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He stroked her arm "If you tell me you’re certain"

"I’m certain All my life I’ve kept a safe distance froer If fear is part of this, then I want to feel fear Pain, as well And joy and anxiousness and need and pleasure andand everything, all at once I want to experience all of it, and I want it with you"

A finality settled on his features "Then you’ll have it"

Yes Feeling triu her limbs in a sinuous plea for his touch

He caressed her with his eyes first, sweeping a deteraze over her body

"Do you understand pleasure?" His hand eased between her thighs, cupping her sex through her shift "This will go much easier if you reach climax first"

He asked her the question so baldly Even hopefully She answered with the truth "Yes"

"Good" His voice was a low, dark thru into his touch

"Yes," he said "Shohat pleases you"

Her boldness faltered There was admission, and then there was deathered her courage, and reached down to cover his hand with her own She didn’t guide hih the ht place

Once he’d established a rhythainst the mattress He kissed her breasts, her ears, her neck His skillful touch and talentedsensations different froratification in the bathing tub This was an ocean A vast sea of pleasure, swirling around her, lifting and tossing her in ways she couldn’t control

The only course was surrender

Her breath grew ragged, and she writhed, uneasy, on the bed He fitted histhe tip icked lashings of his tongue The joy was so acute A delicious urgency bloo her heel into theher hips toone nipple just long enough to catch the other "That’s it"

He res She whimpered at the deprivation, until he th of his body He still wore his trousers, but the sheer heat and weight of hiifts The hair on his chest teased her sensitized nipples His hips nudged her thighs wide, and then the s in her cleft

Yes This The firainst her in a slow, tantalizing rhythm, and she rode his motions

"Aaron" She clutched at his shoulders and neck, holding on for her life as the pleasure tugged her in ten different directions

And then it all ca wave of joy

No sooner had her cli at the buttons on his trousers and cursing his boots as he stripped to his skin He pushed her shift to the waist, gazing boldly on her most intimate places But before she could think to squirhs were hard against hers, and covered with hair, much like his chest The sroaned "II don’t know that I can wait h"

His hips flexed, and he pushed forward

Inside her

She buried her face in his neck, determined not to cry out

He cursed "It will be better next time I pro of blood made her aware that she’d bitten her lip

It will be better next time, she consoled herself as a series of slow, persistent thrusts took hiht them closer It will be better next time

But once she’d reconciled herself to the proood

She wouldn’t cliain That wasn’t even a question But the sublior and passionthis was a new, intoxicating pleasure all its own She held hi th deep at the heart of her, then strove to go deeper still

His ant and controlled Her breathing was labored in a way that would have alarht balanced on his elbows, and she curled her neck to kiss him on the chest, the neckanywhere she could reach She ran her tongue along his collarbone, feeling brazen and seductive

With a strangled groan, he slid one hand to her backside, holding her tight for a final barrage of thrusts His face twisted into a rowling and shuddering with the force of co her deep

He re as his labored breath caressed her neck

He was quiet and still for a long, long tie in each other In all her life, she’d never felt so perfectly loved and safe

"You can’t know," he finally whispered into her hair "You can’t kno long I’ve wanted this"

She turned her head, seeking his kiss "I think I have so She assumed everyone in the Queen’s Ruby would

She’d been back safe in her own bed for less than an hour before the carriages had rattled into the village center The girls had co to one another It would seeed to have their fun without Diana’s help She was glad of it Part of her had been tempted to come out of her room and ask for all the details She wanted to hear all the news of Kate and Minerva

But she’d decided there would be tiht with Aaron had left her blissfully sapped of strength, and she was supposed to be ill

So when Charlotte had opened her door a crack and whispered a cautious "Diana?"she hadn’t answered but pretended to be asleep And then she’d fallen asleep in truth

She slept hard Her body had earned it

When she woke, she could hear the sounds of breakfast Her cha room, and she kneell that distant murmur of porcelain and cutlery, delivered on air scented of buttered toast