The thought of kissing the handsome man towering over her was enticing. "Tell the groom to turn about and kiss me, Lord Melvin."
"John," he called. "Please, turn about for a moment."
The groom did as Albert asked without question.
She watched, transfixed as Albert seemed to will the courage through himself to kiss her. Victoria could feel herself shaking. Oddly she was a little nervous about kissing him. Once engaged, her husband-to-be had kissed her often. Never had she felt the bubbling up of expectation as she did right now. There was something different about the man standing before her, gaining his nerve that her husband never had.
You want to kiss Albert. The thought of kissing Paul was never exciting.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her against him. She gasped, having not expected him to be so bold. "Last chance, Lady Victoria," he said, dipping his head.
Victoria could feel herself leaning into him, willing his lips to touch hers. Heat coursed through her veins like fire at their first touch. His tentative lips urged and beckoned her to kiss him. It was neither wet nor fast, simply a slow seduction that spiraled her wits to the wind.
She wrapped her arms about his neck, touching the silky hair on his nape, liking the feel of it slipping through her fingers. His hands flexed, clutching tighter against her back, and the pit of her stomach clenched with need. A familiar ache that she recognized as desire. On the few occasions Paul had lain with her after their marriage, his bedding was thankfully much more skilled than his kissing.
Albert deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers. Victoria flung herself into the embrace, wanting more kisses if this was how they were supposed to be. Wicked and delicious. Any wonder her sisters looked flushed and wistful around their husbands.
He moaned, reaching up to cradle her face, and the kiss changed. No longer slow and coaxing, but deep and demanding. Victoria kissed him with everything she had, reveling in the feel of him, his labored breaths, his arduous need. His hand splayed into her hair, sending multiple pins to scatter to the earth beneath their feet.
She cared naught for all of it. All she could think about was his kiss, their first kiss. How wonderful that she could have her first real, passionate kiss with a friend, a man she admired and cared for above anyone else. She closed the space between them, her breasts, her nipples, hard little peaks under her shirt and riding jacket. The feel of his chest teased and taunted, but she could not stop. She wanted more. So much more than kissing, and that in itself ought to give her pause, but it did not.
Albert could not get enough of Victoria. Hell, he'd wanted to kiss her almost from the very first moment he'd met her, and that was several years ago when he was still in short coats at Eton.
The woman in his arms, slender and yet womanly, tall and yet short enough that he had to lean down a little to kiss her. Long, soft strawberry-blonde hair was silky between his fingers. Her skin soft, her mouth pliant and willing and right at this moment, driving him to the point of madness.
He'd never kissed a woman before, hadn't known what to do when she suggested that she be his first. Would she think less of him if she knew all of his secrets? That he'd not only never kissed a woman but had never slept with one either. From watching the few friends he had over the years when they married, their wives were always quite satisfied with their husband's talents.
He would have none of the roguish experience that they did. Of course, he knew the particulars. He had read extensively after all, but doing the sexual act was another beast entirely.
But now, kissing Victoria, something told him that it wasn't something to fear, but long for. Her hands, clutching his hair, her breathy moans when he teased her soft lips with little nibbles and short kisses drove him to the point of madness.
Had he been a rake, a man of the world, he would know how to seduce her, bring them both to a pleasurable conclusion. With her a widow, such an interlude could be a possibility. But he did not know how to do any of those things or even how to go about starting such progress.
Albert kissed her hard, forcing his hands to remain on her hips when she surged against his hard cock. Stars burst behind his eyes, and he went to distance themselves. Victoria made a noise of annoyance, holding him firmly in place.
“Do not deny me,” she said between kisses.
Albert forgot all thoughts of where they were. The fact that her brother the duke could too be out riding the grounds and could find them entangled. That the groom was merely a few feet from them. All forgotten at her whispered words.
The kiss turned savage. His body aflame with need, his cock so hard that he was certain he would come should she continue what she was doing.
They needed to stop. One of them needed to end this madness before they tumbled to the ground, and he fumbled his way into having her at the top of a hill with nothing but grass at her back.
He broke the kiss. "We need to end this. Now. Before it is too late."
She stared at him, her eyes wide and glassy with desire. She blinked several times before they cleared, and the woman in his arms was once again the sensible, intelligent Victoria he'd always known.
"Of course, yes," she breathed, stepping away. She checked her riding breeches and jacket before reaching up and pinning her hair back to rights. "Well, that was certainly a very good lesson,
