Page 34 of To Love

He reached down and grabbed the hem of her thin dressing gown. She gasped as his other hand reached between them.

“Alden,” she said, breathless, as he cupped her.

Touching the most intimate part of her, Alden continued to stare into her eyes. Watching, maybe for her to stop him? Or for her to find pleasure for the first time. Either way, those eyes compelled him even more than his desire to see the bare skin of her exposed leg. His hand buried beneath layers of gathered fabric, he dared even more.

Parting her with his fingers, he gently moved one inside her.

Elara’s mouth was open, her eyes wide. Her hands, back on his shoulders, gripped his linen shirt.

A second finger, and she gasped again.

And then, he moved them. “You are so very ready for me. If I were to possess you to the level I desired,” he said, moving his fingers in and out, back and forth, his palm pressing into her, “it would not be my fingers bringing you to release this eve.”

“Alden,” she said again. “Your words. Your hand.”

“Scandalous, is it not?”

She nodded, Elara’s breathing becoming more and more erratic.

“I remember something else you said during a lesson.” Since Elara did not seem to be inclined to speak, Alden continued. “That strength sometimes manifests in strange ways. Sometimes, you said, the strongest thing a person can do is to trust and give up control. Do you remember that?”

“Aye.” She leaned into his hand as he circled, Alden’s thumb pressing into her as his fingers moved. She was close. “I did not mean . . .”

He smiled. “You did not mean this? You are one of the strongest people I know, Elara, and so I wondered, that day, if you would be willing to give up control. And now I know.”

She gasped.

“I know now,” he said, moving his fingers just the right way. “You will give it to me.”

At his words, Elara tossed back her head and cried out. She pulsed around his fingers, her release coming quickly. He pressed into her and held there, allowing her to completely lose herself in the feeling. She murmured his name over and over again, the sound one he wished to hear every day of his life from this moment on.

Dear lord, this woman . . .

She finally opened her eyes, and in response, Alden reluctantly pulled his fingers from her as Elara fixed her gown.

Alden’s gaze went toward the tub. “Did you think of me when you were in there earlier?”

She swallowed. “I did.”

“Good. I want you to think of me, of this, every time you’re in there. I want you to touch yourself, like I just did, imagining your fingers are mine. Will you do that for me, Elara?”

“Alden, you are not at all what I expected.”

“Perhaps we are both not what we seem to others. Answer my question,” he pressed.

“I am unused to taking orders.”

“Neither would I dare give them to you. Outside the bedchamber,” he clarified. “Is that agreeable to you?”

She nodded.

“Good.” He reached for her, pulling Elara into him once more. “Will you do that for me?” he asked again.

“I will.”

A bargain had been struck. Alden sealed it with one final kiss.

Chapter