Page 56 of Kathryn

Being under sensual assault with candles blazing had been wits-destroying, but something about the anonymity of utter darkness made her feel as if all the nerves in her body had migrated to the outside of her skin.

Without his piercing gaze to strip her to the bone, she was unencumbered by self-consciousness. Instead of having to worry about what she looked like, she gave herself up to his expert seduction.

“Lift your bottom,” he murmured, hardly pausing his kissing as he pushed her nightgown up over her thighs, hips, and waist until the fabric was bunched above her breasts. “Now your arms.” Katie complied and he removed the nightgown, tugging off her sleeping cap in the process.

A gentle but insistent knee nudged between her thighs, spreading her legs as his hot silky mouth sucked her nipples until they were hard, needy peaks. Katie closed her eyes and arched her back as he slid his hand over her belly and between her legs, easily breaching her shamefully slick body with one thick finger.

The low, almost inaudible grunt he gave as he sank deep inside her was the single most arousing sound Katie had ever heard. And she had done that to him. Or at least her body had. Raw need incited her to boldness, and she raised her hips to encourage his wicked hand.

A shudder passed through his big frame as his arm began to move and he worked her with slow, deliberate strokes. Katie decided that being readied by her husband was as wonderful as the main event.

The only sounds in the room were of heavy breathing and an embarrassing wet sound as he pumped her, easing a second finger in. Every muscle in her body clenched when he used his thumb to tease her bud, his other hand working her harder, deeper, and faster.

Please don’t let him tease me endlessly.

But it seemed that Dulverton had other plans tonight and his stroking didn’t falter as Katie lifted her hips and met him thrust for thrust, exploding when the sensation became too much to contain. Spasms of intense bliss seized her again and again, until her limbs were suffused with languor.

Dulverton stilled his stroking, but his thumb—oh, his wicked, wonderful thumb—pressed against the base of her pearl in such a way that a second powerful blast of pleasure lifted her hips off the bed.

And then he began to withdraw.

“No—” she murmured, tightening her inner muscles. But it was too late, and her body clenched around nothing.

“Shhh.” The sound was hot on her temple as his broad torso lowered over hers and he held his weight on one elbow, using his free hand to guide himself.

Katie opened wider for him without being asked, a moan slipping from between her clenched teeth when his thick length thrust inside her, not stopping until he’d buried himself to the root.

He gave a soft grunt of pleasure as the echoes of her orgasm massaged his rigid shaft, remaining motionless as her climax ebbed. Only when she was limp and boneless did he begin to move, his taut hips pumping slowly and deeply, filling her utterly with each erotic caress. He gave a slight twist of his hips when he withdrew and soon the friction caused a familiar tightening sensation to build.

Katie reached for him without thinking, and his body jolted when her hands landed on the tightly meshed muscles of his waist.

She jerked her hands away. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, the passion that had been building within her instantly flagging.

“Touch me.”

When she hesitated, he thrust deep and kept her pinned and filled. “Touch me, Kathryn,” he hissed into the darkness.

She was far more tentative his time, but he didn’t pull away, so Katie caressed from his waist up the flaring muscles of his back to his ridiculously broad shoulders, earning a low purr of encouragement. Emboldened, she stroked downward, not stopping until her hands lightly grazed his firm, smooth globes of his buttocks.

“Yes, like that,” he growled. “Everywhere—harder,” he ordered as he raised his hips, the action pushing his hard buttocks against her palms.

She gripped the taut muscles tighter and a shudder wracked his body as he resumed his pumping. The sensation of being joined with him was as exciting as it had been that first night, but even more arousing was the barely leashed savagery of thrusts. Even in the darkness she could feel his control fraying. The knowledge that it was her bringing about this metamorphosis sent her flying over the edge into yet another climax just as Dulverton gave a primitive roar, the ferocity of his release shocking for a man who rarely exhibited any emotion.

She curled her legs around his muscular thighs to hold him inside her, locking her arms around his broad back. It felt like every muscle in his body spasmed, his shaft swelling with each jerk as he spent deep inside her.

When it was over, he slumped, the entire weight of his torso all but crushing her. But Katie didn’t so much as twitch. Scarcely a minute passed before he roused himself.

Reluctantly, Katie released him, her legs and arms sliding away as he raised himself up and rolled to the side. For a moment she thought he might rest, but the mattress shifted, and the blanket, rather than hot male body, settled over her.

She didn’t hear another sound until the connecting door opened, throwing the same slanting light into her room. He stood poised on the threshold. “Good night, Kathryn.”

“Good night, Dulverton,” she said, but he had already shut the door, leaving her once again in darkness, wondering if she had just woken from a fever dream.

Chapter Fifteen

Katie was disappointed when she went down to breakfast the following morning and discovered that Dulverton had eaten hours earlier and left on estate business.

“And the dowager? Has she already come down?” she asked the footman, a man she did not recognize.