He cursed under his breath, hoping he’d not just spoiled the start of another bout of lovemaking with his slip. But how could he not think of her future with him? He’d not had a better day in a very long time.
“Yes. Virgins are often frightened by desires they don’t understand.”
Aurora was not a virgin, and to him that was not a mark against her. “And sometimes experienced women are, too.”
He kissed her brow and then scooped her up into his arms. He’d done enough standing around Aurora to last a lifetime. It was time for action, and he wanted them both comfortable for the remainder of their time together. He dropped her gently into a seat and when he covered her up with a blanket for warmth, Aurora drew up her knees between them.
The pose also suggested she needed some separation from him. He could give her that. He sat beside her and winked and passed her the first pie. “You are exquisite, you know. In any setting, but especially this bedchamber.”
A soft smile lifted the corners of her mouth, and her feet lowered to the floor as she sat up straighter, pulling the blanket tighter around her breasts before she took the pie from his hand. “You’ve a hidden talent for flattery, my lord. I never would have expected that of you.”
“I am only speaking the truth,” he promised, watching her nibble an opening in the crust and suck out the pie filling from within with delicate precision.
Drew wolfed one pie down, and when it seemed clear Aurora wasn’t as hungry as himself, he took the third. Lovemaking made a man hungry. He’d forgotten that in the years since Clare. He didn’t count how long it had been, but he was glad to know he’d not lost his touch. Aurora had liked what he’d done with her so much, she’d climaxed twice in short order that day. The third had been much longer in coming, but perhaps the most rewarding, judging by her desperate cries.
“Thank you for the pie. I needed that,” she whispered, casting him a shy glance beneath her lashes.
After all that they’d done so far in bed, he was astonished by how that look stiffened him even now. It seemed utterly out of character for the woman he’d known for so long. But perhaps she’d never really tried to flirt with him before.
“My pleasure,” he promised. “I only wish I’d thought to bring better for us to share. Next time I will.”
“This is enough,” she assured him. “I’m not the sort who expects to dine as lavishly as other women might.”
Other women. Why did Aurora always speak of herself as different from others? “You do deserve the best, and you shall have it…next time.”
Her brow furrowed. “Next time?”
“Yes, next time. Tomorrow?” He stole a kiss, and then another, letting instinct override caution to go slow with her. “I’ll be here, every day this week, waiting for you in that bed over there. Naked.”
Aurora threw him a saucy smiled, clearly pleased by the image he’d described.
There were definitely advantages to Aurora’s prior experience with a lover. She was not timid, and he didn’t have to be either. And he didn’t want to talk right now and say the wrong thing that might drive her away.
Instead, he turned Aurora sideways on the settee, inhaling the irresistible scent of her skin. Kissing her body, and nipping, too, on occasion.
To his playful nips, Aurora moaned.
And then she started to nip him back, and he laughed. “Now that is what I want,” he cried. “You’re still hungry.”
He flipped them over so Aurora lay atop him and pushed her long dark hair back from her face. The press of her sex upon his cock was wondrous after so long an abstinence from bedroom pleasures. Drew had nearly forgotten how much he’d enjoyed lovemaking in the afternoon until Aurora had become his lover.
He put his hand on her hip and squeezed tightly, pressing her down on his erection, which had never truly subsided completely since their first kiss of the day.
“Make love to me,” he whispered.
Her brows drew together in confusion.
“Take me in hand, woman,” he suggested playfully, putting his hands behind his head. “I’m all yours.”
So far, he’d been the one taking charge of their amorous activities. The one who determined how they made love. But he wanted to see Aurora’s face above him, taking her pleasure, using him as she rode to her own completion without thought for his.
But she didn’t move. In fact, she’d become so still, he thought he might have shocked her with his request.
Had Aurora never been on top of a man before? She didn’t have to unless she wanted to, of course. There was no rule saying she must.
But just as he was about to turn Aurora under him, she wriggled back to sit over his thighs. Her slender fingers fell upon his skin, and then wrapped around the base of his cock. She stroked him, and his hips bucked up from the settee of their own accord.
Her grip was firm, her strokes slow to begin but increased in speed the longer she held him within her power. She had done this before, too.