“We are close to winning everything,” Ellen agreed with a laugh.
Joseph lifted her and swung her around in another circle, but this time, when he put her down, he tightened his arms around her and pulled her in for a kiss.
Right from the start, the kiss turned into far more than Ellen expected. Joseph was so full of energy and life, and the way he held her and molded his body to hers was pure perfection. She had no desire whatsoever to resist as he slanted his mouth over hers, teasing and tasting her and parting her lips to delve into her mouth. He was strong and powerful. He knew what he wanted, for a change, and he wasn’t afraid to take it.
She adored it. She adored the confidence he showed and the passion of his kiss. She melted against him, humming and moaning into his mouth and signaling to him that whatever he wanted was his. She took a bit of what she wanted as well, sliding her hands down to the tie of his robe and tugging it loose so she could circle her arms around him.
Perhaps she went a bit further than she should have. She lifted the bottom of his pajama shirt so that she could run her hands up the warm skin of his sides and dig her fingertips into his back. He was delicious to touch, and right from the start, she wanted more. She wanted to kiss more than his mouth, to feel the skin under her hands against the exposed flesh of her own body. She wanted to feel his hand where her own had been the night before, more than just his hand.
“Ellen,” he murmured her name as a promise and a plea as he kissed his way to her neck.
“Darling,” she sighed in reply, cursing the high collar of the ridiculously prim bodice of the dress she’d been convinced to purchase the other day.
As if Joseph could read her thoughts, he reached behind to the buttons that ran down her back and worked through the first few with surprising speed. The rest were harder to undo, as he tried to kiss her passionately and undo her buttons at the same time. Ellen was extremely put out with herself for having donned such a fussy skirt and blouse, but it didn’t seem to matter once Joseph finished with the buttons that ran down her back.
She wasn’t entirely aware of the movements, but within a few seconds, Joseph had lifted her and carried her to the sofa where he’d been reclined. He lay her on her back, then peeled her bodice forward over her shoulders to expose her corset and her breasts pushing higher and higher over the top with each desperate breath she took. For a moment, she was forced to wriggle in the most undignified way as she slipped her arms out of the sleeves so that she could play her fingers through his hair, but she managed it.
“I adore you,” Joseph groaned, kissing her mouth quickly and deeply before sliding down so that he could rain kisses over the tops of her breasts. “I have never met anyone like you in my life.”
“I adore you, too,” Ellen panted as she pushed Joseph’s robe off his shoulders.
She felt dizzy and mad with desire as Joseph worked through the hooks of her corset, parting its halves, then tugging her chemise down to expose her breasts entirely. They both sighed and moaned with pleasure and excitement as he cupped her overly sensitive breasts and used his thumbs to work her nipples into throbbing points. It was uncanny how the way he kissed and suckled first one breast, then the other sent deep pulsing waves of pleasure straight to her sex. She writhed against him, parting her legs as much as she could while pinned under him and attempting in vain to create some sort of sensation in the part of her that wanted him the most.
She wasn’t the only one flying swiftly into madness, though. Joseph moved restlessly above her, alternating between kissing her breasts and her mouth, pushing at her clothing, and reaching between the two of them. She wasn’t entirely certain what his reach was for until he let out a small breath of relief, then undulated as he pushed his pajama trousers down.
Ellen caught her breath when she realized what he’d done, then, overcome with boldness, she reached between the two of them herself. As soon as her hand brushed against the firm length of his manhood, she let out a giddy sound of excitement. It wasn’t the first time she’d had her hand on a cock, but that other time meant nothing to her compared to how it felt to touch Joseph, the man she loved.
He let out a sound of desperation and shuddered, which made her worry she’d gone too far too fast. She pulled her hand away.
“No, don’t stop,” he panted. “I want…I need….”
Ellen’s eyes went wide as it occurred to her that Joseph might not actually know what he wanted or what he needed. She’d gathered that he was inexperienced from several clues in things he’d said and the way he’d behaved toward her for the last few months, but hadn’t he been with a woman before?
No, she decided. He hadn’t. But that was damn well going to change right then and there.
“Yes,” she panted, reaching for her skirt and tugging it up so she could give him everything. “I want and need too. You. Everything.”
He seemed to figure out what she was doing, and for one heart-stopping moment, she wasn’t sure if he would keep going forward or if he would lose his nerve and try to be a gentleman. God, she hoped he wouldn’t be a gentleman! But as the hem of her skirt came up around her thighs, Joseph joined in with her efforts to clear the way so that he could have everything he wanted.
It was quick, clumsy, and Ellen wasn’t certain either of them were fully in their right minds, but as soon as she was able to part her legs wide enough for Joseph to surge against her, as soon as she was able to guide him to where he needed to be and tilt her hips to urge him on, Joseph pushed into her with a shuddering sigh.
The sounds he made as he buried himself deep were almost comical in their intensity. She matched every one of them, though, panting and mewling encouragement as he moved unsteadily back, then thrust into her again. He was hesitant and awkward at first, then seemed to find his rhythm.
Once he gave himself over to thrusting in her with a speed and abandon that Ellen found charming and magnificently arousing, things rushed to their climax. Joseph made a series of increasingly desperate sounds, then went completely, breathlessly quiet as he pumped hard into her, his face contorted in ecstasy. Ellen didn’t even mind that she wasn’t anywhere close to her own release yet. It still felt perfect, in her heart if not in her body. She knew what was happening with Joseph, and she knew that she had caused it.
He finally let out a breath on a blissful moan and sank against her as his thrusts slowed to a stop. He didn’t even appear to have the energy to pull out of her, but that was perfectly fine, as far as Ellen was concerned. She hummed with contentment, still buzzing with arousal, and wrapped her arms and legs around him.
“Mmm. I love you, Joseph Rathborne-Paxton,” she sighed, holding him close. “You are the perfect man for me.”
Chapter Eleven
Somewhere in the pleasure fog that filled Joseph’s mind as all will and ability to move left him, Joseph felt a twinge of guilt. He probably should have treated Ellen to a sumptuous bed and a field of roses, or something romantic that matched the way his heart pounded for her, instead of losing control of his faculties and behaving like an animal on one of the sofas in the parlor.
But it had all just been so spectacular!
He hummed with affection and adoration as he adjusted so that he could kiss Ellen’s red, parted lips. That hum turned into a grunt as several muscles he’d never used before ached to remind him of their presence, and as he discovered he hadn’t yet actually removed himself from his beloved.
Heat flooded him, and he groggily wondered if Ellen was uncomfortable, or if she was embarrassed for him on his complete and utter lack of knowledge of what to do, now that the bliss was receding. But then the words she’d spoken when he was just on the other side of sense returned to him, and he smiled.