by Lisa Plumley
Surrendering to both of those immutable forces at last, Olivia leaned into Griffin’s arms. She wrapped him in her embrace, then kissed him back. This was real. It was right.
For tonight, at least, it was everything she needed.
If tomorrow, everything changed...
On the cusp of going further with that thought, Olivia looked at Griffin’s face. She saw the telltale signs of intense focus in his expression, knew he was doing his best to savor their time together, and decided right then to do the same herself.
Fearlessly, she touched the lapels of his dressing gown. Lovingly, she studied his expression. Impishly, she asked...
“Would you mind very much taking this off? Soon?” Her breath caught and held at her own audacity. But Olivia had never been a woman for half measures. So she provided an incentive. “You know...for the sake of satisfying my scientific curiosity?”
Chapter Seventeen
If Olivia had been any other woman, Griffin knew, he might have been able to stick to his vow to behave with honor and goodness. He might have been able to view her luscious body—clad only in a virginal white chemise and a satiny wrap—and retain some integrity. He might have been able to feel her hands eagerly probing his chest—all but undressing him with her towel and her eyes—and selflessly left her feminine, welcoming rooms behind. He might have been able to bridle the beast inside him long enough to be the man that Olivia seemed to believe he was.
Instead, it was Olivia who appeared before him in nightclothes that revealed her delectable shape and soft, lovely skin. It was Olivia who touched him with verve and enthusiasm and seductive naïveté. It was Olivia who begged him to stay, who told him she trusted him, who very nearly told him she loved him, with her heart in her eyes and his hand clasped in hers.
I promise to give you all the love you’ve never had, she’d told him breathlessly. I promise to give you...everything.
Until that moment, Griffin hadn’t known how much he’d needed love to feel completed. Or how much he’d believed success would bring him that love...and then, when his proposal to Mary had been rejected, how devastated he’d been that it hadn’t.
But tonight, with Olivia, everything had changed.
Tonight, with Olivia, Griffin felt the stirrings of a real new beginning for him—a beginning that could lead to the life and love he had always wanted...and had always been denied.
Olivia didn’t deny him. Instead, she savored him. She looked at him as though she could never get enough of his eyes, his hair and even his oversize body. Griffin couldn’t help preening beneath her gaze. He’d waited a lifetime to be desired. Now, faced with true desire in Olivia’s eyes, he could no more resist her than he could sprout wings and fly back to Boston.
Especially not after Olivia eyed him so pertly, grasped his dressing gown’s lapels and delivered her coup de grâce.
Would you mind very much taking this off? Soon?
You know...for the sake of satisfying my scientific curiosity?
At that, Griffin looked into her beloved face and could only think of one suitable response. “One of these days, your ‘scientific curiosity’ is going to be the end of me.”
“But not today,” she said smartly. “Not tonight.”
“Not tonight. Not with you.” Gratefully, Griffin cupped her chin in his hand. Lightly, he tilted her face to his. “Not when I feel that without you, I would stop existing altogether.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, and—like every other time he’d kissed Olivia—doing so was a revelation to him. Holding her was like capturing sweetness; pressing his lips to hers was like tasting its pleasure without any of its sinfulness. With Olivia, a kiss felt pure. It felt like saying, without clumsy words and insufficient gestures, that he loved her, needed her...wanted her.
Greedily, Griffin buried his other hand in her upswept hair, all the better to bring her closer, then kissed her more deeply. Now that he’d begun, it was as though he’d waited a lifetime to kiss Olivia this way. He couldn’t get enough of her soft lips, her helpless little moans, her freehearted way of kissing him right back, with needfulness and innocent joy. Their mouths met again, more urgently this time, and Griffin felt his self-control plunge even further. He needed to stop. He couldn’t stop. Not if it meant not touching Olivia, not feeling her warm, lithe body in his arms, not knowing that it was him she crowded closer to, abandoning his lapels to throw her arms around him instead, nearly stepping on his toes to bring herself nearer.
Quickly—very quickly—Griffin lost all memory of his plans to be good. He felt Olivia’s modest round bosoms press against his chest and couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t been feeling her against him that way. He dropped his hand from her chin to her waist and hauled her still closer and felt a surge of possessive caring that nearly knocked him to his knees.
He needed Olivia. He needed to be with her. He needed to see her, to touch her, to hear her murmur his name.
He needed to pleasure her. The imperative to do so made Griffin lose awareness of everything except her and him and the feel of their bodies sliding together as their next kiss went on and on. He forgot the pink and lace-filled surroundings of her rooms. Everything blurred as he drank in Olivia’s breathy cries, as he swept his tongue against hers, as he lowered his hand to her derriere and squeezed, delighting in the womanly curves he found there. All he wanted was Olivia. All he needed was to give himself to her—to take everything she’d offered and more.
I promise to give you...everything, Olivia had sworn.
In the long, passionate moments that followed her declaration, Griffin took what she’d given him, with his hands and his heart and his body. He kissed her until they both gasped. He stroked her until her wrapped robe was as askew as his dressing gown was, revealing the creamy white slope of her shoulder, the ribbons that fastened her chemise...the pink jut of her nipples, just barely visible through her chaste garment.
Inflamed by the sight of her, Griffin touched Olivia there, too. He cradled her breasts in his palms, buried his face in her rose-scented hair and lost himself in the incredible feelings racing through him. He’d never met a woman who was more responsive than Olivia. He’d never thought he’d find anyone who made him feel more welcome or wanted. But somehow, Olivia did.
As he caressed her, she sighed—and pushed herself urgently, wantonly into his hands. As he kissed her, she moaned—and kissed him back with a fervor to match his own, burying her fingers in his hair and holding his head to hers. As he pulled her into his embrace, she smiled with wicked, weak-kneed delight—and called his name in an impossibly intimate tone, urging him onward in a way that let him know he wasn’t alone.
He wanted her. Olivia wanted him.
Together, they were...perfect. Soon, they’d be one.
Tenderly, Griffin lifted Olivia in his arms. A few long strides brought them both to her bed, with its snowy coverlet and lace-trimmed pillows. A single gesture of surrender brought them both down on its fluffy mattress. Lowering Olivia first, Griffin followed her with his knee between her spread thighs and his inadequate clothes all but falling off him, gazing at her in wonder and gladness. He braced himself on his arm, then smiled.
“You’re so beautiful.” He stroked her tumbledown hair away from her face. Then, reverently, he drew his knuckle along her cheek, loving her softness. “So beautiful, and so much more than beautiful.” He kissed her, knowing it was true. “If I never see another sunrise, I’ll be happy having seen you in all your beauty tonight. I won’t ever need anything more than this.”
Shyly, Olivia smiled, too. “And you.” Her eager gaze roved over his disheveled dressing gown, then dipped to the glimpse of his bare abdomen revealed above his underdrawers. She seemed to heartily approve. “You’re so big and strong. So handsome.”
She could say that because his flaws weren’t evident
so far down his body, Griffin knew. She could say that because his nose was practically miles away from his midsection, his drawers and his—apparently fascinating, if Olivia’s attention were any indication—drawstring closure to those underdrawers. “I’m not handsome,” he objected. “Anything else. Big, yes. Strong—”
“Yes. You are.” Suddenly serious, Olivia grasped his face. “I see all of you, Griffin,” she promised. “And I love it.”
I love you, he imagined her saying, but he just couldn’t bear it. Not then. Not when so many new feelings already roiled inside him. Instead, Griffin closed his eyes. He focused on the remarkable feeling of their bodies pressed so tightly together, then returned his attention to Olivia’s face, flushed and sweet in the soft glow of the lamplight. Gently, he kissed her.
“Are you sure of this?” If he didn’t ask now, he would surely lack the wits to do so later. “Of us, being together?”
“Am I sure?” Olivia gave a jubilant laugh. “I’m all but debauched already!” she teased. “If you don’t finish the job now, I’ll be deeply disappointed.” With a mischievous grin, she kissed him. Then, bravely, she flung her arms to the sides, beside the piles of pillows that cradled her head. “I’m ready, Griffin,” she told him. “If you want to undress me, you may.”
Galvanized by her words, humbled by her trust in him, Griffin could only stare at her. He swallowed hard. Here was a woman who cared for him, who thought him handsome, who had the audacity to tease him and dare him into loving her. If ever Providence had thought to toss a perfect mate into his path, Olivia was that woman. She was kind and brave. She was...
...lifting one of her hands, languidly tracing a path down the almost unwrapped lapels of his dressing gown, biting her lip as she tentatively touched that garment’s knotted sash...
“Or should I go first,” she asked, “and undress you?”
With a groan, Griffin shook his head. “There’ll be time for that later,” he assured her, trying not to think of the new and indecorously snug fit of his long underdrawers. Instead, he thought of the barrier presented to him by Olivia’s wrap...and all the ways he could defeat it. Beneath her wrap, he knew, Olivia waited for him, more unguarded than she’d ever been, bare and feminine and full of secrets he longed to explore.
“First, I want to do this.” He kissed her again, losing himself in the heat and wetness of her mouth. “And this.” He lowered his lips to her neck, inhaling the rosy scent of her skin. “And this.” Through her clothes, he cupped her breasts again. He rubbed his thumbs slowly across her peaked nipples, heard her gasp in response and felt himself grow twice as hard. At this rate, his underdrawers’ drawstring would prove insufficient to contain him, Griffin thought dizzily.
Then he quit thinking altogether...and just felt.
He felt Olivia, squirming and breathless and moaning beneath him as he went on stroking her. He felt himself, mindlessly grinding against her, needing a sensual release that their half-tumbled-off clothes still prevented. He felt both of them together, kissing and touching and wanting, sharing in a swift, heedless discovery that felt all the more precious for its intensity. Their coming together was...unstoppable now.
With Olivia, Griffin learned he could not always exercise patience. Or good judgment. Or even, sometimes, all the gentleness he wanted. His passion made him rough; his love for her made him try desperately to slow down. But it was no use.
He kissed her and needed more. He touched her and took more. He heard Olivia moan and couldn’t help smiling with savage pride. He made Olivia feel wonderful, Griffin knew...and before this night was through, he knew he would make both of them feel that way. For tonight, at least, The Lorndorff was heaven on earth, and its attic rooms were where paradise could be found.
Wanting beyond everything to share that with Olivia, Griffin opened her wrapped robe. Kissing her, he slid its silky panels down her arms. Soon that garment was cast aside, but his tutelage of Olivia wasn’t finished. Tenderly, Griffin lifted her arms. “Go ahead,” he urged. “Hold me. Here. Like this.”
He helped her wrap her arms around his middle, but Olivia needed no further encouragement. Eagerly, she held him close. She pressed a heartfelt kiss of her own to his neck.
“You feel...mmm...so good!” she cried. “I’m sorry if I’m holding you too tightly,” she whispered, “only I’m not sure—”
“Not too tightly. Never too tightly.” Never let go.
Unable to say as much, Griffin kissed Olivia instead. He kissed her and caressed her and felt her hands roving all over his still clothed back, and her enthusiasm—her desire—only urged him on. Groaning with enjoyment, Griffin took advantage of Olivia’s new state of near undress by filling his hands with her chemise’s hem. Mad with need, he lifted the fabric higher. Its lace-trimmed ruffles edged up past her knee, past her thigh...
Only another few tugs separated him from undressing her, but Griffin abandoned his quest there. The temptation to touch all the bare skin he’d revealed was too great to resist. Full of passion and affection and devotion, he swept his hand down Olivia’s shin, up the curve of her calf, and then higher still.
Feeling her quake beneath him, he stroked her knee, knowing he should calm her...knowing they should take things much more slowly. But that seemed as impossible for Olivia as it was for him. To his shock, Griffin felt her mimicking his earlier movements. Her fingers tugged at his dressing gown’s sash. Making an adorably determined face, she undid that problematic knot. She wrenched the panels apart. She took her time looking at his naked chest, his tensed midsection, his underdrawers...
Then she smiled. Moments later, his dressing gown struck the floor beside her bed in a bundled up, triumphant heap.
“Now we can really be close,” Olivia breathed, and Griffin had the sense, looking into her eyes, that she loved that idea.
He did, too. Lowering himself atop her, careful not to crush her with his weight, Griffin kissed her. He loved that Olivia was forward with him. He loved that she wasn’t afraid to show herself or to see him, that both of them were vulnerable and needful and full of inhibitions that fell away at the flicker of the lamplight. Looking at Olivia, beautiful and giving against the pillows and disarrayed coverlet, Griffin had to have her. He had to love her, to kiss her...to deftly unfasten the ribbons at her chemise and pluck away the laces, one by one, until the gap he’d created let him pull down that diaphanous cotton to reveal first one perfect breast, then the next.
Awed by her, made generous by her, Griffin pleasured her everywhere. He caressed her breasts and made Olivia sigh. He kissed her nipples and made her moan. He tongued her there and made her cry out...even made her clutch his head to her chest, where his wild, long dark hair spilled across her pale skin, turning him into nothing more than a conquering creature of passion and strength...and her into nothing less than a sweet, salvation-providing maiden—one who would fill his dreams forever.
Except this maiden was real. This maiden touched him boldly. She explored his chest and his shoulders and his midsection. She gazed at him with wonder and curiosity. She dared to kiss his neck. She pulled his hair, if that was what was required to make him kiss her where she most longed for him to. With him, Olivia was free and uniquely herself, needing and giving and taking in equal measure—and near equal nakedness.
Thrilled that her boldness met his own, Griffin matched her with every caress, every kiss, every new place to explore that which had once been forbidden but was now his to take. Moments flew past, barely noticed as he returned to Olivia’s knee, then slid his hand higher. Her thighs felt silken and strong; her breath panted across his bare shoulder as he touched her.
“Oh!” In a low voice, Olivia cried out. “Is that...?”
Whatever she meant to say next was lost in a breathless moan. Griffin had found her most feminine secrets. Even as she tossed her head against the pillows, he went on touching her
, wholly unable to hold back a moan of his own. Knowing Olivia this way, so intimately, was...exquisite. Knowing that she liked the way he touched her would live inside him forever. Striving to be gentle, determined to please her, Griffin caressed her.
Olivia arched herself higher in response, helplessly trying to get closer to him. Instinctively, she flexed her thighs. Her whole body trembled, already on the verge of something she’d doubtless never experienced and would not understand...but at the same moment as Griffin began to whisper comfortingly to her, he felt Olivia’s hand swerve to the front of his underdrawers.
At her touch, his entire being went rigid. Gritting his teeth, Griffin released a groan of pleasure that would have scared him—had Olivia not made a passionately similar sound at the same moment. Acting on instinct and need, again mimicking him in a way that he vigorously approved of, Olivia stroked him.
She panted his name, and Griffin was lost. He lifted his face to hers. He saw Olivia’s wide-eyed, marveling look as she went on stroking his manhood, and knew that he would disgrace them both if he let her continue. Her touch was simply too potent. Her eagerness was too arousing. Her love was too much.
Panting now, too, Griffin covered her hand with his.
“Wait,” he breathed. “Just...feel.”
Making himself go slowly, just for now, he went on caressing Olivia with his free hand. Her slick femininity unfurled beneath his touch, hot and pouting and desirous, and it was all Griffin could do not to lose control of himself as he felt Olivia tensing beneath him...as he felt her surrender completely.
“Oh! Griffin!” Her gaze flew to his. “I feel...”
Before she could say, Olivia came undone. Bucking wildly beneath his hand, she reached a height of pleasure he’d never imagined she would...and then, when her gleaming body finally quit shuddering, she stared at him in surprise. She breathed heavily, gave a giddy giggle then stroked his face.