He reached over, placed his hand on either side of her waist mid lifted her atop him, placing her legs on either side of his so that she was pressed against him, straddling him.
She leaned forward and Adam began lavishing her nipple with attention. He suckled at her breast and thought how much he wanted to touch her, and taste the sweet hot essence of her. He wanted to bury his length inside her warmth and feel the heat of her surrounding him as he throbbed and pulsed within, and he wanted to capture her lips and swallow her cries as they careened toward the heavens on an intimate journey where two became one, where desire and passion were forged like iron and carbon melded into steel, to form an exquisite blend of love and faith and trust.
Adam worked his way from her breasts back to her lips. He plundered her mouth with his warm rough tongue, then slipped a hand beneath her skirts, negotiating a path through the sea of petticoats until he felt the lace of her drawers.
He reached beneath the lace ruffle at her knee and ran his hand up her silk-clad thigh as far as the give in the fabric allowed, then frustrated by his lack of progress, he withdrew his hand from the leg of her drawers and began again. His second foray yielded better results as he ran his hand over the top of her thigh and down into the valley between her legs. Locating the opening in the fabric, Adam gently eased his fingers inside it, caressing the nest of silken curls, finding the damp swollen flesh hidden beneath them.
"Adam!" Giana nearly shouted his name as she thrust her hips against his incredibly talented fingers. Adam traced the contours of her flesh and teased the tight little bud hidden within the folds.
She gasped, unable to describe the myriad delicious and forbidden sensations she felt as Adam worked his magic upon her. He slid his skilled fingers into her petal-soft folds, and Giana felt the impact of those sensations deep inside her womb. Longings she never dreamed she possessed shot to the surface and raged in a most unprincesslike fashion.
Giana knew she should be scandalized by Adam's familiarity with the forbidden places on her body, but he stroked and probed her secret places with such infinite tenderness and such agonizing care that she couldn't be outraged. How could she be shocked and angry when all he gave was pleasure? Incredible pleasure?
"Please ..." She murmured the entreaty in such a heartfelt tone of voice that Adam couldn't tell if she was inviting him to continue or begging him to stop. He deepened his caress .mil wiggled his fingers. Giana immediately pressed her legs lordlier in reaction, before opening them again to give him access. And Adam had his answer.
Giana squirmed as pleasure—hot and thick and dangerous— surged through her body. She thrust her hips upward as she mowed her pleasure and gasped out his name in short frantic little breaths.
Adam kissed her, gently at first, then harder, consciously matching the action of his fingers to that of his tongue as he caressed her. He knew she was close, and his body chafed beneath his self-imposed restraint. Adam ached to join her in blissful release, but he took his time, pressing his thumb against her, soothing her aching core with the sweet honey she lavished on his fingers.
George sighed against his lips, then shuddered deeply as her fragile control shattered and she collapsed upon his chest.
Chapter 25
A Princess of the Blood Royal of the House must possess virtue beyond compare,
—Maxim 15: Protocol and Court Etiquette of Princesses of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya, as decreed by His Serene Highness, Prince Karol I, ^32.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him with such an expression of sheer wonderment and joy that Adam's breath caught in his throat. He was humbled by the look in her eyes and rewarded tenfold for his unselfish restraint.
Emotion shimmered in her eyes as Giana reached up, placed her palms on both sides of his face. "Thank you," she said simply as she pulled his face down to meet her lips.
"It was an honor," he whispered seconds before he captured her mouth with his own.
Adam kissed her again—this time with all the pent-up passion and frustration and longing he'd been holding in check so long. He kissed her until her breasts heaved with exertion, until her bones seemed to turn to jelly, until all she could do was cling to him while she fervently returned his kisses measure for measure. Adam's mind reeled from the flood of sensations she evoked as her tongue mated with his.
Shaking with need, he pulled away.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing's wrong," he answered.
"Then why did you stop kissing me?"
"Because I want you." Adam leaned his forehead against hers and drew a shaky breath. "All of you."
"You have all of me." She looked down at him.
He shook his head. "Not really. Technically, we could stop this now and you would still be a virgin." Adam stared up at her.
Her eyes widened. Adam had kissed her, touched by her in places she had not known existed. How could it be that technically, she remained untouched?
"Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" he asked.
Giana shook her head.
I’m saying that we could stop what we're doing right now, I'll dressed, and go our separate ways, and it wouldn't matter for you."
She frowned.
"It wouldn't matter for you," he repeated, lifting himself on his elbow so he could kiss her. "My greatest hope is that this will matter to you for as long as you live," he said. "But at this moment you can walk away and marry another man or lake another lover and no one, except you and I, will ever know what happened in this room between us."
Giana did not understand exactly what he meant, but she knew Adam was allowing her to choose. She was a princess, and she knew that while her parents' marriage had been a true love match, it was also incredibly rare. Royal marriages were arranged for the good of the nations. Princes and princesses understood, almost from birth, that love was not part of the arrangement. Giana sighed. It was her duty to save herself for marriage to ensure a secure succession to the throne. Princess Giana must go to her future husband untouched. But Giana, the woman, wanted Adam McKendrick to continue his love-making until no part of her remained untouched. The fact that a match between them was impossible didn't matter. She wanted to be loved for herself. Just once before she was required to fulfill her duty.
Giana decided to forget that she was a princess and decided I hat for today, she would be only a woman, free to choose, free to love Adam and be loved in return. She reached for Adam and smiled. "I do not want to be untouched. Technically or otherwise."
That was all the encouragement he needed. Adam unhooked her skirts, untied the waistbands of her petticoats, and unbuttoned her lacy drawers, then untied her frilly black garters. When everything was unfastened, he peeled the garments and her black silk stockings down her slim thighs to where they pooled at the bend in her knees.
"What's this?" Adam fingered a length of thick gold chain encircling her slim waist. A heavy gold ring hung suspended from the chain. He had seen belly bracelets on Egyptian dancing girls in Paris, but he had never seen anything like this one. It was locked around her waist. George couldn't remove it without a key. He wondered, suddenly, who had put it there. There was no doubt that the ring had belonged to a man, for it bore a motto and a coat of arms. "A new kind of chastity belt or a memento from a knight in shining armor?" He kept his hands on the chain, steadying her as she lifted each leg and kicked free of her clothing. He wasn't sure what it was, but it had its uses and there was a certain erotic cachet to making love to a woman with jewelry around her waist.
Giana glanced down. She had forgotten about the seal! Except for the locket she wore around her neck and the gold chain bearing the Seal of State around her waist, Giana was completely nude. "My father gave it to me. It has been in his family for years."
Adam snorted. If her father gave it to her, it had to be some sort of chastity belt. Luckily, for him, it didn't seem to work properly.
Giana blushed bright red and squeezed h
er eyes shut.
"Open your eyes, George, and see how beautiful you are," he whispered.
She did as he asked, opening her eyes to see if the expression on his face matched his tone of voice and was instantly gratified to see that it did.
"You take my breath away."
She blushed.
"What happens now?" she asked.
Placing the palms of his hands on the undersides of her firmly rounded bottom, Adam urged her up onto her knees, then he grinned as he slid her forward, up his chest. Giana fell the soft, cool satin of his waistcoat and the linen of his shirt against her inner thighs as he moved her forward until her bottom rested against his collarbones. "Now you allow me to see if you taste as good as you look."
Giana looked down and met his unerring gaze.
“Trust me," he said.
And she did. Even so, the feel of his hot breath came as a complete surprise. Giana clamped her legs together. Adam lifted his head and looked at her. "I'm not going to hurt you, George” he said. "I'm only going to love you. If you'll let me.”
When he looked at her like that, Giana found she couldn't deny him anything—didn't want to deny him anything. He was the teacher and she, the student. He was the sculptor and she was the clay. As long as he kept his promise to love her, her body was his to do with as he pleased. "Proceed," she ordered.
"My pleasure."
Giana thought she had achieved the greatest level of pleasure when his fingers caressed her, but when Adam pulled her to him, and began to taste the places his fingers had explored, she knew that there was greater pleasure to achieve.
He drove her to the brink of rapture and beyond, then gently rolled her to her side and cradled her beside him, capturing her cries with his mouth as she shuddered back to the earth in his arms. He brushed her damp hair off her flushed face, wiped the tears from her eyes, and murmured love words of praise , and encouragement in her ear.
Giana opened her eyes to find Adam staring down at her. Have you touched me completely?"
He moved his head from side to side on the pillow and laughed. "You're a lot less untouched," he told her. "But a virgin you remain."
"There is greater pleasure?"
“There's a great deal more pleasure," he explained, "as well as a small amount of pain. But the pleasure far surpasses the pain "
Giana eyed him warily. "Pain for whom?"
"You."
“Oh.”
Adam leaned over and nipped her bottom lip, catching it between his teeth, before soothing the bite with his tong and kissing her again, making her forget the momentary pain. "What's a little bit of pain compared to this?"
She nipped his lip. "Show me."
"Good Lord!" He laughed. "An autocrat!"
Giana looked shocked and then, dismayed. "I am not an autocrat," she informed him. "I am a constitutional monarchy."
Adam laughed harder. "And I'm a standard-bearer for democracy," he said. "But we'll save that debate for later." He sucked in a breath as his body tightened and the bulge in his trousers threatened to pop his buttons. "At the moment, I have a more pressing problem to discuss with you...."
"What?" She kissed him again.
"The fact that one of us is wearing too many clothes . .."
She smiled a wicked little smile that played about the corners of her mouth. Her blue eyes sparkled with merriment when she reached for the top button of his shirt. "May I?"
He favored her with a devilish grin and turned her earlier words around on her. "Since you asked so nicely, you have permission to put your hands upon my person."
"I have never before undressed a man," she confided, unbuttoning all of the buttons on his shirt and pushing it open and away from his chest.
"You're doing such a fine job, no one would ever know that you're only a beginner," he praised her.
Giana slid his shirt off his shoulders, down his arms, and over his hands, exposing the hard muscles of his chest and stomach. She rubbed her hands over the mat of hair on his chest, then indulged herself by allowing the tips of her breasts to rub against it.
Adam's blood rushed downward. The hard male part of him throbbed with each beat of his heart. He ached to sheathe himself in George's warmth. He ached to end his exquisite torment.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, Adam gently rolled her onto her back. Giana followed the line of his spine, sliding her hands down his back and over his tight buttocks, then back to the waistband of his trousers. She followed the strip of fabric from his back to the front of his trousers. Adam groaned aloud as she brushed her fingers against him.
She located the buttons of his trousers and carefully undid each one. Adam kicked free of his pants, moaning his immense satisfaction as the hard jutting length of him spilled into her waiting hands. Giana caressed him, marveling at the velvety soft feel of his flesh, and she would have continued her exploration if Adam hadn't gently lifted her hands from around him, then guided her legs up over his hips, and pressed himself against her, gently probing her entrance.
Lost in a frenzy of need, Giana locked her legs around his waist and pulled him to her.
Adam pushed inside her. He closed his eyes, threw back his head, and bit his bottom lip as he sheathed himself fully inside her warmth. His entire body shook with the effort as he fought to maintain his control.
Giana cried out as he entered her and tried to pull away. Adam, realized, too late, that she was no longer a virgin and that he’d just ruthlessly pushed through the veil of her innocence. He held on to her to keep her from squirming and musing herself more discomfort as he soothed her with his winds and kissed away the salt of her tears. "It's all right, Giana, the worst will be over in a moment. Lie still. Let me kiss you."
She gasped, then bit his lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. "That was not a little pain."
Adam grunted as they exchanged a bit of his blood for hers. She was entitled. "Sweetheart, the first time for a woman always hurts, but the pain will go away soon, and I promise you, die pleasure will be worth it."
He didn't lie. Her pain gradually disappeared and as it did, Giana began to experiment, moving this way and that, testing t see if it would return. Adam lost his battle to maintain control as her movement forced him deeper inside her. He began to move his hips in a rhythm as old as time. Giana followed, matching his movements thrust for thrust, clinging in him, reveling in the weight and feel of him as he filled her again and again, gifting her with himself in a way she'd never dreamed possible.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Tears of joy trickled from the corners, ran down her cheeks, and disappeared into the silk of her hair. And as she felt the first tremors flow through her, Her Serene Highness Princess Giana of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya surrendered to the emotions swirling inside her and gave voice to the passion with small incoherent cries that escaped her lips as Adam rocked her to him and exploded inside her.
He brushed his lips against her cheek as he buried his face in her hair. He tasted the saltiness of her tears, then lifted his head, and looked down at her face. God, but she was beautiful! Adam shuddered as a rush of emotions raced through him. He should have spoken words of love instead of words of passion. He should have cherished her and treated her tenderly instead of using her to slake his raging desire. He'd known she was a virgin.... She deserved a wedding night.... She deserved to be...
Scolded or spanked or ... loved.... Adam sighed. The incredible satisfaction of release also brought the first wave of guilt. Damn it to hell! She had allowed him to seduce her. To take her virginity when she'd had every opportunity to change her mind. What the hell had he done? What the hell had they done? And how would they ever manage to undo it?
Adam staled down at her—into blue eyes shimmering with emotion—and was lost. He wouldn't think about the future. He wouldn't question his good fortune or ask for more than she could give. He'd simply love her while it lasted.
Leaning closer, he touched his mouth to hers in a kiss so gentle, so loving, so preci
ous, it brought fresh tears to her eyes. "Thank you, Adam."
"You're welcome, Princess."
Chapter 26
Princess of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya should never expect wedded bliss. Such a thing does not exist for royaltyJoy must be found elsewhere, but joys found beyond the boundaries of marriage always come at a terrible price.
Maxim 517: Protocol and Court Etiquette of Princesses of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya, as decreed by Her Serene Highness, Princess Daria, 1782.
“You knew?” she asked.
"Not until a moment ago," he admitted. "I suspected, but I didn't know for sure until I looked into your eyes and saw the truth." But he had known it. Some part of him had known George was different. But he had never suspected how different until he'd discovered the pearl ring and the newspaper. There had been clues all along. So many things that hadn't made sense—the way she talked, the things she said,the way her "family" treated her.
"I can explain."
"Explain what happened or why it happened?" he asked. "Because I know what happened. What I don't know is why it happened." Adam raked his hand through his hair. "You're a princess, for God's sake! I gave you every chance! You were supposed to stop me! You were supposed to say no!" He rolled out of bed and crossed the room. "Damn it! I'm an American. We don't have royalty! I don't even know what I'm supposed to call you!"
"We—I—am Her Serene Highness Princess Georgiana Victoria Elizabeth May of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya. I am styled 'Her Serene Highness.' In public you would address me as 'Your Highness' and in private, you may call me George," Giana answered softly, watching as he bent to collect his scattered clothing. "I did not say no because it is not what I wanted to do. I did not want you to stop. Nor did you try very hard to stop yourself."
Adam looked at her and saw that her heart was in her eyes. "You're right. I didn't try to stop myself at all."
"The question is why not?" She pulled the sheet over her breasts and anchored it beneath her arms.