Most people thought her hair was too... much. Too bright. Too different. She loved that he loved it.
The dress suddenly sagged as the buttons were released, and she grasped the front of it, holding it against her breasts. “I’d like to see you, too,” she told him daringly. “If I must bare myself to you, I think it’s only fair you do the same.”
He smiled and nodded. “You’re absolutely right. It’s only fair.”
Keeping her gaze on him, she slowly began to undress, shrugging off the heavy gown, then all the other layers that women were made to wear. For his part, Sebastian took off his coat and vest, then his white shirt, leaving his powerful chest bare.
Never before had she seen a man like this. Even her husband had come to her in his night shirt. Sebastian’s bare chest was a symphony of muscle and smooth, taut skin. He looked like a Greek statue, and it took her a moment to realize she’d stopped what she was doing entirely, so engrossed was she at the sight of him.
He cleared his throat gently, his hands on his belt, and she only began again because she wanted to see the rest of him. She wanted it very much.
Undoing his belt, he pushed his trousers down until they puddled on the floor, and all that remained were a pair of clean but worn drawers. Jocelyn realized she had never seen a man’s undergarments, not even in a haberdashery. She’d assumed that men wore an all-in-one suit like the little ones Oliver wore, but Sebastian’s were like a second skin of trousers. The thin white linen fabric clung to him, with a straining line of mother-of-pearl buttons down the front holding back a very prominent arousal that she was certain hadn’t been there when they’d stood up.
She let her chemise drop just as he took off that last barrier as well, and suddenly, they stood before each other as naked as the day they’d been born.
His... she didn’t even know what to call that part of him... stood rigidly at attention, larger than she’d imagined, given her memory of what had transpired between her and the earl. Did they come in different sizes?
“You’re absolutely beautiful,” he breathed, taking a step closer.
She shivered, crossing her arms over her chest. “So are you.”
“Are you cold?” he asked, grabbing a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapping it loosely around her.
The small room was actually pleasantly warm, in a way that the larger rooms of her home rarely were. However, it wasn’t the cold that had made her shiver, but the sight of him, so virile and powerful. His stark male beauty both exhilarated and terrified her.
“Thank you,” she murmured, finally lifting her gaze from his body to his face. “I’m fine. I’m just... afraid. I’ve never been completely naked in front of anyone except my lady’s maid.”
Taking her hands, he pulled her back to sit on the couch. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he reiterated. “The last thing I want to do is frighten you.”
“When Allison met Mr. O’Brien, they saw... a sex act being performed in a warehouse. She came home that evening so excited and intrigued by it, wanting to talk about it. I’m afraid I was not at all willing to do so. I hated everything about having... relations with Albert. I couldn’t understand why she would willingly want to do such a thing, for the pleasure of it, not just as a necessary chore to conceive a child.” She wasn’t even certain where she was trying to go with this, just wanted to let him know how much this all frightened her, how badly her marriage had scarred her.
He grimaced. “I wish your husband had taken better care of you. It pains me to think that it was so awful for you. It shouldn’t have been. He should have taken his time and been gentle with you.”
“It wasn’t just that he was rough... that he hurt me...” She swallowed and shook her head. “He treated me as though I was just a possession, that my body was his to do whatever he wanted with.”
He cupped her bare shoulder beneath the blanket, squeezing gently. “I don’t want to own you, Jocelyn. I only want to make you feel good.”
“And you have,” she whispered. He’d given her pleasure twice without taking any in return. She suddenly wanted to rectify that. “Now, I’d like to do the same for you. It occurs to me that maybe if I... touch you, if I learn about your body the way you’ve learned about mine, that maybe I won’t be so afraid of it.”
His blue eyes dilated with passion, and he leaned forward to kiss her on the tip of the nose. “If that’s what you want, darling, I am more than happy to accommodate you. Wait here for just a few minutes. I want you to be as comfortable as you can be.”
Standing, he strode down the hall, and her gaze caught hungrily on his slim, muscular backside. It didn’t seem to bother him at all to walk around naked, and she suddenly wished for the same sort of confidence. It would be so freeing.
Before she could even wonder too much about what he was doing, he returned with his arms full of blankets and pillows. She assumed he’d retrieved them from his bedroom.
“It’s cold in the bedroom,” he told her, as he knelt before the merry little fire and spread them out before it. “I thought you might like to stay in here.”
“Thank you.” She nodded, pleased by his thoughtfulness. Already, he was exceeding expectations.
After a few minutes, he’d made a comfortable little nest for them, and he reclined back on the pillows, patting the space beside him that was even nearer to the fire. “Come lay with me, Jocelyn.”
She shivered, though not at all from the cold. The heat in his voice did strange things to her.
Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders around her more fully, she stood and crossed to his side, sinking down beside him. He was lying on his side, his head propped up with one arm, his beautiful body completely bare to her interested gaze. He was as unlike Albert as he possibly could be, and her fingertips ached to touch him, to run her hands over all that taut, smooth skin.
“I don’t know how to do this,” she whispered. “I assume that there is a way that I can please you, as you did me, that does not actually involve... you inside me?”
“There is,” he murmured, his voice husky, that part of him seeming to swell even more. “I’ll show you. But please tell me if you don’t feel comfortable, if you want to stop. I want you to enjoy this as much as I know I will.”