Elizabeth eased Georgiana’s sleeping head off her shoulder and slipped out of the bed. Tucking the bedclothes around the girl, she took the lamp and left as quietly as she could. She was halfway to her own room when she remembered Darcy. Had he come and found her gone? Or thought she was refusing to answer the door to him? Or had he never come at all?
She opened the door not to find the expected darkness, but instead the light of another lamp. It rested on her bedside table, illuminating the shape of the man sitting on her bed, reading her book. She started at the sight, then her pulses began to flutter as Darcy looked up at her, an unreadable expression in his dark eyes.
He said conversationally, “I was beginning to wonder when I might see you.”
A saucy smile curved her lips. “I apologize for keeping you waiting, sir. I hope you found some way to amuse yourself in my absence.”
He looked down at the book in his hand as if uncertain how it had found its way there. “Not as well as I should have liked to have been amused.”
She raised her eyebrow at his remarkably level tone, wondering what he was thinking. “You were preempted by your sister, I am afraid, who asked to speak to me. I went to her room, just in case any gentlemen might turn up at my door, which could have been a most embarrassing circumstance. As it happened, she had a great deal to say. She just fell asleep in my arms after a long bout of tears.”
A light flickered in his eyes. “I was planning to fall asleep in your arms tonight,” he said. “How fortunate that you have a reasonable excuse to present for your absence. So, what did my dear sister have to say that was so urgent?”
She smiled at his combination of seductiveness, petulance, and concern. “We covered a rather extensive range, I must say, starting with a very detailed account of what happened at Ramsgate, with a discourse on Mrs. Younge, and then moved on to your mother’s death and her loneliness when she was sent off to school, and I believe we had reached her fears of living in London when she finally fell asleep. When your sister decides to say her piece, sir, she does not do it by halves.”
“I am,” he said, standing and walking over to her, “astonished.”
“And, were it not for your other agenda for the evening, you might even be gratified,” she teased.
“I have not given up on my agenda for the evening.” His hands busied themselves with the belt of her dressing gown.
Elizabeth’s knees seemed to grow weak. She could think of nothing to say, but merely looked into his eyes. She did not know how it had come to pass, but in the last day, since she had at last accepted him, she had taken him into her heart to an extent she could barely begin to comprehend. Perhaps it was because she had struggled against caring for him for so long, or because she had despaired of ever having him for so long, but once she had given way, she had done so completely, leaving no part of herself uncommitted to him.
He held the ends of her belt in his hands. “I was worried about you, Elizabeth,” he said, his visage serious.
This was not what she had expected to hear. “Worried about me? Why?”
“I had every reason to think you would be here when I came, and you were not, and then you did not return for a long time. I could not imagine where you might have gone to, or what might have happened to you.”
“What could possibly have happened to me between the drawing room and here that could cause you worry?”
“You might have decided to take a walk in the moonlight, and become lost, or hurt. And I could do nothing about it—I could not start a search for you, for how would I explain knowing you were missing? Or perhaps you were avoiding me—perhaps you could not tell me what you truly thought.” His voice was very controlled.
“William,” she said, with just a touch of exasperation, “did it not occur to you there was likely a perfectly reasonable explanation for my absence?”
He crushed her into his arms. Burying his face in her neck, he said, “Of course it did. But I have waited for you for so long, and I am so afraid of losing you, or that you might have a change of heart about me—I could not bear it, Elizabeth.”
She put her arms around him comfortingly. “I know—I feel the same,” she said softly, kissing his shoulder. “I will not have a change of heart, you know—my heart has been yours for a very long time now. You may depend upon it.”
She could feel the tense muscles of his back through the fine lawn of his shirt. Never before had she been able to sense his body as well as she could now in the absence of his coats, and she stroked his back slowly, appreciating the shape and closeness of him. He seemed to relax somewhat under her ministrations, and she enjoyed the comforting feeling of having her head against his shoulder.
It was not clear to her when it changed to something else, when his warm breath on her neck turned to kisses so light she did not at first recognize them as such, nor when his hands first began to move along the silky fabric of her dressing gown. Her body recognized it almost instinctively, as she began to feel the heat of his body against hers. It was unmistakable, though, when he released her momentarily, only to slip his hands inside her gown and recapture her, but with only the thin barrier of her summer nightdress between his hands and her. She shivered at the intimacy as his hands travelled first up her back, his fingers exploring, then back down to discover the curves of her hips, stroking gently, then, as he felt her response to his touch, pressing her against him.
His kisses became more assertive as she arched herself against him, craving the pleasure of his body against hers. There had never before been so little between them when he held her, and she could feel his warmth against her breasts, making her long for his touch there as well. As an unbearable tension developed within her, she knew she would have to make her decision soon, or it would be made for her by her own desire and the ache in her secret places.
His lips were exploring the sensitive hollow at the base of her neck as she said shakily, “I thought you said you would stay if I made the choice to let you in my room; yet you made that choice for me, it seems.”
He raised his head to look at her, his eyes dark with passion and his hair disheveled. “So I did,” he said in a low but unrepentant voice. He drew his hand upward until it cupped her breast, then, as he felt her quick intake of breath, stroked her nipple lightly with his thumb. He smiled as her eyes closed in response to the sensation. “Well, loveliest Elizabeth, will you let me in?” He brought his fingers together so as better to toy with her sensitive flesh as he nuzzled her ear.
Elizabeth, overcome with the heady delight coursing through her at his touch, only knew she could not bear for him to stop yet. A soft moan passed her lips as all coherent thought fled her.
He was in no hurry, and the sound of her quick breaths and sighs of pleasure was music to his ears. As her excitement began to rise, and she pressed herself against his hand as if asking for more, he judged it was time. Seductively he said, “What is it to be, then? Should I stop—” he paused his action for just a moment, “or would you perhaps like my mouth there instead? You will remember that I did warn you I would use your own responses against you.”
She could not stand for this pleasure to end, not when her other breast ached for his touch as well and an unmistakable sense of heat built between her legs. “Please,” she whispered, “do not stop.”
A smile of triumph crossed his face. Ever since Elizabeth had suggested he might let loose his self-control when with her, it was as if he had just been biding his time for this moment when he could avail himself of her sanction. He no longer cared that it was not how a gentleman would treat a lady; all he wanted was to have her, but not until he had given her as much pleasure as she could bear and brought her to the heights of wild passion of the Elizabeth of his dreams. No, she would not be a lady tonight, lying passively beneath him; he had something quite different in mind.
He found a sense of release in giving up the last vestiges of his self-control, in finally allowing himself to be gripped by urges so forbidden to a gentleman, in calling a halt to any pretense that he wanted nothing more of Elizabeth than a kiss on the hand. He did not know how he would ever regain that restraint, but for the moment, he did not care.
He dropped to one knee in front of her. “Such an excellent attitude must be rewarded,” he said as he drew her nipple into his mouth through the fabric of her gown. He was not ready to give her everything she wanted, not yet, but he stimulated her with his lips and his teeth until her body was no longer steady under his ministrations and she leaned her hands upon his shoulders for support. He dropped his arm to bunch the hem of her nightdress in his hand until he could reach under it easily to stroke the forbidden skin of her leg, gratified as her hips involuntarily pressed forwards against him.
With a last taste, he withdrew from her breast and stood. In her face he could read the untamed desire he had waited so long to see. He kissed her lightly, then penetrated her mouth with his tongue, exploring her thoroughly until she clung helplessly to him, meeting his invasion with her own.
God, he wanted her, but even now she was not yet enough his. “More?” he asked thickly, and as she nodded dreamily, he moved behind her and lifted her dressing gown from her shoulders. Once that obstacle was removed, he pulled her back against him so that she could feel his arousal, and caught her breasts with his hands once more for another round of pleasuring. She leaned her head back against him, and his hands moved up to the ties of her nightdress, disposing of them quickly until he could push the garment down over her shoulders to reveal her rounded breasts.
She caught the nightdress at her waist, and he heard her sharp indrawn breath as he inserted his hands beneath it to caress the tempting curves of her hips. She had allowed him more latitude than he had expected, but not yet as much as he hoped. “Elizabeth,” he murmured in her ear, “I want to see all of you.” At her moment of hesitation, he added, “I told you I would be no gentleman—I want far too much of you to settle for what a gentleman takes from his wife.” He let his hand slide down toward the juncture of her thighs, deliberately tempting her. “And before we are done, you will want more of me than a lady expects from her husband. Oh, yes, you will want more.”
Elizabeth struggled to catch her breath against the sensations he was creating in her, not just with his touch, but with his voice. She knew that her native modesty was losing the battle against the lure of the forbidden, subverted by the pleasure of his touch. In sudden decision, she released the fabric, and the last barrier fell to the floor.
She felt his lips on her neck once more, and his hands crept down to her thighs. “Very nice,” he breathed. “Unfortunately, you know what they say about feeding tigers—it only makes them hungrier, and I am… very hungry.”
“Shall I stop feeding you, then?” she asked with a smile, to prove she was still capable of speech.
“Do not even suggest it, my love. I enjoy being hungry in such a good cause.” He slid his hand between her legs, bringing it slowly up to rest over her most secret places.
Elizabeth shuddered at the burst of sensation which ran through her. She would not have imagined she could feel so much, and the feeling did not stop, but grew as she pressed herself against his hand. “Oh, William,” she sighed.
He rubbed his hand back and forth, thrilling in the pleasure he was giving her. He could not quite believe he truly had her in his arms in this state, and that she did not seem disturbed by it. “Come to bed, my love, and I will show you even more,” he said.
His words seemed to bring back some of her modesty, for she stilled and coloured slightly, embarrassed by her uncovered state, especially since he was still clad. She turned in his arms and pressed her hands against his shirt, in part hiding herself against him. “Not until you remove this,” she said, her eyes daring him.
A new light appeared in his eyes, and a pleased smile crossed his face. “As you wish, my dearest,” he said, bending his head to taste her lips evocatively before complying with her request.
Elizabeth hardly knew what to do with the sight before her, since it went beyond her imagination. She ran her hands lightly up the defined muscles of his chest, then pressed her body against his, aroused by the feeling of his skin rubbing her breasts as she swayed towards him. She closed her eyes to savour the experience and turned her mouth up to his.
He caught it in a kiss of deep passion, exploring the confines of her mouth as he stroked her back, pulling her tightly to him. Her conduct was feeding the fire within him until it blazed with almost unbearable heat, and he wanted her with a fierceness that surprised even him. Without breaking contact with her lips, he swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed. He lay down beside her, skimming his hand over her breast until he was satisfied with the look of desire in her eyes, then he drew her nipple into his mouth, gently teasing it until she writhed against him. He slid his hand once more down to the juncture of her legs, feeling her arch to meet him.
He had been waiting for this moment. He lifted his head, watching her until she opened her eyes, and with his gaze fixed on her, he finally slipped his fingers into her folds to discover her place of pleasure. Her expression of surprise and arousal was all he had hoped it would be. He showed her a new level of excitement, stroking her in tiny circles until her low moans became more frequent and higher, her head moving from side to side with the fierce pleasure rushing through her. With a satisfied look, he bent his head to her breast again, and added the tantalization of his mouth to the activity of his fingers until he felt her reach her crest. The sound of her soft cries satisfied his deep urge to take her pleasure, and he prolonged the moment as long as he could. When her tremors finally ceased, he kissed her gently.
“William,” she breathed in astonishment.
His voice was self-satisfied. “As I said, before I was done, you would want more than a lady receives from her husband.”
She smiled at him archly. “I cannot say, since it seems to be my fate that I shall never know what a gentleman gives to his wife.”
“Is that a complaint, my love?” he asked lazily, letting his fingers begin to move against her again.
Her eyes widened. “Not at all,” she said, a bit breathlessly, as his touch revived her earlier pleasures.
He enjoyed watching her rising passion for a few minutes, then paused to strip himself of his remaining attire. With the sensation of finally finding the place always meant for him, he situated himself atop her, his legs parting hers.
Elizabeth, perhaps more startled by his appearance than she cared to indicate, pulled his head down to hers for a kiss. As she did, his hips began to undulate against her, his arousal stimulating her as his fingers had done earlier. It gave her exquisite pleasure, and without a thought she spread her legs wider to permit greater contact. She arched against him, gasping, and her movement clearly fired his desire even higher, for he returned to her mouth demandingly, as if he required even greater dominion of her. As their mouths intertwined, he pulled his hips back and slowly but without hesitation entered her, pushing his way past her last barrier to take final possession of her.
She flinched in a brief moment of pain, trying to incorporate this new experience as he began to move gently within her. It was only a brief interval before she could feel a new kind of pleasure growing within her at his actions, and she opened her eyes to find him looking at her questioningly.
“Am I hurting you, best beloved?” he asked with concern.
She shook her head. “Only for a short time,” she said with a distracted smile.
This last reassurance was all he needed, and he thrust himself deep within her, letting instinct take over. Feeling the consummate joy of being fully accepted at last by the woman he had loved for so long, he found a rhythm which seemed to draw the greatest response from her. He felt her wrap her legs around him, pulling him deeper within her, and her moans of pleasure only fired his desire yet further. As he moved within her, he let the supreme delight of her body around him wash over him and build to ever greater heights until he released himself in a pinnacle of superb pleasure.
Sated, he collapsed in her arms, marvelling at the softness of her body beneath him and the gentle touch of her hands on his back. He felt a deep contentment, a sense of finally coming home, and took his ease in the comfort of loving and being loved. Soon, though, a cognizance of Elizabeth’s situation entered him, and he moved off her to lie beside her, his hand moving as if by instinct to cup her breast tenderly.
He kissed her gently, and was relieved to see her smile at him. “I hope I did not hurt you, my love,” he said.
She shook her head, still too far caught up in the intense emotion of the moment to speak. The mild ache she felt did not compare to the power of the closeness she felt to him, and the freedom that had come from both seeing him in total abandon and her discovery and sharing of her own pleasure. She nestled closer to him, kissing his shoulder.
With slightly greater uneasiness, he said, “Are you disturbed by this, by what has passed between us? I hope you will feel you can tell me.”
She looked up into the shadows of his face. “Oh, no. No. I am perfectly well, and content to be here with you,” she said, hoping to reassure him.
“Then I am happy,” he said, but there was a look in his eye which made her doubt his words. She waited to see if he would say more, but in his silence she read more concern than ease.
She reached up to trace the line his hair made as it fell against his face. “Is something troubling you?” she asked simply, not wanting to lose the precious sense of intimacy with him she felt.
His mouth moved in a mirthless smile. “I am caught,” he said, “in the bitter dilemma of being quite ashamed of myself for taking advantage of you, and at the same time, wanting nothing more than to do so again as soon as possible. As I told you earlier, I am not reconciled with the part of myself that is so selfish as to think only of my own desires.”
She nibbled his neck playfully. “Well, you may believe what you like, but it certainly seemed to me that you were doing a great deal of thinking about me.”
“You give me too much credit,” he said seriously. “I take pleasure from your pleasure; it is far from selfless of me.”
She bit her lip, her contentment fading away. “I am sorry if you regret what happened,” she said, feeling the beginning of a deep mortification building within her.
Her troubled tone did not pass by unnoticed by Darcy, and he kissed her earnestly. “Oh, my best beloved, that is exactly my problem: I do not regret it, but I think that I ought to, and I do not know how you can forgive me my selfishness.”
She forced herself to relax, not as simple a matter as she would have wished, once she had begun to feel uncomfortable in her exposedness. “You are the only one here worried about this, my dear,” she said. “I have learned a great deal in this last year, not the least of which is the price of being condemned as shameful, and what it is to have nothing left to lose. I know what it is to have my name fall into ill repute, and what it means to feel that censure, and to take it onto myself; and I will not feel ashamed any longer for loving you, or for acting on the natural consequences of that love. We are betrothed and soon to be married, and it is no one’s business but our own how we celebrate that fact, just as it is no one’s business but our own whether or not we behave as they think a lady and a gentleman ought in the privacy of our own rooms.” Her voice had become fierce by the time she finished.
He took this in quietly, then raised an eyebrow. “I had not realized I was marrying a tigress,” he said mildly.
“The more fool you,” she retorted in delight at his changed mien. “I had assumed that was why you were marrying me.”
He smiled at her arch look, and kissed her thoroughly. “I am marrying you, if you must know, because I finally realized under your tutelage that what was important was not rank, or privilege, or reputation, but only the knowledge of loving and being loved. I cannot tell you what an education it was for me when I first went to your uncle’s house in London, and saw, in a place I would have once never deigned to enter, a kind of warmth and affection throughout that I lacked and wanted dearly; and I realized how much better it would have been for Georgiana if, instead of growing up with my rigid ideas of what was right and proper, she had spent those years with your aunt and uncle and knowing what it was to be loved and accepted for what she was.”
Elizabeth traced her finger along his cheek, moved by his words. “I do love you, William.”
“That means the world to me, my dearest.” He ran his fingers through her hair, thinking of how often he had imagined this scene, but he could never have guessed at the contentment he felt, holding her in his arms so intimately.
She became still as a thought entered her mind unbidden. “William,” said Elizabeth with sudden suspicion, “when were you at my uncle’s house?”
How had he managed to forget himself enough to have mentioned he had been there? He had not wanted her to know, but he would not dissemble to her, especially not now. “It was when your sister disappeared,” he said with a sigh. “I knew Wickham’s companions of old, and was able to offer your father some assistance in locating her.”
She looked at him searchingly. “Why has this never been mentioned to me, by either you, or my father, or my uncle for that matter? Why the secrecy?”
He looked uncomfortable. “I asked your father, and your aunt and uncle, not to tell anyone of my role in the matter. I did not want you to feel any obligation to me.”
“You are too kind,” she said with a laugh, then, at his serious look, said suspiciously, “What is it, William? What are you not telling me?”
He looked away. “I felt a responsibility; I had failed to expose Wickham for what he was out of my own unwillingness to lay open my actions to the world.”
“Must I ask my father?” she asked archly at his obvious evasion.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “You know me too well, my love. Very well, if you must know, I went with your father to retrieve your sister; and, having greater experience in dealing with Wickham, negotiated the bargain with him—I am assuming you do know their marriage did not take place without money changing hands. And I returned for their wedding, to make sure he kept his word, because Wickham knows to be afraid of me, and he does not fear your father.”
“I still fail to see why you would keep this a secret from me,” she said, with a good suspicion as to what he was leaving out of the story. “Unless, perhaps, you had some financial role in this you are conveniently forgetting to mention.”
He looked so much like a child caught in misbehaviour that she could not help but laugh. He replied with as much dignity as he could manage, “As I said, I felt some responsibility for the matter.”
She shrugged teasingly. “If that is to be your story,” she said.
He smiled and kissed her neck softly. “Very well, minx; I did not like to see you so unhappy.”
She paused for thought, or as much thought as she could manage with his lips trailing along her collarbone. “But then you left,” she pointed out.
Gathering her into his arms, he said, “Pray do not remind me of that time; it was as dark a one as I have known. I thought you loved Covington, and I wanted you to be happy; that seemed to require your sister’s marriage and my departure, so that is what I arranged for. I was selfish enough to come to see you that last time, knowing I should stay away, simply because I could not bear for my last sight of you to be in tears in his arms.”
“Oh, William,” she said softly, tears rising to her eyes as she recalled the moment, “and I was crying because I wanted you to comfort me, not him, and it could not be.”
“Is that what it was?” he asked reflectively. “I wish I had known, though perhaps it is just as well I did not; I would have been all too tempted to do something foolish.” In an attempt to remind himself all this was in the past, he allowed himself to caress the curves of her body. He still could not credit how very generous and free she had been with him; he counted himself extremely fortunate to have found a woman who could match him in that regard.
She smiled mischievously. “Yes—you were never at your best when he was present.” She could see by the look on his face, though, that this was still a bitter memory and not a teasing matter, and she hastened to amend herself. “Even so, you were the one I wanted—and how angry that made me!”
He looked at her seriously, trying to still the part of himself which was still ferociously jealous that another man had ever had a claim on her. “You did not want to love me?”
She laughed. “No, I most certainly did not! You completely disrupted the calm path of my life.”
His hand strayed along her flanks, intimately reacquainting him with her shape. “You could have made it so much simpler by accepting me last April.”
“You could have made it simpler by not waiting nearly half a year to follow up on your letter!” retorted Elizabeth good-humouredly, finding it impossible to ignore the effect his explorations were having on her.
He cupped his hand around her breast, rubbing his thumb across her nipple. He had an intense urge to take her again, but he knew it was for the wrong reasons; he wanted their lovemaking to be characterized by passion and laughter, not to come out of jealousy and a need to stake his claim to her once more. Still, the liberties he was taking soothed him to some extent in reassuring him that she was his.
Although distinctly aroused by his fondling, Elizabeth was discovering that, outside of the heat of the moment, these intimacies came as more of a shock, and she realized just how far they had altered their relationship that night. Impulsively, she hugged him close and said, “Oh, William, what a difficult course we have taken! I wish I had known last April what I know now, and not had to learn so much in the hardest possible manner.”
He heard the confusion in her voice, and it brought out his protective instincts. He moved his hand to her hair and began stroking it gently. “I wish neither of us had suffered the way we did, but I know for my part there were lessons in it I needed to learn. Before I met you, I had the good fortune never to lack for anything I wanted, and it had never occurred to me that I could. Even after you refused me, I kept in the back of my mind the idea that if you knew the truth, it would be within my ability to change your mind, should I decide to try. It was not until I went to Vienna that I finally acknowledged that you were what I wanted more than anything in life, and I never would have you. I cannot tell you what that took, but it was important for me to realize I could not have whatever I wanted merely for the wanting of it.”
“But you ended up winning me in any case,” she pointed out with a smile.
“Yes, but only after I admitted to myself I could not,” he replied. A thought crossed his mind of something he had long wished to know, but never felt able to ask before. “When was it that you decided to break off your engagement?”
There was a pause before she spoke. “It was shortly after you left for the final time,” she said slowly. “I had considered it earlier, while you were away in London, but not seriously; it was not until the last time I saw you that I recognized I would not be able to forget you, no matter how hard I tried, and that I could not marry him, feeling as I did about you, even if it was my only chance for an independent future. And with Jane’s engagement, the pressure to safeguard my family was no longer there.”
“To safeguard your family? What do you mean by that?”
She sighed. “It was one of the reasons I agreed to marry him—to protect my mother and sisters from an intolerable situation after my father’s death. I could not justify sentencing them to near penury when there was a perfectly agreeable gentleman who wished to marry me, and could provide for them in the future.”
Darcy frowned, unable to forget that he had proposed to her not long before, and he would have been in a far better position to provide support to her family. “Surely your father would not leave you in such financial straits as that,” he said with some authority.
She tilted her head back to look at him, surprised to find him unaware of her family’s financial situation. “My father settled 5000 pounds on my mother; there are no savings apart from that, and neither my mother nor my younger sisters would do well in straitened circumstances,” she said with some apprehension for his reaction. “I had always thought Jane would marry, and I would not need to worry, but when I returned from Kent and saw how out of spirits she remained, I knew I could no longer depend on that, so the responsibility fell to me.”
She could not have guessed how relieved he was by this intelligence regarding her motives in accepting Mr. Covington’s offer. He could not fault her for taking on the responsibility, and in fact could only blame himself that the necessity had arisen at all; had he not endeavoured to separate Bingley from Jane, Elizabeth might have remained free. It only convinced him further of her worth to know she had refused both him and Mr. Collins under circumstances which would have caused any other woman to accept any suitor of means, no matter how distasteful. Yet still he could not free himself from the thought of her with Mr. Covington, and he said impulsively, “Yet you refused me—there must have been some difference.”
“Oh, William,” she said, distressed to realize he was still pained by her decisions. “That was a completely different circumstance; I had such a grave misunderstanding of you. It would have been completely reprehensible for me to consider marrying you then, given what I thought I knew of you. He was someone I had known for years; I knew him to be amiable, and I felt a certain affection for him which I hoped might grow someday into love, but I admit I accepted him with reservations—he was not the man I had dreamed of marrying. I might have been content with him, had I never known anything different, but he would never have been able to stir me the way you do.” She looked at him earnestly in the flickering light of the lamp.
“You had reservations about accepting me as well,” he said uncomfortably.
“That does not compare—they were not about you or my affection for you, but only about the consequences of our marriage. It was completely the opposite situation. I loved you enough to deny myself for your benefit.” She was beginning to understand how much uncertainty underlay his confident manner. She could not comprehend how he could be insecure of his place in her affections, but if he needed reassurance, she was not loathe to give it. “You are everything I dreamed of,” she said seriously; then, her high spirits unwilling to be subdued for long, she boldly ran her hand down his body and added teasingly, “And quite a few things I never began to dream about as well.”
Darcy had a potent reaction to both her words and her unanticipated forwardness. Putting his hand over hers, he wordlessly encouraged her to continue her explorations. It was a suggestion she was not averse to receiving, both to fulfill her own curiosity and for the heady pleasure of watching his response to her touch. She had never before had the opportunity to touch him when he was not making equal inroads upon her body and her peace of mind, and she found quickly how very much she enjoyed the intimacy of the warmth of his skin under her fingers. Even beyond that, her sense of playfulness was engaged by discovering what manner of touch pleased him the most, what made his eyes darken with desire, and what made him groan with pleasure. As she approached his arousal, he pushed himself against her until she brazenly took his hint. She was too astonished by his response to feel much shock at her discoveries there, and she found herself both aroused and satisfied by reducing him to the same level of distracted, moaning excitement that he had induced in her several times in the past.
Finally he removed her hand, his breathing uneven. “If this is an example of what you can do to me when you are merely improvising, I hesitate to think what it will be like when you know what you are doing to me. You will be quite dangerous, my love.”
She smiled at him mischievously. “I certainly hope so!” she said.
Her unabashed comment made Darcy feel an almost irrepressible urge to make love to her without delay. He had not allowed himself to hope she would want to please him in such an active manner, and he was profoundly aroused by her clear enjoyment of her success. He captured her mouth, trying to relieve himself by taking every bit of pleasure he could from it. She had taken him remarkably close to the edge of his control—perhaps beyond it! he thought as his hand, apparently with a mind of its own, travelled directly to her most private parts, where his fingers slid deep inside her.
Involuntarily she raised her hips to meet him, the intimacy of feeling his fingers within her further arousing her desire. Darcy made an inarticulate sound as his lips travelled hungrily down her neck and then her body until he captured her nipple in his mouth. She moaned as the current of pleasure began to run through her, only intensified by her greater knowledge of what was to come.
His fingers touched a tender spot on her as they moved, and she flinched slightly. Darcy stopped immediately, and looked at her in concern. “Should I stop, my dearest? I do not wish to hurt you,” he said, his effort to hold himself back visible.
She smiled at him mischievously. “Well, now that I know what is to come, I might as well put my knowledge to good use,” she said archly.
His fingers gently found their way to the spot which could most readily arouse her desire, and busied themselves with drawing as much response from her as she could give. “You may think you know what is to come,” he said seductively as she began to moan beneath his touch, “but I have plans for you which go well beyond what you have discovered so far.”
She opened her eyes to look at him in question, already beyond the point of speech, her hips moving against his fingers in search of even deeper pleasure.
He smiled in satisfaction at her state. “I warned you I had many improper desires—and I intend to ensure you enjoy them all,” he said as he lowered his mouth to her breast once more.