Good gracious, what had come over her? Lord Holbrook acting a cad was nothing new, so why was she suddenly taking everything he had said and turning it into something more than what it was?
And yet, Lodge had said she wasn’t daring in their lovemaking-something that he wanted her to be-so this was all to make him happy, wasn’t it?
Drat, she wished she knew what she was getting herself into. The look in her husband’s eyes right now was one she’d never seen on him before. Indeed, it was an expression more akin to what she’d expect from the overtly licentious Lord Holbrook than from Lodge.
He closed the distance between them in a flash and wrapped his arms around her back, drawing her closer to his heat-and to his need. His fiery length pressed against her belly, searing her even through the constraints of their clothing. “You’re sure?” he breathed just before he took her mouth in a kiss.
She wasn’t sure. Not at all.
In the early days of their marriage, he’d wanted her to do things in bed that seemed so depraved, so immoral. Audrey had never allowed herself to imagine mouths would be used for such things, or that people might mate in the same manner as horses. Would he want her to do something like that again?
But perhaps she was prudish. Perhaps those things were not as immoral or as depraved as she’d imagined, as long as they were shared between a husband and wife. He hadn’t asked her to do anything truly debauched, after all-not like she imagined Lord Holbrook would have suggested if she’d allowed him to continue his fiendish line of conversation.
“ Yes,” she said into his mouth finally, once she had found her breath again and regained her wits. She would have just nodded, but she couldn’t with his hands fisted in her chignon the way they were.
Before she could change her mind or take the word back, Lodge lifted her by the hips and carried her into his chamber, tossing her gently on her back against the massive bed. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his Hessians free, tossing them to the side of the room.
Good Lord. Now? “It is the middle of the afternoon, Lodge. Surely we can’t-”
“ On the contrary,” he said, cutting her off and leaning over to plant a kiss on the end of her nose, “surely we can. I’ve never made love to you in daylight before. I want to see you. All of you.”
Her eyes went as wide as they’d ever done before. In more than two years of marriage, she’d never seen her husband nude before-only under the cover of full darkness.
Lodge’s eyes twinkled at her as he stood to pull his coat free. “You did say you wanted to be bolder and more daring, didn’t you?”
Yes. Yes, she had. Audrey could do this. She could go through with this. Perhaps they wouldn’t ever do such a thing again. She had to know if she would enjoy it, if she allowed herself. Pinching her eyes closed, she sat up and set to work on unfastening the buttons along the back of her gown.
Before half the tiny pearl buttons were undone, Lodge had his coat, waistcoat, and shirt all off, draped over an armchair by the window. Dappled, golden sunlight poured in, washing him in a glow that highlighted all of the muscles on his chest and back. Facing the window, he undid the flap of his breeches and Audrey couldn’t look away if she tried.
As he lowered his pants and smallclothes to the ground in a single motion, his taut backside kept her entranced. How was it possible to have etched muscles there? Was it from all of his horse riding? Her breath caught as she imagined tracing the contours of his bottom with her fingertips. She’d never allowed herself to think about touching him before, not anywhere but his strong arms and upper chest. They seemed safe places to touch. Proper. Touching his buttocks could hardly qualify as proper.
Lodge turned, then, and caught her staring. Drat, she hated herself for looking as she had been. She hated herself even more now, because she was staring at the apex of his thighs and the member standing at attention nestled there.
His hand came over it, gripping it and sliding along its length a time or two. His staff seemed to grow before her eyes. Good gracious. “Never, in all this time, have you looked at what’s been inside you.”
Spontaneously, she wet her lips with her tongue as she watched his movements.
He moved closer to her, standing beside the bed, his hand still moving slowly over his engorged blade in the same manner as he moved within her. With his other hand, he drew down the top of her gown, freeing her breasts to his inspection in the waning afternoon sun.
His heated gaze bored through her. She wanted to cover herself, to hide from the intensity of his eyes. Almost of their own volition, Audrey’s hands lifted to do just that.
Lodge let out an almost inhuman moan. “Yes, my love. Touch yourself for me.”
Fire pounded through her veins. Touch herself?
With tentative fingers, she trailed a path over the curve of her breasts, avoiding the hardened peaks of her nipples at all costs. It was bad enough she was touching the fleshy part. She couldn’t bear to stroke the sensitive tips beneath his scrutiny.
The entire time she touched herself, she watched his reaction. A flash of hunger flickered through his green eyes when her fingertips moved close to her tightened nubs, then ebbed when she slid them away. His hand never left his member-never reached out to touch her.
After a few minutes, he ground out, “Stop teasing me, Audrey. Touch your teats.”
She pressed her eyes closed and did as he asked, gasping with shock at the touch. A flood of heated yearning pooled at her center. With pinches and prods, she copied the pattern Lodge often followed when he was inside her until her breath came out in sharp pants and an ache built inside her secret place.
“ Harder,” he whispered.
She was powerless to deny him anything just then. Squeezing tighter, Audrey couldn’t suppress the moan that came from her lips as her head lolled back.
Lodge leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue plundering inside and warring with hers. Holding her head in place with one hand, he used the other to pry her fingers free from her breast and wrap them around his smooth heat.
She should remove her hand from him. Touching him like this had to be sinful and wrong, but it felt so very right. When he moved his hips back and forth, sliding his shaft through her grip, she couldn’t imagine ever letting him go.
All too soon, he pulled away from her, moving to his armoire. Lodge opened a drawer and pulled something out, then returned to the foot of the bed. “Come down here, sweeting. It’s time to become adventurous.”