Colt had no idea how to move the evening along. Yes, he wanted to seal the marriage, but the awkwardness he felt was so uncharacteristic, he felt like a man who’d never been with a woman before. “I’ll come to you in a few minutes.”
After she departed, he stood alone in the silence and drew in a deep breath to calm his nerves. The idea that a good women might have urges in ways that mimicked a man was something he still found hard to believe. Everything he’d been taught in medical school and in life contradicted her claim. Good womendid nothave urges. Yet, he couldn’t deny his own. All day he’d wanted to brush his lips over her throat and inhale the intoxicating scent of her perfumed warm skin. The saucy smile she’d tossed his way made him want to taste her mouth and fill his hands with her hips while he languidly guided those yards of silk up and down her thighs. He wanted to press his erection against her so she’d feel what she did to him. Willing himself to remember he was a man of discipline and not one to be driven by base desires, he went to join her.
When he entered the room, she said, “I need help getting out of this gown.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“What isn’t necessary?”
“That,” he said, gesturing vaguely her way.
“Aren’t we consummating our vows?”
“Yes.”
“But I’m not to remove my clothing?”
“Good women don’t remove their clothing.”
After giving him a studied look, she asked, “So, I’m supposed to lie back, lift my dress, and let you rut away?”
Scalded by her bold manner, he somehow managed to say, “That’s usually the way it’s done.”
“Then let’s do something unusual because I don’t want the gown ruined.”
Chin raised, she walked to him and turned her back. “My buttons, please.”
Colt hesitated. He took in the line of fabric-coated buttons trailing down the back of her gorgeous iridescent gown and her cool eyes trained his way over her shoulder. In them he saw anger tinged with hurt. The latter gave him pause, but rather than muse over the cause, he complied with her request. The undoing revealed the back of a thin shift dyed to match the color of her gown. When he finished, she stepped out of his reach and faced him. Eyes simmering, she pulled her arms free of the gown and let the silk swish to the floor.
His heart pounded at the sight of her brown legs encased in gossamer-thin white stockings, and the jewel-encrusted garters. As if bent on causing him more havoc, she took hold of the shift’s hem and slowly pulled it up and over her head. She may have tossed it aside, but he wasn’t sure because he was too busy trying to breathe. The sapphire corset dipped low over the tops of her breasts, accenting the tempting heart-shaped swells and drew his eyes down her slim torso to the matching ribbon-edged drawers hugging the tops of her thighs. He thought she gave him a smug smile, but it vanished so quickly he chalked it up to his imagination. He watched her sit on the edge of the bed and remove her shoes. Lying back, she made herself comfortable. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Colt hesitated. A part of him was appalled by her brazen behavior, while other parts wanted to tear off the tempting corset and have her in every way imaginable. He removed his coat and laid it on the chair with her gown.
“When I was in medical school I had a friend named Artemis James. Night after night while the rest of us pored over our books, Artie was visiting cathouses.” He removed his cuff links, set them aside, and folded up the sleeves of his white shirt. “After his visits, he’d come back and regale us with tales of his adventures.” By the look on her face, he could tell she was wondering where the tale was heading.
“In addition to feeding our young male fantasies with his salacious details, he also reminded us that a wife would never be as uninhibited as the women he visited.” Colt sat on the edge of the bed. “And I believed that... until you.” Surrendering to the urge to touch her, he used the tip of his finger to slowly trace the swells of her breasts above the corset. When her breath caught, he leaned over and placed a fleeting kiss first against her lips and then base of her throat. Inhaling the faint remnants of her perfume, he husked out, “You’re a scandalous wife, Regan Carmichael Lee.”
He straightened and savored the heat he’d kindled in her eyes.
“I know,” she whispered with a smile.
Unable to manage his need to touch her, he traced her sassy lips and kissed her again. “Do you wish to have a scandalous husband?”
“Yes.”
“Open your corset for me.”
Holding his eyes with a boldness that made his erection harden further, she opened the series of frogs one by one and placed her hands behind her on the mattress to brace herself. He eased the halves apart grazing the dark tips of her nipples in the process and heard her breath catch once more. Leaning in he took one into his mouth, enjoying both its hardness and the tiny moan that slipped out, before turning his attention to its twin.
Regan no longer cared that her marriage wouldn’t be a love match if he planned to treat her to this kind of bed play. His mouth, touch, and voice were turning her into a human bonfire. The slide of his hands, the tiny nip he placed on her collarbone, the way he watched her react as his palm traveled up her thigh only added more fuel. His finger circled her nipple, before he bit it gently.
“Am I seeing to your needs, Regan Lee?”
His use of her married name was as seductive as his touch.
“You have to say yes, or no. I don’t want to be neglectful.”
But before she could respond, he slid two fingers wickedly into her heat through the slit in her drawers and her hips rose in response to his beguiling rhythm.