Chapter Seventeen
Allison clung to Quinn’s shoulders as he carried her past his parlor, up a narrow set of stairs, and down a dark hallway. He kicked open a half-closed door and hit the switch for the gas lamps with his elbow. As light flooded the room, he deposited her in the middle of a large bed with a dark blue quilt, staring down at her with fire in his eyes.
Her gaze drifted down his powerful body, seeing that he was already monstrously aroused. She didn’t know what had happened in the last few moments to change his mind, but she could not doubt that something had.
Shrugging out of his jacket and vest, he paused with his hands on the buttons of his shirt. “Are you still certain that this is what you want?”
Mouth dry, she simply nodded mutely, her gaze locked on his bare, powerful chest. She understood his concerns, especially in light of what he’d told her tonight. And she knew she should probably have some of her own. But he was the one for her, the only man who had ever made her feel this way, perhaps the only man who ever would.
“Do you want to take off your gown?” His hands were now busily unfastening his trousers, and her own clothes suddenly felt far too confining, chafing at her passion-sensitized skin.
“Yes,” she managed. “Can you help?”
She sat up and turned her back to him, wondering what he must think of the ridiculousness of being dressed in clothes she couldn’t take off by herself. But he merely undid her gown and then made short work of her corset. Once she was free, she shed them all like a caterpillar coming out of its cocoon until they were lying on the bed facing each other, neither of them wearing a stitch of clothes.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
The goosebumps on her skin seemed to have nothing to do with the cold because she was burning up from the inside out. “I’m fine,” she whispered.
He leaned up on one elbow, taking her in from the tips of her breasts to the tips of her toes. Never in her life had she been naked this way in front of another human being, but the appreciation in his gaze made it all right. “You are so very beautiful, princess. You take my breath away.”
She’d seen him naked once before, but that didn’t make it any less astounding this time. He looked like a Greek statue, all lithe muscle and sinew. “And you are the most handsome man I’ve ever known.”
A grin tilted his lush mouth as he rolled on his back and spread his arms wide. “I’m yours for the taking. Tell me what you want to know, what you want to try, and I’ll do my best to please you.”
His words gave her a dizzying sense of power and freedom. Pushing up on one elbow, she leaned slightly over him, using the other hand to skim his beautiful body from chest to thigh, even dancing lightly over his erection, loving the way it surged against her fingertips.
“When we were in the warehouse, you said the things we saw were not normal. What is the normal way that lovemaking is conducted?” she asked, her voice cracking a bit with passion and embarrassment. She couldn’t believe he was actually going to let her ask whatever she wanted.
He crossed his arms behind his head and gazed up at her. “I should not have used that word. I think that normal depends on the two people involved. What is normal for one couple could be shocking to another, but as long as both people enjoy it, should anyone else be able to make that judgment?”
She shook her head, riveted. She loved his forward-thinking views on things. He was truly a man of the twentieth century.
“There are many positions people can make love in.” Frowning pensively, he suddenly sat up. “I’m going to demonstrate a few. We won’t actually do it yet; we’re just going to act it out a bit so that you become more comfortable with the idea. Are you all right with that?”
“Yes,” she said, though she wasn’t certain she even knew what he meant by that.
“Lay down on your back,” he instructed.
When she did, he moved on top of her, nudging open her thighs so that he could settle his knees between them and bracing his upper body over her with his strong arms. “This is probably the most normal. The way married couples of your class probably do it, in the dark with the lady’s nightdress bunched up to her thighs.”
He pressed forward, and she could feel the hot, hard length of him at her core.
“I imagine it would be very painful for the lady, especially her first time, if she had no idea what was going to happen and the man didn’t prepare her first,” he told her.
“But you’ll prepare me first, like you did last time, won’t you?” she asked breathlessly.
He leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers in a deep, thorough kiss. “Yes,” he murmured when he broke away. “I’ll prepare you quite thoroughly. Though I’ve been told it always hurts a little the first time, I want to make this as beautiful as I can for you.”
She smiled and wrapped her arms around his broad back, loving his warmth and strength. “I trust you, Quinn.”
“I think this is the way we will probably do it tonight, simply because I believe it will be the easiest for you the first time.” He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Do you understand what will happen, or do you have questions about that?”
Heat suffused her entire body. “You will press your... cock inside me?”
He closed his eyes and gave a pained chuckle. “You don’t know how much I love hearing that dirty word come out of your sweet mouth, princess, but yes, you’re right. I will thrust myself in and out of you, and the feel of your warm, wet heat will make me feel so good that I’ll eventually find my release the way I did the other night. However, since we are not trying to have a baby, I will pull myself out of you at the last moment and do that outside of you instead of inside of you.”
Her eyes widened. “That makes sense. Thank you for protecting me in that way.”