Page 65 of An Unexpected Earl

He trailed kisses down her body, across her breasts, and lower to the flat of her belly. Heat flared between her legs in anticipation, shooting up inside her in a wave of liquid desire so strong that it left her panting.

A soft chuckle rumbled against her abdomen, as if he knew the reaction he flamed inside her. Wicked man…and more wicked still for brushing his hands up her legs, pulling the chemise up her body as he went. When he reached her shoulders, she raised her arms so he could lift it over her head and toss it away, leaving her draped naked across the bed.

She shivered, but she wasn’t cold. How could she be beneath the heat of his gaze as it traveled slowly over her, lingering at her breasts and hips and flaming prickly heat across her skin? There was no shame in lying bare before him, no embarrassment in letting him look his fill of her. This was Pearce, and she would never be ashamed with him.

“I knew it,” he murmured longingly.

She affectionately caressed the soft hair at his temple. “Knew what?”

“That you’d be breathtaking.” He trailed a fluttering hand over her bare shoulder and down across her breasts to her hip. “You were too tempting not to be.”

He lowered his mouth to capture hers in a kiss born of need and desire, of twelve years of absence and loneliness. One that left her dizzy and weak and trembling. A kiss that made all the ones he’d given her before seem like whispers against the ferocity of a scream. His lips devoured hers as if he couldn’t taste her deeply enough to satisfy himself. She knew he was trying to make up for every minute he’d been away from her, for all the other kisses they’d been denied.

She moaned against his mouth, verbalizing her surrender. He gently massaged her breast as if in reward for letting go of her nervousness and giving over to the yearning he created inside her. But it was easy to yield to the growing desire that gripped her, to the firm but tender caresses, the sure and delicious kisses. Because she loved him. Always had.

She knew then that she always would.

“I will make tonight perfect for you, Amelia,” he whispered against her lips. “I promise you that.”

She caressed her fingers along the side of his face, unable to speak.You already have…

He took her bottom lip between his and sucked, and the pull of his lips tugged through her from all the way down between her legs. Each deep suck seemed to pool all the blood in her body rightthere,where she throbbed and burned and longed to be touched.

She tightened her arms around his neck and pulled to bring him down on top of her. But he didn’t budge. She might as well have attempted to move a mountain, but he kissed her lips with amused appreciation that she’d tried. She should have known better. He was setting the pace, every touch and kiss his to grant.

He wasn’t caressing her tonight. He was discovering her. No—rediscoveringher. And the sensation was simply exquisite.

He swept his hands over her body, along her sides and down over her thighs to her knees. Then he switched directions, moving upward along her inner thighs toward her core. She held her breath, all of her shaking as she waited to be touched at the very center of her being, as deliciously as he’d touched her before—

But his hands skirted over her hips to return to her shoulders where he’d started.

A moan of frustration poured from her. “Don’t tease.”

“Before this night is over, my love,” he warned as he lowered himself to stretch his tall and muscular body alongside hers, “you’re going to appreciate my teasing. Very.” He hooked her leg over his, and his hand slid up her calf. “Very.” Then along her inner thigh. “Much.”

He slipped a finger into her tight warmth.

She gasped as the unfamiliar sensation of having him inside her shot through her, her eyes locking with his in the firelight as she fought to catch her breath in fast little pants. Then a second finger joined the first, and he began to caress her with slow, teasing strokes. She clasped her arms around his shoulders as each small slide of his fingers spilled a liquid warmth through her. So soft and gentle, almost sweet in his wicked ministrations, and sheer happiness thundered through her. She was lost to the sinful feel of his fingers, to the weight of his body pressing deliciously down on hers. To the joy of once more being loved by him.

When he pulled his hand away, a whimper of loss rose on her lips—only to turn into a soft mewling of anticipation when he reached between them to grasp his manhood and rub its round head against her folds. He circled her aching core until her wetness covered his tip, daring to dip deeper into her slick folds with each pass.

She squirmed beneath him, her body craving him with a primal need she couldn’t restrain. The pleasure he’d given her earlier was wonderful, yet she knew there was more to come. There would be his body inside hers, her body wrapped around his—the joining they’d always been meant to share.

“Amelia,” he whispered, tenderly kissing her forehead. He poised ready against the aching hollow at her core. The time for teasing was over.

“I want you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist. “So very much…”

As his mouth captured hers, he lowered his hips. He pushed inside her with a single, smooth thrust that broke through the slight resistance of her maidenhead and plunged him fully inside her tight warmth.

For several long seconds he didn’t move, his body lying perfectly still over hers. The fleeting pinch of pain dissolved away until she was left with only the wonderful sensation of being filled completely as she cradled him between her thighs. Then, when he began to move inside her, he stroked into her so deeply yet so carefully that his tenderness took away what little breath she’d managed to regain.

Her heart ached that he was so concerned about her, that he was careful to keep his full weight from crushing her. That a man this large, muscular, and powerful should be so very gentle—emotion overcame her, and she buried her face against his neck.

His strokes slowly increased in their pace and intensity. Closing her eyes, she breathed deep his spicy scent and brushed her lips against his skin to taste the delicious flavor of him. She wanted to impress onto her mind forever the smell and taste of him, to brand onto her body the feel of him inside her.

But even this closeness wasn’t enough.

“Pearce, please.” She arched herself beneath him, instinctively, knowing that there was more of him to possess. “Stop holding back.”