“This is what I want,” she stated fiercely.
The duke did not hesitate another moment.
He rubbed the head of his sex along that slick, delicious, warmth he had created.
He rocked against her opening.
Her eyes widened, astonished.
Truth be told, she was glad he was not taking more time. She did not want to have more time to think, to feel any fear or hesitation, because in her soul, this was meant to be.
Garret thrust forward.
She gasped as pain stabbed through her.
He held tight for one moment, his voice gritting out, “This will hurt for a moment, but it shouldn’t hurt again.”
She nodded, and her breath caught in her throat.
“Breathe,” he urged gently. “Holding your breath will only make it worse.”
And then he bent down and kissed her.
And that kiss somehow made all the tension leave her body, and she found herself matching his breath. Following the rise and fall of his chest.
She arched upward towards him, her nipples skimming his hard chest, and she wrapped her arms around him, holding onto him as if somehow that would teach her what to do.
And it did, she realized.
She followed his body, his thrusts, meeting his movements as he began to move into her deeply again, stroking her inward as he had outwardly. His pace increased and the pain suddenly vanished.
She found herself reaching to meet that pleasure again.
Now, she accommodated his fullness. A fullness that seemed perfect for her body when, just a moment ago, it had seemed impossible.
Garret reached down between them and stroked her most sensitive spot. She let out a cry of amazement as pleasure took her again, stealing all her thoughts and rippling through her again and again.
As his back arched and her body tightened around his, he pulled back suddenly, tensing beside her. A wild cry tore from his throat as he shook, his pleasure a primal thing.
He called her name as if he was a man completely lost. She held on to him as he rolled to his side, as if she could keep him in this world.
His powerful response stunned her because she had expected him to be measured. After all, this was his realm, not hers, but it seemed in this moment, despite the wild, unknown pleasure that she had just experienced, it was he who had been transported beyond all things.
He stared down at her, shocked, as if he had just been thrust into an unknown land, a place he had never meant to go.
“Catherine,” he breathed.
“Yes?” She asked softly, unsure.
“That was… I have never…”
Words seemed lost to him, and he stopped searching as he studied her and remained silent.
And she wondered then if a man could feel as shocked by such things as a woman.
After a moment, he cleaned himself with the linen towel that he’d dropped. Letting out a ragged breath of fulfilled bliss, he pulled her into his arms.
Both of them, apparently, in a new land.