me. Take your pleasure.”
She hesitated.
“Have you never … ? Perhaps they don’t teach that at finishing school.” He moved as though he would free his arms. “I’ll show you.”
“No.” She clasped his biceps, holding him down. “I don’t need help.”
She had a big, beautiful man at her mercy, and she wasn’t going to relinquish control. Oh, she was under no illusions that she had him physically overpowered. He could have flipped their places at any instant.
She hadn’t taken the reins. He’d given her the reins. And that made it all the better.
She decided how to begin, when to stop. Whether to tease them both with grazing friction or grind her hips. She set the pace. It was hers to grant or deny him mercy when he pleaded in a whisper: “Faster.”
With every motion—slow or quick, firm or gentle—her pleasure spiraled higher. Her breathing grew uneven, and she flushed with heat.
She fell forward to kiss him, searching his mouth. Exploring. As their tongues tangled, his whiskers scraped her lips and chin. Her nipples puckered to knots, exquisitely sensitive. With every movement, they kissed the hard planes of his chest.
Bliss rushed at her from all sides, propelling her toward that distant promise of satisfaction. Her rhythm lost all elegance. Her hips jerked and bounced as her urgency grew.
“Yes.” His voice was strained. “Hold nothing back. I want to feel you come against me. I want to hear the sounds you make.”
His words of encouragement had the opposite effect. For the first time, she felt a moment’s trepidation. She’d never climaxed with another person. It had taken her years to feel comfortable with herself, let alone a man. When the pleasure broke, she would be bared to him. More naked than naked.
She let her brow fall against his shoulder, hiding her face. She whimpered against his skin. “Hold me.”
In an instant, he freed his hands and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair and caressing her back, giving her the safety she needed. “I have you, love. I have you.”
As she began to move once more, his hands slid down her back. He cupped and squeezed her bottom, guiding her. Urging her. Dragging her over his hard length again and again and again. Holding her through that last, unnerving moment of nothingness, and pushing her into the brightness on the other side.
Joy shivered over her skin and pulsed through her veins. She buried her cries of pleasure in the curve of his neck.
As the climax ebbed, the tension left her body, melting into his heat. A beautiful sense of peace drifted through her. As if she were sitting in a toasty room on a cold day, watching snowflakes land on the windowsill.
He didn’t share the same languor. His erection jutted against her belly, still fiercely hard and unsatisfied. He drove a hand between their bodies and tugged at his trouser buttons.
“Sorry,” he said. “Can’t wait any longer.”
Penny rolled to the side. Should she offer to help? It only seemed fair to repay him the favor. But then, she had no idea how to help. Perhaps her fumbling would do more harm than good.
As he slid his hand into his trousers, she came to one unwavering decision. Whether he desired her assistance or not, she was definitely going to watch.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see. Before her eyes could adjust to the firelight, he had his hand tightly wrapped around the object of her curiosity, and then he pumped his fist so quickly, she saw nothing but a shadowy blur. In a matter of moments, his body jerked and he made a low, guttural sound. With his free hand, he groped for a corner of tangled bedsheet. He drew it over his groin while he shuddered and finished with a few slower strokes.
“That”—he fell back against the bed—“was a close thing. It was all I could do to not spend in my trousers. But then we wouldn’t have had a single clean article of clothing between us.”
They lay on their backs, staring up at the ceiling. As their breathing eased, an awkward silence fell over them both.
When two people were in love, or at least true lovers, Penny supposed they would spend this time cuddling and settling in for a good, deep sleep. But she and Gabriel weren’t in love, and despite what had just happened, they weren’t truly lovers. They were neighbors with little in common, save for a shared interest in not being neighbors anymore. What were the rules for this? What did she want them to be?
The questions hovered above them like a cloud.
He offered the worst possible suggestion. “I should probably apologize.”
“If you dare, I will beat you mercilessly with a pillow.”
A loud knock came at the door of the suite. The voice on the other side of the door belonged to a sleepy innkeeper. “Sir, you asked to be roused at once if your coachman arrived.”
“The hell I did,” Gabriel muttered. “He just wants to be certain he’s paid.” He pushed to his feet and buttoned his trousers, then cleared his throat. “I, er … I’ll need my shirt.”
“Oh. Of course.” Penny slid her arms from the sleeves, pulled it over her head, and buried herself beneath the quilt before passing it in his direction. Despite all her bravery a few minutes ago, she’d grown vulnerable and shy.
He pushed his hands through his hair in a vain attempt to tame it, and then he left her alone with that looming, unanswered question.
What now?
They returned to Bloom Square very late. Or very early, depending on how one looked at it.
For most of the journey, Gabe drifted in and out of sleep. He felt like a coward avoiding conversation, but he hadn’t the faintest idea what to say, and drowsing gave him a chance to gather his memories and fix them in his mind before they could escape.
He recalled the way she’d touched him with such adorable, unashamed curiosity. The plump curves of her bottom filling his hands, and the hug of her cleft astride his cock. The lilting song of her cries as she’d climaxed.
If all that wasn’t torture enough, her pleasure had been embossed on his shirt. Her scent lingered about him even now, warm and intoxicating.
The coachman slowed the horses to a walk as they entered Mayfair, keeping the noise to a minimum. As morning dawned, a drifting fog obscured the streets and wrapped the city in a blanket of hush.
Gabe looked down the alley in both directions before he handed her down from the carriage. As expected, even after a thorough laundering and pressing, her lacy, once blushing-pink frock was a shambles.
“I’ll see you in.”
They entered through the horse stalls—or, in Penny’s case, goat and steer stalls—and naturally, she had to stop to soothe
