Chapter 316: Wedding Night (2)

Catherine walked toward Maximilian.

For some reason, her hand rose to cover her chest, as though he had not already seen her naked, as though the sight of her could still embarrass her after everything they had shared.

But tonight was different.

There was something in the air between them that had never been there before. A quiet certainty. A promise neither of them needed to speak aloud.

They were husband and wife. Not in name. Not because of some legal document tucked away in a drawer.

Truly.

The life they had chosen was beginning tonight. Certainty… or simply happiness. Whatever it was, it made her chest tighten.

“Let me see you, Catherine.”

His voice was low.

Catherine’s cheeks warmed instantly.

She looked into his blue eyes, and there it was again—that faint flare of violet that appeared whenever his emotions slipped past his control.

She could not deny him. “Can we dim the lights?”

A smile touched his mouth. He understood. He always seemed to understand more than she said.

Without looking away from her, Maximilian reached over and lowered the lights until the room softened into amber shadows.

Catherine slowly lowered her hand. His gaze moved over her. He looked at her as though he had all the time in the world.

The white lace clung to her curves, delicate enough to leave very little to imagination. Every line of her body was visible beneath it—even the little moles he had once teased her about.

She swallowed.

The silence suddenly felt enormous.

Then Maximilian extended a hand. Catherine placed hers in it. He drew her closer, and she settled onto his lap, wrapping one arm around his shoulders.

The familiar warmth of him seeped through her. She leaned toward his ear. “Want to watch me undress?”

Her lips barely brushed his earlobe. His arm tightened around her waist. Catherine felt the reaction ripple through him.

But instead of kissing her, Maximilian turned his head and brushed his nose against her cheek.

She blinked.

“Why?” he murmured. His deep voice vibrated against her skin. “What’s the hurry?”

Catherine let out a helpless little laugh and rested her cheek against his shoulder.

Of course. Of course, he would make her wait.

She could smell him.

She knew his scent now—his soap, his cologne, and something beneath both that belonged only to him. She had grown so accustomed to it that she barely noticed it during the day.

But tonight… Tonight it wrapped around her like a spell.

Her stomach tightened. Desire pooled low in her body.

She shifted slightly on his lap. His hand immediately stilled at her waist.

Their eyes met. Neither spoke.

Then Maximilian moved. One moment she was sitting above him. The next, he had gently lowered her onto the bed and followed, bracing himself over her.

His lips hovered a breath from hers. Close enough that she could feel his warmth, but not close enough to kiss. His hand slipped around her waist, fingers spreading over the thin lace.

His thumb moved slowly upward.

Catherine’s breath caught when he reached the curve beneath her breast. He paused. His eyes searched hers. Then his thumb brushed lightly over the sensitive skin there.

A shiver ran through her. “Husband…”

The word escaped before she could stop it. Something changed in his expression. His eyes darkened.

“Say that again, Wife.”

The command was barely above a whisper.

Catherine’s heart fluttered violently. “Husband.”

His mouth finally claimed hers.

The kiss began softly, almost reverently, and somehow that was worse for her composure than hunger would have been, because there was love in it.

There was tenderness. There was everything they had been too stubborn, too frightened, or too wounded to say, and everything they didn’t have to say.

His hand continued to tease her through the delicate fabric, while his mouth deepened the kiss.

Catherine’s fingers slipped into his hair. The last of her shyness began to melt away.

She wanted him. Not merely his touch.

Him.

Her husband.

Her Maximilian.

The thought sent another delicious shiver through her. She tugged him closer. The lace strap slipped from her shoulder.

There was a tiny snap.

Maximilian paused. Catherine stared at him for half a heartbeat. Then he smiled against her lips. She laughed softly.

“Don’t.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“You were.”

“I was thinking it.”

She pulled him back down by the nape of his neck.

“Then stop thinking.”

His quiet laugh disappeared against her mouth.

Catherine’s hands moved over him with newfound boldness. She was no longer thinking about how she looked or whether she was doing anything correctly.

There was only the warmth of his skin beneath her palms. His breath against her throat. The strength in his arms. The way he looked at her as though she were something precious.

She wanted to memorize all of it.

Tonight, she wanted no distance between them. “No matter what,” she whispered against his mouth. “Don’t stop.”

His eyes searched hers. Then he kissed her again.

And Catherine understood from the way his restraint finally began to fracture that he had been holding himself back just as fiercely as she had.

They had done this before in fragments. Kisses… Touches… Teasing… Moments that stopped just short of the one they had both been waiting for.

But tonight there was no stopping, not because they were driven by impatience, but because there was nothing left between them that needed to be withheld.

Maximilian’s forehead rested against hers. His breathing was unsteady.

“Catherine…”

She opened her eyes. He looked almost vulnerable. The sight of it made her heart ache.

“I can’t stop,” he whispered.

She smiled. “I don’t want you to.”

He kissed her brow. Then her cheek. Then the corner of her mouth. Every touch felt strangely deliberate, as though he were promising her something without words.

Catherine closed her eyes. She let herself feel everything… The warmth of his body, the weight of his arms around her… the trembling anticipation that had been building inside her all evening.

When his touch became more intimate, as his finger slipped between her legs, she instinctively curled closer to him, trusting him completely.

He noticed every reaction, every breath, every little tremor. He never rushed her. That, more than anything, made her heart swell.

Maximilian knew she was nervous. He knew this mattered to her. So he took his time.

And when pleasure finally overwhelmed her, Catherine buried her face against his shoulder, holding on to him as though the world had disappeared beyond the walls of their room.

For a moment, there was only the sound of their breathing.

Then Maximilian whispered, “I’ll get the lubricant.”

Catherine opened her eyes.

Despite everything, she laughed softly.

“Of course you researched this.”

“I researched everything.”

“You’re impossible.”

“I wanted our first time to be something you remembered fondly.”

Her teasing smile faded. Something warm and aching spread through her chest.

She touched his cheek. “Maxmilian… You can go in.”

He kissed her palm. “Are you sure?”

Catherine looked into his eyes. There was no hesitation now. Only love.

“A hundred percent.”

He kissed her. Slowly. Tenderly.

And when they finally crossed that last boundary together, Maximilian watched her face the entire time, as though her expression mattered more than anything else, as though this wasn’t merely the joining of two bodies.

It was the final surrender of two people who had spent far too long circling one another.

Catherine closed her eyes.

There was a brief discomfort, quickly fading beneath the warmth of him and the overwhelming tenderness of the moment.

She breathed his name.

“Love you, Maximilian.”

His forehead rested against hers.

“Love you too, Catherine.”

And then they moved together. It was awkward at first, their movements tentative… Laughing once when they nearly lost the rhythm, until they gradually found it.

Finding each other… with love… Until the rest of the world ceased to matter.

There was no past, no misunderstanding, no distance or fear. Only the man she loved and the life they had finally chosen.

Her husband. Her home.

And when Catherine finally curled against him afterward, listening to his heartbeat beneath her cheek, she smiled.

She had spent so long wondering what it would feel like to finally belong beside him.

Now she knew.

It felt like this.

It felt like coming home.

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