"Inside?" Marissa gasped, craning her neck toward the doorway. She narrowed her eyes, wondering if this had been part of her mother's plan all along. It seemed highly likely. A few shrieking ladies would add to the excitement of the ball, and why not add a few colorful feathers to the down already floating above the dancers?
"My mother has truly—" But when Marissa swung back toward Belli, she found that her friend had vanished.
Marissa stood there, too puzzled to move. Surely Beth's reaction had been decidedly odd. She tried to think of other strained moments between her friend and Edward, but she could picture nothing. No interaction at all, which was even stranger than Beth's blush.
Before she could formulate a theory, Marissa was accosted from behind. The brief touch of a warm mouth on her neck identified the man at her back.
"Time for our third dance," he whispered, and Marissa felt her cheeks heat. The riddle of Beth's awkwardness would have to wait until after tonight. After her honeymoon, even. She turned to Jude and happily took the hand he offered. In a few moments, they'd be in their bedchamber with no mysteries to solve, no wandering birds, and no angel feathers floating between them.
Heaven.
No feathers awaited them, but there
were
rose petals. Everywhere.
"Mm," Marissa sighed as she peeled a petal off Jude's stomach and planted a kiss there. "You smell so pretty."
"I ..." His breath hitched when she placed another kiss lower down. ". . . endeavor to please. As always."
"I admit," she breathed against the faint path of hair beneath his navel, "I was convinced the roses were my mother's doing. I didn't suspect you at all."
"I... only wanted to ..."
"Relax, my love," she drawled. "Breathe." She touched her lips tentatively to the head of his manhood and smiled at the way his breath went ragged. It ceased altogether when she licked him. He tasted... warm. And friendly.
She smiled at the thought and tasted him a few more times to be sure. Yes, definitely friendly.
Marissa wasn't quite sure how to go about this. It seemed a very different task than when Jude had offered his own scandalous kisses during her last stolen visit. But when she closed her mouth over his shaft he made a sound of tortured pleasure, and his hips jerked toward her.
Oh, my. Delighted—and horribly aroused— Marissa took him deeper into her mouth, marveling at how smooth he was on her tongue. This was pure wickedness, and she was well aware of the wetness between her thighs as she slid her mouth down his cock. When she drew up and then took him deep again, Jude moaned. The sound was like a hand stroking her sex, and Marissa moaned as well. Every slide of his shaft over her tongue made her wiggle with eager arousal. He grew larger as she sucked.
"Christ," Jude murmured, and she looked up to see him watching, eyes narrowed in fierce concentration. "Come here, love," he whispered.
She ignored him, taking him deep into her mouth again, but he slid his hand into her hair to stop her.
"I have grander plans for our wedding night. If I spend like this—"
She licked her lips. "Oh, can you do that?"
Jude groaned and let his head fall to the pillow. "You will ruin me with happy looks like that."
"But you must let me—"
He pulled her to his chest and kissed her. "Yes, I will let you, cheeky girl. Tomorrow. Or later tonight? But not now. Now, I want to .. ."
His hands stroked down her arse, and when his fingers delved into the seam of her body, Marissa pressed her hips into his cock with a moan of need.
"God, but you're wet," he whispered. "Already."
"I liked doing that," she confessed. She felt a shudder run through his body.
Jude rolled her to her back and covered her, kissing her with such an intensity that he stole her breath away. But when he entered her in one merciless thrust, she gasped in a desperate gulp of air.
"I love you," she whispered as she wound a hand into his hair. "Forever."
Here, in their bed, Jude was a man, and she was a woman, and there was no thought of gentility or elegance or society. Out there, her life might he shallow and pretty. Here, they were base and honest and wild together. And Marissa would not regret that in a thousand years.
Here, Jude was beautiful, and she was the beast that would devour him if she could.
"Forever," he whispered back, and it was the prettiest thing she'd ever heard.