Chapter Twenty-Four

A fire of need and desire swirled through Katherine’s veins. All her senses centered around the featherlight pressure of his mouth. It was as if he savored her, slowly and sweetly. Her throat ached, and her heart swelled with happiness that rivaled anything she’d ever felt before. His large hands cupped her cheeks, his touch almost unbearable in its tenderness.

“I love you, my Katherine,” he murmured against her mouth as his covered hers hungrily. Alexander ravished her lips with unchecked sensuality, and she responded, wantonly, eagerly, with soft moans of desire spilling from her lips to his. The hands that cupped her cheeks began to shake, and they broke apart, their foreheads pressed together.

She pushed her knees into the soft cushions bracketing his hips, and she twined her hands around his neck. His hardness nudged her at the swollen mound of her sex, and she trembled at the sensations that shot through her belly. Kitty raised trembling fingers to touch his mouth. “It physically hurts, the way I crave you.”

He brushed the lightest of kisses across her mouth. “I want to be gentle with you,” he whispered gravely. His face was drawn into hard lines of hunger and hope—stark and agonizing. “I want to bring you pleasure.”

She felt the trembling in his arms, the pounding of his heart against her chest, sensed the hope in his soul that they could consummate their union. “And I you,” she whispered, achingly pressing a kiss to his scarred jawline. “Let me love you, my darling.”

“We can wait,” he said, tightening his hand in her hair. “Until our wedding night…we can wait.”

“No.”

He brushed a gentle kiss against her forehead. “Katherine, my darling—”

She captured his words with her mouth, enticing him with deep, carnal kisses that went on endlessly. With a ragged moan, he surrendered to the wild passion beating between them. He trailed his fingers down her jaw, over to her collarbone, down to the underside of her breast. His palms cupped her breasts, his fingers tweaking at her nipples, plumping them. A jolt of exquisite pleasure lanced through Kitty, and she gasped. Alexander released her mouth to press kisses against her shoulder, her chin, down to the sensitive hollow of her throat.

Then he leaned in and sucked a pebbled nipple into his mouth. His lips closed over her sensitive nipple, his teeth rasping, tongue licking. She caught her breath and then couldn’t exhale, so exquisite was the sensation that pierced her most intimate part. “Alexander,” she moaned raggedly, aware of sweat slicking her skin.

Desire burned away all uncertainty and filled her with a ravaging hunger that desperately needed to be assuaged. She was terrified of what to expect and yet remarkably breathless. One of his hands slid around to her back and down to her backside, which he gripped tightly in his large hands…and squeezed. The other hand slipped between them, and she dazedly felt his fingers stroke along her inner thighs to the wet, aching center of her.

His thumb dragged against the inside of her thighs, creating little sparks of sensations that shot directly to the throbbing flesh between her legs. He dragged his fingers back down and then up again, never touching that empty place where she desperately needed him. All of Kitty’s awareness focused on the delicate, excruciatingly light stroking, as his fingers drawing along the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs had the sweetest pressure building between her legs.

Finally, he was there, and a moan of need poured from her.

With a soft glide of his fingertip, he stroked over her wet folds with delicacy. She jolted at the wicked contact, and his fingers slipped over her aching nub with even more firmness, and then he pinched down.

“Alexander!”

“Kitty,” he murmured tenderly, pressing a kiss to her lips even as his diabolical fingers worked at her nub, rubbing and circling, his questing fingers driving her mad with want. She trembled with powerful quakes, and her breathing became fast and urgent. Then he slid two fingers deep inside her narrow slit. Her core flamed at the sensual pain, and despite the sharp bite of discomfort, sensations peaked in her belly, and on a wordless cry, she shattered as bliss seared her.

“Look at me,” he said softly.

Their eyes met, and he reached between them and notched something hot and thick at her aching entrance. A dark flush accentuated the harsh sensuality of his face. “I’ll not be able to move,” he said hoarsely. “You’ll have to ride me.”

She placed her hands on his chest and slid them over the powerful muscles there, lingering with tenderness at the scarred side. “I know,” she said breathlessly.

“There’ll be some pain…but I promise there will also be pleasure. So much pleasure you will scream from the exquisite torment.”

He gripped her hips and rocked her down onto his cock. Kitty’s back arched, and a cry exploded from her as he sank past her resistance, burying his length to the hilt. Her muscles strained and quivered around him, struggling to accept the broad length suddenly filling her snug channel, her breaths puffing in sharp bursts.

She slipped her hands around his neck and held his gaze. There was an expression of awe and shock in the eyes that lowered to where they were connected so intimately.

“Katherine—” His throat worked on a swallow, and he abandoned speech to hug her tightly to him.

They stayed like that, kissing lightly, then deeply, until she jerked, wanting to sate the growing ache. Alexander groaned; his expression was a tight grimace of pleasure. He gripped her hips and slid her up and then down with excruciating slowness. Several times he repeated his sensual motions. She cried out at the overwhelming sensations.

He bit her bottom lip and then sucked at the erotic sting. Then he murmured, “Ride me, my Katherine. Slow and deep, or easy, or fast. However you want.”

“Slow and deep,” she whispered against his lips as she slid up and then down onto his throbbing length.

They groaned together at the incredible feeling. Then he pulled her into him and slanted his lips over hers in a deep, tender kiss. Without any urging from him, she rode him, rolling her hips in a rhythm that was instinctively sensual and decadent. Within a few strokes, she lost her slowness, and she rode her love with carnal greed. Alexander gripped her hips, encouraging her wicked motions with murmured praises against her lips, moans, and guttural groans.

Kitty sobbed his name, undulated her hips, whispers and hoarse cries ripping from her throat. The exquisite sensations built steadily, overwhelming her senses. Sweat slicked her body as his skin slid against hers, her fingers tangled in his hair, and her breath trembled from her lips to his as they moved together in the raw, beautiful, and primal rhythm.

A wave of breathtaking heat consumed Kitty, and she convulsed in his arms, screaming her pleasure into the crook of his neck.

He gripped her hips and rocked her onto his cock deep and hard. He kissed her fiercely, capturing her cries, and thrust her onto his thick length with deep, measured strokes. It was agony and ecstasy all rolled into one, and she didn’t want it ever to end. The pressure built inside, and far too soon pleasure rolled over her in hot, devastating waves. With a harsh groan, he tumbled with her, emptying deep inside her still-shivering body.

The happiness felt like a burst of sunshine that would never leave. “That was incredible, Alexander,” Kitty murmured with a wide smile.

He pressed a kiss to her temple before gently easing her from off his length, and she gasped at the tender ache, flushing. He reached for his discarded jacket, fished for a handkerchief, and cleaned her and himself. Alexander reached for her banyan, and she slipped it on. Then he tugged her onto his lap. They stayed like that, holding each other, for several moments. Her tremors subsided, and he tightened his arms around her, stroking her hair.

“Will you marry me tomorrow?”

She laughed lightly. “Is that even possible?”

He pushed some of her curls behind her ears. “I was coming to London for you, and I’d made arrangements for a special license. Unless you want a grand wedding?”

“I want you,” she murmured, snuggling even closer to his chest.

She felt his smile against her hair.

“I wonder if you’ll be able to lift me to the bed. I cannot allow Hoyt to see me in this ravished state,” he muttered.

Kitty straightened. “Alexander?”

His eyes danced with wicked mirth.

“You wretched tease!” she cried, laughing. “How I love you.”

“You have my heart, Katherine, always.” The words were soft, spoken almost at a whisper.

And with that promise, she drifted to sleep in his arms with a smile on her lips and an unmatched happiness in her heart.