Captured Love by Jane Lark Read Free Book Online Page A

wished.
    Within moments her legs were braced open by his, and
he was looking down at her, holding steady in the single second before he
plunged.
    Her gaze shone with heat, but there was also fear
there again, and when he was inside her, deep inside her, he saw a flash of
pain, having burst through the brief restriction of her maidenhead.
    She had been a virgin. She was untouched by any other
man, in this way.
    There was a deep sudden feeling of relief as he
watched her bite her lip. She might have toyed with other men, but she’d kept
herself whole for the marriage bed. He began moving, slowly at first, steadily.
    She held his gaze for a little while, lying still and
looking up at him as he pressed all the weight of his upper body onto his hands,
so he might work with more skill.
    His heart was thumping and he suddenly had an intense
desire to ensure she was as pleased by this as he would be, and he knew he
would be. He increased his pace.
    She began moving, lifting her hips, and using muscles
in her stomach which he could feel tightening inside her.
    As he pressed in, she pressed up, and this became a
battle between them — no, not a battle — more like a country dance where each
step counterbalanced the other.
    Lord,
Lord. She was fiery hot.
    Still holding her gaze, he smiled gently, with closed
lips.
    She smiled back, responding, as his pace became more
aggressive. He entered her with firm, fast, deep strokes. Then he was kissing
her hair, her face, biting at her lip, nuzzling her neck and nipping at her
shoulder.
    Her fingers clawed into his back, cutting through his
skin and her panting rang on the still air in the bedchamber.
    “No, stop,” she cried toward the end as her head
pressed back into the mattress and her eyes closed. She bit her lip, but then
her mouth fell open and a rush of warmth flooded about his intrusion, while he
felt a spasm claw at him to stay in her heat.
    Conceding, he reached his end and pressed deep, relinquishing
himself inside her.
    Her fingers clung to his back, holding him close.
     
    Meredith felt as though they had just run across a
bridge into each other’s arms, as though they were not distant anymore. He had
smiled at her, and looked at her, and she was now truly his wife. It had been
painful at first, but after that it had been beautiful.
    “Lord Morton,” she whispered.
    His body immediately stiffened and he lifted off of
her.
    She didn’t like losing him. She wanted to hold on to
him, and never let him go.
    “ Here. ” He lifted a corner
of the crumpled covers, obviously implying she should slip beneath.
    When she had, he bent, picked up her nightgown and
then handed it to her.
    Her fingers shook again when she took it.
    “Thank you,” he said, before bending to retrieve his
dressing gown. Then he turned away, putting it on as he did so, and afterward,
he walked about the room and blew the candles out, all except for the last,
which he picked up, and took with him as he left the room. She did not know
what to think.
    Had she done something to displease him?
    ~
    Rupert sat at the breakfast table, scanning the
papers. Rowena was with him; she was reading a letter which had just been
delivered. There were another three dozen white roses in the hall.
    He turned the page of the paper. His announcement was
there, small and almost hidden. The Earl
of Morton, wed Miss Meredith Divine ... He had no wish to herald his
marriage. He turned the page.
    He’d wanted a comfortable marriage — that, he knew, he
would have to fight to obtain. He’d also wanted a comfortable marriage bed — that,
he now knew, he would never have. He would have far more in his bed.
    Clearly there had been no woman in Meredith’s life to
tell her she ought to lie still, and not move, while a man took his pleasure.
Well, Amen, and thank God, to that. He had married a delicious, sultry hoyden. He
smiled, still looking at the paper, although no longer reading it, as memories
slipped through his head.
    He had