Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78100 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78100 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
He interrupted her musings in a soft, seductive tone. “Do you wish we could go to bed together now, the way we did that night?”
She could not meet his gaze. She was blushing intensely. “Well, it did feel rather wonderful.”
He considered a moment, looking past her into the distance. “There are ways to lessen the chance of conceiving a child. For instance, it’s unlikely to happen if a man pulls away before he finishes. Not impossible, but less likely.”
“How did you learn that?”
“I’m not as innocent as you, darling. I’m older and wiser. I’ve made it my business to learn things through the years so I could make you a good and satisfying husband once I married you.”
“But you’ve said many times that you are not good enough for me.”
“Hmm.” His playful expression turned sober. “There are things about me that make me a less than ideal husband. My penchant for doling out spankings, for instance. We talked about that.” He traced his fingertips along her arm. “But I’ll try to be a better man for you. We should not risk a pregnancy for you, not now. Allow me to be honorable, please. We’ll make love again when we’re nearer to London.”
“Very well.” She pouted, crossing her arms about her front. “But that will be a very long time.”
*
She tempted him like no one ever had, the little flirt. He was trying to do the right thing and keep his hands off her, and she had to go and pout in that singularly erotic way. She deserved a spanking for it, a proper birching with her hands tied above her head and her body bared for purposes of humiliation. He could picture it so vividly. He’d do it someday, chain her to a post and have at her until she cried out in agony and ecstasy.
How could someone so blasted innocent make him fantasize about things so perversely beyond the pale? He gazed at her pouting lips, her gorgeous, full breasts pushed together by her crossed arms, and found himself putting together words he had no business uttering.
“There are other ways to make love, if you don’t wish to wait so long,” he said. “Secret, naughty ways that feel nearly as good as our lovemaking on the ship.”
She looked interested, too interested. You cursed bastard, he berated himself inwardly. You complete lunatic.
“But if I teach these ways to you, Rosalind, you cannot tell others about them. You can’t tell your lady friends or society friends. They’re not talked about, that’s how secret they are.”
And I am an utter criminal, to even consider introducing you to these practices.
But how couldn’t he? His sweet wanton’s expression had already developed from interest to excitement.
“Secret ways? Where did you learn them?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he said, “but I’m willing to teach you what I know. Well, I’ll teach you if you promise to be brave and open to trying new things.”
She spread her hands with a smile. “It’s all new to me, so that part of it hardly matters.”
It did matter, but oh well. He was fast transgressing the point of staying in control. His cock, which had been hardening through their entire discourse about sex and “mating,” had now grown prodigiously erect. He was going to be that scoundrel her parents hadn’t wanted, that scandalous Mad Marlow mamas warned their daughters about…
He could hardly help it when she smiled at him in that seductive way.
Chapter Eleven
Secret Things
He made her undress completely, so he could see her entirely naked as he hadn’t had a chance to do before. He stripped too, baring his whole body, his arms and chest, his cock and stones to her gaze.
He was ridiculously hard. She stared at his upstanding shaft as he lay back beside her.
“It is…” She swallowed hard. “It is a bit larger than I remembered. I did not know gentlemen were built that way before that night on the ship. But it makes sense now.”
“Indeed. It does make a lot of sense.” He smiled to try to put her at ease. “No need to cover yourself, darling.” He pulled down the blanket where she’d brought it up to cover her naked breasts. “We’re about to do expressly naughty things, and we must be fully open to one another without shame. You have nothing to be ashamed of, do you? You’re my wife now. Your body belongs to me, and mine to you.”
“Oh, yes. I see.”
His sweet Rosalind. She made a visible effort to be casual and unaffected by her nudity, though it would take time. The fact that she tried made a deep thrum of affection lodge in his heart, right beside the part of him that wanted to defile her completely.
“Does it hurt when it is so…so…?” She gazed at his member.
“Hard? Turgid? Erect? It doesn’t hurt, exactly. Rather, it aches for sensation and satisfaction. That’s why I came inside you that night on the ship, to relieve that ache.”