He licked and kissed a path around her navel, trailed a hand over her softly swollen belly where his first babe rested. It humbled him to know he’d soon have a child, and that this beautiful, fierce woman would bear it. Tears of gratitude pricked the backs of his eyelids as he paid homage to the evidence of their love, and when she ruffled his hair, he groaned against her skin. Life had been upended and in the best of ways, thanks to this woman, this Storme who’d cleared his path. As he rested a cheek to her belly, he caressed her legs, the inside of her satiny thighs, and when he danced his fingertips along the soft cheeks of her arse, she shivered. A half moan half sighed left her throat.
God, how he adored bringing her pleasure.
“I need to taste you, Sarah.” As he pulled her closer, he urged her legs apart.
“You always do.” She rested her hands on his shoulders, but there was no mistaking the excitement in her voice.
“Because you like it, and we haven’t indulged in this for some time.” Drew encouraged one of her legs upward until she’d hooked her knee at his shoulder, and then he buried his face between her spread thighs. She was pure heaven, this woman he’d wed, and he would never tire of being whatever she needed. As he explored her sensitive flesh with his tongue, he teased the button at the center of her pleasure from hiding. When he moaned and pressed his head closer to her, he feasted, licking and nibbling to his heart’s desire.
“Andrew…” His name on her lips sounded like a fairy call, so scattered was it.
“Mmm?” He teased that nubbin, sucked at it until it swelled and hardened from his attentions.
Soft cries issued from her, and they further fired his need as well as his enjoyment at working to see her undone. “I won’t last long at this rate.”
“Good. I rather adore it when you surrender.” He caressed her legs, her thighs, grinning as she trembled in his hold, and all the while he switched up the friction with his tongue on that tiny pearl. When she didn’t immediately fall into release, he added his thumb and forefinger to his play. As he rubbed that slippery button, he licked her flesh, exploring her with his tongue, thrusting inside and then retreating. All the while, he never let up with his attention, and she trembled the longer he played.
“Andrew, oh merciful heavens!” A low cry issued from Sarah. Her body shook. The hand she’d rested on his shoulder clenched as she dug her fingernails into his skin. “I… I….” She squirmed, her hips gyrating with restless abandon, bumping against his mouth as she spent in spectacular fashion.
“I will never tire of seeing you go over.” With one final lick to her button, Drew eased her leg from his shoulder and then stood. He caught her into his arms as she slumped into his chest, the very picture of a woman sated. Some of her blonde hair had escaped from its nightly braid and her spectacles were very much askew.
She uttered a tiny huff as she met his eyes. “I’d say you’re an evil man, but you’re right. I like the way you make me feel too much.”
“Come, then, and I’ll do it all over again.” There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. Tenderly, almost reverently, he led her across the chilly floor and helped her into their bed, for they weren’t one of those aristocratic couples who maintained separate bedchambers. He would miss her presence beside him too much for all that.
“Oh, Andrew, give me your hand.” She groped for it as they went beneath the covers. “I think the baby is awake.” When she pressed his palm to her belly, fluttering tickled his palm.
Heat crept up the back of Drew’s neck. “Do you think our amorous activities annoy the child?” Or, God help him, harmed it?
“No doubt it bathes the child with love knowing its parents enjoy each other physically so much.”
“I hope you’re right, for I don’t plan to leave you to your own devices until it’s time to deliver you of the little one.” He kissed her as he moved his body over hers, settling comfortably between her splayed thighs.
“I’m glad, for I need you—this intimacy—too much.” She wrapped her arms about his shoulders and wriggled closer. With every brush of her body against his aroused member, desire flood him. “In short, I love you, Andrew. It terrifies me at times.”
“How well I know that feeling.” With gentle movements, he removed her spectacles and tossed them to the foot of the bed. When she glided a hand down his back, exploring, tracing, caressing, he hissed out a warning, for her touch pushed him closer to the brink. It always did. “How do you want me tonight?” His whisper rasped through the quiet of the room.
“You choose, for no matter how we come together, we both win.” With wicked promise filling her eyes, she eased her hand between his legs. The next second she caressed the thin skin between his anus and stones, the spot that drove him out of his mind with white-hot need.
Need shuddered through his hardened shaft. His stones tingled with the urge to lay claim to her. “Minx.”
“No, merely experienced now, for I’ve had months to learn every secret of your body, Hadleigh.” Her chuckle sent fires into his blood, but she continued to torment him there, and the slight pressure of her fingertips as she fondled his bits made him cross-eyed with desire.
“Sarah, I’ll embarrass myself if you continue, and I’d rather spend inside you.”
“And I’d rather see you stumble at the brink of coming undone.” But she left off with her particular brand of exquisite torture, and for that he sucked in a breath of relief. “I will have you at my mercy, perhaps tomorrow as a Christmas gift to myself.” She slid both hands to grasp his buttocks, and when she squeezed, urgency lanced through the whole of his body.
“Ah, Sarah, is there any doubt that I love you?” The words came out more breathless than he’d intended, for he wanted her like nothing else in his life. He moved slightly so that the head of his prick brushed her opening.
“Show me. Send me flying so I might touch the heavens and sing with the angels this night,” she said into his ear as she drew up her legs and loosely locked her ankles at the small of his back.
“Dear God, I can but try.” With one thrust, he penetrated her deep and didn’t stop until he was fully seated, and starbursts broke in his mind. Intense sensation raced through his shaft and stones. Oh, he was on the edge already.
In the dim light, pleasure lit her face, made her almost ethereal. A juddering breath escaped him, and for one second he stared into her eyes in an effort to thank the Creator for the gift of her—for his life. “Ah, Sarah, you’ll never know how much you’ve done for me, so that I can, in turn, change… everything.” He held her captive between the cage of his arms, his weight balanced on his knees and elbows while he enjoyed the feeling of being so closely connected to her, his lifeline in the storm.
Then he moved, slowly at first, in and out of her honeyed heat. Her body greedily sucked at his length, pulled him closer, encouraged him deeper, and he followed instinct. Each stroke joined them irrevocably, strengthened their bond, made them one.
On the heels of a sigh, she said, “You’re a romantic at heart. I’m so proud of all that you’ve become since we married.”