Regency High Society Vol 2: Sparhawk's Lady / The Earl's Intended Wife / Lord Calthorpe's Promise / The Society Catch. Miranda Jarrett

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СКАЧАТЬ not frightened?” God knows she should have been if she truly were the virgin she was pretending to be. Sweet heaven, he’d never wanted a woman as much as he wanted her now, and the proof was unmistakable, hard and throbbing before him.

      She shook her head, her face on fire. It was, she knew, far too late to turn back, nor did she want to, but she’d never really considered exactly how large a man he was. Yet at the sight of him, she felt the heat he’d already brought to her blood grow hotter still, her palms damp and her heart quickening with anticipation, her breasts oddly tight and yearning for his touch.

      Her reaction, he thought, was almost perfect, and another time he might have been able to laugh about it. Almost perfect, but not quite. No virgin’s eyes would have shone so brightly as she faced her own ruin, the flush of desire spread across her throat and breasts. Sweet heaven, he’d never known a woman who responded this freely to him!

      “Satisfied?” he asked, the single word rasping with the strain of holding back. “But now, Caro, I’d say you have the advantage of me.”

      She tipped her head to one side quizzically, not understanding. He reached across the small distance between them to untie the little bow on her left shoulder. Her eyes widened but she didn’t flinch as the soft fabric slipped from her shoulder, stopping just above the swelling curve of her breast.

      “Better,” he murmured, “but there’s better still.” His fingers trembling, he slowly tugged on the end of the second bow, watching the satin ribbon slide across her skin as the bow gave way. With a little shush the sheer linen dropped to her ankles like a pale cloud.

      “Oh Caro,” he breathed. “You’re so beautiful I’m almost afraid to touch you.”

      “Don’t be.” She looked down so he wouldn’t see the tears glittering in her eyes as she slipped her arms around his waist. “I’m here, love, and I’m yours.”

      With a deep groan he took what she offered, drawing her close. As his mouth found hers, his fingers sank deep into the soft curve of her hips, fitting his body against hers. She tasted his kiss like liquid fire, searing her blood, as the pressure of his body against hers overwhelmed her senses. When he lifted her against him, she moaned into his mouth, her nipples tightening as they brushed against the rough hair of his chest and the hard, hot power of his arousal against her belly.

      He swept one arm beneath her knees and she gasped with surprise, clinging to his shoulders as he carried her the few feet to lay her on the bed. After the hard bunk of the Raleigh’s cabin, the feather bed felt light as dandelion down beneath her and the linen sheets were faintly redolent of rosemary. Alone, Caro looked questioningly up at Jeremiah as he shoved back the bed’s curtains, the rings scraping along the iron rod.

      “You’re too fair to hide away in the dark, sweetheart,” he explained, thinking how a real virgin would have pulled the sheets up tight beneath her chin instead of curling so invitingly naked against the bolsters the way Caro was now. “Whether by candlelight or moonlight, I want to see you. If it’s not, of course, too much for your poor maidenly innocence?”

      She chuckled, throaty and more alluring to him than she realized with her silvery hair tumbled across the pillow. Watching him with the same hunger that filled his eyes, she slid across the mattress to make room for him.

      “Nay, Caro, not so fast.” Lying down on the bed beside her he curled one arm around her waist and pulled her back, rolling her deftly beneath him. “No scuttling away from me now.”

      “Whyever would I want to?” she asked breathlessly. Although he supported most of his weight on his elbows, she liked the feel of his body on hers and the way the mattress gave gently beneath them. Exploring, she rested her hands on his lower back to feel the bunch of muscles there, the little indentations below his waist. She reached up to kiss him, teasing light as a feather.

      “No reason on earth that I can consider.” Past teasing, he caught her lower lip in his teeth, working it gently as his hand found her breast, and felt the tremor clear through her body. Beneath his fingers her nipple rose firm and taut, delighting him with her response. With a broken sigh, she arched her back into his caress, her hips instinctively rising beneath his to rub against him in a way that tore at his selfcontrol.

      “Easy now, sweetheart,” he growled, intensifying the caress as her fingers clutched convulsively into his shoulders. His heart was pounding in his ears, his blood fevered, and the tension that had swirled around them all evening focused now on the beautiful woman beneath him. “My sweet, hot Caro.”

      “You make me feel so—so perfect, Jeremiah,” she whispered raggedly, and closed her eyes with the heat that his touch brought her. She had never dreamed there could be so much pleasure in the world, so much sweet, agonizing pleasure.

      “Almost there, love, almost there.” He raised himself up just long enough to ease her legs apart, his hands gliding across the soft skin of her inner thighs until she trembled. When he touched her, wet and hot and ready, she whimpered, her legs curling around his hand as she desperately sought the release her body craved. “Almost home.”

      He opened her legs wider to take him and she stared up at him wildly, her eyes dark with passion and her breath no more than ragged gasps. “You won’t—you won’t hurt me, will you?”

      He was so close he could feel her heat welcoming him, guiding him. He was long past playing games, long past pretending, past anything but the intense reality of her need waiting for him. Groaning, he buried himself in her with a single stroke, into her heat, deep into her velvety sweetness, and, unbelievably, through the very real barrier of her maidenhead.

       Chapter Thirteen

      “Caro.” With the need pulsing in his veins and every nerve on edge, he couldn’t say more than her name alone. How could he, when she was so hot and tight around him? Her eyes were squeezed shut and she’d stiffened beneath him, her breathing so shallow it was almost panting. Damnation, he’d hurt her, and he’d never wanted to do that. If only she’d told him the truth!

      “Don’t stop,” she whispered with ragged, incoherent urgency, lifting and twisting her hips to meet him. “Oh, please, Jeremiah, don’t stop!”

      It was all the encouragement he needed, and she gasped as he began moving in her again, slowly at first and then faster, more demanding, in a rhythm she soon learned and answered. The first tug of pain she’d felt had vanished, and she curled her legs over his broad back, slick with sweat, drawing him in as deeply as she could. Hot tension coiled tighter and tighter in her belly, aching for a release that only he could give, and she cried out and clung to him desperately as they rocked closer to the edge.

      “Oh, love, I’m sorry,” he gasped, his face taut as he drove into her. “I’m sorry, but it’s just too good. You’re too good, Caro!”

      She wanted to tell him it was all right and that she loved him, but he shifted higher, touching her deeper, and all her thoughts shattered and vanished before the wave of sensual pleasure. She had never dreamed her body was capable of this, and fleetingly she remembered all the ribald winks and leers from her mother and her friends so long ago. But this was different, because this was her Jeremiah, and she felt herself hurtling over the edge, crying his name, the exquisite ecstasy of her release beyond imagining.

      Afterward she held him as they lay tangled together, gently stroking the long length of his back as his breathing calmed and СКАЧАТЬ