Page 109 of Rules for a Wicked Wager

He was kissing her, deep thrusts of his tongue as he pressed against her. She had no room to undress him more. All she could do was explore the feel of his chest as her hands were flattened between them. At least she could rub the edge of her nail against the hard rise of his nipple.

He growled as she did that, by which she guessed he liked it. Suddenly he was gone from her. She was left kissing nothing, her body falling from the sudden lack of support. Then he scooped her up. His arm was beneath her legs, and she toppled against him.

“You are mine, Mari. You have to know that.”

Did she? She had promised him that she’d marry him. “You’re a fortune hunter,” she said without heat. He was carrying her so easily that she felt like she was floating. Then he set her down on his bed, seated upright with her legs dangling off the side. With quick movements, he untied her stays and stripped her out of her shift. Within seconds, she was naked before him. And far from being ashamed, she reached for his pants.

“I want you naked as well,” she said.

“Light a candle,” he said, his chin jerking toward the table as he pulled off his shirt.

She did, her fingers fumbling, but in the end, she managed it. And when she looked back, he was bare, his cock thrust toward her, thick and ruddy red.

She loved the sight of him in his full prowess, but her hands seemed to have their own thoughts as she touched his organ, stroking across the velvety head, feeling its girth while slicking her thumb with his moisture. His breath hissed through his teeth, and his neck tightened, but he didn’t move. If anything, she thought his entire body had gone rigid as she explored.

“Peter?” she asked, uncertain.

He tilted his head down to her. They weren’t a far distance apart, but this motion seemed to come with deliberate tension. He moved slowly, his gaze dark as his fists settled onto the mattress on either side of her hips. She leaned back as he descended, keeping just far enough apart that she could watch the burning intensity in his eyes.

“You said you would marry me.”

She swallowed. “I know.”

“You could even now be carrying my child.”

Her belly fluttered at that, and she bit her lip, both wishing and fearing it was true.

“We have gone too far for you to run from me now.”

She touched his face, needing to soften the hard granite of his jaw. She stroked his cheek and brushed her fingertips into the curl along his temple. “I have never understood a single thing about you. I thought you cruel when you were doing a kindness. I thought you lazy when you were building a vision of your future. And I thought you wanted me, when in fact you want my money.” She swallowed down tears she didn’t want to acknowledge. “Do you know how much that confuses me? Do you know how lost I feel?”

He nodded, a measured dip of his chin. And then he extended the motion, meeting her lips with a slow press that steadily grew to a full possession. He pressed her backward as he took her mouth. His fists had opened, and she felt his hands support her shoulders and head as he laid her out on the bed. And when she would have clutched his shoulders, he set her hands to the side and wrapped her fingers around the sheets.

“Hold here,” he said as he began kissing down her neck.

“But—”

“Do you know what a French letter is?” he asked as he pressed his lips to her breast.

“Yes. Madame Ille taught me. It is a condom.” And she’d forgotten the things back in her bedroom.

“Yes,” he said. The scratch of his chin was an erotic counterpart to the soft press of his lips. She was so focused on those sensations that she barely heard his next words. “I cannot help yesterday, but I will not risk a child again until we are wed.”

His chin brushed the side of her breast, and when he stopped speaking, his mouth found the point of her nipple. A tiny nip. A slow suck. And then another sharper nip.

“Mari, do you understand?”

“No,” she said. “Did you not hear me? I understand nothing of what you do or why, and that frightens me.”

His expression softened. “Or perhaps you do not understand the what and why of what you do, and that is terrifying.”

She blinked. It was so hard to think with his breath wrapping around the wet of her nipple. “Maybe. Yes. When I am with you, I frighten myself.”

He smiled. “That I understand very well. You have pushed me in ways I never imagined.”

He tongued her nipple, and she arched into his attention. Her hands slid to his shoulders, where she clutched at him, while her mind splintered into a thousand wonderful sensations.

He switched to the other breast, making her whimper as he suckled. And when she might have dragged him back to her mouth, he took her hand and gently reset it into the sheets.