“What—?” she began uncertainly, but paused when Richard bent to untangle the knee breeches that she hadn’t fully removed and had gathered about his ankles. Understanding struck her then, and her next thought was the strawberry. Leaning forward, she managed a quick peek before he shifted position and started to rise. Christiana straightened at once, but she was pretty sure she’d seen a red mark on his behind. She had married Richard Fairgrave, the Earl of Radnor, not his brother. He wasn’t an imposter, which was a good thing since she was quite positive the marriage was about to be properly consummated. Now she just had to worry that it would be a bearable marriage bed she’d somehow made for herself in trying to spot the birthmark. Or she could flee the house right now, head to Robert to arrange for a doctor’s exam and have the marriage annulled, Christiana reminded herself.

She was nibbling away at her lip, trying to decide what to do, when Richard finished with his task and straightened. A slow smile spread his lips when he saw what she was doing, and he suddenly cupped her face, his voice a husky growl as he said, “Every time I see you do that, it makes me want to nibble your lips too.”

“It does?” she asked faintly.

“Mmm hmm,” he murmured, proceeding to do just that.

Christiana’s eyes drifted closed as he nipped and licked at the swollen flesh of her mouth, and then his lips moved to her ear and he nipped playfully at her lobe as he added, “Your lips and everything else.”

“Everything?” she asked in a breathy voice.

“Everything,” he assured her, one hand sliding down to press her nightgown between her thighs.

Christiana moaned and trembled as he found the core of her through the cloth. When his mouth suddenly covered hers again, she opened willingly to him, her kiss almost desperate as the tempo of his tongue thrusts matched the caress between her legs, both building an unbearable heat and pressure within her.

“I'll make this up to you,” he gasped, suddenly breaking their kiss and removing his hand to lift her by the waist again. “I'll make everything up to you.”

“Yes,” Christiana breathed. Giving up any thought of annulling the marriage and giving up this heat and passion, she wrapped her legs around him again. Her eyes closed and she dug her nails into his shoulders as he walked forward again and his hardness took up where his fingers had left off.

“I'll be a good husband. I'll make you happy,” he assured her, his mouth trailing over her cheek to her ear.

“Oh, yes please,” Christiana sighed and it was almost a prayer that it would be so, that her marriage would no longer be the misery it had been, and then he was suddenly easing her onto her back and coming down on top of her. Richard’s hips settled in the cradle of her thighs and then he ground himself against her again, this time with all his weight behind it as he rotated his hips, pressed forward and rotated them again, rubbing himself from side to side atop her.