well enough to ask whom he was quoting, but the question must have flashed across my face.

  “‘The Magic Cup’ by Jean de La Fontaine. A Frenchman. Tu me fascines, Fila. You’ll never know the passion you excite in me. I want to drink from your magic cup now.”

  I had only a split second to grasp the innuendo before he threw my legs over his shoulders. He spread my labia with his thumbs and dived forward to press that wonderful mouth of his to the part of me that needed him most. My back bowed off the satin sheets.

  “Chad! Oh God.” I grasped the back of his head.

  His onyx curls wrapped around my fingers and tickled my thighs as he licked the juices from my opening. Then he puckered his lips over my clit and sucked on it like it was the sweetest treat in the world. My belly clutched, and waves of pleasure tumbled through my womb.

  “Please. More.” I was reduced to one-word begging.

  I pushed his head closer and ground my hips against his marauding mouth. He redoubled his efforts, alternating between my clit and the weeping opening of my vagina. Speed and pressure increased until I whined with every heavy breath. He used his superior strength to pin my hips so I couldn’t buck him off target.

  A warning tremor ran up the walls of my channel—a precursor to the orgasm poised to strike. Although his oral attentions were nothing short of masterful, my climax remained out of reach. The tension still mounted in my core until I was sure it would break me.

  Just when I thought I’d die from the strain, Chad did something special with his tongue. He gave my clit a slow, sinuous stroke before spurring it into a rapid flutter. In the same moment, he shoved two fingers into me and pressed up on the perfect spot.

  I flew apart. My whole passage clenched and shuddered in bliss, spilling more cream onto his invading fingers. He continued to deliver languorous licks to my clit until the last aftershock of my orgasm faded. The withdrawal of his fingers made me whimper.

  “What a picture you make.” Chad stood and looked down at me from the foot of the bed. “I wish I could paint you like this.”

  I could only imagine how erotic such a portrait would look, especially since I didn’t have the strength to close my legs.

  Very deliberately, he slipped his fingers into his mouth and sucked my juices from them. “Deliziosa.”

  He looked pretty delicious himself, especially when he dropped his pants. Chad often went commando, which cut back on the suspense. His cock was as long and hard as I’d ever seen it, so darkly flushed it looked ready to burst. Precum didn’t just well up at the tip; it spilled over the head and glistened in the candlelight.

  I sat up for a better look and watched his magnificent cock bob as he climbed back on the bed. The turgid stalk stood proud and erect, especially as he sat in the center of the mattress and held his arms open for me. Eagerness propelled me forward so that my breasts hit his chest at the same time my mouth reclaimed his. I spread my thighs wide to straddle his lap.

  The stroke of his hands up and down my back both eased and excited me. Then he broke the kiss and swept his palms below the flare of my waist to clasp my bottom. He urged me up on my knees until my bosom was right in front of his face.

  Captivated, I watched as he laved my right breast as if he were lapping at a hot-fudge sundae. I flexed my spine, thrusting closer to his mouth until he sucked the cherry on top. A relay of blissful tingles ran from my nipple to my pussy, which blossomed open over his waiting erection.

  Reaching down, I grasped his cock and positioned it against my slick opening. Chad released my breast from his mouth and watched me face-to-face as I slowly sank down.

  “You feel enormous in this position.” The feeling of him stretching me wide made me groan.

  His smile was brilliant. “You always say that, my love. I was made to fit you. To fill you. Open yourself to me.”

  The pressure of his hands shifted so I couldn’t retreat. With a firm push and thrust, he buried himself all the way to the root of his cock. I felt his tremor of pleasure as if it were my own.

  His stare, when he lifted his lashes, was as penetrating as his hard length inside me. There was no place to hide with Chad. No forgetting for a second whom I was with or concealing how vulnerable I was in his arms.

  He kept his touch gentle, though his hands traveled everywhere: my breasts, thighs, back, and nape. “Ride me. Take your pleasure.”

  I did. Pushing up, I let his wet cock slip out of me one rigid inch at a time before I sank back down to swallow it whole. Each ascent made his shaft rake over my intimate inner tissue, causing pleasure so intense it was almost relief. Then the fat head of his dick shot high again as I came down. It reached all the way to my womb, forcing my vaginal walls to strain and spasm around it. I felt like I was building an inferno with the up-and-down friction.

  “You feel so good.” Chad murmured the words like a confession. “Every time we make love, I swear it can’t get any better. But it does. I could stay inside you forever.”

  His words cocooned me in protective warmth and stoked the conflagration higher. I clutched his shoulders for leverage as I rode him harder and faster. My thighs burned in protest, but he used his hands on my backside to help me keep the pace. There were no hard edges to his lovemaking. The ride was as smooth as the satin skin of his cock.

  Thanks to the candlelight, the whole bedroom was bathed in dancing shadows. Two of the shadows that writhed against the far wall were silhouettes of our bodies. My dusky mimic bounced over her mate, whose strong arms held her close. We created a work of erotic art painted only in darkness and light.

  “Non ti fermare,” he pleaded in Italian. “Don’t stop.”

  As if I could. The tremors had already started deep inside my core. The next time I plunged onto his shaft, he used his grip to add more downward force. His dick felt like it pierced straight through me, tripping my orgasm as it shot toward my head.

  “Ahhh!” I jerked in his arms.

  My whole channel went into a series of convulsions that rebounded off his unyielding cock. I cried out, and my body drew up tight with each contraction, as if I could suck him up inside me and never let him go.

  “That’s it, Fila. Oh, that’s it.” Chad had his eyes squeezed tightly shut now. “I love feeling you ripple around my shaft.”

  My pussy fluttered one last time in approval.

  I would have keeled over if not for his hold on me. He used his strength to lift me off him. The feel of his cock, still as full and hard as ever, slipping free of my sheath was enough to make me pop my eyes wide. Then he laid me on my side and got into position behind me.

  He lifted my knee so he could slip his muscled thigh between my legs. “Encore une fois.”

  My brain went numb, but I understood the word encore.

  Even if I hadn’t, the firm thrust of his cock into my pussy made his meaning crystal clear. He took up right where he’d left off, pounding me with single-minded devotion. Every inward stroke made a slapping sound as our damp skin smacked together.
/>   “Look at that,” he said. “See how extraordinary you are?”

  My gaze collided with my image reflected in the mirror above the dresser. I could see his long fingers curled over the mound of my breast. Below it, my free nipple was contracted into a diamond-hard point. The carnal grimace on my face made me doubly aware of how fast he was building another climax inside me.

  When I looked higher, I met dark green eyes alive with hunger. Chad dropped his hand between my legs to finger my clit and slowed and deepened his strokes. I squealed at the first rotation of his hips. Then I couldn’t stop wailing.

  “Incroyable!” Incredible! He drew corkscrews with his cock, rolling the swollen head right over the most sensitive spot inside me. “Please, love. Come for me again. One more time.”

  “Yes!”

  I felt my pussy fist his shaft before my climax detonated in a series of frenetic spasms. His hips stopped circling, and he bombarded me with quick, hard thrusts that pierced the very center of my orgasm. He squeezed my pounding clit as he bucked against me.

  “Je jouis!” he bellowed. “I’m coming!”

  Action followed, and he flooded me with his cum. I could feel each kick of his erection as it spurted more of his seed, pumping and pumping until his balls finally came up dry. He left me a trembling mess. I was unable to do more than mewl when he slipped his cock out of me and rolled me into his arms.

  For several minutes, we did nothing but catch our breath. Sprawled kitty-corner across the large bed, I couldn’t even flip the covers over us.

  “Ti amo.” He was always the first to say it, and he kissed the side of my head for emphasis.

  I smiled despite my fatigue. “I love you too. In any language.”

  He held me for several heartbeats. A short while later, he got up and walked to the bathroom, still wearing nothing but his glorious skin. I heard water running, and then he returned with a damp washcloth to clean me. He turned off the music and blew out all but two of the candles, filling the room with aromatic smoke.

  We wound up properly tucked in bed, though Chad showed no sign of wanting to sleep. Instead he turned on his side and propped his head up with one hand. With his other hand, he stroked my hip and thigh beneath the sheet.