A Compromised Innocent (6 page)

“Oh!”

Lizzie couldn't help it, she really couldn't. The tiny sound escaped despite her best of intentions.

Aunt Roberta had painstakingly talked with her last night, going into embarrassing detail about what Lizzie could expect the night of her wedding. Roberta had described the act at some length, but had not explained what to expect of her husband's manly parts.

Heavens, she had never imagined
that.
Certainly she'd
felt
it before, rather enjoyed rubbing tender parts of her own against it, but she had never actually seen it. Until now.

His erection stood thick and proud from his hips and bobbed slightly as he climbed into the enormous bed beside her. When Oliver pulled the covers over the sight, Lizzie frowned and tugged them away, curious for a closer look.

This strange bit of flesh was a rich flush of color, so different from the rich cream of the rest of him. The ridged shaft looked as thick as her wrist and the tip darkened with a touch of the purple of a ripe plum. Was it as hard as it looked?

She reached out then jerked back when Oliver groaned and his erection rose like a living thing.

“Oh, love, don't stop. I've been dying a small death every day waiting for the moment when you would touch me this way.” Oliver's warm, broad hand led hers back.

What firm, warm flesh this part of him was made of! The soft, velvety-fine skin beckoned her to stroke. She did, and Oliver emitted another groan that sounded as if it were ripped from him.

When she would have hesitated, she looked up at him and into his blue eyes, glittering wildly with the passion she was now familiar with from stolen moments during their engagement, but oh, so much more heat than ever before. He silently implored her with those lovely eyes not to stop.

So she didn't. Not until Oliver's breath quickened impossibly and his erection began to throb in her palm, and he pushed aside her awkward hands to lean in and kiss her.

Time faded as his lips devoured her in a luscious, soul-searing dance while his hands…his hands roamed her length with long assured strokes, petting and stroking, discovering the small of her back, the curve of her hip, the delicate skin at the back of her knee. Then he found the hem of her shift and inched it up, revealing her flushed, trembling skin to his touch.

In a moment, the shift was gone and in its wake was heat, incredible heat where they touched, finally, bare skin to bare skin. It was a rich, erotic feeling and Lizzie shifted, rubbing against him to feel the texture of him again.

“Oh, starling. You have the right of it already. You'll be the death of me, won't you?”

“Enough talking, Your Grace. More kissing.”

“Whatever Her Grace desires,” Oliver said with a chuckle she could feel in her marrow then he fulfilled her wish.

Tongues flickered and stroked in counterpart to the caress of his hands. He lingered at her breasts, molding his palm to the curve of her, and teased the tips with his thumb. Then he broke away and kissed his way down the length of her neck until he could lave the tautened peaks.

Lizzie arched into him, amazed at the moist heat and the echo of warmth pulsing between her legs, the arousal Oliver so easily drew from her. But still she longed in that deep hidden place.

The promise of this moment, with this man, thrilled and excited her. The promise of his lovemaking nearly drove her mad, especially when he began to touch her lower, where she ached, and he rubbed his erection against her hip in counterpoint.

The inferno built, firing through her blood to engulf her, Oliver's fingers wicked little minions of torture. When he sank a digit into her, she couldn't stifle a cry. When he added another, sliding in and out of her wet heat in a wicked rhythm of delight, Lizzie began to moan, or thought she did for that last brief moment that she could still think.

And then he stopped and Lizzie thought she'd either lose her mind or would kill him. Whichever would ensure a return of the pleasure.

But she needn't do either, because Oliver shifted over her, sliding between her wantonly sprawled legs and began to slide his erection through her damp folds in the way she'd discovered that rainy day in his carriage. Only this was so much…more. Hot, enflaming, erotic. And she felt the tides of her passion begin to rise again.

Then he stopped again, and this time Lizzie was certain that she wanted to cause him damage. But he pulled away to look at her and cupped her face in his hands.

“I love you, Lizzie Fortney.”

Lizzie smiled. Maybe she wouldn't hurt him after all. “I love you, too, husband.”

“I don't think I'll ever be happier than at this moment when I make you mine.”

“Not even when I give you your first son?”

He closed his eyes. “God help me when you do conceive. I'll have to pack you in wool to make sure you don't do yourself an injury.”

Lizzie frowned. “Can we get back to the lovemaking and worry about that later?”

“With pleasure.”

Oliver shifted and then he was
there,
pressing the engorged tip into her, pressing against the barrier of her virginity. A wrench of pain heralded his success, and he was past, filling her, rocking back and forth to gain deeper penetration.

It was a strange feeling when he was finally seated, the hard length of him pulsing in the very center of her body. And it took a moment to grow accustomed.

One. That's what they were now, in mind and heart and now in body. Lizzie trembled for love of this man and tears began to mist in her eyes as Oliver kissed her, slow and sweet.

Then he began to move in earnest, and the tender moment evaporated like fog at sunrise. Shards of pleasure skittered from her core, from the friction of the moment and the places he touched over and over, relentless.

Until she couldn't take it anymore, the pleasure too deep, too indescribable, too…too… Lizzie thrashed her head and arched against him. Then, Oliver shouted out above her, and it was as if she was thrown over an invisible barrier. She convulsed as wave after wave of delight consumed her, pulsed through her. This was so much more than anything before that she was lost, aflood in joy and wonder.

Oliver withdrew and shifted, then pulled Lizzie, limp and numb, to his side, her head resting on his shoulder. He stroked her back in long sweeps, and Lizzie grew drowsy.

“You are magnificent, starling.”

Lizzie wanted to say something witty and charming in reply, but she couldn't move, not even to utter a few words.

She'd tell him in the morning. And every other morning for the rest of their lives.

Don't miss the first two installments of Elaine Golden's Fortney Follies series, available now from Harlequin Historical UNDONE wherever ebooks are sold:

An Imprudent Lady
(Charlotte Fortney and Daniel Walsh's story)

A Disgraceful Miss
(Angelica Fortney and Julian Kenneway, Earl of Vinedale's story)

Enjoy more passion through the ages with the sensual Harlequin Historical UNDONE titles on sale now:

Auctioned Virgin to Seduced Bride
by Louise Allen

The Sheikh's Impetuous Love-Slave
by Marguerite Kaye

Deliciously Debauched by the Rake
by Ann Lethbridge

Nights with the Outlaw
by Lauri Robinson

The Highlander and the Wolf Princess
by Marguerite Kaye

Girl in the Beaded Mask
by Amanda McCabe

Bound to the Wolf Prince
by Marguerite Kaye

Craving something a little longer? Find more historical romantic adventure from Harlequin Historical at www.Harlequin.com or your local bookstore.

Interested in writing for Harlequin Historical UNDONE? Send your submission to [email protected].

Since writing a report on Pompeii in the 6th grade, Elaine has been fascinated with history. Growing up, she daydreamed about how people lived in other eras. After all, she was planning to be an archaeologist so it was good practice! When Elaine discovered historical romance, she was immediately hooked.

When she isn't writing, Elaine loves to travel and explore historical sites first-hand, from Bath and Stonehenge to the catacombs of Paris and the ruins of the Port Arthur penal colony. She also loves to make heirloom quilts for family members, but only manages one or two a year.

Today, Elaine lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband, her real-life hero of over twenty years.