Madly.
But then he released her as abruptly as he had begun, leaving her bewildered and panting.
She licked her lips with a mixture of apprehension and growing sexual frustration as he stripped off his cravat and tore at the buttons of his shirt. "What do you intend to do now?"
"I want you on your hands and knees, Diana . Iwill then proceed to fuck you senseless until I have expunged every trace of that vile blackguard from your memory at last."
"But my past with Reggie has nothing to do with this."
"Your past has everythin g to do with this," he answered darkly.
She drew breath and closed her eyes in dread. "Is this a punishment? Are you going to—”
"Take you in the arse?" he finished for her.
Apprehension suddenly burgeoned to fear, flickering inside her, fierce and alive. "No! Please!" she cried. "You know I can't do that. And you know why. How can you even ask it of me?" What he proposed terrified her, for Diana still sometimes awoke weeping in her sleep from the shame and horror of Reggie's sodomy.
"I have not asked it. You show your mistrust yet again, Diana, for you should know by now that I would never do anything you do not desire."
"Then what do you intend?"
He continued methodically to disrobe. "My unsated lust and your delicate condition have combined to drive me mad. And in my madness I have spent countless hours considering new means of gratification. And as you well know, my dearest love…I am a most inspired man. I intend now for us to discover what greater pleasures might yet exist between us when greater creativity is employed."
His ambiguous answer didn't settle her nerves. But he was right. There was no room in their relationship for mistrust.
He was down to only his breeches. Diana ached to run her hands up his buckskin-clad thighs, to feel the lean, hard muscles beneath her hands, to stroke his erection until he groaned. She studied his face, her husband's arrogant and beautiful visage, lingering on the sensuous mouth that had given her so much pleasure. Her gaze drifted southward down the strong column of his neck, over broad shoulders, to his biceps contracting in the arms he'd crossed over his naked chest, to the trail of dark hair leading into his breeches…and her passion stirred deep in her loins.
She loved this man with her entire being. Whether it was an issue of trust or lust didn't seem to matter anymore when she considered their future was on the line. Her gaze returned to his face, to the same mouth that now formed a hard line as he awaited her reply. "I ask for the last time, Diana, will you give me your faith unreservedly…or not?"
Wordlessly, Diana loosed the sash of her dressing gown and closed her eyes, allowing the silken garment to slither down her body and then suddenly he was there behind her, his breath on her neck as silky as the robe that lay in a puddle at her feet. His arms wrapped around her from behind, caressing her breasts, as he tongued and nibbled her neck while his cocked pressed against her buttocks. She gasped, trembling at the power he so effortlessly wielded over her, this wicked, lustful satyr she had wed, and marveled at how truly and thoroughly he had debauched her. She wanted him. All of him. Unreservedly. In any way he desired.
Chapter Four
He held his breath, studying the conflicting emotions in her eyes. In reality, he knew he could not force that which she was unwilling to surrender. When she dropped her gown, exposing her full body to his view, he exhaled in a long, slow gush.
It was certainly a propitious beginning, for Diana had become timid and almost abashed about her body, while he had only become more fascinated with the changes as her full womanhood unfurled. Her belly, large, round, and white, nearly hid her sex from his view. She had always had magnificent breasts, but now they were fuller, her nipples grown larger, darker. He knew she fought the impulse to cover herself as they pebbled deliciously before his gaze.
"Are