He turned toward the bell to ring for his valet himself when a soft sound from his bedroom stopped him.
“Perhaps you could simply wear a different waistcoat.”
John stared at the bell next to his door for a long, charged moment. He wanted to turn around so badly he could taste the anticipation sweet on his tongue. It tasted like the soft skin of the woman who had just spoken to him. A woman who should very much not be in his bedroom. Not because she wasn’t wanted there, but because she was wanted far too much.
“What are you doing, Mariah?” he asked as he finally allowed himself to turn toward her.
Any further questions died on his lips, for when he faced her, he found that she was utterly naked. Except for his dressing gown, which was opened in the front to reveal all the pale, firm flesh of her body that could inspire a damned novel.
One that would not be read by ladies of good breeding.
“I am visiting my lover in his chamber,” she explained as she leaned back against the doorway separating the two chambers of his room. She arched her back and the robe gaped a fraction to reveal the curve of her breast, complete with a hard, pink nipple at the tip. One he wanted to latch on to with his lips and suckle until she slid to the floor in a heap.
“I’m not your lover,” he reminded her. And himself. Mostly himself. “I’m your fiancé now.”
“Yes,” she said and then pondered him closely. “And it seems you do not believe they could possibly be one in the same. Despite everything.”
“Because of everything,” he insisted and moved toward her without wanting to do so.
She tilted her head. “I don’t understand.”
He rubbed his eyes with one hand, but the image of her naked body never left his mind even if he wished to scrub it free.
“You are to be my wife,” he tried to explain. “And if anyone is ever going to respect you, I must be the one to set that precedent. And the first step is to treat you as I would treat a fiancée from my own class. I would not…I would not…”
He opened his eyes and stared at her. If he said out loud all the things he would not do, he would find himself doing them. And that was wrong.
Somehow.
He was having a hard time remembering just why when she smiled at him in such a wry, knowing way and turned to face him head-on. Her body was on display and his cock refused to listen to reason, instead hardening until he could scarcely breathe.
“So you would respect me by keeping your hands off of me?” she asked.
He nodded. His mouth was too dry to give another answer. Especially when she slipped her thumbs under the lapel of his robe and shoved it away from her body.
“That is a very sad beginning to a marriage,” she whispered. “To show a woman respect by showing her no desire. How much worse will it get when we are married?” She lowered her hand between her legs and stroked there without breaking his gaze. “Will you lock my pussy away in a chastity belt? Will you pass me in the hallway pressed against the wall so you do not touch me?”
He cleared his throat. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m not.” She shimmied closer and the way her hips twitched mesmerized him. “I’m being very realistic. You see, my dear, this marriage you have proposed may not be for fortune or for…” She hesitated for just a fraction. “Or for love. But as your wife, I intend to demand that your husbandly duties be fulfilled in the bedroom. And I am starting now.”
She reached him and shoved his jacket off his shoulders with a saucy wink that made his already hard cock even harder.
“Don’t make me ask twice,” she said as she leaned up to press a heated kiss against his neck.
She was presenting far too tempting a prospect, something John guessed she knew full well. He should have been able to control his reaction to her. After all, beautiful women had thrown their charms at him dozens of times before only to be rebuffed.
The difference was he wanted this woman. Passionately. Powerfully. And he could not deny that when she wound one naked leg around his and arched up against his hard cock with a shiver of desire.
He found his hands lifting, almost of their own accord, winding around her upper arms and dragging her against him fully.
“Oh yes,” she purred, rubbing against him like a cat who had discovered a saucer of cream. “This is what I need. I’m pleased you do not intend to deny it to me.”
“Deny you?” he growled as he shoved her toward the bed. “Who could dare do that?”
Then there were no more words. He opened her naked legs and gazed down at the glistening sex waiting for him. She was right, he had been avoiding her, but it was only because she was such a temptation. Every moment of every day, he longed to pound deeply into her body. To take her, to claim her, to make her his in more primal a way than any slip of paper that sealed their marriage would ever do.
And every time he had such thoughts, it only proved to him that he cared for this woman. That he feared more than anything else, when it came down to it.
But tonight there was no fear, only desire that swept him away and deposited him on a distant island where nothing else mattered except that his fingers brushed along the inside of her thigh until they found the wet folds of her pussy.
She arched up, pushing his fingers harder against her body and shuddering when he touched her slick, smooth clitoris and breached her core. He smiled, wicked, and invaded her even more deeply. He stroked her sex with his fingers, driving within her as she lifted her hips and squeezed the digits with her inner muscles.
He lowered his head and stroked his tongue against her sex, lapping up the sweet juices of her desire as she moaned out his name in a long, throaty gasp. How had he denied himself this for so many nights? He would certainly not make that mistake again.
He sucked her clitoris hard and her orgasm exploded in a rush of moans and a fluttering of hips and sex. She thrashed her head as her crisis built and finally crested and she relaxed back against his pillows.
She opened her eyes and looked at him, still flush with erotic release. She smiled, utterly wicked and somehow still in control, despite the fact that he had taken over her seduction and forced the first release of the night. Now that he looked at her, he realized it would not be the last. She was bent on proving to him how much he needed her and he was not about to reveal that he had already come to that very same conclusion.
She sat up and shifted to her knees before she placed her hands on his chest and laid him back against the bed. He lifted his hands behind his head as a pillow and chuckled as he looked at her.
“And what will you do now?” he teased.
But there was no teasing on her face or in her voice when she whispered, “Everything. Anything. Because you’re mine.”
Later, John knew he would pretend she had been in the thrill of the moment. Or that her words were just empty seduction. But in that moment, looking up at her, he knew what she meant and there was nothing empty about it. She was claiming him as her husband. Tonight, long before any vows would be said. She was giving him everything and asking him for the same in return. Tonight he would give it, even if he had misgivings about the future. Tonight, he was hers.
She dropped her mouth to his hard cock and began to suck him slowly, languidly, tasting him like she had all the time in the world to do so. Her tongue was a revelation, sending shockwaves of pleasure through his entire body and building him toward orgasm, only to back him off when it grew too close. She was an expert at pleasure and he surrendered himself to ministrations.
Mariah felt John give in to her and thrilled with the power she possessed. It might be temporary, yes, but for now it was hers and she intended to enjoy every moment. She nuzzled his cock, stroking it against her cheek before she drew him deep within her throat and sucked. His breath grew short and she rolled her tongue around him in slow, steady circles as he cried out in pleasure.
But it wasn’t enough. She could make him come, of course, but she wanted to be
closer. She released him, letting him fall from her lips with a wet pop and then she shimmied up his body, dragging hot kisses along his belly, his chest and finally his mouth, tangling their tongues together as she positioned her pussy over him and slowly lowered herself to take him deep within her.
He stretched her magnificently, filling her every inch, making her feel whole in ways she would never be able to express to him or anyone else. Their panting breaths merged into shared moans the further he disappeared into her willing body and finally he was seated fully inside.
She began to ride him, gripping his waist with her thighs and stroking in firm, repeated thrusts. He rubbed just perfectly against her clitoris and the pleasure she had felt when he licked her returned with equal power. Perhaps even more power since they were one body now, one joined entity reaching for a common goal of pleasure.
He lifted with more earnest desire and she felt him move as close to the edge as she was. She wanted them to fall together. To feel him pump within her just as she shivered in release. She pulled him to a seated position and wrapped her legs around his back as she rocked, never slowing, never giving either of them relief from her relentless need. He held her hips, guiding her restless movements until the pleasure was almost pain and she screamed out his name.
He growled with pleasure, the veins in his throat outlined as he pumped his hot seed deep within her. She took it all, milking him with her own release, their hips slamming together, their sweat merging as he kissed her so passionately that tears filled her eyes as she clung to him and wished, prayed that the moment would last forever.
Of course, it could not and did not. Pleasure faded and John collapsed back onto the bed, dragging her down across his chest as their panting breaths eased into something more normal and Mariah found she could speak once again.
“What meeting were you telling Mr. Thomason to prepare your waistcoat for?” she asked as she feathered soft kisses along his naked chest.
John shivered and she smiled. Oh yes, at least there would be this between them. Even if he didn’t love her. Even if he never could. She would console herself with pleasure, it was all she could do.
“I received a note from my solicitor, Mr. Jacoby. The special license has been arranged. We marry in three days’ time.”
She stopped kissing him and stared up at him in what she knew was utter shock. “Th-three days?” she repeated. “So…so soon?”
He nodded, but he was watching her through a hooded and unreadable gaze. “Not so very soon. We agreed to marry a week ago, almost, and I have been bringing down the full force of my name and worth in order to bring this to pass quickly. It is the best way to protect you, after all.”
“I knew you had been working diligently,” she whispered. “But I simply did not realize—”
She cut herself off and he sighed softly.
“I will do my best to make you happy, Mariah,” he said after they had both been silent for a long moment. “I can promise you nothing else but that.”
She knew she should tell him it was enough, but the fact was that it wasn’t. It wasn’t enough. And she couldn’t perceive a time when it would be.
Chapter Twenty
Adam entered the parlor and smiled as he found John in the seat he was uncomfortably perched in.
“I didn’t expect to see you today,” his brother said with true friendliness and welcome. “I hope you weren’t kept waiting too long. I was in the middle of some business to do with the Clarke investment.”
John blinked to clear the distraction that clouded his mind and managed to belatedly push to his feet.
“No, of course not. I knew you were likely busy. How are the arrangements advancing?”
His brother grinned. “Excellently. We should have a deal in place by day’s end. I never knew how much I would enjoy shipping as an industry,” he continued as he sat down and poured himself a cup of tea. “There is so much to learn.”
Now when John smiled, he did not have to force the expression. He was truly happy for his brother as he began finding a place in the world that was beyond the scope of their father’s influence. He knew full well how heady a prospect that could be. He remembered his own early days when he’d found his place, no matter how many years ago the same had happened to him.
“Did you come to talk to me about the work I have been doing in your company?” Adam asked as he wolfed down a biscuit in one bite. He cast his brother a quick glance. “I do hope I’m up to snuff.”
“I have heard nothing but good about you from my foreman, I assure you,” John said with a shrug. “No, the business is not what I’m here to talk about.”
Adam sipped his tea and there was a shadow that crossed over his face that no one could deny. John frowned. His greatest hope was that his brother would one day shed the notion that he was constantly being judged, that he had something or someone to fear. Their father had pounded those facts into them as children and John hated feeling them, and seeing them on his brother’s face.
“Then what is it that brings you here?” Adam finally asked very softly.
“It is…happy news,” John said, forcing false brightness. “I am to marry in two days’ time. On Saturday morning. At Helmsford Church near the park.”
His brother nearly dropped his teacup and instead set it down with a clatter as he stared.
“M-Married?” he repeated and the word had emphasis, like it was foreign.
In truth, the entire idea felt foreign to John, though perhaps not in as negative a way as he had implied to Mariah a short time ago.
“Yes, married,” he said, shaking his head and returning to the conversation rather than mull his thoughts.
“To whom?” his brother asked, but his voice was too quiet for his ignorance to be believed. Not when his eyes were bugged out and his face pale.
“To Mariah Desmond, of course.” John waved a hand to dismiss any other possibility. “I wouldn’t be fool enough to marry anyone else.”
Adam blinked a few times in rapid succession. “You are marrying your mistress?”
“I am. Father is threatening her, which she does not deserve.” John dipped his head. “And this is the only way to fully protect her. With my money, my home and my name behind her, she will be at far lower risk.”
His brother searched for a response, opening and shutting his mouth several times before he finally managed to find something to say. “There will be talk.”
John laughed, but the sound was hollow. “Do you think so? She is not from any family even vaguely associated with rank, which would start tongues wagging anyway. And then there is the fact that I am marrying a woman who has been my mistress for a short time and was, before that, my best friend’s lover for years. My best friend who died in so shocking a fashion that it is still openly discussed in ballrooms.”
His brother pushed to his feet and staggered back, staring at John with such an expression that it forced John to his feet, as well. His brother looked…terrified.
“Y-You mean to tell me that Mariah was once the lover of Lord Heathcote?” he said, his voice trembling.
John nodded. “Owen, yes. You remember him, I’m sure. We were chums for years. I thought you knew the connection to Mariah?”
“I do remember him,” his brother said on a gasp of breath. “I remember him well. But I did not realize…”
He spun on his heel and paced to the window where he stared outside, his shoulders taut and trembling. John moved toward him a step, then stopped. He wasn’t certain his brother wanted him to pry, but wasn’t this about him?
“Dear God, Adam, what is it?” he asked, trying to keep his tone light so the riotous emotions unexpectedly involved in this conversation would not be increased further.
His brother shook his head. “That was why he said—” He cut himself off.
“What?” John asked. “Who said what? What are you talking about?”
His brother turned, but there was almost no expression on his face. He was blank
and pale.
“It isn’t anything,” he murmured. “I am simply very surprised by this turn of events, as I’m sure you have heard from dozens of people already.”
John shook his head. “In truth, you are the first person to be told outside of Mariah’s friend Vivien Manning.”
His brother stared. “I am?”
“Yes. I came here today hoping you might stand up with me at the wedding on Saturday. It will be the smallest of affairs, but I’d like for you to be there.”
“Why?” Adam whispered.
“Because you are my brother,” John replied in surprise. “And I’m very happy to have you back in my life. There will be few who support any of this madness, but I think I can count on you to do so. Am I wrong?”
His brother swallowed hard. “No, you are not wrong. Of course I will stand up for you on Saturday.”
“Excellent,” John said as he moved forward to offer his brother a hand to shake. As Adam did so, he said, “I will send you something with all the details this afternoon. Now I must depart, I fear there is a great deal to be done in a short amount of time.”
“Of course,” his brother said as he led John to the door and into the foyer. As John took his hat, Adam stepped forward. “John—”
He said his name, but then cut it off so abruptly that John stared at him, as did the butler.
“Yes?” he asked.
“I—” his brother said. “That is—”
John wrinkled his brow at his brother’s struggle. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Adam finally said with a shake of his head. “I will look for your missive today and be there for you Saturday.”
John nodded and stepped outside, but as he mounted his horse, he could not help but be troubled by the nagging notion that his brother was more than shocked by John’s sudden engagement or taken aback by his inclusion in what would likely be one of the most important days of John’s life. He felt like Adam was hiding something.
And he just hoped that when he found out what it was, it wouldn’t end up being a secret that would tear apart their delicate reunion.
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