Lisa Plumley

by The Honor-Bound Gambler

  Naked. She’d never seen a naked man before. Enthralled by the notion, Violet tried to envision Cade lolling about in the altogether. She only got as far as his hip, which was probably best explained by the fact that she could actually see several inches of tawny, fascinating skin just above his trousers. Hmm.

  Oblivious to her reveries, Cade trailed his fingertips over her arm. His touch incited a riot of goose bumps, but still Violet could not be distracted from her discovery. Naked. Naked.

  Somewhere beneath his trousers, Cade was naked. Violet had a powerful urge to know what he looked like under there.

  “You know, I seem to be at a disadvantage,” she ventured in an effort to satisfy her burgeoning inquisitiveness. “Because I am almost completely dressed at the moment, while you—” she gestured at his lackadaisically slipped-on trousers “—are…not.”

  “That’s easily fixed.” Smiling, Cade kissed her.

  She really loved his kisses. Therefore it took a while for her to summon an appropriate response. She had to wait to catch her breath. Then, “You’re not going to put on a shirt, are you? You know, to match up with my level of apparel wearing?”

  That hadn’t been the point of her observation. Besides, she liked that Cade wasn’t wearing a shirt. It let her see his brawny chest muscles and his arms and his middle. Every single part of him was different from her. Intriguingly different.

  To Violet, Cade looked as though he could shelter and protect her from anything—and would, willingly, if she asked.

  A broader smile. “I’m going to undress you. Remember?” He eyed her bodice. “It’s past time we finished with that.”

  “Yes,” she said brightly. “We should certainly finish!”

  His amused look let her know that hers wasn’t the response he’d been expecting. But Violet couldn’t help that. She was too preoccupied with more vital things—with wondering about the rest of Cade’s arresting physique. His shoulders were bunched with muscles. His arms were sinewy with strength. His belly was flat, his hips were slim, his legs were long and undoubtedly flawless.

  Even given all that wonderfulness, though, Violet felt most intrigued by what lay between all that. Lying next to him this way, together on his bed, she couldn’t help wondering…

  Was his, well…manhood as muscularly proportionate as the rest of him? If so, how would it feel? Precisely?

  Breathlessly, Violet regarded him. With an unreadable expression, Cade gazed at her—then at her chest. She remembered feeling his hands on her breasts, just a few minutes ago. Again her nipples budded with eagerness. She forgot to do anything except wish he would touch her there once more, just that way.

  Instead, Cade kissed her. Then he cupped her breast in his palm, gently gliding his thumb over the pebbled point of her nipple, and Violet couldn’t help gasping against his mouth.

  “Does that hurt?” Cade murmured, kissing her neck now.

  “No.” Shocked to feel herself arching against him, Violet nonetheless continued to do it. She had to. “I like it.”

  He nodded, satisfied. “I told you you would.”

  “I do!” she confessed in a breathy voice. She flexed her hands against his back, needing to hold on. “I really do!”

  “That’s good.” Sliding lower, Cade nuzzled the curve of her shoulder, then the angle of her collarbone. He nudged aside her dress a bit farther, then kissed the swell of her breast. “Mmm.”

  Violet couldn’t help mimicking him. “Mmm-hmm!”

  Never had she felt anything more wonderful or more right. With Cade, she did feel beautiful. She felt indispensible. She felt as though with him to offer his hand to her, she could fly.

  Cade seemed to believe that was true, too. Because for the next several moments, he set about releasing her from everything that held her to her ordinary existence. Moving over her, murmuring sweet words, Cade made sure that Violet felt loved and beloved and needed. He made sure she felt wanted…passionately so. And despite the incredible unlikeliness of any of this happening between them, Violet couldn’t muster a single protest.

  In fact, she couldn’t think of anything at all. She couldn’t say a word. All she could do was feel: feel Cade’s hands slowly stroking her, feel his breath fluttering over her, feel his mouth moving in an increasingly necessary and exciting arc from her breasts to her neck to her mouth and back again.

  Caught beneath his incredible attentions, Violet simply gave in. This was real. It was true. It was right. Through half-closed eyes, she watched as Cade loved her…and she knew that she loved him in return, even if she hadn’t yet said so.

  To celebrate that, even if only to herself, Violet clutched Cade’s head and kissed him back. Happily, she surrendered her high-buttoned shoes, her long dark stockings, her dress and her petticoats and even her corset. Or at least she found herself eventually without them—somehow Cade had peeled away all those garments with her scarcely noticing the movements of his clever gambler’s fingers. But she gave herself full credit for slipping beneath the bedclothes afterward wearing only her chemise—and for boldly, even cheekily, summoning Cade to join her there.

  “Are you sure you’re ready?” he asked.

  “Would I do this if I weren’t?” Saucily, she crooked her finger in invitation. “Don’t keep me waiting. I need you.”

  For a fraction of a second, Cade seemed hesitant.

  Then, “I need you, too,” he said. “You’re what’s left for me after all this is done. I didn’t know that until right now.”

  Violet didn’t understand him. But before she could ask what Cade meant, he quashed her ability to ask questions by undoing his trousers and dropping them to the floor. If she’d thought his sporting man’s hands were clever before… She’d never imagined they could reveal a sight as fascinating as the one that stood proudly before her at that very moment.

  “You are commensurately huge!” she blurted, wide-eyed.

  This time, Cade was the one who appeared momentarily confused. Also, unabashedly pleased with his endowments. He couldn’t have known she’d been wondering if his entire body aligned with his impressive musculature. Yet somehow he seemed to. Otherwise, how else to explain the twinkle in his eyes?

  “I’m glad you’re pleased,” he said as he lifted the rumpled bedclothes to join her atop the sumptuous mattress, “but the proof is in the feeling, not in the seeing.”

  Still awed, Violet sneaked another glimpse. “I’m enjoying the seeing!” She bit her lip, then lifted her gaze to his magnificent, handsome, beloved face. “But I’m curious about the feeling, too,” she confessed. “May I touch you…there?”

  Cade closed his eyes. His groan rent the stillness.

  “Oh! If that’s not done, then I apologize!” Violet said hastily. “It’s just that you’ve done so much touching me that I’ve enjoyed, and I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t want to do the same for you. Why I wouldn’t want to make you feel beautiful—”

  His gaze met hers. “Then you do feel beautiful?”

  “I mean handsome, of course,” she nattered on, “so I…” Struck by Cade’s needful expression, Violet paused. “Do you truly not know? Yes, I feel beautiful.” Warmly, she squeezed his hand. “When I came here today, I wanted the experience of lovemaking. But what you’ve given me is the experience of being loved. It’s so much more than I ever could have hoped for.”

  “I see.” His voice sounded husky—whether with unshared emotion or with passion, she couldn’t guess. Cade cleared his throat. “But we’ve barely gotten started,” he reminded her.

  “I know! Just think how much better it will get!”

  His smile dazzled her. “I don’t think it can get better than that look of joy on your face right now. But I’ll try.”

  As though proving his intentions, Cade cradled her face in his hands. Tenderly, he kissed her. A bit less tenderly, he slid his tongue against hers in that special way that made Violet’s belly turn somersaults and her breath quicken. Grabbing his shoulders with both hands,
she returned his kiss as passionately as she could. She loved kissing Cade. She loved touching him and looking at him and being next to him. Now all that remained was…

  The rest of him. The wholly male, enormously interesting rest of him. Which, at the moment, was hidden by the coverlet.

  “So…” Shyly but determinedly, Violet slid her hand down Cade’s bare chest. His dark, springy hair tickled her fingers. Already today, she’d dared to touch him quite intimately. She’d even stroked his belly, delighting in the taut feel of his muscles tightening beneath her palm. But none of that contact could compare with what she had in mind now. “May I touch you?”

  He knew exactly what she meant. Gazing into her eyes, Cade swallowed hard. He tightened his hand in her hair, then kissed her again. “If you do, I don’t know if I can stand it.”

  “But won’t it be nice for you?” Honestly confused, Violet stared at him. Her hand stopped its descent midway to her intended destination. Cade’s skin felt very warm and a bit more coarsely textured than her own. He looked quite sun-browned, too, in comparison with her, she’d noticed. “Won’t you like it?”

  “I know I’ll love it,” Cade said with utter conviction.

  “Then what’s the matter?” Wriggling with newfound freedom in her nearly sheer chemise, Violet blinked. “Because I feel, honestly, as though I can’t get enough of your touching. It’s as though my skin somehow needs to be next to yours. My breasts feel all full and tingly,” she elaborated, trying to explain, “and my—” She stopped, at a loss to account for the sensations of heat and pulsing she’d been experiencing elsewhere. She pressed her thighs together, though, and somehow that made Cade understand. “The rest of me seems to need you, too. So why—”

  “Yes,” he breathed. “Do it. Please. It can’t be any more torturous than hearing you explain why you want to do it.”

  “Truly? You’re sure?”

  “Violet…”

  “Perhaps you should kiss me first.”

  Another groan. But Cade complied, exactly as she’d known he would. Because when it came to her, her honor-bound gambler seemed unable to refuse her anything. Even this new intimacy.

  Daringly, Violet slipped her hand lower. She encountered Cade’s hip, then his thigh, then… Oh, my. Silken hardness, a sense of throbbing liveliness and a surprising velvety fullness met her grasp. Thrilled, she stroked the entire length of him. Then, full of exploration and curiosity, she encircled his hot, hard girth in her fingers. Mmm. She quite liked the feel of him.

  Cade stiffened. Another moan burst from him. Much too soon, his hand closed on hers, stopping her movements. On the verge of asking him why he’d done that, Violet felt herself being pressed into the mattress. With new urgency, Cade kissed her…and then he just went on kissing her, rolling them both together across the rumpled sheets until she could scarcely reckon out where she stopped and he began. Their limbs tangled; their breath mingled; even their hearts seemed to beat in unison. The only things lacking were fulsome words. But as Cade went on kissing her, as he went on touching her, additional conversation seemed less and less necessary. Everything they needed to share could be conveyed with a look, a moan…another tender touch.

  Writhing beneath him now, Violet panted with eagerness. “I never imagined lovemaking could be like this!” she blurted. “I feel so…oh, Cade! I feel as though there must be more—”

  “There is definitely more.” Another, deeper kiss.

  “And yet I don’t know if I can stand it.” She wriggled anew, pressing together her thighs to stop the ache that had been bedeviling her for what felt like hours now. Gasping, she delved her fingers in Cade’s hair as he kissed her breast. By now, her chemise had been cast aside, yet she didn’t feel at all awkward or exposed. All she felt was needful…especially when Cade’s tongue slowly swirled over her newly exposed nipple. That only made the ache intensify. “Isn’t there something I can do?”

  “You’ve already driven me mad with wanting.” Cade grinned, his sapphire-eyed gaze meeting hers with a new, heady sense of closeness. “I can’t imagine what else you’d want to do.”

  “Me neither,” Violet confessed, “but there must be something!”

  “There is.” Soothingly, Cade kissed her. Gently, he pushed back her hair, then gazed longingly into her face. “Enjoy this. That’s all you have to do. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Oh, but then I won’t be doing my share. Surely there’s—”

  Mmm. The feel of Cade’s mouth between her breasts stopped her words. Caught up in that novel sensation, Violet tensed as he kissed her again—this time on her belly. She squealed, unable to hold back another yelp as he slid lower still. His fingertips brushed across the reddish curls at the juncture of her thighs.

  “So wet,” he murmured. “So sweet. So perfect.”

  Tossing her head against the pillows, Violet knew she should have thanked him for that—at the very least, because his statement had sounded wholly approving, especially when voiced in that throaty, manful tone of his—but she simply couldn’t do so. All she could do was writhe and pant and yearn. For what, she didn’t know. But Cade seemed to. That’s all that mattered.

  “Mmm. I love this,” he said, but she knew that he meant he loved her. At least that’s the way it felt to Violet. “I never imagined it could be this way, with you.” Lovingly, he caressed her. “Are you sure you want more? Because if you don’t—”

  “Yes. Yes!” Violet clenched her fists in the bed linens. Why was he torturing her this way? Already her whole body moved toward him all on its own, her hips thrusting toward his hand, her legs opening wantonly… “Please, Cade—”

  “Yes, Violet?”

  “I want…” Panting, she tried to conjure up words. “You.”

  “That’s all I needed to know.” With a confusing mixture of vulnerability and bravado, Cade looked at her. He stroked her. Helplessly, Violet arched higher. “You feel so good,” he said.

  Good didn’t begin to do justice to these sensations. Caught up amid exquisite sensitivity and urgent need, Violet moaned. She simply couldn’t help it. Cade’s hands felt so skillful. His mouth felt so soft. So good. His mouth felt…as though it was between her thighs now. It was! Shocked to feel his lips there, of all places, Violet hesitated. Surely this was sinful.

  Surely this was…it was… Oh, but it was bliss.

  These kisses, like Cade’s other kisses, were magical. They were gentle and sure and entirely erotic, and as he continued kissing her in places Violet had certainly never expected to be kissed, she discovered very quickly that she needed this new kind of kissing. In fact, if Cade stopped, she would die. That was all there was to it. Eagerly, she raised herself toward him. His tongue swirled and teased in response; his lips pressed and kissed and awakened sensations she’d never even known existed.

  By the time he began caressing her with slow, deliberate strokes of his hand, obviously savoring the slick wetness she’d so recently become aware of, Violet knew she could stand no more. Pleading, she cried out to Cade for…something. She didn’t know what. But he seemed to. As a new torrent of sensation burst over her, she knew she’d never forget the dexterous, loving, protective way Cade held her as the world fell apart…then reassembled itself again. Pulsing, breathless, damp with sweat, Violet looked up. She blinked. Cade smiled.

  Then, unbelievably, he said, “There’s more.”

  She exhaled, feeling replete and limp and somehow exhilarated. Her ears were ringing. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I’ll show you.” Then, sweetly, Cade did. He guided her hand lower, then lower still, all the way to that rigid, heavy part of him. He closed her fingers around him. “Mmm. Yes.”

  Reminded suddenly of everything she still didn’t know about, Violet brightened. “Yes! I almost forgot about you.”

  “I’ll never forget about you,” he vowed. His eyes closed, even as Violet daringly stroked him. “Never, Violet. Never.”

  “I should hope not!” Feeling bew
ilderingly energetic now, Violet traced her fingers over him. Delightfully, he leaped in response to her touch. She loved that. So she did it again. “You know,” she mused aloud, aiming a speculative gaze beneath the coverlets where all Cade’s stimulating nudity lay, “I have all kinds of ideas now that I didn’t possess just an hour ago.”

  “Then you’re not regretful? Not bashful or sorry?”

  Violet gave a one-shouldered shrug. It was difficult to continue talking while exploring his anatomy this way. “I feel wonderful,” she told Cade truthfully. “How do you feel?”

  He swallowed hard. His eyes opened, then focused on her face. “I feel that if I don’t have you soon, I’ll die.”

  Unexpectedly, Violet felt quite protective then herself. Also, her body had begun that curious throbbing she’d noticed earlier, all over again. She reckoned Cade could cure that.

  “I’m yours,” she said simply. “Now and always.”

  “Ah, Violet.” Passionately, Cade kissed her. “I’m yours.”

  She couldn’t help smiling at that—even as Cade chose that moment to pull her into his arms again, effectively ending her explorations of his intriguing manly endowments. An instant later, though, Violet didn’t mind as much. Because an instant later, Cade had covered her with kisses, situated himself masterfully atop her and settled himself between her legs.

  “Is this the lovemaking part?” Violet asked, suddenly apprehensive. He’d promised it shouldn’t hurt much, but—

  “With you, everything is the lovemaking part.” Cade kissed her, even as his body pressed insistently between her thighs. “From the moment I asked you to dance, I was lost. To you.”

  She smiled. “And I, to you. You’re awfully charming.”

  “And you’re chatty.” His grin mirrored hers, with a devilish undercurrent of lustiness. With pretend fierceness, he said, “From here on, all I want are moans and squeals and sighs of delight.”

  “Yes, Mr. Foster,” Violet promised. “I’ll do my best.”