Chapter Thirty-Five
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” Andrew murmured.
“Mmm grmph.”
Smiling at Primrose’s grumbled reply, he swept her golden tresses back and kissed her shoulder. They were in her bed, her back nestled against his front, the same position they’d fallen asleep in. He loved sleeping with her. His body craved the closeness of hers during slumber, and if she moved during the night, even asleep, he pulled her back into his arms. He found it a singular joy to wake up entangled with her.
He traced a finger down her arm, and her sleepy shiver hit him straight in the groin. He was already hard, his morning cockstand nestled between the plush curves of her derriere. He hadn’t made love to her last night; they’d arrived back at her house just before dawn, both of them exhausted. After a quick wash, they’d gone straight to bed.
Although he hadn’t slept more than a few hours, he felt invigorated. A burden had eased. True, he still had Todd to deal with—and, make no mistake, he would have his retribution—but all three wenches had delivered their babes safely last night.
And Primrose had played an unexpected role in that.
While he’d always known that she was brave and strong, her actions last night had surpassed even his expectations. She’d allowed her brightness and natural warmth to shine. Sally couldn’t stop singing her praises, and even Fanny expressed grudging respect.
Primrose had awed him. And she’d made him laugh.
He’d caught her when she swooned. The episode hadn’t lasted more than a minute, but her chagrin had been bloody adorable. He’d teased her for fainting after the fact.
Her pout had been priceless.
Even more precious was the fact that she’d gone to the Nursery House because she’d wanted to help him. She’d made it clear that she wanted him to share his mind, body, and spirit with her. Was it possible that this was more than an affair to her—that she might one day return his feelings?
The thought filled him with hope.
It also made him randier than the devil.
Beneath the coverlet, he slid his hand over her firm breast, the tip stiffening at his touch. As he stroked her nipple, she sighed, her bottom wriggling against his cock. With his top leg, he pulled back hers, trapping it and shifting them both so that he was on his back and she lying half on his chest. With one hand, he played with her tits while the other skimmed over her silken rib cage and soft belly to her cunny.
“Christ, you’re dripping,” he rasped against her ear. “I love how wet you get for me.”
“It feels so good when you touch me.” Her newly awakened voice was sultry.
He adored her honesty and the fact that she responded so readily to him. He didn’t mind working for her pleasure—indeed, he enjoyed it—but, God’s teeth, he counted it a blessing that he could make his lover spend multiple times and with ease. He’d never met another woman whose appetites so perfectly matched his own. He sucked her earlobe while he diddled her pearl. Her hips moved to the rhythm of his fingers, her thighs squeezing his hand as she came.
He eased from beneath her, rolling onto his side so that he could look at her. Her cheeks were flushed, her jade-colored eyes drowsy and sated.
“You’re so bloody beautiful,” he said reverently.
He brought his fingers, still wet from her climax, to her breasts and painted the tips with her own dew. His nostrils flared at his handiwork: her nipples glistened like honey-glazed berries. He bent his head, arousal pounding in his veins as he licked her taste from her tits. Soon, he craved more, wanted to drink from the source. He kissed his way downward—and was surprised when her fingers slid into his hair, stopping him.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” he said.
“I want to do something different.” Her cheeks were pink, her eyes determined.
He quirked a brow. “You have complaints about how I make love to you?”
“You know I don’t. But I want to try something. Will you let me?”
He wondered what was going on in that gorgeous head of hers, and a hot flame of anticipation licked his gut. “Be my guest.”
“Then will you please lie back against the pillows?”
He acquiesced, tucking his hands behind his head. “How’s that?”
“Splendid.” Her feminine excitement made his balls throb. “Keep your hands right there.”
She clambered gracefully atop him, her damp cunny nestling against his rock-hard abdomen. He stifled a groan, his cock prodding her arse like a poker. She leaned in to kiss him, tangling her tongue sweetly with his, and then peppering kisses over his jaw. She licked his earlobe, gnawing delicately at the tendon of his neck.
He realized that she was making love to him the way he’d made love to her. Up until now, Primrose had seemed content to let him direct their lovemaking, and although he didn’t quite understand her sudden desire to take charge, he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
When her lips closed around his right nipple, he groaned with pleasure.
“Are you sensitive here?” Her eyes held his, her finger circling the hard, flat nub.
“Yes, sunshine,” he said huskily.
She licked his other nipple, and the graze of her teeth made his hips buck, his cock sliding against the luxurious crease of her arse. She teased him some more before kissing her way down his body. His muscles flexed and quivered beneath her sensual assault, his brain turning molten as he considered where she was headed. He’d never pushed her in this regard, wanting her to explore at her own pace: she was a lady, after all.
She made a place for herself between his thighs, and her ladylike fingers wrapped around his cock. His gentlemanly consideration flew out the window. Christ, he liked her hands on him.
“You’re rather a handful,” she said breathily.
She wasn’t wrong. He was so burgeoned that her fingers didn’t reach all the way around his girth, and watching her carefully pet his veined beast aroused him even more. His prick swelled, testing the limits of her grip.
“It’s all for you. Help yourself,” he invited.
She dimpled. Her gentle frigging was a unique brand of torture, and he wasn’t complaining. She slid her fist down his shaft, moving the supple skin over the rigid core. Squeezing his thick root, she made her way back up to the tip, rubbing the slit with her index finger. His chest heaved as she drew a circle, spreading pre-seed over his sensitive crown.
“Does that feel good?” she whispered.
“How does it feel when I rub your pearl, make it wet with your cream?”
Golden lust sparkled in her eyes. “Arousing beyond words.”
“That’s how it feels for me.”
“So everything you’ve done to me—I can do the same to you?”
Hell, yes.
“There are no rules in our bed, remember?” He couldn’t resist reaching out to tuck a silken tress behind her ear. “If I don’t like something, I’ll tell you. Otherwise, have at it.”
“I’ve always liked the idea of carte blanche,” she said with a flirty grin.
The sensual mischief in her eyes ratcheted up his desire to near perilous proportions. His stones pulsed, steamy pressure building in his shaft. Another bead of moisture formed on his cockhead, and his heart thudded as Primrose stared intently at the pearly droplet. Would she…?
She leaned forward and licked it off.
Christ Almighty.
He instantly spurted more seed, and she licked him again. A breathless grunt left him as he watched her little pink tongue flick back and forth over his swollen dome. She did this while frigging him with a feather-light touch. Prolonging the pleasure, building it this way was usually the act of someone who’d mastered the love arts, and the irony didn’t escape him that Primrose, in her innocence, was keeping him right there on the razor’s edge.
Then she fitted her lips over the tip of his cock and gave a light, awkward suck. She did it again, and he didn’t know whether to laugh or groan at the exquisite torment of being treated to inexperienced fellatio. On her third attempt, his fingers tangled in her hair, bringing her head up.
She looked adorably befuddled. “Am I doing this right?”
“If your aim is to torture me,” he said, amused, “then definitely. If you want me to come—”
“I want you to come.” Her sweet, earnest reply nearly brought about her wish. “Won’t you please show me how?”
In a heartbeat, he had her in his arms, carrying her to the blazing hearth.
“Why did we leave the bed?” she said breathlessly.
He sat in the wingchair, settling her on the carpet between his legs. He ran a thumb along her cheekbone. “It’s easier for you to suck my cock in this position, love.”
“Oh.” A sultry awareness entered her eyes. She raised herself on her knees, her hands falling lightly on his corded thighs. “What should I, um, do?”
He fisted his prick, adoring her feminine hunger, the way her gaze followed the movement of his hand as he frigged himself slowly. “Take as much in your mouth as you can—the deeper the better. Try relaxing your jaw and breathing through your nose. Lastly, be careful with your teeth. Any questions?”
She shook her head.
He slid his free hand into her hair, holding her head steady while he carefully fed her the first few inches of his cock. Fire blazed down his spine as his shaft disappeared between her pure pink lips. Bloody heaven. He tried to control the pace, to not demand too much of her during her first foray into oral play. It soon became clear, however, that she was a quick study.
Her hair draping over his thighs in pale streamers, she took him deeper and deeper into her hot, wet hole. She sucked his rod with a dainty fervor that filled him with lust and wonder. No one had ever dedicated herself to his pleasure this completely. No one had ever cared about pleasing him the way she did. No one had ever made him feel this wanted. When she swatted his hand off his cock so she could take him deeper still, he nearly blew his seed. Then and there.
He gripped the arms of the chair as she tested his resolve, cramming more and more of his prick into her mouth. When he nudged the end of her throat, she coughed, the reflexive squeeze making his neck arch in bliss. God, it was too much. With an oath, he wrenched himself from her generous kiss.
“Why did you do that? I’m not finished,” she pouted.
This close to exploding, he gritted out, “I was about to come.”
Her brow furrowed. “So?”
“So it’s not polite to spend in a lady’s mouth.” With wenches, the privilege cost extra.
Her cheeks turned rosy. “But don’t I, um… do that… in yours?”
Hell, he was going to spend then and there if this conversation continued. “I like it when you do, sweetheart,”—understatement of the century—“but you might not feel the same way.”
“I want to taste your pleasure,” she whispered, “the same way you do mine.”
Which meant—conversation over.
In a blink, he had them both on the carpet. He lay on his back, positioning a startled Primrose on her hands and knees over him, her knees straddling his head, her mouth lining up with his cock. He wasted no time, yanking her hips down and burying his face in her luscious cunny. At the same time, he reached down, pressing between her shoulder blades, and he knew she understood when, an instant later, his cock was engulfed in wet heat.
Bloody. Fucking. Heaven.
While she sucked him, he ate her pussy like a man starved. Fucking her with two fingers, he sucked on her bold nub until her thighs tautened around his head, and he tasted the first gush of her honey. She moaned around his cock as she came, the reverberations taking him over the edge. He bellowed, his hips bucking as his release shot from him like a geyser. He jetted again and again, and she didn’t move away, taking all of it—of him—into her keeping.
Afterward, he had just enough energy to get them both back into bed. He tucked her against his side, her head nestling in the crook of his shoulder. He was fully prepared to fall asleep again when he heard her giggle.
He twisted his head to look at her, and his mouth twitched. She looked exceedingly pleased with herself. “You look like the cat that got the cream.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Well, I did, didn’t I?”
“You certainly did.” Laughing softly, he kissed her nose. “Then again, so did I.”
“I liked doing that with you. Liked being… your equal.”
Surprised, he took in her earnest expression. “You are my equal, sunshine.”
“All this time, you’ve protected me—from gossip and my own mistakes and even an attempt on my life.” Her gaze followed her finger, which was tracing a circle on his chest. “You’ve also shown me pleasure I never knew existed… and you’ve taught me to accept and embrace myself and my desires. You’ve given me all that,”—her troubled eyes lifted to his—“and what have I given you in return?”
He couldn’t hold back the words.
“You,” he said tenderly. “I love you, Primrose.”
“Oh, Andrew, I—”
“I know you only want an affair, and this doesn’t change anything between us. I just wanted you to know that no one has ever given me what you have—passion, sweetness, joy. I don’t deserve it, but you make me feel like a different man. My heart is yours, Primrose. As a girl, you owned a piece of it; as a woman, you’ve claimed the rest.”
“You’re so good to me.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “I don’t deserve you.”
He thumbed the moisture away, and wanting to bring back her smile, he teased, “I think you just proved otherwise, hmm?”
His ploy worked; her lips curved.
“If that is all it takes,” she said tremulously, “then we’ll have to repeat the experience. Practice makes perfect, you know.”
Goddamn. Despite the fact that he’d come just minutes ago, his cock stirred. People might say that a way to a man’s heart was through his stomach—and they’d be wrong.
“Andrew?”
Hastily, he tucked away the image of her mouth on his cock. “Yes, love?”
“My parents are having a supper party tomorrow night.” She paused and said rather shyly, “Would you come as my guest?”
Thus far, his interactions with her family had been strictly related to the business of protecting her. It was one thing for her kin to tolerate him for the sake of her safety… and quite another for them to see him by her side on a social occasion. He was grateful that they hadn’t interfered with his and Primrose’s relationship thus far; he didn’t want to rock the boat.
“It sounds like a family affair,” he said with care.
“It is. So will you please come?”
Her smile dazzled him, and what he saw in her eyes made his heart pound with hope.