Page 33 of Twice Upon a Midnight

Instead of doing what she desired, he lifted his head away from her. The rush of cool night air across her wet heat drew a soft cry of loss from her, only for it to fade to a moan as his hand found her again and his fingers slid completely inside her. He stroked slowly and smoothly into her, and now she welcomed the slick wetness that had embarrassed her before. Her body knew to do what she didn’t, so she gave over to her mounting desire and spread her legs wider.

He groaned. “Dear God, Ella…you feel so good.”

“So do you,” she panted out, barely able to form the words. “What you’re doing…” The rest was lost in a long, throaty moan that swelled up from inside her. “More—oh, please, more!”

Keeping his hand between her legs, he slid back up the length of her body, covering hers with his.

“I won’t take your innocence from you,” he murmured and placed a kiss to her temple. “But I can give you this small pleasure.”

His fingers stroked into her in a steady and intense rhythm that left her breathless. She buried her face against his neck. If she could have found a way to crawl beneath his skin and become part of him, she would have done it. The magical feelings of poetry and desire he swirled inside her were more overwhelming than she’d ever experienced before in her life, and while a part of her somehow knew he was capable of giving her much more, she gave over to this moment and surrendered.

The ache built inside her, and every teasing stroke of his fingers only increased the throbbing and turned the tingling into electric pulses of need. When he rubbed his thumb over the hard little point at the top of her folds, her hips bucked, and her body clenched down hard around his fingers.Allof her clenched for one breathless moment—

“Spenser!” she cried out as a wave of sweet pleasure rushed over her, heating her through and surging out to the ends of her fingers and toes. The tension that had been building insider her vanished in a flash, and she fell back against the blanket, boneless. Now the ache that throbbed inside her felt much different. It was no longer an ache to be quenched but one her body gratefully claimed as waves of residual bliss dulled her senses and left her feeling tingly and alive, in a way she’d never felt before.

Spenser turned onto his side on the blanket next to her and pulled her into his arms. She nestled herself between his chest and the curve of his arm. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this protected before, this wonderful.

She couldn’t look at him, keeping her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted to enjoy the last of the joyous sensations he’d given her. She should have been embarrassed at how she’d so shamelessly behaved, but she wasn’t. He made her feel beautiful and special, precious and perfect, and she would never regret that.

Finally, she found the strength to rise up and kiss him, then sank back down into his arms.

“Spenser?” she whispered.

He nuzzled her hair. “Yes?”

“I love you.”

Her whisper drifted away into the silent shadows. For a moment, she feared he wouldn’t say it back. That he didn’t love her. That she wasn’t anything more real to him than moonlight and magic, the same ethereal illusions found within the pages of his poetry books. After all, he’d claimed she was a poem—

“I love you, too, my darling Ella,” he whispered.

His quiet words were little more than a breath. But her heart heard them, and they filled her with a joy she’d never known. She slowly reached for his hand and laced her fingers through his.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

S

penser held her in his arms, forcing his heartbeat to slow and his breath to steady. She’d undone him, and he hadn’t even properly made love to her. It was all he could do to keep himself from doing exactly that, to roll her onto her back and claim all of her. She was the perfect contradiction—an innocent seductress who made him want to ravish her yet also protect her at the same time.

Yet he knew the best way to protect her was to let her go.

The woman lying in his arms could never be his.

He closed his eyes against the anguish of that realization and placed a kiss to her forehead, one meant to soothe him more than her. “Ella, we need to talk.”

She nodded against his chest where she rested her head, her hand once more lying over his heart. “I know.”

No, she couldn’t possibly know what he had to tell her. Dawn was less than an hour away, and he could no longer delay the inevitable. He simply hoped she wouldn’t hate him for it after the intimacies they’d shared tonight.

“You’ll call on me tomorrow.” She rose up onto her elbow and smiled sheepishly down at him. “Well—today, that is.” With a soft laugh at herself, she brushed her cheek against his, and he could feel her smooth flesh against the faint prickling of his morning beard. “Papa will be home today, and you can ask him for permission to formally court me. He won’t say no, not if I tell him how much I want that, but he’s dreadfully old-fashioned and will make you approach him in person.”

His heart stopped. “To what end?”

She sat up and frowned, bewildered. “Why, marriage, of course.”

“No.”

The confusion on her face melted into anguish. With that, his heart simply shattered.