Page 21 of Midnight Rider
He searched her flushed face. “Do you want me to tell you, to explain what happens?”
“I think you must,” she began. “If we are to be married.”
“There is no doubt of that,” he said solemnly. “I would never have touched you in this manner had my intentions been less than honorable. You’re very innocent, Bernadette,” he added, as if it disturbed him.
“And very nervous.” She laughed shakily. “But I like the way it feels when you touch me.”
“As do I.”
He caught one of her small hands and drew it slowly to his belly, sliding it down until it encountered something unexpected and quite shocking. He controlled her instinctive withdrawal and held her hand there.
“This is where we are most different,” he said softly. “This part of my body enters yours where you are most a woman. We join and in this manner we pleasure each other in a secret way.”
Her shocked outcry was audible.
“What a disservice our parents do us by keeping such things mysterious,” he said, his voice deep and solemn. “By surrounding them with myth and romance. Sexual intimacy is a gift from God, Bernadette, not a shameful thing, but a reverent thing between man and wife. It serves not only to give us the greatest pleasure life can offer, but also to create children.”
She cleared her throat, embarrassed by so much blunt speech about a subject that all her life had been clouded and hazy. “Nobody ever talks about it,” she said.
“Such subjects, they say, are unfit and indecent for discussion between men and women.” He chuckled softly. “But I’m a wicked man, Bernadette, and you’re no shrinking violet, despite your frail lungs.”
Her hand was still resting where his had put it, but now he began to feel familiar to her, less shocking. She was about to say so when her fingers moved restlessly and something began to happen to him, something tangible.
She heard a deep sound in his throat, accompanied by the sudden jerk of his body.
Fascinated, she looked into his eyes as he became aroused and she felt it happen under her trembling hand.
“Another aspect of the mystery revealed,” he said in a lighthearted but strained tone.
She was awed. She felt suddenly old, wise. Her eyes searched his without embarrassment. She swallowed. Her body felt the wonder of what they were sharing, her mind rippling with forbidden thoughts. Her own boldness surprised her as her fingers moved hesitantly.
He stilled them at once with a husky laugh. “Curiosity is dangerous,” he whispered to her. “Especially in a situation such as ours. These explorations are best saved for marriage.”
She smiled shyly. “I look forward to them.”
“So do I.” He rolled over onto his back, grimacing a little because he was aroused and uncomfortable. But he pulled her close to his side and covered her more tightly with the blanket. “You are unexpected.”
“Brazen?” she murmured.
His arm contracted. “A delightful surprise,” he replied. “The only married intimacy I have known was distasteful and demeaning.”
“What?”
He sighed. “Do you know how Consuela reacted to me when I took her, Bernadette? She stiffened her entire body, gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and mumbled prayers until I was done. After the second time, I never visited her bed again. Our son was born nine months later, and I knew there could never be another child after him. My pride would not have survived another night in her bed.”
She bit her lip. “Oh, dear.”
“Oh, dear?” he echoed, curious.
“What if...what if I’m like that?”
He laughed softly. “You won’t be.”
“How can we know for sure, until...”
He moved just a little, tugged the blanket down to her waist and suddenly put his mouth right over one small breast.
It was the most incredible sensation she’d ever felt. She cried out with pure delight, her hands catching his dark head and cradling it to her, pulling at it as her body arched to keep the forbidden contact.