Her hand, before so unconsciously touching his thigh, now seemed like a wanton movement, but Adena did not want to move it. Her hand felt natural there, as though it belonged there.
Luke had turned his head slightly, and he was staring at her now. “Say something,” he said in a low tone, his eyes earnestly seeking hers out.
She opened her mouth, but hesitated. Surely it would be wrong to allow him to think that she was engaged to be married when she was not – and a part of her, and it was a growing part of her, wanted him to know that she was not. That she was free. That she could be proposed to.
The thought of him saying such delicious words to her caused another blush, and Adena said distractedly, “Luke, I am confused.”
And now it was his turn to be embarrassed. She watched as his forehead crinkled and he fought the instinct to look away, but he swallowed and continued gazing into her eyes as he said, in a low and fervent tone, “Only this. That whoever he is, the man whom you have given your heart to, he is a fortunate man, blessed beyond many, and I would gladly give up the title, or the wealth, to exchange places with him.”
Such words, such feeling: Adena’s breath caught in her lungs and she found herself leaning closer to him, revelling in the feeling of him.
There was only one thing to say.
“Luke, I am not engaged,” she said softly, gazing up at him through her lashes.
If she had expected a jubilant response, she was to be disappointed.
“Not – not engaged?” Luke’s frown became more furrowed, and he shook his head slowly as he looked out to the sea again. “Now I am the one who is confused.”
Adena smiled at his obvious disquiet, and murmured, “I never intimated that I was engaged to be married, or I should have understood your words – ”
“But – you said,” Luke interrupted, looking at her once more. “And I cannot quote it exactly, my memory is not exact, but something along the lines that you had started to weary of dukes and titles, and that you were here hiding from your very own future title! Adena, I could not have been mistaken,”
Understanding finally dawned, and a warm shiver moved up her spine as his lips sounded her name.
Adena could not help but laugh. “Oh, Luke, did the word ‘hiding’ not give you any clue? It is true, a match has been suggested between myself and a certain gentleman – a gentleman who shall remain nameless, so there is no use in asking me – but that match has not been agreed.”
Her green eyes watched his dark ones as he began to understand. “So you…you have not accepted…”
“‘Tis my parents match, not my choice,” she replied quietly. “It would certainly be advantageous for the family, which is why it is pushed so strongly, and has been for these last two years. He is wealthy, to be sure, as we are, but also titled, connected, respected. Everything that my family is not.”
Most of the bitterness from her heart was removed before her words reached her mouth, but Adena was not entirely successful, and Luke seemed to notice.
“You tire of him.”
“I tire of the whole debacle,” Adena sighed, and she felt Luke’s arm move from propping him up to clasp her to his side, his arm hot against her back, his hand by her hip, his fingers delicately placed, and then firmly embracing her curve. A warm glow started between her legs, and she did not understand, and so she kept speaking. “It is unbelievably irritating, to feel the pressure of another’s wishes boring down on you for months upon months.”
He was watching her. “Your parents wish it?”
Adena tried not to laugh. “I honestly believe that they have wished me to marry for quite some time. My brothers can join the family business, of course, but as a daughter, I am nothing but an expense ‘til I am wed. My father is in trade, and the opportunity to marry beyond our class…always attempting to push me onto noblemen, considering every social occasion a mere excuse to meet with a man you cannot like and do not respect…”
“You – you do not like him?”
It was impossible for Adena to be oblivious of the feeling in Luke’s words, but she attempted to ignore them – there was no point in her hoping, he was a marquis and undoubtedly had far better prospects back in good society.
But then why the jealousy? Adena glanced at him, and saw something deep in his eyes that could be…
“I do not like him,” she agreed quietly.
Luke smiled at her wryly. “Why?”
Adena opened her mouth, but then closed it again.
“You must have a reason,” Luke continued, and she felt the delightful pressure of his fingers on her hip, close to where the mounting heat was pooling in her body. “Everyone has a reason for liking some people and not others.”
She turned her gaze to the fire, as the less intense of the two, and tried to laugh nonchalantly. “I suppose it is because there is no connection between us.”
There was a moment of silence, broken by just two words from her handsome companion. “No connection.”
Adena could not help it; she tilted her face towards him, and saw such an intensity in Luke’s face that she almost gasped aloud. “No,” she managed. “No connection.”
“What does that even mean?” He whispered.
She swallowed, and then replied softly, “I am not attracted to him.”
Luke did nothing but gaze into her eyes, but Adena would have sworn that his grip on her hips, wonderful as it was, tightened and moved lower to cup the roundness of her bottom. Her heart was beating faster, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do, but she knew she would never have the courage.
“I believe that it is important,” she found herself saying, in a stronger voice this time, but still breathless, “to feel attracted to one’s spouse. After all, how can…can you make love with someone who does not inspire that in you? And…and I do not feel that with him.”
They were as close together as Adena thought they could be, but she was wrong. Luke moved his face an inch closer to hers, and his eyes flickered down from her eyes to her lips, wet from speech, partly open with the desire that Adena knew she felt.
“And do you feel it with me?”
Adena almost cried out then, the intensity of the longing was too great, but she stopped herself. She knew exactly what Luke, Marquis of Dewsbury wanted: perhaps she had always known, from the minute that she had laid eyes on him – or he on her. And she wanted it; wanted to be close to him, as close as you could be to a man, and Luke was the one to possess her, to please her, to propose to her, even.
Just one word. That is all it would take for her to say, and she knew that the self-restraint, if self-restraint you could call it, would completely fall away – from both of them.
“Yes,” Adena whispered, her eyes sparkling with the desire she could no longer hide and her mouth ready for his kiss. “Yes, I feel it with you, Luke.”
She saw a gleam of joy, of triumph, of glory in his eyes, and he bent his head to lower his lips to hers, and hers were open and ready for him, ready for the kiss that would start something so sweet.
And then he paused. They could not be closer, his nose alongside hers, his free hand now tangled in her hair, and he was breathing heavily, and so was she, and yet it had all stopped. So close as they were to succumbing to the pleasure that they knew they both wanted, everything had come to a standstill.
“Luke?” She managed to breath. “Luke, kiss me. Make love to me.”
And with a moan that was almost a growl, he did.
* * *
Every want, every thought, every desire: they were all now realised, and Luke had to remind himself to restrain his passions at first, not to overwhelm the beautiful woman that had allowed him to kiss her, to touch her, to claim every delight of her body.
But restraint did not seem to be something that Miss Adena Garland was interested in. The moment that their lips touched, Luke could sense the barely controlled desire in her, and his spirit responded in kind, drawing open her lips like a shell hiding a p
earl, and groaning into her mouth at the sweetness of her kiss.
Her hair was so soft, and its fiery red colour contrasted wildly with the golden yellow sand as Luke gently lowered her down, still worshipping her mouth with his own. The hand that was on her hip had enjoyed such sensations already, but now that she was beneath him, and he was encircled in her legs, the same hand held her tight to prevent the instinctive rocking that overwhelmed her.
“Not yet,” he managed to say, dragging his lips from hers to look down on her wild and untamed eyes.
Her hands were around his neck, and she pulled him down again, desperate for his kiss – and he was more than willing to give it. She was evidently new to this, utterly untouched, and Luke revelled in the teaching: first slow, then light, then fast and deep as his tongue claimed her completely and she moaned in his mouth.
He was hard now, harder than he had ever felt, but he knew that this was to be a slow lovemaking; her first, and his first that meant anything.
“Oh, Adena,” he could not help but murmur as he nuzzled her neck.
This was paradise, alone as they were on this stretch of beach with no one to disturb them, no one to judge them, no one to tell them that they could not glorify in the sweetness of their emotions.
For Luke knew now, if he had not known before. He loved this woman, loved her in a way that shocked and confused him. If he had been told that love at first sight had been real, he would have scoffed – but not now.
Now the feelings of desperate longing and loving passion were tightening within him, and there was nothing more that he wanted to do than bury himself in her and lose himself in the ecstasy he knew was waiting for them.
But not yet. First, he had to make sure that she was enjoying every element of their bodies, and he knew just how.
“Adena,” he panted, drawing himself up on his elbow and staring into those startling green eyes. “Do you trust me?”
She stared at him for a moment, as though so lost in the heat rushing through her body that she could not hear him. And then she smiled a lazy smile of lust and want. “Of course, Luke.”
He kissed her gently, one hand caressing her cheek, and the other returning once more to that delicious hip – but then he jumped up, pulling her up with him.
“Luke, what are you – ”
“Trust me,” he said with a smile, and she answered him with one of her own. “Now, close your eyes.”
It had been what he had wanted to do the moment that he had seen her, and now he was going to do it. After delving once more into those delicious lips, Luke slowly walked around her, and found it: the ribbons keeping that gown on her body.
Not for long. After checking that her eyes were completely closed, Luke drew back the mane of red hair and swept it across one shoulder, revealing her neck which he kissed lightly as he slowly undid the ribbon.
“Luke, what are you – ”
“Trust me,” he repeated, and then the bodice of her dress was undone, and he had pulled it down, and Adena gasped to find herself in nothing but her underclothes which Luke soon removed.
And then he had done it. There she was, standing in the moonlight, firelight, and starlight, absolutely naked.
Luke almost came just looking at her, so exquisite was her form. Long legs topped by the most delightful bottom he had ever seen, curved hips with a delicate waist, and as he stepped around her: the glories of glories, that face, that beautiful face with lips open in surprise but eyes closed, breasts swollen with desire and with nipples budding for his touch.
His own Adena. His, and no one else’s. He would be the first and last to see this splendid sight. For there was no doubt in Luke’s mind that he was going to marry this goddess, this nymph of the sea, this mermaid that seemingly strode out of the ocean and into his heart.
But enough of looking. His fingers had been tingling, desperate to touch, and now was the time. He strode behind her, pulled off his own shirt, and closed the distance between her skin and his own.
Adena cried out in surprise at the heat of his chest, warm from passion, and then she gasped as one of his hands was placed on her hip and the other on her breast.
It was a gasp that turned into a cry of joy as his lips kissed her neck and his hand caressed her nipple, sparking waves of pleasure across her body. Her back arched, pushing into his hand, but he pulled her hip back and made her suffer the squirming pleasure of restraint.
“Oh, Luke – oh, God!”
It was enough to make him turn her around and enter her, but Luke knew that he had to be controlled: she must receive her own pleasure before he took his own, or she would not be ready for him.
His right hand lowered from her breast and there was a moan of disappointment from her that stiffened him even more, but his left moved from her hip to her other breast and she was not to be disappointed for long.
Even from behind her, he saw her eyes flash wide open as he kissed her cheek and slid one of his fingers into that warm place between her legs.
“Adena,” he breathed unable to help himself tightening all over as he felt how wet she was.
“What is this – Luke?” Adena breathed in confusion as pleasure danced across her body, and then the answer came in his gentle stroking.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured in her ear as one hand tightened over her breast, playing with her nipple to increase the heat within her, and the other hand gently stroked that part of her that was just ready to explode with sensual pleasure. “There is no one like you, Adena, no one – and I have wanted you, to kiss you, to pleasure you, to bring you to ecstasy, to know you intimately, because you are the most impossible and wonderful woman in the world.”
Oh, it was agony to feel her secret place tighten around his finger as he brought her closer and closer to the precipice of agony, but he knew he had to be slow, he knew that only this way would she know complete and utter pleasure – and it could not be too far off.
“Luke – oh God, don’t stop!” Adena arched her back and her legs tightened together around his hand and he sped up, increasing the pace of both hands until she screamed his name and it was glorious and unforgettable and she sagged in his arm as she climaxed and he held her gently as the waves of her passion washed over her.
“Oh, Adena,” he breathed into her neck. He may have ruined her for any other man, but she had just as surely ruined him for any other woman. How could he share anything like this with another, now that he had felt it with her?
She turned in his arms, and stared at him, wild eyed, almost drunk with the after effects of her sensuous moment, and she smiled at him.
“You – you are the most…the most incredible – ”
“We are not finished yet,” Luke interrupted with a smile. He leaned down and spread out his greatcoat. “Lie down.”
She almost dropped to the ground, so weak were her legs after he had pleasured her, and Luke almost fell over in his haste to remove his britches.
Once again, her eyes widened, but this time it was at the sight of him.
“Luke…” She began, but he was already above her, already kissing her mouth.
“Trust me,” he murmured as he broke away and looked her in the eye.
He saw a little nervousness there, but complete faith in him. She nodded.
Luke almost cried out as he nestled between her legs, warm and wet and welcoming, and the feeling of her breasts on his chest was enough to turn any man wild. They kissed as though they would never kiss again, as though they were the only two humans in the world, as though they were drowning and the only thing that could save them was their own mutual desire to explore every pleasure.
His hands seemed to have a life of their own, firstly at her hips, then cupping her bottom towards him and groaning at the temptation to plunge into her at this moment, then caress her breasts, and then her face, and still she kissed him, full of fervent love, and Luke knew that the feelings in his heart were felt by Adena too.
At last there was noth
ing he could do to stop himself. Pulling himself up, he gazed into Adena’s eyes, and smiled at her.
“Look at me,” he commanded, and she obeyed willingly, lips apart, wet from his kiss, eyes glazed with the decadence. Luke did not look away, holding her gaze as he carefully tilted her hips up and legs out, and slowly pushed into her.
It was all he could do from shouting out her name as he felt the tightness and wetness of her, saw the shock and surprise in her eyes but then the instant buzz of gratification as she opened up to him, welcoming him, inviting him deeper.
“Luke, I want you,” she moaned quietly, her hands grasping at his chest, trying to pull him closer. “Luke, I want you, I need you – oh!”
He had pulled back and thrust in, deeper this time, and he knew that soon, very soon, he would lose all control.
“Adena – Adena!” Luke smiled at her as he finally got her attention, so preoccupied was she with the indulgent warmth of herself around him. “Adena, you have to tell me if you want me to stop, or slow down, you understand?”
She nodded but how could she understand? Luke grinned as he moved his hips from side to side, and she gasped at the sensation of him inside her. She would understand soon enough.
Slowly, slowly to ensure that it was pleasure and not pain that made her cry out, Luke began his rhythm. Though one elbow was propping him, the other hand was free, and it returned to what it did best: drawing out unimaginable pleasure from her breasts.
Adena’s eyes had widened as he began moving slowly in and out of her, but they closed in pure delight as the heat in her secret place began to move as waves from the sparking pleasure from her breasts.
“Oh, Luke, yes!”
Luke felt her hips start to move against him, moving in time with his own pace, and he glorified in the way she was losing herself in the moment, losing herself in their lovemaking, losing herself to him and surrendering.
He wanted to kiss her but he wanted to see her face as they grew closer and closer to the peak of their bodies, and so he kissed her, his tongue possessing her own, and then as he felt himself near the end he pulled away, and looked into her eyes.
Marooned With a Marquis Page 5
