Impossible Desires (novella) (10 page)

“Is that a yes?” he whispered, squeezing her to him.

He felt her nod against him.

“Thank God,” he decreed, burying his head in her hair.

A month later Gareth was standing at the altar waiting for his bride. His nerves were running high, but not from fear of their commitment but fear that she would change her mind.

The wedding march began and Patrick clapped him on the shoulder. His best man despite everything.

“Good luck, my friend.”

He smiled but didn’t dare turn his head away from the woman walking down the aisle towards him.

His bride was dressed in a wedding dress of pale blue lace, trimmed with violet. She was a vision to behold. Finally, she reached his side and extended her hand. He took it without question, his eyes burning with the effort to not let a tear escape.

The ceremony passed quickly. Gareth said his vows without a pause and was delighted when Eleanor’s were just as steady.

When he leaned forward to kiss her, she pulled back just a little.

“I love you, Gareth.”

The whisper reached only his ears and a smile lit up his face.

“May I kiss you, my love?”

Her eyes shone and she nodded.

Gareth devoured her in a kiss the
ton
would remember forever. Eleanor threw her arms around his neck and pressed herself into him. He swept his tongue through her warm mouth once before slowly resurfacing.

There was a deathly silence and then applause erupted. Patrick patted him on the back.

Eleanor giggled in his arms and he wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Let’s get home so we can start enjoying our honeymoon.”

They walked slowly out of the church, stopping occasionally to receive congratulations.

“We have a luncheon to get through first.”

Gareth groaned unable to believe he had to wait
longer
. They had not made love in weeks and it was killing him.

Thankfully, the luncheon went quickly for Gareth. Between trying to eat and talking to the gentlemen that all wanted to congratulate him, the time disappeared.

Before he knew it, they were standing alone in his bedroom.

“I’ve never been in this bedroom before. It is beautiful.”

Gareth looked around the bedroom he had lived in for almost twenty years. It held nothing for him but cold lonely nights. He planned to change that.

“No,
you
are beautiful.”

Eleanor smiled at him with so much love that he had to inhale quickly. His chest was closing up.

“Do you want to live here? Or would you prefer to live in your townhouse?”

Eleanor shrugged and pulled at the ties on her sheer nightgown. The silk slithered to the floor, leaving her gloriously naked.

Gareth’s semi-hard body turned to rock. He reached out for her and pressed his lips into hers, swallowing her moans as his hands tweaked her nipples. He broke off to sink his teeth into her neck, moved his hands to her buttocks to haul her up against him.

“I’ll live anywhere, Gareth. But tonight I want to share your bed.”

He smiled against her skin. “Shall we christen it, Mistress?

Her eyebrows furrowed. “Christen it?”

“Yes. Though I’m sure my father probably used it on occasion with the maids, I’ve never made love in it.”

His new wife’s eyes welled up and two tears slipped down her cheeks.

“Eleanor, what’s wrong?”

Gareth took her into his arms and held her against his body. A moment ago she was burning for him and now she was crying. What had he done?

She sobbed and pulled back, wiping her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m a mess.”

“Did I do something wrong? Is your monthly due?”

Gareth swallowed, unable to believe he had asked her such a thing. It would make their honeymoon unpleasant, but he had the rest of his life to make love to her.

“No, quite the opposite.”

She gripped his pants and pulled them down his legs, surprising him as she dropped to her knees.

His cock sprang out, hard and thick.

Eleanor eyed the cock that had given her so much pleasure in the past. She was sensitive at the moment – hopefully it wouldn’t hurt her too much tonight.

A bead of pre-come glistened on the tip and she smiled to herself.

“You haven’t come in two weeks have you, my pet?”

He flexed his hips and she opened her mouth to take him in.

He tasted salty, his flesh soft and yet like steel beneath. A heady combination for her. She sucked him hard, using her hands to bring him right to the edge before stopping and standing on her feet again. Moisture had pooled between her legs. She was already primed for him.

“Have you?”

She quirked an eyebrow and he growled, swinging her up into his arms and throwing her onto the middle of the bed. Fear lanced through her as she bounced on the mattress.

“Be careful, please.”

Gareth stopped, his expression concerned. “Did I hurt you?”

Considering their relationship, Eleanor could understand his confusion.

She smiled, lay on her back and opened her legs.

“I have been touching myself every night dreaming about this moment. I always stopped just before I came because I wanted you inside me when it happened. Come to me, husband.”

Gareth grinned but was mindful as he crawled across the bed to her.

“We aren’t playing tonight, Mistress?”

She had to smile up at her new husband. He was waiting for the bondage and whips to arrive. “Not tonight, my pet. I just want you to make love to your wife.”

Gareth grinned, slid between her thighs and impaled her in one smooth thrust. She cried out, her sensitive tissues parting for him.

It was good, but it felt different.

Her husband noticed.

“Eleanor, you feel so good but you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”

She could see the beads of perspiration on Gareth’s forehead. He wanted her so badly. The fact that he had stopped for her, showing her the upmost consideration, just made her love him more.

Eleanor lifted her legs and hooked her ankles together so he couldn’t withdraw, should he want to.

“Nothing’s wrong, husband. I am a little sore but I want you.”

“Why are you sore?”

Eleanor knew she had to tell him – she couldn’t hide the truth from him.

“Because I’m pregnant.”

“Pregnant!” Gareth pushed up on his hands and tried to dislodge himself.

She held on tighter and flexed her inner muscles.

“Yes, we will be parents in about seven months. So tonight you must be careful with me.”

Shock, worry, and pleasure ran across Gareth’s face in alternating waves.

“You are alright? You are happy about it?”

She nodded and arched her back, rubbing her ultra sensitive nipples against his chest.

“Other than the soreness and the sickness, I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could be happier.”

“How?” Gareth asked, kissing the side of her neck.

“You could make love to me.”

He surged forward, planting himself deeply inside of her. Then he began a rhythm as intoxicating as the man himself. He buried his head into the crook of her neck and whispered to her.

“I will love you forever, Eleanor – my Mistress and my love. I will protect you and give you everything you could ever desire.”

She moaned in response to his words as the fire within her built higher and higher.

“I will let you whip me, I will let you tie me up, but never leave me, Mistress.”

She choked on a sob and dug her nails into Gareth’s back. She arched and screamed as her orgasm shook her, tremors shaking her from the inside out.

Gareth threw back his head and roared, hot seed flooding her impregnated womb. “God, how I love you.”

In the vein of Portia Da Costa and Charlotte Featherstone, Regency England gets just a bit raunchy in this novella about a gently-raised lady who wants to feel like a woman…

“I have never seen fit in my life to divulge my secrets in a diary, yet now, after today’s proceedings, I do…”

Lady Catherine Bexley is new to marriage and the marriage bed, but surely there must be more to it than this? Her husband is proper and perfunctory — treating her with careful respect but leaving her aching for more.

When she witnesses a gentleman disciplining a maid at a house party, the ache explodes into ravenous desire. She finds herself no longer willing to wait for her husband’s stiff and passionless attentions — and soon develops a naughty plan to finally get what she wants.

From our favourite short story writer comes a debut full-length novel about sand, sun, small towns, and surfing...

Zane Carlton is a World Champion surfer. Molly Georgiou is a shy, small-town girl. They have nothing in common except an instantaneous attraction and an impossible quest for a rare, endangered Australian marsupial. But Zane is determined to make it work, and invites Molly to take a step into his world. But Molly isn’t ready for the spotlights and attention — she loves her town, its quirks, its characters. Opposites attract, but can two such different people find both a woylie and forever?

A sweeping Australian historical saga that crosses oceans to prove love conquers all…

April, 1820.
As children, they shared a schoolroom, but no education can remove the stain of being peasant-born. So when Eliza Downing begins to blossom into womanhood and the future Viscount de Havilland notices, his family steps in to intervene.

Once full of possibilities, Eliza’s life spirals into shame and degradation, culminating finally in a false conviction and transport to Botany Bay. Through shipwreck, exile, secrets, and scandals, Eliza holds fast to the belief that Harry will come for her — but he doesn’t come soon enough, and Eliza must learn to recognise her own value and become the heroine of her own story.