Lord Harry's Folly by Catherine Coulter (read this if .txt) 📕

midthigh. He felt her breath hitch when his hand touched her bare thigh. “Ah, Hetty, you’re so warm. Do you want me to stop, sweetheart?”

She looked up at him. “What are you going to do?”

He eased his fingers higher, so close, so very close to her warm female flesh. He paused. “I want to make love to you but you’re a virgin. When we make love it will be on our wedding night and in a very large soft bed. But for now, I just want to give you pleasure. Will you let me? Will you trust me?”

“What are you going to do?”

His fingers lifted then came down gently over her. He cupped her, his fingers dipping inward.

“Oh,” she said, staring up at him. “No one has ever touched me there before. Are you certain it’s done?”

“All the time,” he said as he leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “You’ll like it very much. Will you trust me to give you pleasure, to let you know that I want you very much and that what you feel is important to me?”

She felt those fingers of his, one of them easing slowly inside her and she couldn’t believe it, yet, as Lord Harry she did know just about everything, but still, she didn’t know about this. Then another finger was touching her, lightly stroking, lightly, then more forcefully and she blinked even as she moaned deep in her throat and her hips pressed up against those fingers of his.

“Jason, I don’t know about this. I don’t really feel all that normal.”

“Hush,” he said and leaned down to kiss her. His tongue touched hers even as his finger was moving more deeply inside of her. His thumb was now caressing her and she couldn’t believe what it made her feel, what it made her want to do, and that was to cry out and move and jerk about and go into an absolute frenzy.

She did several minutes later. She cried out into his mouth even as the incredible climax sent her spinning into an oblivion that held him and her together and it was something she couldn’t have imagined. It was something she wanted forever.

“I love you,” he said into her mouth as the rhythm of his fingers gently slowed, as he stroked to calm her rather than excite her. “Yes, that’s it. I’ll make you feel those wonderful things every day of your life. All right?”

“Yes,” she said, feeling vague and a bit dizzy and perfectly wonderful. “But I know that your sex must come inside me for you to have pleasure. Do you like that as much as I just did?”

He grinned down at her. “You can’t begin to realize what it will be like between us. Not just me being inside you, but there’s so much more. We will marry in two weeks. No, in a week, all right? I can’t wait longer, Hetty. Actually I don’t think you can either. If I’m to protect my reputation, no more than a week. All right?”

“Oh yes,” she said and sighed. “I thought that the entire sex business was really rather foolish. Men drooling over females and females just letting them do it since they were paid to let them. But that was wonderful. Why would you want to pay me? I’ll pay you.”

“Ah, your unusual education rears its head again. We’re special, Hetty. Very special. Will you trust me on that?”

“I suppose I must since you saved Sir Harry and rubbed Filey’s nose in it.”

He smoothed down her skirts. “How do you feel?”

“I feel full of energy,” she said, sitting up on his lap. “My side doesn’t even hurt now. Is that odd? I want to dance. I even want to tease you about something. I want to laugh and kiss your ear. This is all very new to me, Jason.”

“To me as well, Henrietta. Now, sweetheart, we must get back to business. It kills me, but we must. No, don’t touch me. Oh damn.” He picked her up and set her on her feet. Then he led her to a chair, sat her down, and took three steps away from her. Still he could feel her soft flesh on his fingers, breathe in the sweet scent of her. Oh God, he couldn’t wait any longer than a week. He drew a deep breath. He had to gain control of himself.

He said finally, “I have something of a more serious nature to tell you. While I was chatting with Filey, I accused him of knowing what happened to Damien. He swore that he knew nothing, indeed, he was quite bewildered, and I believe him. But there was something he said, Hetty, something that meant nothing to him, so he blurted it out in an attempt to appease me. He said that Damien had talked about ‘political ambitions’ one evening when he was foxed. Filey evidently taunted him about Elizabeth making a very poor wife for a politician.”

Hetty frowned, then shook her head. “Jack said something about Damien’s feelings on the growing poverty in the industrial cities. He said Damien likened the people’s lives to bondage and slavery, and that it could but grow worse. But Jack said nothing about Damien wishing to take an active role in political life. I’m afraid that I really don’t see the importance of Filey’s statement, Jason.”

“Hetty, don’t you see? Only someone highly connected in the ministry could have had Damien sent so quickly and permanently from England. Only someone very powerful in the government could have put him at the lead of that cavalry charge.”

Hetty nodded slowly, her mind working furiously. “Yes, perhaps someone who didn’t agree with his politics. Perhaps even a group of men who feared he might succeed and displace them.”

She pulled up short, rubbing her palm against her forehead. “Ah, that’s ridiculous. I just pulled that out of a hat, like a rabbit. It’s all speculation. I can’t credit such a motive.”

“There are some men, powerful men,