into her sleek cleft and eased her down the slightest measure. When she would have sunk faster, he stopped her.
“Slowly,” he cautioned. “You can’t take all of me just yet.”
He could feel the yielding of her flesh, though. Spreading her thighs wider, he slowly thrust into her warm, honeyed interior, his penetration increasing carefully.
Her sex opened and swelled for him until she rode him fully, her body impaled, stretched taut. Now it was Roslyn who hesitated, her breath coming in soft little pants.
Drew clenched his jaw harder. The slick heat of her sheath bathed his throbbing staff, and he thought there was no better feeling on earth. Yet he could feel his control slipping, especially when she started to move her hips.
“Just wait, sweetheart…” His hands curled around the globes of her bottom, holding her still. He felt a wild desperation to bury himself even deeper inside her, to pound into her until there was no breath left in her body or his. The urgency of it burned through him, but he fought the fierce urge.
Instead, he lifted her up a little, then lowered her again…and then again…until she caught his rhythm. And eventually when Roslyn arched against him and let her head fall back, his mouth dipped to caress her swollen breasts, sucking and pulling at the pebbled crests to heighten her pleasure. He wanted her hot and wet and wanton for him…
Very soon he got his wish. He could feel the urgent need building inside her each time he filled her. And in a few more moments, Roslyn was rocking wildly against him in time with the pitch of the carriage, the inner muscles of her drenched passage clasping him instinctively.
“Drew…” she rasped. “I don’t think I…can wait.”
Neither could he. The intoxicating delirium grew like a fever in his blood. He was full, beyond ready to burst.
His hands left her hips, tangled in her hair, as he took her mouth hungrily, his tongue plunging inside the way he wanted to do lower down with his cock. His own breath labored, he tried to shake away the sense of losing control, tried to slow down the pace. But her frenzied abandon was driving him mad.
When fiery waves of pleasure started to engulf him, Drew gave a growl, raw and primitive, and thrust into her one last time, setting off an explosion within them both.
He muffled the sounds with his mouth when she cried out in ecstasy but couldn’t contain his own harsh groans when he followed her shattering climax, contracting with the force of his seed spurting from his body.
Afterward, she collapsed against his chest, panting and limp.
Drew held her close, his own breath ragged in her ear, one thought running through his dazed mind: If he’d once presumed that bedding Roslyn would satisfy his hunger for her, he knew now that he was wrong. He would never get enough of her.
Weakly, he raised his head to gaze down at her. Her eyes were half closed, drowsy with languor. She looked utterly delectable with the rosy glow of carnal satiation suffusing her lovely face.
Drew pressed his lips against her hair. Their second mating had been a searing delight, just as he’d expected. It had sapped his strength, left him utterly content.
Amazing, really, considering all the lovers he’d known. But he’d never been so hotly aroused with any other woman, had never relished making love more. And he was certain Roslyn had experienced it as intensely as he had.
He didn’t want to stop now, either. He wanted to learn her body intimately, to discover what pleased her, to teach her what pleased him, to explore the intricacies of desire and passion and carnal bliss.
But they were traveling in his carriage and would be arriving at Danvers Hall in a short while. If they didn’t want to scandalize his servants, they would have to erase all evidence of their lovemaking.
With one last kiss to her temple, Drew reluctantly withdrew from her body and eased Roslyn onto the seat beside him.
Recovering her modesty immediately, if not her strength, she fumbled with her bodice. When Drew brushed her hands aside to help her, she flushed a becoming pink. And before she could push down her skirts, he fished in his coat pocket for a handkerchief and dried the traces of his seed from her thighs, then used it to clean his own loins.
“Your handkerchiefs have come in quite handy of late,” Roslyn muttered, obviously embarrassed as she reordered her gown. “You offered one to Winifred last night.”
“Indeed,” Drew agreed. “I seem to need them frequently when I am around you.”
He began buttoning his pantaloons, and Roslyn averted her gaze to stare straight ahead. When he glanced at her, he saw her biting her lower lip. “What is the matter, sweeting?”
“I cannot believe I let this happen. I intended to ask Fanny for…”
“Ask Fanny for what?” Drew prodded when she broke off.
“Never mind.”
“Roslyn, tell me.”
“Very well, if you must know…I wanted her assistance with something. Fanny has ways for a woman to keep from becoming enceinte.”
“And you are worried about that?”
She sent him a look of exasperation. “I should think you would be worried as well. Surely you don’t want to father any illegitimate children…or perhaps you already have some?”
Drew smiled faintly. He wasn’t concerned about fathering an illegitimate child on Roslyn because he had every intention of marrying her. “I have no children at all that I’m aware of.”
“Probably because your mistresses have their own methods of preventing pregnancy. But I don’t want to end up like Sir Rupert’s mistress, bearing a child out of wedlock.”
“If you find yourself with child, there will be no question about our marrying.”
Her expression turned serious. “Which is exactly what I want to avoid-us being forced to wed for the wrong reasons.”
“I will take care of the matter before our next time.”
“There will not be a next time,” Roslyn stated emphatically.
“I seem to recall you saying that yesterday,” Drew replied, his tone amused.
“Will you
His amusement grew. “You were the one who tried to seduce me just now, remember?”
“But I never meant to go so far.” She shot him a cross look. “You have a deplorable power over me.”
“And you affect me similarly, Beauty. You arouse my lust with a mere touch.”
Roslyn frowned unhappily. “That is precisely the trouble, Drew. Don’t you see?”
“What is the trouble?”
“We feel lust for one another, but nothing deeper. Our hearts are not engaged.”
He fell silent, not wanting to discuss the uncomfortable subject of love with her again. But Roslyn clearly wasn’t of the same mind.
“You are a magnificent lover, Drew-no one could dispute it. You know exactly how to make my body respond. But that is all.”
“That is
“Of course I enjoyed it. But I want more from marriage than physical pleasure.”
“So you’ve told me.”
“But you didn’t seem to hear me.” She folded her arms over her chest, whether out of defensiveness or mere stubbornness, he wasn’t certain. “Becoming betrothed was unavoidable, Drew, but I won’t marry you unless we love each other. Only if you can truly say you love me, and I can say the same to you.”
He looked at her with hooded eyes. “What happened to your plan to make me enamored of you?”
Her mouth twisted. “I was being naive. I thought I could win a man’s heart if I could kindle his desire, but I realize now that I was wrong. Passion won’t lead to love. Desire won’t make you love me-or make me love you. Nor will these games of seduction we have been playing. I see now how superficial and shallow they are.”
“Perhaps, but that has nothing to do with our betrothal, or our eventual marriage.”
“It has everything to do with it!” Roslyn insisted.
