The Royal Collection. Rebecca WintersЧитать онлайн книгу.
might be no expert, but she was so sweet and so eager and she felt so sinfully good.
‘You’re a natural,’ he told her, and a smile lit the beautiful grey eyes.
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
‘Would you kiss me again?’
‘Why don’t you kiss me?’ Corran rolled onto his back and spread his arms. ‘I’m all yours.’
Lotty smoothed her hair behind her ears, the way she always did when she was nervous, but she leant over him and looked down into his face for a moment before lowering her mouth to his. She was tentative at first, a little unsure, but he lay still and let her discover just what she could do.
And she could do quite a lot. Corran had to clench his hands to stop his arms clamping around her and rolling her beneath him once more. He didn’t want to frighten her, but she was sorely testing his control. She was lying right on top of him, tracing the angle of his cheekbones with light, butterfly kisses, kissing her way to his ear and then back to his mouth. Who would have thought that those sweet little kisses could be quite so tantalising, quite so sexy, quite so exciting?
When he couldn’t take any more—and Corran thought he had done pretty well to last as long as he did—he brought his arms up and held her protectively while he eased her beneath him once more and kissed her hard, once, twice and a third time, more lingeringly, because he couldn’t resist it.
‘More,’ said Lotty, winding her arms around his neck when he tried to lift his head, so he kissed her again.
The kiss went on a long, long time, and Lotty abandoned herself to it until Corran levered himself away from her.
‘I think it’s time we went back,’ he said unevenly.
‘Oh,’ said Lotty, disappointed. ‘That’s it? We’re stopping?’
Corran pulled her to her feet and brushed the grass off her. ‘We’ve only just got started,’ he said.
‘I don’t understand,’ Lotty said, but she let him take her hand and tug her back towards the house. ‘Why do we have to go back?’
‘There’s the little matter of protection to think about,’ Corran pointed out. ‘I thought we were just having a walk. I didn’t come prepared.’
‘Protection?’ Lotty’s mind was reeling. She felt as if she were drugged with delight, and her whole body was humming with the feel of Corran’s mouth on hers, his warm hands on her body.
When she thought of protection, she thought of her close protection officer, the one she had given the slip in Paris. She and Corran had been alone together for weeks. There was no one else around. Why would they need someone to protect them now?
Corran sighed. ‘You do know where babies come from, don’t you, Lotty? Even you can’t be that innocent!’
‘Oh,’ said Lotty, finally making the connection. ‘I didn’t think of that,’ she confessed.
‘Besides,’ he added, ‘we’ll be more comfortable in a bed.’
‘Oh.’ A shivery tide of anticipation and apprehension washed through Lotty. ‘Oh,’ she said again.
Afterwards, Lotty couldn’t really remember walking back to the house. Wrapped in a strange dreamlike state, she had no idea if they had talked or not. All she remembered was the feel of Corran’s strong fingers laced through her own, how warm and firm they had been.
They must have done something with the dogs when they got back, but she didn’t remember that either. There was just Corran letting go of her hand at the door to his room.
‘Are you sure, Lotty?’ he asked. ‘We can take it slow if you want.’
Lotty shook her head. ‘No,’ she said, stepping up to him so that she could slip her arms around his waist and sucking in a breath at the taut solid strength of his body. ‘I don’t want to go slow,’ she said. ‘I’m sure.’
Lotty lay on her side so that she could watch Corran, who was splayed on his front over the bed. She didn’t know how he could sleep. She was exhausted, but too overwhelmed to relax herself. She had known what happened in theory, of course, but she hadn’t known it would be like that.
‘Let go’, Corran had said, and she had. It had been like flying, terrifying and exhilarating. Now every cell in her body was fizzing with satisfaction, but at the same time she felt shaky and uncertain. All her boundaries had shifted, and she couldn’t go back to being the person she had been before.
But that was what she had wanted, wasn’t it? She had wanted to know what everyone else seemed to have, and now she did. Lotty’s lips curved at the memory. It had been a revelation—Corran’s mouth, Corran’s hands, his lean hard body, and how they could make her feel. Lotty burned at the memory.
She could look at him properly now that he was sleeping, and her eyes drifted wonderingly over the curve of his shoulder, the line of his back. His body was solid and male, with warm sleek skin. Who could have imagined that he would be a lover like that, that all that passion could be pent up behind the cool competence?
As if sensing her gaze, Corran stirred and rolled over, opening one eye as he encountered Lotty’s warmth, and then the other. Lotty could see him remembering just what she was doing there.
‘Good morning,’ she said nervously. She hadn’t been sure if she should slip back to her own room once he had fallen asleep. She had spent her whole life absorbing the correct protocol for different situations, but no one had ever told her the etiquette for sleeping with a man for the first time.
‘Good morning,’ said Corran. He shifted into a more comfortable position so that he could study her face. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked.
‘I think so,’ said Lotty. Given what they had done the night before, it was absurd to feel shy now, but her eyes slid away from his all the same. She looked at his shoulder instead. ‘Corran, is it always like that?’
He reached out and tilted her chin up so that she had to look at him again. ‘It’s never going to be your first time again, Lotty, but it’s only going to get better, I promise you that.’
What did that mean? Lotty regarded him doubtfully. ‘Was I b-bad?’ she asked, wincing inwardly at that betraying stutter.
Corran stretched, and Lotty caught her breath at the flex of his muscles and the sheer, unfamiliar maleness of him. ‘Very,’ he said.
Well, she shouldn’t have asked the question if she didn’t want to know the answer, Lotty reminded herself. She bit her lip. ‘I did tell you that I wasn’t experienced.’
‘Lotty,’ he said, exasperated, ‘you were very bad in a very good way!’ Sighing, he reached out and pulled her into the hard curve of his body. ‘How is it someone so beautiful has so little belief in herself?’
What was there to believe in? Lotty wondered. She was a princess, and that was all anybody ever saw. She had never had a chance to be anything else, never had to prove herself. People treated her as special because of who she was, not because of what she was, Lotty had always known that.
Until now. Corran didn’t know she was a princess. If he had known, would he have made love to her last night? Lotty didn’t think so. They had been as intimate as two people could get, but he still didn’t know the most important thing about her. Lotty didn’t like the feeling that she was keeping a secret from him, especially now, but if she told him, he might change, and she couldn’t bear that.
No, she wouldn’t tell him yet.
Putting the flat of her hands on Corran’s chest to hold him away slightly, she said, ‘This won’t change things between us, will it?’
‘I would imagine it would, yes,’ he said dryly.
‘I don’t want