given her every opportunity to back out, but desire had overruled the common sense Angel said she didn’t possess.
This time the rustle was Edmund, and with him there, arms around her and lips pressing on hers, then her neck and back to her lips again, Larissa’s doubts and fears evaporated.
“I’ve missed you every second we’ve been apart,” Edmund murmured, his hands now over her breasts. Larissa could feel her nipples harden and tingle as surely his cock did against her groin.
“Me, too,” Larissa whispered. But as always their words were lost in kisses and the responses of their bodies. It was still cool in spring, but the heat from Edmund was more than enough to provide them both with warmth. Larissa pulled at the buttons of his shirt as he pushed her dress up and over her head. Amongst the deep sweetness of the rose scent she smelled him, a maleness that made her wet with desire.
Edmund paused to drink in her body, slim and straight like a child’s, skin white and hair so blonde it was almost translucent in the faint rays of the moonlight. Larissa helped him unclip her bra, and her breasts, generous for someone so slim, spilled into his hands. His lips pulled on her nipples, pink and sensitive to his touch.
Edmund ran his tongue down her abdomen, tickling her belly button and leaving Larissa giggling. But as his mouth moved lower, and his hands eased off her silk drawers, the giggles turned to gasps. He had never done this before, and Larissa felt herself blushing but at a loss to stop him. Her whole body tingled with anticipation.
She felt his tongue over her most sensitive part then pushing open her lips. The feeling was exquisite, a mixture of the unknown and the sheer naughtiness of what he was doing. She wouldn’t even be able to tell Angel. She heard herself groan and felt her hips move involuntarily to his touch, fingers now opening her and making her his forever.
“Do you want me, my love?” he asked softly.
“Always,” Larissa said.
Edmund turned her over and pulled her hips to him. Larissa felt the tip of his cock pressing against her pussy, and she gasped as he pushed inside, filling her. It felt like it did each time, that she was far too fragile for a man as large as Edmund, but then the feeling always gave way to a desire to have him deeper and harder, thrusting inside as her muscles clamped over him, drawing him in as all her fears disappeared and they became one.
Edmund’s hand gripped one breast as his other hand moved over the front of her sex, rubbing her clitoris at the same time as he thrust into her from behind. The tension began mounting, and as they rocked together, both finally exploded in a moment of ecstasy that Larissa wished would last forever.
Larissa curled up in Edmund’s arms in the cushions thrown around the gazebo and tried to stay in the moment and savor the feelings of being safe.
“You don’t have to go yet, do you?” she asked tentatively.
Edmund nibbled her ear. “I can stay to dawn if you’d like, though I don’t fancy the gardener finding us here.”
Better the gardener than Charles or Adam or her father. But Larissa refused to think about this, not when she was feeling so mellow.
“I love you,” she said.
“And I you,” replied Edmund. There was a pause. “I’ve applied for a license.”
Larissa felt her heart race. “Oh, Edmund.” She kissed him, aware that there were tears on her cheeks.
He cleared his throat. “I got my orders. I’m heading out the end of the month.”
Now Larissa’s tears had a different origin. She couldn’t bear to think of him in danger somewhere on the opposite side of the world.
“You will come back to me, won’t you?” she asked.
“If I have you to come back to, then beyond doubt,” said Edmund.
They made love again, this time with a gentleness that was without pressure, as if time didn’t matter. When Edmund left her half asleep on the cushions in the early hours of the morning, Larissa