novelxo A Spinster for the Earl: Chapter 24
Isaac set his sights on the woman collecting a glass of champagne from the buffet table. Dodging dancing couples and groups of talkative partygoers, he stepped up to the table.
When Kitty noticed him, she smiled. “What a lovely ball!” Her voice was more excited than usual.
“Thank you. I can see you are enjoying yourself,” he said.
“I am.” She nodded. “You know I love any excuse to dance,” she added. “And to be honest, I have been looking forward to finding out whether you have spoken with Miss Lucy.”
Isaac smiled, and that was all he had to say.
Kitty hopped, clapping her hands. “Have you proposed?”
“I will, I’m just waiting for the right time.” He paused, leaning against the table. “Have you heard from—”
Someone cleared their throat, startling Isaac and Kitty.
Isaac turned around, noticing Adam, and at his side, Lucy. She was holding onto his arm, and he held her hand tight against him as if he had dragged her along with him. Adam’s head was shiny as if he’d been sweating. Kitty’s cheeks turned red.
“Would you like to dance, Miss Barrington?” Adam asked.
Isaac had never seen his friend that nervous, and he had certainly never expected to see him that nervous around a woman.
“I would love to,” Kitty said, holding out her hand.
As Adam led her onto the dance floor, Kitty looked over her shoulder and cheered silently.
“What happened to him?” Lucy’s lip curled back in horror.
“Same thing that happened to you, I guess,” Isaac replied.
Lucy’s face remained unchanged except for the smallest glint of satisfaction in her eyes. “Would you believe me if I told you that he practiced that interaction on me ten times before we came over here?”
“He needs to get out of his head.”
“I am glad he is happy too,” she said. “They really are a perfect match.”
Isaac looked around the room. The ball had been going on for quite some time now. At this point, most of the guests were tipsy and too busy dancing to realize how tired they were. If he wasn’t on the dance floor, he wasn’t certain anyone would notice.
“So,” Lucy asked, wringing her hands, “are you going to ask me to dance?”
“I could,” Isaac said, lowering his voice so that no one could hear him. “Or, I could ask you to meet me upstairs”
“Up—” Her mouth fell open. After a moment, she nodded. “Please.”
Isaac had been waiting for this since he’d met her, but he was glad it had taken them until now. This was more than just the spark of attraction, or even a friendship turned physical. For the first time, he knew just how much he loved her, and he was ready to show her.
Lucy slipped through the door. Before she fully closed it behind her, Isaac captured her lips in a kiss. He reached out, pushing the door closed behind them and pinning her against it. She exhaled, tugging him closer. She’d missed his lips on hers and the way that he held her. It was so demanding yet so gentle.
She leaned back against the door, cupping his cheeks and savoring his kiss. His hands traced down her sides, feeling the curve of her waist, before wrapping around her and pulling her up against him by her backside. She leaned up on the tips of her toes, thrilled at the way he touched her.
They parted, and already she was out of breath. He spun her around and pushed her front against the door. Gently, he pushed her hair over her shoulder and kissed the nape of her neck while his fingers undid the buttons on her gown. With her mouth pressed to the door, she tried her best to be quiet despite each kiss stoking a fire deep instead of her.
Once her dress was undone, he pushed it off her shoulders and pulled her corset loose. Without waiting for it to come off her, she spun around, undoing the buttons on his coat, her fingers working instinctively as she kissed him, offering him all the passion he’d lit in her since their first meeting.
She hadn’t known then that she would be here in his bedchamber, with their clothing littered across the floor. When he took a step back to pull his shirt off, Lucy took a moment to take in the room. It was large. His bed was bigger than hers. It looked soft and inviting. She wondered if she’d ever be able to get out if she got into it. To the left of the door was a row of bookcases and a reading chair.
Lucy couldn’t help the look on her face once she saw him bare-chested. Never did she think she’d stare dumbfounded, reaching out to run her hands up his chest.
“Wait,” he whispered.
He took her hands in his and slowly rolled her white gloves down her arms so that she could touch him skin-to-skin. Then, he wrapped her up in his arms and lifted her off the floor. She wasn’t certain what he had planned for her, but she didn’t care. She was too intent on kissing him, brave enough to tug at his lips with her teeth.
She gasped as her back hit the soft mattress, tossing her back up into the air before he sunk down over her. His feet were still on the ground. His hand trailed up her thigh, and he pushed her legs apart. His fingers brushed over her wetness, and she moaned softly.
As he teased her, he took her breast in his mouth and sucked, hard. She arched her back, feeling a wave of complete euphoria wash over her. She moaned again, and the next thing she knew, a string of pleases was coming out of her mouth. She wasn’t sure what she was begging for exactly, she just needed more of him.
He responded to her pleas by slipping a finger inside of her. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, bowled over by the feeling. With each thrust, she felt herself getting closer to the edge. She moaned, and when she opened her eyes, his were fixed on her. Every time she cried out, his eyes would glimmer with fire and pride.
She might have thought that staring him in the eye while he pleasured her would be difficult and could perhaps make her feel even more vulnerable, but now that she was, she couldn’t look away. The firestorm in his eyes was enough to tell her that he hadn’t even started with her.
Suddenly, Isaac scooped her off the bed, and she obliged, holding onto him. He pressed her back against the wall, and she watched as his hand desperately battled with the closures on the side of his trousers. He pushed them down, revealing his member and leaving Lucy only a moment to stare before he pressed her into the wall, and she had no choice but to wrap her arms around his neck.
He bent her knee and pulled it up to his waist, and she gasped when she felt his length against her entrance. Eyes intent on her, he guided himself in.
His eyes rolled back, and Lucy moaned, feeling her walls stretch to accommodate him. Then, he rocked his hips, each thrust pushing her back up against the wall.
Lucy had so longed for this, and it was nothing like she had expected. She had thought that if she would just experience it once, she would never need it again, but that was only because she hadn’t known it was like this. She surrendered, holding onto him and allowing him to set the pace.
He grunted, and with one hand, he guided her hips, while the other held her jaw. Now, it was impossible for her to stop moaning. The feeling was building up inside of her until she could hardly see anymore. He slid a hand between them, and once he drew circles around her pearl, she cried out, the feeling reaching a crescendo.
Her core tightened around him, and her body shook. At first, she felt it in her hips, hot like white light, then it raced down her limbs, tingling and warm. At the top of her chest, she might have imagined her ribcage was breaking open and an entire forest was blooming out of her, filling the room and pulling her underground. Then, the heat fluttered all across the top of her head.
She opened her eyes just in time to watch his eyes roll back and his jaw clench with one last powerful thrust. He groaned, and then his lips met hers. In the afterglow, his kiss was gentle and tender. She was breathing heavily against his mouth.
He carried her back to the bed, and together they collapsed into it. She fit so perfectly against him, just as the space between his arm and chest was made specifically for her. His heart was beating hard against his chest, and his skin was cool with sweat.
“That was…” He exhaled, dropping his head back against the mattress. “Completely different,” he mumbled. “Completely perfect.”
Once Lucy caught her breath enough to come back down from her high, she rolled onto his chest and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I love you,” she whispered.
It felt good to say it after she had refused to admit it for so long.
His hand stroked her waist, and he smiled softly at her, with much admiration in his eyes. “I… I don’t think I can live without you,” he admitted.
“You don’t have to.”
“Then will you marry me?”
Those words. For her entire life, Lucy had dreaded hearing those words. They were so simple in design and in sound, and yet they carried the weight of two lifetimes in the space between every letter. She had been terrified of those words because they had been synonymous with loss for so long.
But not any longer. When they had left his lips, Lucy had never felt freer in her life. She had imprisoned herself in pride. It had been such a burden. She’d had something to prove. She had thought that she was stronger than love and that giving in to it would mean that she was less. For all the time she’d spent believing that love was designed to diminish her, she now saw clearly that it was building her.
This was not the end of her life at all. Lucy and Isaac were still at the very beginning.