Two Sinful Secrets

by Laurel McKee

  “It’s not just any bookstore.” She tugged on his arm, urging him to follow her to the door. “Just for a little while. I want to see it.”

  “Are you sure they’re even open?” he said.

  “Of course.” Sophia pushed at the door latch, and it swung open with a jangling of bells. Dominic shook his head, but he followed her.

  The shop appeared to be deserted. The haphazard piles of volumes on the shelves were covered with a light, snowy layer of dust, as if no one ever touched them. Library ladders leaned against the peeling paint of the walls, soaring up into cobwebbed shadows.

  Sophia made her way to the doorway half-hidden in the corner, Dominic close beside her. When they stepped into the back room, it was like an entirely different place.

  Wall sconces cast a soft amber light over the shelves and the chairs scattered over a plain green carpet. There were several people there, well-dressed couples who could have just come from the Café de Paris, as well as shady-looking men in caps pulled low over their faces. A display just inside the door showed what appeared to be the newest, most popular volume—a thin, lightly bound tale called Therese Awakening, or one girl’s escape from the convent into a world of sin and riches.

  The pen-and-ink sketch under the title showed a slender young woman with an improbably large bosom well-displayed in a tight corset. She leaned over a stool, her petticoats tossed up as a masked man wielded a switch over her bare, and copiously striped, buttocks.

  “I do hope the riches are great indeed,” Sophia murmured. She scanned the shelves and found a neat row of similar titles.

  Dominic laughed. “I see what you mean, Sophia. This is no ordinary bookstore.”

  “In London they would have been raided by now. But surely you have visited such places before.” She drew out another volume, A Guide to the Prevention of Vices, and found that it showed a myriad of things a virtuous person should not do. In great, colorful detail.

  “I have, in other cities,” he answered. “There hasn’t been much time for—exploration here.”

  “Nor for me. Goodness, but doesn’t this look interesting! How is such a thing even possible?” She showed Dominic a two-page illustration of two men and three women in various poses, all of them extremely athletic.

  Dominic laughed again. She was glad he seemed to be enjoying himself. “Oh, believe me, it’s possible.”

  “Indeed? How intriguing. I definitely think I need this volume then. My education is quite lacking.” She handed it to Dominic to carry and went on to the next display.

  It was a low, flat glass case like in a jewelry store’s, but rather than diamonds and pearls it showed a range of finely wrought restraints, wrist cuffs and chains, and a selection of beautiful glass and ivory dildos. One looked especially realistic, with a tracery of veins carved in the smooth, pale stone. A ring of tiny rubies curled around the head.

  “I’m sure the author of A Guide to the Prevention of Vices would have a great deal to say about the use of these,” Sophia said, tilting her head to examine them more closely.

  “Would madame care to examine this one?” the proprietor of the shop, a tiny, gray-haired gnome of a man, asked softly.

  “No, madame would not,” Dominic said, taking Sophia’s hand.

  Sophia pulled away from him, laughing. “Of course I would! I quite like this one.”

  Dominic shook his head, but he stayed with her. Sophia had the distinct sense he was amused by her explorations.

  And she was having fun, too. She could hardly remember the last time she really had fun. Yet with Dominic, the world always seemed new and amusing. He didn’t even draw away from her wilder fancies.

  “An excellent choice, madame,” the proprietor said approvingly. He drew it out of the case and laid it out on a piece of velvet, as if it were a necklace or a ring. “Seventeenth century, from Venice. Ivory and cabochon rubies. Perfectly carved from life, as you can see. You would never be disappointed with such a fine piece.”

  “I shouldn’t think so.” Sophia slowly ran her fingertip along the ridge and swirled it over the head. “Lovely.”

  Beside her, she felt Dominic grow tense, his breath turn harsh. “The lady will take it,” he said.

  “Dominic,” she murmured. “I can’t afford it…”

  “It’s my gift,” he said firmly.

  Sophia stared up at him. His face was smooth, smiling. He gave no clue why he would buy her such an extravagant gift. “Dominic, no,” she whispered.

  He just laughed. “Please, Sophia, let me. There are few experiences I have not had in life, but one of them is buying a beautiful lady a jeweled dildo. Consider it a thank-you for an amusing evening.”

  Sophia looked down at the gleaming ivory. All the wicked, alluring things that could be done with it flashed through her mind, and she was very tempted.

  “Very well,” she said finally. “Thank you.”

  “You won’t be sorry, madame,” the proprietor said.

  After he had wrapped up their purchases, Sophia let Dominic lead her out of the shop and back onto the street. It was just as crowded as earlier, and a quartet of fabulously dressed, bejeweled people brushed past them into the store.

  “A very popular place,” Sophia commented as they turned toward home.

  “Justifiably so,” Dominic answered. “His stock is quite extraordinary.”

  Sophia laughed and clutched at the paper-wrapped package. She still couldn’t quite believe she had let him buy it for her. It seemed like the perfect end to a wonderfully giddy evening. They didn’t say anything on the walk back to the club, just strolled along arm-in-arm and let the evening swirl around them.

  “Here it is,” Sophia said when they came to the side door of La Reine d’Argent. They looked at each other in heavy silence for a moment, and suddenly it was as if they both knew what had to happen next. Dominic bent down and caught her up in his arms.

  He carried her up the stairs and along the shadowed corridor, lit only by the lamp the maid had left on one table. It was so silent there, so dark, as if they were wrapped up alone in their own world.

  Dominic nudged open her apartment door with his foot and slid inside before kicking it shut again. Sophia barely had time to drop her precious paper-wrapped parcel on the sofa before he carried her through to the waiting bedroom.

  He dropped her lightly onto the bed, and Sophia laughed as she sank back into the piles of blankets. She tried to sit up, but Dominic fell on top of her, pinning her down with the hard, lean heat of his body. He braced his arms to either side of her, holding himself above her as if she was his prisoner.

  His prisoner. It was a delicious thought, to be Dominic’s to do with as he pleased.

  “What were you thinking, Sophia, to drag me into a place like that?” he said roughly, as his fingers tangled in her hair and drew the strands free of their pins. The roses there scattered around them. “Were you trying to drive me crazy with lust?”

  Sophia laughed. “Did I shock you with my knowledge that such shops exist?”

  “Oh, Sophia.” His hands slid closer, gently cradling her face between his palms. She looked up at him, and his eyes glowed with laughter, lust, and—admiration. Or perhaps she only wished for that, imagining it there.

  “I doubt anything about you could shock me,” he said. “Everything I discover only makes me want you more. Damn you.”

  Before Sophia could let those words sink in, Dominic bent his head to kiss the pulse that beat at her temple, the tip of her nose, her chin. “Your skin is so soft…” he whispered hoarsely.

  And then his lips brushed her eyelids as they fluttered closed. In that perfect darkness, she fell down and down into a soft, velvet abyss where there was only pure sensation. Only Dominic.

  His open mouth slid down her neck, hot and hungry as she arched back beneath him. He nipped lightly at the hollow of her throat, as if he would absorb the life that beat there into himself.

  “Sophia…” he whispered, and she sat up s
o he could reach behind her to unfasten the tiny pearl buttons of her bodice. Halfway down, he lost patience. With a low growl, his hand twisted in the soft silk and tore the rest free. The pearls scattered across the floor, and Sophia laughed as she slid her arms free of the tight cap sleeves.

  Dominic drew the gown away until she lay beneath him in her petticoats and corset. His mouth was suddenly back on her skin, his teeth lightly scraping over the curve of her bare shoulder. Sophia shivered at the sensations that danced through her, and she drew her knees up tight to either side of his hips as her petticoats fell back around them in a lacy white froth.

  She pressed herself up against him and smiled when she felt how hard he was. But his kiss was too soft, too gentle. His tongue lightly circled the soft curve of her breast, closer and closer to her aching nipple, until he slid teasingly away again.

  “Dominic,” she moaned, and he lightly pressed one finger against her lips.

  “Patience, Sophia,” he said with an infuriating smile. “Be still, let me touch you. We have the rest of the night…”

  She sucked the tip of his finger between her lips and caught it in her teeth to suck at it. His breath hissed in his throat, and he sat up between her legs.

  “You are being very naughty, Sophia,” he said. He slowly slid his hands up her legs, beneath her petticoats. His touch was hard and hot on her body, and she wanted more. So much more.

  His fingers slid under her satin ribbon garter, and he untied it to draw her silk stocking down her leg. His caress lingered on the sensitive spot at the back of her knee.

  “Dominic!” she cried. “Enough teasing. I want you inside me—now.”

  He rose above her, and Sophia felt exultant that he was finally going to give her what she wanted, what had been building between them all night. But he didn’t move. He suddenly grabbed her wrists and forced her hands above her head, binding them together with her stocking. He wound the loose end of it tightly around the bedpost, holding her still.

  “Dominic,” she protested. His name seemed to be the only word she had left. She tried to wrap her legs around his waist to pull him back to her but he slipped from the bed. He drew her other stocking slowly down her leg and tore it in half to tie her ankles to the other posts, her legs spread for him.

  “I warned you to be still,” he said, smiling as he quickly stripped away his own clothes. His skin gleamed in the candlelight, his face half-hidden in the shadows.

  “Dominic…” she cried. She pulled at her bonds, longing to be free of them even as they kindled a strange excitement in her. “I want you now, damn it all!”

  Dominic slowly lowered himself between her legs again, laughing at her struggle. “You have to learn patience, Sophia,” he whispered, and took her aching nipple between his lips to suck at it hard until she moaned.

  His tongue circled the erect, sensitive flesh, until he caught it between his teeth. He bit at it lightly, and then soothed the wonderful sting with the tip of his tongue. His hand flattened on her taut abdomen, just above her navel, and slowly slid lower and lower as she gasped with the pleasure of his touch.

  “Tell me what you want, Sophia,” he said against her breast. One fingertip lightly caressed the damp curls between her legs, teasing her. “Do you want me to touch you here?”

  That finger delved gently past her slit, a rough touch that slid against her most sensitive spot.

  But it wasn’t nearly enough.

  “Yes,” she said fiercely, her head arching back on the pillows as hot sparks of pure sensation shot through her body at his skillful touch.

  A second finger slid deep inside her. “Would you like it if I kissed you here as well?”

  “Yes…” Sophia sighed, remembering how his mouth had felt between her thighs. So perfect—so, so good. Her body ached for it again.

  His open mouth, hot and wet, trailed along her skin. He nipped with his teeth over her hip, circled her navel with his tongue, his hand touching her harder, deeper, until she cried out wordlessly.

  Then finally he moved between her legs, and she felt his mouth on that most intimate, sensitive spot. His fingers spread her wide for his kiss, and the tip of his tongue licked lightly up her wet seam before delving deeply.

  She cried out his name. And suddenly her desire for him, that desire that blotted out everything else, frightened her. Her whole life had been marred by losing control; she didn’t want that now, even as she wanted it more than anything.

  “Dominic—stop!” she cried as the crashing waves of pleasure threatened to consume her.

  But he gave her no mercy. He just tasted her deeply, giving her pleasure even as he seemed to take it. Sophia let the sensations explode within her.

  Only as she sank back to the earth, the tremors of her climax slowly ebbing away, did he rise above her on his knees. He looked down at her as she lay there, helpless, and he smiled.

  He finally released her from her bonds, and she surged up to wrap her arms around him, their damp heat winding around them, tying them together even more than the silk bonds. He kissed her, open-mouthed, as if he was as hungry as she was. She tasted the scent of herself on his lips, his tongue, and it made her excitement grow all over again.

  He wrapped his hands around her hips and tried to drag her closer, but she slid away from him. She moved down his body, skin against skin, and reached between them to wrap her fingers around his hard cock. He throbbed under her touch, and she lowered her head to take him deep into her mouth.

  “Sophia,” he groaned. His fingers twined through her hair as if he would push her away. But she liked having him at her mercy for once, and she wouldn’t let him go. She traced the length of him with her tongue, tasting the musk of him. She wrapped her hands around his tight backside and drew him closer to her eager mouth.

  “No more,” he said hoarsely. He pulled back from her and pushed her back down to the bed. He spread her legs wide and thrust inside her.

  Sophia dug her nails into his strong shoulders as she silently urged him closer, faster—deeper. He drove into her again and again, and she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Everything was only feeling. She wrapped her legs tightly around his waist and drew him even deeper.

  She found her release again, a hot wave that washed over her and made her forget the whole world for an instant. Above her, Dominic’s head flung back, and he shouted out her name. His body arched into hers, and there was nothing at all between them. Nothing keeping them apart.

  He fell down onto the bed beside her, their limbs tangled together. Sophia trembled; she was completely exhausted. She curled herself around him and he wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her close. She pressed a soft kiss to his shoulder and listened to the steady, strong rhythm of his heartbeat.

  And she couldn’t help but wish the night could last just a little bit longer.

  From the Diary of Mary St. Claire Huntington

  The duke has arrived in suitably grand state, with a trail of carriages and mountains of luggage. Our house has never seen such business before, all noise and motion! It is terribly exciting, I have to admit, and has done much to lift me from my sadness. He has not brought the duchess, but there is a startlingly lovely woman who seems to be with him at every moment. Except when she is talking to John.

  John is also much happier than I have seen him in a long time. At the banquet tonight, he was so charming, just like when we first met, so full of smiles. I hope this will continue when the duke leaves.

  Chapter Eighteen

  You have a visitor in the salon, Madame Westman,” the footman announced.

  Sophia looked up from the papers she was perusing with Camille, her heart suddenly leaping with excitement. Perhaps it was Dominic. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him ever since had kissed her at dawn and slipped out of her apartment before the house awoke. He had said he would see her later. Surely it had to be him waiting in the salon.

  “A visitor?” she said, surprised that her voice sounded so c
alm while inside she felt anything but.

  “Oui. He was most urgent he had to see you,” the footman answered. “But he did not give his card.”

  “Ah, a secret admirer!” Camille teased. “How very intriguing.”

  Sophia laughed. “How secret can it be if he came to see me in my own home?”

  “But you have so many admirers! Which one can it be? Perhaps I can guess…”

  Sophia shook her head. She was glad the curtains were half-drawn across the windows so her blush wasn’t so obvious. It felt silly to actually blush after everything she had done with Dominic last night. But it also felt good to do something as normal, as feminine, as laughing about suitors with a girlfriend.

  “Go on and talk to your suitor,” Camille said. “I will finish up these accounts.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course—go, go! It is much too pretty a day to think about anything except romance.”

  Sophia laughed and hurried out of the office. She felt so light, so ridiculously giddy, that she wanted to run down the stairs. Maybe even to slide down the banisters and twirl around and around. But she made herself walk in a calm, ladylike fashion.

  At the landing she paused to glance in a mirror that hung there. She smoothed her hair, braided and looped in a knot in the latest fashion, and shook out her skirts. She hadn’t been able to face wearing black again after her beautiful pink dress, so she wore her only other colored dress, the yellow muslin from the picnic. She was glad now that she had pulled it out of her wardrobe, for it matched her mood.

  She spun around and hurried down the rest of the stairs to the foyer. Here the windows and doors were thrown open to the sunny day, and the maids worked at scrubbing the marble floor and dusting the giltwork before that night’s guests came flooding back to the club. La Reine d’Argent had been a great success so far, as the numbers in the account books attested.

  Yet another reason to feel hopeful, Sophia thought with a smile. She wasn’t so very useless after all; she could be good at business.