“I don’t want to talk about it, Rafael. Just leave the lights off, all right?”
“It will eventually be morning, Victoria. Your draperies will undoubtedly keep out some of the light, but not all. I will see you, you know, all of you.” He saw she was truly upset and was completely bewildered. He gave it up without a further thought. “It’s all right, love. Come here, now. It will be as you wish.”
“We can really have done with it?”
“Yes, we will have this lovemaking business behind us in no time at all.”
She walked around the chair and came to a halt in front of him. She didn’t look up at his face, but at the gold frogged fastenings on his dressing gown.
“They’re fascinating, aren’t they?”
“Yes, but it’s difficult to see them clearly, for it is so very dark in here.”
“That’s certainly true enough. You’re a puzzle, Victoria. Did I ever tell you that I’m quite adept at puzzle solving?”
He resolutely kept his hands at his sides. Not yet, he thought, not quite yet. He had to calm her, make her relax, otherwise he could envision an awful debacle.
“The only thing you’re not good at is riding in a carriage.”
He laughed, reached out, and gently clasped her shoulders in his large hands. “Come here.”
She stepped against him without hesitation. Mutely Victoria raised her face, her lips slightly pursed. He grinned down at her and gently ran his fingertip along the outline of her mouth. He leaned down and kissed her nose, her brows, her chin. “If there is anything at all ugly about you, I will eat the stirrups off my Spanish saddle.” He sifted his long fingers through her hair that fell in deep waves down her back. He lifted a thick tress and brought it over her shoulders to his mouth. He inhaled deeply. “So sweet,” he said, “so very sweet.”
Victoria lifted her hand and touched her fingertips to his face. “Perhaps I’m sweet, but you’re beautiful.”
He gave her a crooked smile to cover his embarrassment. “I’m just a man, nothing more, nothing less, and a man isn’t a beautiful thing, not like you. But I am your husband and if you wish to remain blind to the stubble on my chin and the way my hair sticks up at odd angles in the mornings, who am I to disagree?”
“Please kiss me, Rafael.”
His eyes turned darker as he lowered his head. He kissed her lightly, very gently. He could feel the moment she responded to him. It was a quiver that ran from her breasts down her legs. He tightened his arms around her back. He raised his head a moment and looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted, her breathing coming in small gasps. “You can hold me too, Victoria,” he said. “I would like it very much.”
She slid her arms around his back and pressed herself against him. She felt him against her belly. She raised her face, arching her back a bit. He kissed her again, this time gliding his tongue over her lower lip, gently probing until she opened her mouth to him. He didn’t ravish her mouth with his tongue, but made gentle forays, his tongue barely touching hers. Victoria was quickly awash with the most overpowering feelings. She’d never imagined anything like this, a sort of urgency in her belly. A wanting so intense, a wanting just beyond, beckoning her. She moaned softly, unable to keep silent.
Rafael was immensely pleased at her response to him. He unfastened the ribbons of her negligee and slipped it off her shoulders. The soft silk pooled about her feet.
She stared at him, her eyes wide and questioning. He said nothing, merely slipped the straps of her nightgown off her shoulders. She was standing nearly in profile to him. He sucked in his breath as the soft silk fell below her breasts to her waist. In another moment the nightgown had joined the negligee at her feet. He looked down at her breasts, full and white, made whiter still in the dim shadows of the room. Very lightly he touched his fingertip to her nipple and watched her shudder.
“So soft,” he said. “Are your breasts as sweet as your hair?”
He leaned down and took her nipple in his mouth. Victoria gasped with shock, and arched her back. He felt her utter yielding to him. He held her with one arm and with the other hand caressed her breast, gently lifting it, weighing it in his palm. Only after he had loved both her breasts thoroughly did he allow his hand to glide below her waist. “Victoria,” he said softly, wanting to see her eyes when his fingers found her. He wanted to see her reaction.
It was more than he could have imagined. Her belly felt as smooth as satin, and when his fingers probed through the tangle of curls and found her, he nearly lost his control. He touched her very lightly. She wanted him.
“Rafael.”
He stopped, his fingers cupping her. She was trembling, nearly beyond herself, and he knew it. So responsive she was, and she was all his. He released her a moment, watching her gain control slowly. Her eyes cleared just a bit. She moistened her lips with her tongue. “I want to see you, Rafael.”
“I’m not nearly so ugly as you are.”
Her eyes went blank and wild. He quickly laughed. “I’m teasing you, little goose. All right, then. You want your husband?”
“Yes.”
He took a step back and shed his dressing gown. He stood quietly watching her face as she looked at him. She was very thorough, more so than she’d been on their accursed wedding night. When she reached his groin, he felt his member swelling and thrusting outward. She was consuming him, he thought, with that look. No woman had ever before studied him like this, with admiration, almost adoration. It was unnerving. “Victoria,” he said, and pulled her against him.
Her breasts pressed against his chest, his sex hard against her belly, exciting her to the point of incoherence. “Please,” she whispered, and felt his mouth close over hers. His hands were everywhere, lifting her, fitting her against him, and she moaned and pressed herself against him wildly, wanting more but not knowing what it was she wanted. His back, beneath her hands, was smooth and curved with hard muscle.
Rafael, nearly to the end of his tether, lifted her in his arms and strode to the bed, nearly stumbling over the damned table yet again. Where, he wondered vaguely, did she think herself ugly? It was ridiculous. He laid her on her back and came down beside her, balancing himself on his elbow.