His brow wrinkled. “While I applaud your singular dedication, this entire thing is going to be much more pleasurable if you let the person with experience manage it. I realize that’s difficult for you.”
Her lips parted at that offhand comment. “It—it’s not difficult. I’m not so controlling.”
“I think you are because you’ve had to be.” He tilted his head and she felt him reading her. “All your life, it seems. Always having to take care of everyone else, always having to tidy up after the outbursts.”
Her breath came faster. He was deconstructing her whole existence with just a look and a few words. She hated that he had the power to do so. That he did it with a casual flare.
“Ellis—” she whispered, flinching when her voice broke.
He nodded. “I see. Well, I am not a man to be managed, Juliana. I don’t need to be taken care of. And since we have agreed that I owe you something, I think you ought to let me simply settle my debt.” He leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to the tip of her nose. “Agreed?”
She stared at him for a long moment. This man of experience, a riddle, a liar, a charlatan. A man she dreamed of, a man she wanted so badly that her legs shook. He made this so hard. And yet he also somehow made it easy. Like it wasn’t the most overwhelming thing in the world.
He smiled like it was fun. When was the last time she’d just had fun? She couldn’t remember. It wasn’t that she didn’t have fun. She loved to laugh and tease with her sisters and their small group of friends. She enjoyed a ball and had always enjoyed dancing.
But this kind of fun felt…different. This was a step away from the day-to-day obligations of her life. If she said yes to him, that would be surrendering control. Trusting that he would take care of her, at least physically, for the short time they shared in this room in the back of a wicked club.
Could she do that? Knowing what he was? Knowing what he’d done in the past?
But then again…perhaps that made him the perfect person to give herself to. He would certainly know how to do this.
She licked her lips and his pupils dilated slightly, his hands stirring at his sides. Those hands that would…
She swallowed hard to interrupt the line of her thought. Then she managed to slowly nod. “Fine,” she whispered when she could find her voice. She could only pray she wouldn’t come to regret it. “I will…trust you to…to manage this.”
Chapter 7
For a moment after she capitulated, Ellis simply stared at Juliana. Like he couldn’t believe she had agreed. Like he had been trying to test her and she had not reacted in the way he’d hypothesized.
But then he smiled. That broad, real, dangerous grin that seemed to tug between her legs because it was a smile filled with such dark promise.
“Excellent,” he laughed at last. “Then let us begin. Turn around, please.”
She wrinkled her forehead and was about to question him, but he arched a brow and met her gaze. Ah, yes. Her agreement that she wouldn’t manage. It seemed he meant to hold her to it.
She huffed out a breath and turned her back to him, uncertain of what he would do. She recalled an image from that naughty book of a lady bent over a table with a man taking her from behind. Perhaps that was his intent.
He pushed her hair forward over her shoulders, revealing the back of her dress. Her breath caught as he leaned in and his mouth brushed her neck. She jolted toward him, her hips bumping his. He let out a strangled chuckle but continued to suck gently on the flesh along the column of her neck.
Air touched her skin, and she jumped as she realized he had unfastened three of her buttons without her even being aware of it. She glanced over her shoulder, and he leaned around to kiss her mouth yet again.
She pressed back, opening to him. He flicked the remainder of her buttons open and the dress gaped. Warmth from the fire, warmth from his body curled against her bare skin, for she hadn’t worn a chemise beneath the dress. It was one of Anne’s old gowns, adjusted to reduce modesty, and the chemise showed too much to wear.
“Surprise after surprise,” Ellis purred as he glided his fingers down her exposed spine.
Juliana gripped the edge of the bed as the shock of sensation that light touch created ricocheted throughout her body. Every nerve ending in her body felt alive now, her sex pulsed, and she felt very wet between her thighs. Her nipples were hard and rubbed against the silk of the gown. Her body was not her own anymore. She didn’t control all its reactions.
And she wanted more.
Slowly she turned to face him, but he didn’t step back. She was wedged between the hard chest of a very focused man and the soft edge of the bed. He held her gaze as he grasped the fluttering edges of her short-sleeved gown and tugged.
The entire contraption floated away at his insistence, exposing her from the waist up. She swallowed, fighting the urge to fold her arms over her naked breasts. No man had ever seen her like this.
This one stared like he was trying to memorize every line of her body. He didn’t speak as he reached out. The back of his hand caressed her collarbone, then he slid it down, holding eye contact as he stroked one nipple with his knuckles.
She gasped. She’d touched herself like that before, grazing brushes when she dressed or bathed. It had never tingled like it did when he touched her. And that tingle had certainly never spread heat from the point of contact down between her legs.
He smiled at the sound and brushed again, this time a little harder. She gripped his forearm with one hand as she tried to find purchase. This was what she’d come here for. It was what she wanted. And yet she was completely overwhelmed by it. By him.
“Ellis,” she whispered.
His expression softened a fraction. “Too much?”
“No. I-I don’t want you to stop.” She licked her lips. “I just feel…I feel a little…dizzy.”
“Hmmm.” He tilted his head as he looked her up and down. “Well, we wouldn’t want that. Especially since it’s all going to get so much more pleasurable. So…”
He reached out and tugged her dress. It slid over her hips and pooled at her feet. Now she was naked, and she jerked her hands down to cover the space between her legs. “Ellis!”
He shook his head. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Are you telling me you’ve changed your mind?”
Her lips parted. He was…baiting her. Trying to taunt her into admitting she wasn’t ready or strong enough for what she’d said she desired. And the worst part was, he might be right. She’d felt the dizziness of desire before, when she looked at that dratted book she’d found.
But it had never been as intense as this. With this man. She didn’t want to let that go. She didn’t want to regret giving up what would happen here.
She drew in a long breath and backed away from him. She pushed up on the high edge of the bed and scooted back so that she was propped up on the pillows. Then she met his gaze with as much haughty elegance as she could manage when she was so utterly conscious of being naked. “There, that’s better. And I think you need me in this position, at any rate, to do the…er…the taking. The claiming? The taking.”
The dimple that popped in his cheek revealed his amusement. “You are patently incapable of letting go of control, aren’t you?”
She worried her lip. “When I do…sometimes bad things happen.”
His expression softened and he nodded. “I see. Well, angel, let me tell you this: nothing bad will happen tonight.”
She wanted to believe him in that moment. She wanted to fully trust him. That was folly, of course, but it didn’t change the desire that rose up in her to give herself to this man in every way, not just this one.
Instead, she nodded.
He pressed a hand into the mattress, bowing it with his weight as he joined her on the bed. He crawled up the length of her body, picking carefully where he set his hands. Never touching her but coming oh-so-close. At last he pressed one hand on either side of her head and leaned down. She lifted
to meet him, and he was kissing her again.
Her mind emptied at last as she surrendered to the kiss. Now that she didn’t have to focus on somehow remaining upright, she could feel everything else a bit more. She tasted a faint hint of whisky on his tongue, along with the bite of mint. She felt the gentle abrasion of the beginnings of whiskers on his chin. And when he drew his mouth away from her lips and began to kiss her throat, she let out a long, low sigh of final surrender to the pleasure she so wanted to find.
When Juliana let out a low, soft sigh, Ellis lifted his head to look at her. Her face had gone relaxed at last, her eyes fluttered shut, and she’d stopped bracing so hard against the bed. It was something to see that act of submission from a woman who kept herself in tight control.
Better still was to be the man who had inspired such a surrender. He didn’t deserve it, of course. He’d never deserved or expected it. But he wanted it, he wanted her for as long as he could have her. And because he was a bastard, he would take her when he knew he shouldn’t.
He lowered his mouth to her flesh again and licked a gentle pattern along her collarbone. Her skin was so soft. Had he ever had a lover with such soft skin? He couldn’t recall one. Actually, in that moment, he couldn’t recall another lover at all, despite having a good many in his past. But right now it was only Juliana. If he would likely die soon, she would be his last lover and that was something beautiful.
He moved his mouth lower still, until he scraped the beginnings of stubble against the swell of her breast. She gripped at the coverlet with a sharp intake of air, and he smiled. She was very responsive. He liked that. He liked making her arch up and sigh and gasp with pleasure. He wanted to do that more and more. Until she was begging and moaning and shaking with release.
He recalled how she had reacted to the touch of his hand against her nipple and smiled as he brushed his lips there instead. Her hands came down, for a moment he thought she would push him away. But instead she dug her fingers into his hair and held there, a silent demand for more. So he gave it, darting his tongue out to trace the raised nub of her nipple. He swirled around the exquisitely fragile flesh, tasting her, nibbling her and at last sucking until the skin shone and her nipple stood at full attention.
“Ellis,” she grunted, her hips lifting against his chest.
“Mmmmhmmm?” he muttered without lifting his head. He scraped his teeth gently against the sensitive nub. “Do you need something?”
“Yes.” The word was a broken sigh, and he glanced up her body once more. Her face was twisted with pleasure, her eyes squeezed shut. He had barely begun and she was already on the edge. It was going to be so easy to just push her over when he was ready. When she was ready.
He smiled at the thought as he dragged his lips to her opposite nipple, licking and laving there until she writhed on the silky sheets and gripped at his hair with incoherent sounds of pleasure.
He could have stopped there, he supposed. He knew in some deep part of himself that wasn’t utterly ruined and debauched that he ought to stop. She was a lady, after all. She was desperate. It wasn’t right or fair to take advantage. But she was sprawled out so prettily beneath him. She was moaning and panting for release that he knew he could give.
And goddamn it, he wanted to forget everything except what her orgasm tasted like. Not just for her and this foolhardy idea she had about last chances for pleasure. He needed to know for himself. He needed to forget all the darkness that was about to come after his conversation with Rivers.
They both had their needs, and this night would fill them. Was it really so very terrible to do exactly what they both desired?
He knew the answer and it in no way absolved him, but he ignored that as he slid farther down her body. Her skin was sweet, and he feasted as he licked a slow path along the apex of her body. He swirled into her navel and she gasped. His fingers gripped her hips and she surged against him with a cry. He inched lower with his mouth, lower still, scraping his teeth against that sweet line where her leg met her hip.
Her legs parted a little as he inched between them and rested a hand on each thigh to push them a bit farther. She had been panting above him, reveling in his touch, but the moment he opened her, she stopped. He looked at her and found she had pushed herself up on her elbows and was staring down at him, watching through a hooded gaze. She was holding her breath.
He stroked his fingers on her inner thighs, massaging gently. “I can stop.”
She shook her head. “N-No. I don’t want you to stop. I just want to see it when you…when you do it.”
“Do what?”
“Take me,” she said, darting her gaze away from his with a blush. “I want to see it when you take me. Though I don’t know how you’ll do it fully dressed.”
He tilted his head. “You are very focused on me fitting myself inside of you.” When he said the words, his entire body twitched with anticipatory pleasure, but he ignored that and the deep throb in his cock that told him to do just that, and as quickly as possible. “Are you not enjoying the rest?”
“Yes, very much. But I know it isn’t the most important part.”
Ellis pursed his lips. “I disagree. I have, as you know, done this very thing with a great many women.”
He thought a shadow crossed over her face, but then it was gone, and she nodded. “Yes. That’s why you must be the best one for the job.”
He choked out a laugh. “I wouldn’t call it a job. It’s not a chore, that’s for certain, to be perched here between these very pretty legs getting ready to do such wicked things to you.”
She shifted, and bright pink entered her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He smiled. “But because I have done this with a great many women, I can tell you that this part is my favorite.”
“That cannot be true,” she insisted.
“But it is. I could press a willing woman against a wall and rut with her any time I like. And there is value in something hot…” He accentuated the word by licking his finger and gliding it across the crease of her entrance. “…and fast.” He repeated the action as she hissed out her breath. “But doing this…watching you flush and writhe and hearing your breath hitch with pleasure…angel, that is the best part of my day.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “Well, I wouldn’t want to deny you the best part of your day.”
“So kind,” he teased as he settled on his stomach between her legs and smiled up at her with all the wicked intent he could muster. “And now I’m going to try to give you the best part of your day.”
“You’re very certain of yourself,” she gasped as he peeled her open gently.
“Always,” he agreed, and then he bent his head and stroked his tongue over her. She was as sweet as he’d known she would be and he drank of her, memorizing every nuance of her flavor because he knew this was a night that could never, would never, be repeated.
So he was going to enjoy every damned minute of it.
Chapter 8
Juliana’s vision actually blurred as Ellis ducked his head between her legs and stroked his tongue against her sex. When he touched her, it was like magic. But this…this was something more. This was something…she couldn’t even describe it, probably because he stole her breath and her reason as he spread her flesh wide and feasted on her like a man starved.
He teased with his tongue, flicking her sex, gentle and light. She found herself aching for more, reaching for it by lifting her hips toward his mouth as she dipped her head against the pillows with a shuddering sigh.
He ignored that wordless demand, continuing to tease her with those gentle yet focused licks. Her body’s reaction was a ricochet of pleasure that started at the point of contact and worked its way through her entire being. This was more powerful than when she touched herself, but built to that same crescendo she so longed for.
“Please,” she groaned, hating herself for begging this man but unable to stop.
He glanced up at her, though he continued to l
ick. His blue eyes were dark with purpose, with desire. And they were entirely focused on her, as if there was nothing else that mattered in heaven or earth more than making her tremble. That powerful intensity that only made the pleasure between her legs all the stronger.
He gripped her hips tighter, tugging her flush against his mouth. Everything became more forceful then. He sucked her, tugging her flesh between his lips, nipping and nibbling to mix pleasure with just the slightest hint of pain.
She surged against him, grinding on his mouth as her back arched almost against her will. He held her tighter, pressing her hips against the bed so she couldn’t guide her own release, toying with her as he swirled his tongue around the bud of her clitoris, then darted away to penetrate her with the tip of his tongue. Back and forth he moved, tormenting and torturing with the sweetest rhythm that seemed to go on forever.
After a while, she heard herself moaning, a sound unlike any she’d ever made before. Something that came deep from within her soul. Was that truly her who begged without words? She who never asked for what she wanted? She who had always been the one to give, not receive?
But in this moment, she was utterly selfish, and she reveled in it. She wanted more, and this time when Ellis returned his lips to her clitoris, she gripped him tighter with her thighs, trying to hold him in place.
He chuckled against her body, and the vibration shot through her. “Very well, angel,” he whispered, blowing gently on her clitoris. “Ready or not…”
He sucked her as he trailed off, focusing all his attention on the bundle of nerves at the heart of her pleasure. She could focus on nothing else, either. She dug her heels into the mattress and ground against him. Sensation built within her, a storm, a waterfall, and unrelenting force that could not be denied. And he didn’t deny it. He swirled his tongue harder, faster, flicking at her as the sensation peaked.
And then she was falling, her body rippling with deep, powerful waves of release. She cried out, thrashing against the pleasure, rolling with him as he drew out her release longer and harder. Until she was weak with it, until the pleasure was almost too much to bear.
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