That knowledge was both heaven and hell.
Because Sophia knew she could not allow this to continue. Could not allow a man as magnificent as Magnus to believe there was any future for the two of them, as lovers or anything else.
She wrenched her mouth from his, her hands pushing against that muscular chest. “You have to stop, Magnus,” she sobbed. “Please. You have to.”
“Allow me to make love to you, Sophia, to touch and caress you and give you pleasure,” he encouraged gruffly. “I will not ask for more, only that I be allowed to touch you in the way you touched your body yesterday and brought yourself to completion as you thought of me.”
She should not have told Magnus that. Even in that moment of weakness, she should never have given him even the slightest hope—
Sophia drew a sharp breath as Magnus’s lips moved down her throat and then caressingly across the swell of her creamy breasts visible above her gown. His ragged breathing was a warm caress against her burning flesh, the lick of his tongue hot and arousing.
She wanted this. God, how she wanted this. Wanted Magnus to make love to her more than she had ever wanted anything or anyone in her life before.
One of his arms tightened about her waist, and he lifted her off her feet, his other hand pulling down the bodice of her gown to free her swollen breasts. His mouth was hot as Hades as he suckled one of her hardened nipples inside and began to caress it with the roughness of his tongue.
Sophia felt a hot gush of cream between her thighs as Magnus bit her nipple just hard enough to cause an equal amount of pleasure and pain. First one nipple and then the other, that cream continuing to gush between her thighs as he suckled and bit until her nipples were swollen and elongated.
“I can inhale your arousal, Sophia,” he groaned softly as he lifted her completely in his arms. “I want to taste you. I need you, Sophia.” His eyes were a dark and stormy gray when he raised his head to look at her, those chiseled lips a deeper red. “I swear to you, no one else will ever know of our intimacy. Will you please let me bare your pussy so I can lick and taste your cream?”
How could she refuse Magnus anything when he held her so tenderly in his arms and asked, begged, to be allowed to touch her with the intimacy she craved?
When he even seemed to know of her deep fear that he might be one of those gentlemen who boasted of their conquests, something she had instinctively known before Magnus assured her that he was not, and it never would be the case?
“Yes,” she breathed hungrily. “Please, yes!”
Magnus closed his eyes briefly in relief before opening them again. “Thank you.” He carried her over to the chaise in the bay window, laying her down on it before moving to kneel between her parted thighs. “You may stop me at any time you wish,” he promised as his hands moved up the length of her legs, pushing her gown up as he did so, at once assailed by the heady and sweet aroma of flowers and the honey of her arousal.
She wore stockings held up by garters and silky white drawers underneath, not the long variety most women wore, but ones that were short and wide in the leg and left a long expanse of her thighs bare above her stockings. Her parted legs allowed Magnus to stare hungrily at the dampness of the golden curls covering her mound and the tiny red nubbin of her aroused clitoris peeping through those curls.
Magnus had never felt so out of control, his cock pulsing in his trousers at the thought of simply pulling aside that silky material and gorging himself on that erect nubbin and the wet and swollen lips beneath.
“Yes,” Sophia answered his unasked question as his fingers hesitated at the waistband of her drawers.
Magnus moved back slightly so that he could look at her as he slid those silky drawers slowly down her stocking-covered legs before discarding them completely.
His breath caught in his throat as he drank in the sight of Sophia’s naked pussy. The lips were swollen and wet, becoming wetter still as more cream gushed from her channel to dribble down her perineum and moisten the dark rosette between her bottom cheeks.
Magnus had never taken a woman there. Never wanted to take a woman there. But Sophia… God, he wanted to take her everywhere. Claim every part of her as his own. Claim her as his own.
His hand shook slightly as he reached forward to touch her swollen nether lips, fingers circling the entrance to her pussy to gather up more of her cream before moving back to that puckered opening. It clenched and then relaxed as his fingers gently circled it, Magnus feeling emboldened as Sophia groaned each time he caressed those sensitive nerves.
Another time, perhaps.
If Sophia allowed them another time.
For now, Magnus did not want to say or do anything that might alarm Sophia enough to cause her to put a stop to this sensual exploration.
His caressing fingers returned to her pussy, stroking gently along those moist lips before moving up to where he could see the pulsing of her clitoris, that tiny organ fully erect. His fingers parted those folds, revealing the swollen nubbin completely before he lowered his head to encircle it with his lips and lash it with his tongue. At the same time, he thrust a finger inside her, receiving the answer to his earlier question as his finger met no barrier but slid in smoothly. He located that cluster of nerves inside her before pushing in a second finger to stroke and press there until Sophia came.
She arched up into his mouth, her clitoris throbbing, her channel contracting tightly about his fingers as she gushed copious amounts of cream.
It was wondrous.
Showed a completely uninhibited response to their lovemaking.
Magnus wanted that from Sophia again.
And again.
He greedily licked up all that release before his lips once again claimed her clitoris and his fingers stroked inside her until Sophia’s body arched in a second release.
Sophia glanced down at Magnus when he raised his head to look at her, color heating her cheeks as she saw her release glistening on his lips and chin.
He licked those lips now. “You taste utterly delicious.”
She swallowed. “I was not aware a woman could…could come more than once.”
“A woman may come many times, Sophia,” he assured, pale gaze lowering to watch as he once again ran his fingers through the slickness between her thighs.
“With an accomplished lover?”
“If she is a sensuous woman. And you are an exceedingly sensuous woman.”
Only with Magnus. Only ever with Magnus.
Sophia’s experience ten years ago had left her reluctant and too wary to ever trust any man. But Magnus had somehow slipped beneath the barrier of her emotions, and now she wanted, desired him. Only him.
But it was a want, a desire, she could never let happen again. Must never allow to happen again.
But even as she made that decision, she felt her body once again responding to the stroke of Magnus’s fingers deep inside her. The overwhelming pleasure as they homed in on a certain sensitive spot. They stroked harder and faster, and she arched into that firm thrust, wanting more.
Magnus’s lips tasted of her as they claimed hers, of the musk and sweetness of her release. While it should perhaps have been slightly unpleasant to know that, it was the opposite. It made Sophia’s nipples harden and her channel contract as Magnus thrust a third finger into her tightness, sending her over the edge into a third climax.
Afterward, she lay dazed and shaking. “No more, Magnus. Please,” she begged as his fingers remained deep inside her. “I… Should I not see to your own pleasure now?”
Sophia taught the young ladies at her school how to pleasure their husband as well as themselves, but never having had multiple orgasms herself, she had never taught her girls that.
Magnus chuckled as he eased his fingers free before straightening her gown and gathering her up in his arms to sit on the chaise and place her on his thighs. Her head rested against his chest, where she could hear the rapid beat of his heart. “My pleasure was in seeing your own,”
he assured gruffly.
“But—”
“Be still, Sophia,” he instructed softly. “Gather your breath.”
It was her scattered wits Sophia needed to gather, not her breath!
Because she was afraid they had deserted her completely from the moment Magnus kissed her. How else could she explain her wanton response to his lovemaking?
Even so, she taught her girls never to be a selfish lover. To give as well as receive. And she could feel the hard length of Magnus’s erection throbbing against her thigh. “I really cannot just leave you in such an uncomfortable state.”
His arms tightened about her. “Who said anything about you leaving me?”
Leaving was something Sophia knew how to do. Something she now had to do. Not just Weston House, but London itself. What had happened this evening could never be allowed to happen again.
It would be so easy for her to fall in love with Magnus when she was halfway there already. Knowing of his lack of a sexual history, she did not believe he would take what had happened between them this evening lightly either. The last thing Sophia ever wanted to do was hurt a man as magnificent and gentle as Magnus, which she would do if he was allowed to fall in love with her.
“Sophia?” Magnus prompted, sensing he had somehow lost her, mentally if not physically.
Her back was rigid as she sat up, causing Magnus’s arms to fall to his sides as he allowed Sophia to rise to her feet. “I am afraid I must go now.” She did not look at him as she straightened her gown even more, her fingers shaking slightly in her haste. “This is altogether too much. I cannot stay to dinner.” Her chin rose, her gaze still not quite meeting his. “Perhaps we can dine together another evening,” she dismissed. “Please apologize to your cook for me. I am sure the food would have been delicious.” Her skirts swished as she hurried across the room to the closed door.
“Sophia!”
Sophia came to an abrupt halt but did not turn to face him. “I must go, Magnus,” she insisted.
Magnus stood, reaching her side in three long strides before grasping her shoulders. “If I went too far, too quickly, then I apologize,” he murmured against the creamy length of her throat. “It is only that I want you so badly, I cannot seem to control myself when in your company.” And that had never happened to him before.
For many years, Magnus had thought there must be something wrong with him, a coldness deep inside him that he could look at a woman, any woman, even in a state of undress, and feel no desire for her whatsoever.
During the year of their marriage when he and Lucy had shared a bed, he had been forced to arouse himself by pumping his cock to hardness before joining her in bed. Nor had he found it any hardship whatsoever to remain celibate during the remaining years of their marriage. Or felt a moment’s jealousy in regard to Lucy’s numerous lovers. Humiliation, yes, but never jealousy.
The women of the demimonde he had been with since Lucy’s death had been versed in all the ways of arousing a man, and it would have been surprising if they had not been able to arouse him. But those couplings had always left him with an empty feeling, to such a degree he had chosen to abstain rather than feel that hollowness again.
At the age of eight and thirty, it seemed he had discovered the one woman who could arouse him simply by being in the same room with him, allowing him to breathe in her delicious perfume and gaze at her beautiful face.
Now that he had also tasted Sophia, felt her release against his mouth and fingers, he knew himself to be addicted to her. Even now, merely standing close to her, his hard and aching cock was leaking pre-cum, dampening his drawers. The thought of allowing her to walk away from him, possibly forever, was abhorrent to him. Unacceptable.
“Sophia, please—” He broke off, pulling Sophia out of harm’s way as the door was suddenly flung open to reveal Lady Susan Hampton, his dead wife’s sister, and standing behind her, her eyes wide was—
“Miss Marchment!” his daughter gasped in recognition.
Chapter 6
Sophia stiffened her spine as she suddenly found herself the focus of the coldest blue eyes she had ever seen on another woman or anyone else.
Oh, the woman staring at her so contemptuously was beautiful, with her loosely styled dark hair and pale blue eyes, her slender figure complemented by a cream silk gown. But that beauty was as cold as her eyes. Or maybe that coldness was because of that chilling blue gaze? Whatever the reason, Sophia felt repelled, an icy shiver running the length of her spine as the woman’s gaze swept over her disdainfully from head to toe. And, Sophia was sure, missing nothing of her disheveled appearance.
A woman Sophia recognized from the past as being Lady Susan Hampton, sister of Lucy Spencer, the Duchess of Weston.
“What are you doing here, Susan?” Magnus demanded impatiently. “I thought you and Clarissa were attending a private musical evening with the Radcliffes?”
“It was canceled.” The woman strolled confidently into the room, taking in at a glance the lit fire and the intimacy of the dining table set for two. “It appears Clarissa and I arrived only just in time to save you from having to dine alone with the help,” she taunted Magnus as she turned to look at him with a challenging raise of her dark brows.
Magnus was not a violent man.
Oh, he had done his duty to Crown and country during the war against Napoleon, like most able-bodied men, and had no doubt killed his fair share of French soldiers. But in the normal course of things, he had always been able to quell any rebellion to his wishes with a single scathing glance.
No, he was not normally a violent man, but he was prepared to make an exception in the case of his late wife’s sister. He disliked intensely the way Susan Hampton both looked at and spoke to Sophia.
He now gave Susan that quelling glance and was about to deliver a blistering set-down when his attention was caught by Sophia’s white silk drawers lying beside the chaise. Exactly where he had tossed them aside earlier before eating Sophia’s pussy like a starving man taking his first sustenance in years, not days.
Which he had been and still was.
Sophia had tasted more delicious than any food that had ever passed Magnus’s lips.
His jaw tightened. “Miss Marchment is feeling unwell and was about to leave.” It was the last thing he wanted, but he needed to divert Susan’s and Clarissa’s attention so that he could retrieve those white silk drawers…
Susan Hampton gave Sophia another disdainful glance. “Do not let us delay you.”
“Oh, please do stay a little longer, Miss Marchment,” Clarissa pleaded, seemingly in complete ignorance of the tension in the room.
Magnus took advantage of the ladies’ distraction to quickly cross the room and scoop up the white silk drawers. He straightened, then stuffed them in the pocket of his trousers before turning to face them.
His chest tightened at the pallor of Sophia’s cheeks and the manner in which she pointedly refused to even glance in his direction.
Damn it, he had not meant to hurt her by saying she had been about to leave, had wanted only to save her embarrassment if Clarissa or Susan should see her discarded drawers.
“His Grace is perfectly correct that I was about to leave,” Sophia stated with a lift of her chin. “I have a headache,” she added firmly as Clarissa would have made another protest.
Magnus stepped forward. “Let me walk you to your carriage.”
“That will not be necessary, Your Grace,” Sophia assured coldly. “There is no need to absent yourself from the company of your daughter and…guest, on my behalf.”
Magnus’s jaw tightened at the manner of her dismissal. She surely could not think that he and Susan…? Magnus gave a shudder at the very thought of it. Susan was as cold and manipulative as her sister had been.
“I will walk out with you,” he stated in a voice that brooked no further argument.
Nevertheless, Sophia seemed about to do so, but then gave a haughty nod. “As you wish. Ladies.”
“Have we met before?” Susan prompted with frown.
Sophia met the other woman’s gaze unflinchingly. “I doubt it.”
“You seem…familiar,” Susan persisted.
“We hardly frequent the same social circles,” Sophia dismissed.
“True.” Susan linked her arm through the crook of Magnus’s. “Do not let us delay you any further, Miss Marchment.”
Magnus clenched his fists at his sides to stop himself from placing his hands about his sister-in-law’s throat and squeezing until she breathed her last. He—
“Goodness, Magnus, what is that dreadful smell?” Susan’s nose wrinkled with distaste. “Is Clarissa’s cat in heat again? I told you the thing should have been neutered before you let her in the house. Certainly you should not go near her when she is in that condition.” She leaned forward to sniff his jacket. “You positively reek of a cat in heat.”
What little dignity Sophia had managed to maintain throughout this awkward conversation now completely deserted her, and she turned quickly on her heel after a mumbled goodbye before fleeing.
Both from Weston House and Magnus Spencer.
Robert gave a pained wince the following morning after Sophia had related the events—most of them—of the previous evening to him while the two of them ate a late breakfast together. “Susan Hampton is a complete bitch, of course, but what on earth made her make such insulting remarks to you? Admittedly, it was unwise of you to dine alone with Weston.” He gave her a reproving frown. “But it’s a bit of a leap from eating dinner together to assuming the two of you were fucking. Even if you were so inclined, which we both know you are not.”
Sophia stared down at the piece of dried toast on her plate, which was all she had taken for her breakfast, and even that she had pulled to pieces rather than eaten.
She had recognized Lady Susan Hampton last night, of course. As that lady had seemed to believe she knew her. There was only five years difference in their ages, after all, and Lady Susan had been very much in the forefront of Society ten years ago. She probably still was, for all Sophia knew about it.
Craving (Regency Lovers 3) Page 5