Page 66 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

Louisa didn’t care now what he was doing to her, only that he should not stop. The rills of starlight had become a steady stream and her cries and moans were beyond her control. Somehow two of Benedict’s fingers were inside her, stretching and pressing her most intimate flesh as his thumb kept up its rhythm, and his mouth swallowed her cries.

“Look at me,” he urged, pulling back from his kisses when Louisa closed her eyes. “Look into my eyes, Louisa,”

Louisa obeyed with difficulty, her body feeling almost entirely out of control, but when she did meet his blue-green gaze, the eye contact sent a violent jolt of sensation through her already over-wrought body.

“Imagine you are naked in my bed, Louisa,” Benedict’s deep and presently roughened voice incited her. “Imagine what you will feel when I…”

This simple suggestion tipped Louisa over an edge she had not realized was there. A wave rippled through her whole body, followed by a second and then a third that tore Benedict’s name from her lips in a spasm of wildest joy.

As the waves of pleasure receded, Benedict let Louisa’s skirts drop back into place and held her very close against his body, making no attempt to hide the hardness of his groin against her belly. He kissed her disheveled hair repeatedly until Louisa’s moans became laughter and she turned her face again up to his.

When Benedict smiled back at her, Louisa knew for certain that he was easily the most handsome man she had seen in her life. For the first time, she felt something close to happiness at the prospect of their wedding. Her old dreams must be put aside but Benedict had not lied when he spoke of the pleasures he might teach her. Nor had Seraphine.

Enjoy Benedict’s kisses and what comes afterwards too, for it is truly wonderful, and it is your right…

“I told you that I would make you scream my name, didn’t I?” Benedict teased her. “Did you believe me?”

Louisa answered him with peals of happy laughter, shaking her head.

“I…Benedict, I…”

Before she could find the right words to tell him how she felt, Seraphine’s voice rang out somewhere nearby.

“Louisa? Louisa? Are you there?”

“Oh God, they’re here already!” Louisa squeaked, before dropping her voice to a whisper. “Seraphine must have found our horses. We must join them quickly or they will come looking for us.”

How long was I in Benedict’s arms? What if they have been searching?

Benedict seemed far less discomposed by the arrival of their friends and shook his head.

“I cannot decently go anywhere for a few more minutes,” he informed her, with a rueful look down at the distended front of his trousers, the size of that bulge both shocking and exciting Louisa’s imagination. “You must go out and speak to Seraphine.”

“But I don’t know what to say!” Louisa replied in a panic. “Oh my gosh! I thought we would have longer to wait. Where should I say you are?”

“Shall I come to the edge of the bushes?”

“No!” responded Louisa, her eyes again drawn to the indecent state of his body that she had somehow caused. “You must stay right there!”

Turning her back on him she rushed out of the bushes and almost collided with Seraphine who must have decided to come looking for her, Starlight now being tied up beside Moonlight, over at the gate.

“Are you giving orders to a duke, Louisa?” Seraphine asked with great amusement, making Louisa realize that she had forgotten to lower her voice. “You are not married yet, you know.”

Flushing bright red, Louisa struggled to meet her cousin’s eye. At least there was no sign of Damien in the immediate vicinity.

“I was only telling Benedict that I would come and find you and he need not…need not…”

“What are you doing in the bushes anyway, Benedict?” Seraphine called out in good humor.

“Call of nature,” he answered with equal equanimity. “I shall join you presently.”

Seraphine giggled and put an arm about Louisa’s shoulders.

“How very pink and happy you look, Louisa. Today’s exercise has done you good, I think, even if it has been hard on your hairpins.”

“Oh, Seraphine,” Louisa returned, blushing ever more deeply and self-consciously, especially now spotting Damien in the distance riding towards them and hoping that she would not have to explain anything to him too. “I didn’t, that is, we didn’t…”

“Do not worry, I shall not tell Aunt Beatrice,” Seraphine whispered in her cousin’s ear. “But whatever is was that you did or didn’t do yet, was it good?”