e’d touched her so shockingly, so blissfully between the legs, she’d felt a strange, hot flutter in her belly. But that had been a mere echo of the intense response coiling inside her now. The sensation, elusive, unearthly, made her whimper.
When she tilted her hips to meet him, he made a guttural sound of approval. His eyes were blind with animal hunger, and a flush darkened his skin.
Still the spiral tightened. She could hardly bear it, but the idea of stopping was unthinkable. Gasping for air, she clenched hard around him every time he plunged into her.
The tension reached an unendurable pitch. Giles’s thrusts turned wild, desperate, insistent. For a breathless instant, she teetered on the edge of some new world.
Then lightning zapped through her, and she was flying into space. Through the clamoring ecstasy, she heard him groan. His body jerked against hers, as he surrendered himself into her keeping.
When he slumped down onto her, Serena still quivered after that glorious release. The way he crushed her trembling body into the mattress became part of the pleasure. What an extraordinary experience. She’d had no idea.
With a surge of loving gratitude, she turned her head and kissed one of those slashing cheekbones. “I love you, Giles.”
“I love you, Serena,” he said in a raw whisper. He tightened his hold and rolled to the side, taking her with him.
When he tucked her into his chest, she basked in the intimate warmth of his embrace. She might have slept. She didn’t know. But when she opened her eyes, she lay sprawled against Giles in perfect peace.
While she wanted to stay like this all night, all year, something must have alerted him that she was awake. He shifted up on the pillows, his hold relaxing. “You’re a miracle, my lovely Lady Hallam.”
She drew back far enough to see his face. He appeared younger, more carefree, and the loneliness was at last absent from his eyes. Then and there, she vowed that she’d never let him be lonely again. “I have no words.”
Amusement lit his expression. “That’s not like you.”
She stretched luxuriantly, delighting in the glide of her skin against his. “You’ve made me a new woman.”
“I hope not.” He kissed her briefly, but urgently. “I adored your old self.”
She was sure she looked smug. She couldn’t help it. “You’ll adore the new me, too.”
“Will I indeed?”
“Oh, yes. Because if you make me feel like this when I’m a beginner, imagine what a bit of practice will achieve.”
He tilted an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
She cast him a searching glance. “Please don’t tell me it was like that with all those London hussies.”
To her surprise, instead of taking up her teasing, he seemed uncomfortable. “Serena, it’s bad form to ask about a man’s romantic past.”
She frowned. “So it was romantic?”
“No,” he said shortly. Tension hardened the arm around her shoulders.
“Paul was always talking about how the ladies wouldn’t leave you alone.”
The mention of Paul struck a discordant note. At the wedding, her former suitor had felt like a mere acquaintance, although she admired his courage in turning up to wish Giles and her well. Everyone in the congregation knew he’d hoped to marry her. Her love for Giles had swiftly revealed how childish her penchant for Paul Garside had been.
Exasperation tightened Giles’s lips. “Paul has a big mouth.”
She leaned on one elbow, so she could study her husband. Something happened here that she didn’t understand. “Perhaps.”
“You’re not worried about those other women, are you?” Giles reached to twine one hand in the fall of her hair. “You must know by now that I’ve always been yours.”
She did know that. Except…
He looked appalled. “By God, you are worried. Silly widgeon. Nobody can compare to you. Nobody. Until the day I die, I’ll love you with every breath I take.”
His fervent declaration banished the demons of insecurity that had chosen this moment to return. But she wasn’t yet prepared to let this issue go. She touched his cheek, feeling the bristle of his beard under her fingers. “It’s not fair to ask you to justify your past to me—especially when I spent all those years pie-eyed over Paul.”