Until now, it seemed. Now there was nothing he wanted more as he ground his mouth to Thomasina’s and felt her answering desire in the desperate moans muffled on his tongue. She was lifting to him, already flush with erotic power.

He was helpless to it and to her. And in that moment, he didn’t care about prudence or scandal or anything else but burying himself deep in her body and making them both forget everything but the rush of pleasure they would find together.

He pushed at her skirts as he kissed her, gliding his fingertips along the smoothness of her calf, the gentle curve of her knee. He flattened his palm against the garter on her thigh and she hissed in pleasure as her pelvis lifted to bump his.

“We don’t have much time,” he grumbled, reaching between them to unfasten the fall front of his trousers.

She nodded and shoved her skirts up, bunching them between them. He positioned himself at her entrance, finding her already slick for him. With a shudder, he slid inside in one long stroke.

She gasped, her eyes wide with surprise.

He laughed as he ground his hips against her. “You must have known that was my intention.”

She nodded. “Yes, I just thought it would…hurt.”

He stilled his thrusts and stared at her. “Hurt? Why would it hurt?” He shook his head. “Did it hurt after the first time last night?”

“No,” she said, smoothing her hands along his back to comfort him. “I just knew we hadn’t taken much time and you said that was how you readied me.”

He wrinkled his brow, need still pulsing through the length of his cock as her body clenched around him. And yet her words still troubled him. “You thought it would hurt and you didn’t protest?” he asked.

She swallowed. “I wanted you. Wanted this. And I knew you needed it.”

He pursed his lips. “You wanted to please me.”

She tilted her head. “You always say that like it’s a curse. What is wrong with pleasing?”

“Nothing,” he said, bending to kiss the tip of her nose. “So long as it doesn’t trade your pleasure away in order to give me mine. That is not fair and not expected. Please don’t do it again.”

She stared up at him, as if this was a foreign concept. He hated that she’d lived a life where it was. “Yes, Jasper. I won’t.”

“Good.” He pushed aside his hesitations and rolled his hips again, jolting at the electric heat that shot up his shaft and made his balls tingle. “And now I want to show you how good fast and hard can be, my lady. Just as good as slow and gentle.”

She nodded, reaching up to draw his mouth to hers. He drove his hips forward, grinding against her as he took her. She lifted to meet him, moaning and crying into his mouth as she sucked his tongue. The little thrill of pain made his eyes go wide as he stared down at her face. It was lined with concentration as she arched her neck back against the grass and cried out his name.