“So you know, I’m removing my clothes.”
“Stop. Come here,” and he beckoned blindly with his hand. The skirts of her gown brushed his naked leg and he reached out, searching for her hand. Using her arm, slowly he stood. “I want to strip you naked like you have me.”
“Do you need me to guide you?”
“No. I think I know my way around a woman’s garments like a blind man.”
She laughed seductively. “I’m glad to see you have a sense of humor about this.”
Soon his hands were sweeping over her naked skin and he let his hands light his way. Her bones were small and she felt delicate under his touch. Her skin was like satin, smooth and soft. Her breasts were high and firm and fitted perfectly into his hands. Her nipples were hard and when his fingers played with them he heard her intake of breath. Even blind he could tell she was beautiful.
“You like that,” he asked.
“Yes,” was the breathless reply.
Her waist was small and led down to rounded hips. When his fingers found the curls at the apex of her womanhood, he took a shaky breath. He slipped his hand between her legs and found her wet and wanting. The urge to rip off the blindfold grew when she moaned and gripped his arms as he stroked her wet folds.
She gasped. “I know why you love to look. Seeing your hands on my body, seeing where you are touching me, is very arousing.”
“Tell me what you see,” he gruffly said. She would be his eyes.
She drew in a breath and he felt her body shake. “I see your tanned, large hand against my fair curls. It’s an intoxicating sight. You are cupping me intimately and I love the feel of the heat and heaviness against me. I can see your thumb pressing down on a very sensitive part of me, and one, no, two, slender fingers slipping through my folds and entering my body. My knees are growing weak and I want to move my hips so badly.”
And she did. He felt the movement against his hand. He found her mouth and kissed her, his tongue invading and tangling with hers. Her arms slid up around his neck and he felt her firm breasts press into his chest, while her stomach cushioned his pulsing cock. Even though he could not see, he wanted her more than he wanted his next breath.
He didn’t need his eyes to tell him that she wanted him too. The press of her body, the sound of her moans, the smell of her arousal, told him all he needed to know. But there was one more sense he wanted to use.
He drew back. “Lead me to the fur rug near the fire.”
She took his hand but not before brushing her fingers over his erection. He gritted his teeth. Like an untrained youth, the urge to come was great. But not yet.
He laid her down on the rug and followed her to his knees. This time it was he who ran his hands up her long, slender legs. Soon they would be wrapped about his waist, and that thought alone made him shudder. He bent over her, his mouth close to her wet center, her arousal filling his senses and making his mouth water. “Tell me everything you feel and see.”
“I have widened my legs because I want you to be able to fit those broad, strong shoulders between them. I’m holding my breath, wanting those perfect lips to worship me just like the statue in the gallery portrayed. I love that you are smiling and the feel of your fingers stroking high on my inner thigh is driving me crazy.”
“Keep talking while I introduce you to pleasure. I love that I will be the first man to kiss you here.” On the word “kiss” he slipped his hands under her bottom and raised her to his mouth. He ran his tongue over her again and again. Her taste almost blew the top of his head off.
“Oh, my God. That feels…I can barely describe it. I can see your dark head moving between my thighs. It looks like you—God—like—like you are feasting on me.”
He suckled her hard nub between his lips and she shuddered, her thighs pressing against his head.
“I can’t watch. I want to close my eyes and float to heaven. My body is growing taut. I’m reaching for that wonderful release you gave me in the carriage. I want to push closer. I want to be consumed by your clever tongue and mouth.”
Everything she said he could feel and taste. Her hips were moving against his tongue; she was pushing into him. Her hands were gripping his hair tightly and she was riding his mouth.
Soon she could no longer talk as her cries filled the room. She was calling his name over and over and he thought he’d explode if he was not in her soon.
He entered her with his tongue and she screamed his name. Then his fingers replaced his tongue as he suckled her. When he pressed his tongue against her nub and played with it, nibbling it between his teeth, her body grew taut and suddenly she came against his mouth and his name filled the air.
Chapter 12
Penelope’s world exploded behind her eyelids and she could barely catch her breath. Never, never, never had she felt such euphoria. Right at this moment she would give everything she had to have him do that to her again.
Through her orgasmic haze she felt Stephen move over her, his erection pulsing against the wet, very sensitive, heart of her. A drop of sweat fell from his forehead to her breast.
He pressed a kiss to one hard nipple. “I don’t need to see to know you enjoyed that.”
“You clever, clever man. I now understand why women throw themselves at you.”
She felt his lips curve into a smile as he rested his head on her breast. “Your heart is pounding. Shall I make it pound some more?”
He moved and the hard length of him slid through her wet folds. She could barely take it, she was so sensitive. “Isn’t it my turn to pleasure you with my mouth? The idea excites me a lot. I’ve never done it before—or wanted to do it before—but you just look so magnificent.”
Carmichael had never made her do that to him after the first time. She was pretty sure she’d left teeth marks, and the beating was worth it.
“Not tonight, or should I say not now, sweeting. The feel of those soft lips wrapped around the head of my cock will make me explode and I want to be deep inside you when that happens.”
She stiffened. “What if I get with child?”
“When did you have your last menses?”
“I beg your pardon.”
“You’re embarrassed by that question but not that I’ve had my mouth on you.”
When he put it like that it was ridiculous. “It finished a few days ago.”
“Then we should be safe. A woman in the Caribbean told me that if a woman has just finished her menses it’s almost guaranteed she will not be able to conceive.”
“That’s convenient. Anyway, I have never fallen with child during my marriage so perhaps I cannot have children. What would you have done if that were not the case?”
He suckled her nipple before replying, sending her senses reeling once again.
“I would have gotten a French letter that I carry in my inner jacket pocket out and sheaved my erection and spilled into that. But it is much more satisfying for both of us if I don’t.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about but I prefer it when you do other things with that mouth of yours.”
He chuckled and it made his erection jerk. “For a woman who is not interested in passion you are very relaxed about lying naked beneath me.”
Her smile died on her lips. “It’s because it’s you lying on top of me.” Her words were true. That was why she was sad. She was going to miss him so much when he left. He would leave because he did not want a family. He wanted to carry the burden of his blindness by himself because he could not bear the knowledge that he might pass on his condition.
To her surprise he reached up and tore the shawl from his eyes and stared down at her. “I want to see you the first time I make love to you.”
“I like the idea of there being a second time.” Her boldness surprised her but the words were true. She loved the smile that curved upon
his lips and she raised her hand to trace their shape with her finger. His lips parted and sucked her finger deep just as he slid inside her.
She had to breathe deep. She had seen how big he was so she was not surprised that he stretched her fully.
His eyes never left hers as he pushed all the way in. He pressed a kiss to her lips as they lay joined, both breathing rapidly.
“If you still want a commentary I feel like I’ve just been impaled.”
He laughed and groaned at the same time as she joined him in laughter, making her inner muscles squeeze tightly around him.
“I don’t want you to do anything but feel and enjoy,” he muttered as he began to move, sliding out and then sliding all the way back in.
Her legs rose to grip his waist and she loved how it opened her to him so he could slide deeper. Even though this strong man was taking her body and pinning her to the floor, for once she felt no fear or disgust, only desire.
He rose up on his arms over her and looked down her body. She followed his gaze. Now she understood what he meant about not being able to see the act of love. She watched him possess her. His cock glistening with her arousal sliding in and out, and she could see and feel.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he breathed in her ear. “I love the look on a woman’s face as she watches me take her, but I’ve never wanted to see it so much as I do with you.”
She looked up into his face and his eyes were worshipping her as was his body. She almost choked with the emotion of the moment. He was making love to her. That was the only word to describe what she was experiencing.
“I’m glad it is with you,” she whispered against his mouth as she kissed him reverently.
He groaned as her tongue entered his mouth and she pulled him down on top of her. Soon she was lost in his possession, for that was what it was. He took her how he wanted her—hard, fast, and as if she was all he needed to survive.
His mouth and hands worshipped her breasts, and his eyes never left hers. He moved faster and faster, building the fire deep inside her once again. Soon she could not keep her eyes open but he begged, “Look at me, please.” She gripped the fur beneath her as her hips rose to meet his and she did as he asked, her gaze never leaving his face. Soon the heat and desire in his eyes held her captive.
There was something else there too. Something that filled her heart and scared her down to her bones. Soon her heart and soul were flying free as her climax carried her away and her eyes fluttered closed but not before she saw Stephen reach his own pinnacle with what she thought was love in his eyes. But then again she was unsure of whether she could recognize true love. Love had fooled her once before.
The fire was beginning to burn low, and the seeping chill of the early-morning air made Penelope shiver.
“You are cold. I’ll stir the fire.” Stephen rose, pressing a kiss to her lips before he stood up perfectly comfortable in his nakedness.
She rose up on her elbows, admiring his form as he worked. Soon the fire was blazing again but she missed his touch, the closeness. She’d never had that in her life. She’d never wanted to cuddle with Carmichael. In fact, the minute he left her bed she rang for a bath to scrub her skin clean.
He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. “You have your thinking face on.”
She pressed her face into his chest and let the heat of his arms warm her. “I was thinking that you were right. I had no idea how glorious pleasure could be.”
“I am honored beyond words that you trusted me enough to give yourself to me. It is a gift I shall cherish for the rest of my days.”
“You’ll have to forgive me but I’m unsure of the etiquette from here.”
He hugged her tighter. “It’s different every time. Mostly I would make love to the woman again and then leave, thanking her for a wonderful night.”
She pushed out of his hold. “And that is all? You never go back for a second night?”
He rolled onto his back. “I’ve never thought it wise. It gives women expectations, and risks maternal accidents. You know me. I do not want a child and I will never marry.”
“So does that apply to me too? I must admit I’m looking forward to—to doing this again tonight, perhaps on a bed. Plus, I already know your stance and as I do not wish to marry, our thinking on this situation is aligned.”
* * *
—
Stephen grimaced. Pen actually believed what she was saying. The look in her eyes as they made love screamed differently. She wanted a family so badly and now she understood how good it could be between a man and woman she was already thinking her stance on marriage could be wrong, or at least she thought it might be possible to get what she craved above all else—a child—a family of her own.
People to love and who would love her. A child would love her unconditionally, and he had never seen anyone who craved love more, even though she hid it very well.
He rolled onto his side to face her. “I will most definitely be making love to you again tonight anywhere you would like.” He ran a finger down her curvy side, his hand coming to rest possessively on her hip. “I’d like to think we are friends. I also know that you and I know everything about each other.” To his surprise her eyes momentarily shuttered. So he was right; she was hiding something. He would think on this later when the scent of her was not making him dizzy with lust. “If you are in agreement I’m more than happy to have an affair with you during the investigation I am carrying out for you.”
She rose up on her elbow, her face one big smile upon hearing his words so he quickly added, “At the end of the investigation, once we have proved you innocent in your husband’s accident, our affair will end.”
Her smile dimmed slightly and for a brief moment he thought he’d made a mistake with his offer.
“That would be very agreeable,” she said and slid her hand down his chest to his groin.
He halted her hand. “I won’t change my mind,” he whispered.
She looked up at him, hope dimming in her eyes. “I know that.”
“Do you? Do you really? Because I don’t want to hurt you.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I can’t give you what you desire. I just can’t. And you deserve to be a mother.”
She gave a shaky smile back and withdrew her hand from his. Then she did what women tend to do when uncomfortable. She changed the subject. “Did you enjoy the blindfold?”
“It wasn’t my first time being blindfolded.” Her shoulders slumped. “But I suspect you blindfolded me for a different reason than my previous encounters.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I wanted to prove that you didn’t need to see to enjoy yourself.”
He nodded and smiled. “Only problem was I already had seen you naked so I could imagine your body as if I could see clearly.” He hated how her confidence faltered. “But you were right. Not being able to see forced me to use my other four senses, and your commentary aroused me more than I had thought it would.”
“You didn’t want to rip off the blindfold.”
“Oh, I wanted to rip it off the minute you’d tied it.”
Her smile was back. “Perhaps I’d like to be blindfolded.”
He rolled on top of her. “I have many things to share with you and I’m sure wearing a blindfold is on the list.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and her thighs behind his back. “Then perhaps you’d best start my lessons. I don’t know how long you will be here.”
As he set about introducing her to the arts of seduction, a warning clang went off in his head, because he hoped like hell it took him ages to complete his investigation.
Chapter 13
Jonathan’s steed had trouble keeping up with Charger, so Stephen slowed. It was magnificent galloping across the fields toward town. He was tired this morning but he’d never felt
so relaxed. He’d made love to Penelope until dawn, the last hours of the night spent in her bedchamber before sneaking to his own room as it began to get light.
He needed the fresh air to clear his head. Of Penelope. Of her feel, scent, laugh, taste…When the sea came into view he slowed to a walk and Jonathan caught up.
“You seem mighty happy this morning.”
He looked at his brother-in-law. “The sun is shining, the weather is warm, and look at the view.” The fact that soon he may not be able to see this stunning scenery could not dampen his mood.
“I thought it might have had something to do with you leaving Pen’s bedchamber in the early hours of the morning,” he said drily. “Sorry, but the babe makes Dorothea hungry at all hours.”
He remained silent, simply soaking in the beauty around him.
“Just don’t hur-hurt her. She’s been hurt enough. You have no idea w-what Carmichael did to her. Some days she could not even get out of b-bed from the beatings. I tried to help but she wouldn’t let me.”
The beauty dimmed. Anger sparked and ignited flames that burned low in his gut. He wished Carmichael wasn’t dead so he could kill him all over again for hurting Pen. “She’s a strong woman. I want to clear her name in Carmichael’s death so she can live the life she deserves—so she can be happy and safe.”
“Many times I thought a-about killing him for her but I kn-knew that would simply land her in more t-trouble, like she is in now, Rotham trying to im-implicate her in Carmichael’s d-death.”
“I can’t understand why Sandringham didn’t do more to help her. I would never let any man treat my sisters like that.” He smiled sheepishly, “So be warned.”
Jonathan patted his horse’s neck. “Duly noted. I wr-wrote to Sandringham, but she stayed for the b-bloody house and Carmichael knew it.”
“Why do you think it is so important to her?”
Jonathan shrugged. “Because it was h-hers. Only hers. The only thing she possessed and she w-wanted to ensure she kept it.”
Drawn to the Marquess Page 13