“My slipper! I lost it.” Maura squinted against the darkness and the rain. A fine misty fog had developed obscuring her vision the ground around them.
“You’ve lost your mind if you think I’ll wallow about in the mud to find it!” he said, putting her down when he had cleared the last step. “Are you cold?”
Maura crossed her arms over her breasts and turned away when she noticed the wet nightgown was practically sheer. “No.” The air was still warm. The rain felt slightly cooler than her bathwater. “What are you doing with my cloak?”
Everod’s shirt was plastered to his skin. Water droplets dripped steadily from his queue as if it were a spout rather than hair. “Spreading it out so we have something to sit upon,” he said without glancing at her. “My coat is over there. Put it on. It should give you back the modesty that you think I tried to bribe from you.”
He was being churlish.
That’s what she told herself when she stomped away from him and reached for his coat. Maura slipped her arms through the long sleeves, feeling silly in the oversized garment. It also smelled of Everod, but she tried not to dwell on that aspect. Unsure if he would accept anything from her, Maura snatched up his waistcoat.
She walked over to him and held out the garment. “It will feel better than your shirt, I wager.”
Everod gave her a considering look before accepting the waistcoat. While she settled down on top of the cloak, he turned away and peeled off his soaked shirt. Tossing it away, he put on the waistcoat. He sat down beside her without speaking and removed his shoes and stockings. Maura frowned at the single slipper on her left foot. It was muddied, and definitely not helping her return to the house. She kicked it off.
“Should I apologize?” Maura asked, not liking the silence between them.
“I was thinking as much,” was his brusque retort.
Maura was so taken aback by his unexpected response that she started laughing. Holding the edges of his coat together, she rocked back and forth, her eyes full of mirth. Well, Everod could not truly appreciate her expression, but after their scuffle she was feeling rather foolish.
A brutal man who thought only of ravishing the lady within reach would not have rushed into the storm concerned for her welfare. Nor would he have given her his coat because he sensed her discomfort. Everod was no man’s image of a saint, but she conceded that she had misjudged his actions.
She tucked her legs under her, covering them as best she could with the coat. “I might have behaved—”
“Like a lunatic?” he smoothly supplied.
“Rashly.” Maura leaned against the balusters of the railing circling the gazebo. It lacked comfort, but it eased the cramp in her lower back. “What was I supposed to think, Everod? This afternoon I saw you strolling in the park with your pregnant mistress.”
The darkness did not prevent him from pinning her with his infuriated gaze. “Though none of your business, I see I must clarify my connection to Lady Spryng. Though we were once close, our liaison ended years ago. The lady is merely a friend. The babe she carries is not mine.”
Kilby and the others had speculated that Lady Spryng would have been unable to resist the virile Lord Everod. He seemed too insulted by her accusation to be lying. “And your mother’s jewelry,” she said quietly. She held up her hand. The pearls gleamed faintly up at her. “Why did you give me something so precious?”
Maura heard him sigh wearily.
“The ring, bracelets, and earrings have sat in a box for years,” he explained, stirring the air with his hand. “I could tell that you loved the necklace. You were loath to return it to me, but you did so anyway because it was the proper thing to do. Though you do not resemble my mother in looks, you do in temperament. If my mother was alive, I know it would please her that you appreciated her treasures as much as she did.”
“Oh, Everod.”
He shifted, moving closer to her. “My actions are not selfless, Maura. Maybe it pleases me to see you wearing something I gave you.”
“Then I would not presume to insult you by offering your gifts back,” she said, noticing he had insinuated his arm between the balusters and her back. Once again, he had sensed her unspoken need. Maura leaned against his arm, savoring his firmness and the warmth his body was emitting.
“Since we are being truthful,” he murmured, smoothing her hair with his free hand. “There is something else you should know.”
Maura tilted her head back. “Pray what, my lord?”
“I have every intention of seducing you.”
Maura laughed.
She thought he was jesting, but Everod was always serious when it came to bedding a lady he desired. He recognized the inviting slumberous gaze of a woman ready to be tumbled into his bed. Perhaps Maura was unaware of her own desires, but he had glimpsed that greedy yearning in her sea-gray eyes. When he held her in his arms, she melted against him as if she belonged there.
Everod was battling his own unruly lust for Maura.
Though he had not given her his mother’s jewelry to buy her favors, the needs eroding his control might have provoked him to offer Maura anything to gain her consent.
He snickered at his eagerness. If he had any sense, he would carry her back to the house, and let her believe he was jesting. Of course, most of his friends would have claimed he was lacking both scruples and his sanity. Everod hoped Maura would not test the limits of both.
“It wasn’t a jest.”
Maura sobered immediately. “I have no desire to be your mistress, Everod. From what your friends’ wives have told me, there are many ladies of the ton who already claim the dubious honor.”
His jaw clenched at the reminder of Kilby, Fayre, and Patience’s mischief. “I am not asking you to be my mistress.”
“Or your wife!”
There was grim amusement in his inflection when he said, “Why, you are a brave lady, Maura Keighly! Are you willing to bind yourself to a faithless scoundrel? A man whose own father cannot look upon him without spewing threats and blame?”
She tried to scoot away from him, but he seized the front of his coat and pulled her close so he could see her face. “I thought not.” He relaxed his fingers, releasing the coat. “Besides, I am not offering you marriage. I desire you, Maura. You feel the same. If you deny it, you will force me to call you a liar.”
Maura said nothing.
He had probably surprised her with his blunt speech. The lady was used to flowery declarations and sloppy kisses from puppies like his brother, Rowan. If there had been a lamp or a candle, Maura would have seen the burgeoning proof of his desire. Unbeknownst to her, he had been required to adjust his rigid cock several times within his breeches since he had carried her into the gazebo.
All he thought about was freeing himself, and pushing his cock into her.
“It would be wrong,” she said finally. “How could I trust you?”
“You are Georgette’s niece,” he countered coolly. “Why should I trust you?”
Logic and lust rarely shared the same portion of the brain. Everod sensed she was straightening, working herself up to give him a hundred reasons why they could not close their eyes to the problems between them and surrender to their mutual attraction.
Everod was not interested in listening to her arguments.
He had not listened to his own internal debates on why he should stay away from Maura Keighly.
If he had, he would not have been skulking about his father’s town gardens in the middle of the night.
He would not be on the brink of taking Maura’s innocence.
Everod slipped his thumb under the fabric of his coat and slowly pushed it down, exposing one of her arms. “You don’t need this any longer.” He freed her other arm.
“Everod.”
God, how he wished he could see more than beguiling glimpses of her pale features when the lightning obliged him. Was she frightened or resigned? Or maybe she was relieved he was taking the decision out of her hands
? “The nightgown must go, too. Let the breeze dry your skin.”
Instead of relieving Maura of the garment, Everod waited. After a few minutes, he heard the soft brush of fabric against skin. Seconds later, there was a distinct plop as the wet nightgown struck the wood flooring. Finally remembering to exhale, he removed the waistcoat. He preferred the satin feel of flesh gliding against flesh.
Everod got onto his knees and unfastened his breeches. His hands trembled slightly as he rushed through the necessary task. He was unworried that Maura would change her mind about accepting him as her lover. His haste was due to his growing excitement in bedding her. That fact alone should have given him pause. Standing, he shoved his breeches down and kicked the garment aside, his thoughts directed solely on the woman in front of him.
“Here, lie back,” he instructed, using his coat to pillow her head.
“I do not—I do not know how to pleasure you,” Maura confessed, her voice quivering as if she had uttered an unforgivable sin.
Her concern for his needs touched his jaded heart. It left him more determined that she would not leave him regretting their lovemaking. He kissed her, nuzzling her lips until she responded. “I am easy to please,” he said, trailing his fingers down her throat, between her breasts, to her flat stomach.
Pulling himself up, Everod moved between her legs. “I promised to kiss all your pain away.”
“That is unnecessary,” she said, gasping as he skimmed the unblemished skin from her knee to the inner thigh and marveled at its softness.
Maura trembled beneath his tender, questing caresses, her body tense. He did not fool himself into believing that it was anticipation of the pleasure that awaited them that had her slender frame as taut as a bow.
He kissed her knee. “I insist.” Everod shifted and brought her other knee up, and pressed his lips against her kneecap.
“It barely hurts,” she protested, when he moved lower so his lips could nibble her thigh.
“Truly? Then I am not doing this correctly.”
He laughed at her muttered oath. At least he thought it was an oath. Then again, he supposed a lady like Maura did not swear. Everod slid his hand higher up her leg until his fingers grazed the soft hair nestled between her legs. Everod petted her hidden cleft, and her body jerked in reaction. Delving deeper, his fingers met no resistance. He groaned as proof of her arousal coated his thumb.
Maura desired this coupling as much as he did.
Since he had espied her standing on Bond Street, conversing with her bitch of an aunt, he had circled, taunted, and teased her senses to bring them both to this moment. Everod had coaxed her body into desiring him, even when her mind and heart were uncertain of his motives. He was undecided what he wanted from Maura beyond the mutual release she had been denying them both.
Now was not the time for puzzling out the answers to the unspoken questions whispering in their respective heads. Maura was naked and splayed out upon the cloak like a willing sacrifice. The night and the storm shielded them. No one was awake to stop him, and Everod thought he might die if he did not get inside her.
Without giving her a chance to change her mind, he crawled on top of Maura. His arms took the brunt of his weight as he nudged her legs apart, positioning himself between her thighs. Reaching down, he wrapped his hand around his pulsing cock and squeezed. Each second he hesitated driving himself into her soft beckoning channel was heightening his exquisite agony.
He rubbed the head of his cock against her dewy cleft. “Do not beg me to stop. I am not as honorable as you believe, Maura. I intend to possess all of you this evening.”
Maura touched his cheek. “I know.”
Using his fingers to guide the head of his cock, Everod pressed deeper into her cleft, seeking the liquid, welcoming heat of her feminine sheath. Despite the mild temperature, and gusting wind wafting through the open structure, sweat was dampening his brow as he sank deeper into Maura only to meet the fragile resistance of her innocence.
Maura stiffened at the slight pain of his invasion.
A virgin.
Everod had always known she was untouched. Before Maura, he had avoided bedding virgins. He was not squeamish about deflowering an innocent. Regrettably, the lingering consequences generally outweighed the little pleasure he might gain from the experience. Marriage-minded matrons were also a nuisance. None of these arguments seemed to deter him from sparing Maura the initial pain his penetration would cause her.
Glaring down at her, angry at himself for not being the patient lover a woman like Maura romanticized about, he said harshly, “Your innocence won’t change anything. It’s mine to take, just as your body was meant to be mine.”
To prove it, Everod pushed his cock deeper into her tight channel. Maura closed her eyes, her fingernails digging into his forearms to eloquently express the pain he was causing her.
“It hurts,” she whispered.
He was not a selfish lover. Nor was he insensitive to her discomfort. This was one of the reasons why he had not troubled himself with virgins. He had erroneously believed that a slow penetration would be kinder to her sensitive flesh.
“I’ve changed my mind.” He eased out of her.
“What?”
He heard the surprise in her voice. Without warning, Everod plunged sharply into her sheath, piercing the barrier that prevented him from entering her wholly. They both cried out; hers was of pain, his was of triumph.
Everod braced his forehead on her shoulder and shut his eyes. Maura’s sheath constricted his cock like a second skin. He held himself still, allowing her to become accustomed to his invasion.
“We’ve done it, Maura. I’m inside you,” he said, gliding his right hand over her buttock and hauling her firmly against his pelvis. “Am I hurting you?”
“If I say ‘yes’ … will you kiss me and vanquish all my hurts?” She wiggled her spine, a small shifting movement to accommodate his weight and the rigid part of him that was buried so fully into her moist, spicy core.
“Cheeky wench,” he said affectionately. “Only you would dare to tease me at such a time.”
“Would you prefer that I succumb to a maidenly bout of vapors?”
Everod nipped her chin with his teeth. “And miss all the fun? Never.”
It took amazing strength not to move within her. To distract her, his hand closed around her breast. He teased her swollen nipples, circling his thumb over the sensitive flesh until she unconsciously arched against him.
“That’s it,” he crooned, nudging his hip against hers. The delicious friction of the small movement almost sent him over the edge. “My brave girl, it’s time to vanquish both our pain.”
Everod withdrew, and thrust completely into her snug quim. There was no resistance from her body.
Her sheath yielded to his uncompromising strokes. Maura initially lay passively beneath him, accepting his claiming as he rubbed his body against hers. As she grew accustomed to his steady rhythm, she became bolder. Increasingly her hips rose to meet his, coaxing him to greater depths.
With their vision limited, Everod used his other senses to judge Maura’s reactions. He listened to her breathy sighs as the coarse hair on his chest caressed the warm silky curves of her breasts. He touched her face, relieved to discover her cheeks were dry. When he traced her lips with his fingertips, he yelped in surprise when she playfully bit him.
He retaliated by inserting his hand between them, and teasing the nubbin of flesh between her legs as his cock plunged tirelessly in and out of her.
Maura’s reaction was instantaneous. She gasped, and her forehead collided with his chin. Grunting, Everod quickened his strokes. Maura squirmed beneath him, her breath rushing between her lips in rapid puffs.
“Give yourself to me,” he murmured enticingly into her ear. “It’s painless.”
Maura thrashed restlessly against him, and then abruptly stiffened. A lady’s release was a powerful aphrodisiac. She made a high keening sound, pressing herself again
st him as he feverishly drove his cock into her over and over.
Sensing his impending release, Everod hastily pulled out of her, his hand closing around the swollen head of his cock. He latched his mouth on one of her nipples, suckling as his hand squeezed and caressed his rigid member. Her breast muffled his gruff shout. Pressing his face into her soft flesh, he stilled as his nimble fingers applied enough pressure to heighten his pleasure. Hot seed pumped from his cock.
“Christ,” he exclaimed, when the madness faded from his brain. “I lied about it being painless. Lady, bedding you was the sweetest agony.”
He sensed Maura’s shy smile.
“Will you be wanting us to do this again?”
Collapsing beside her, Everod groaned. Maura was a siren. His body ached in all the right places, and his damn cock craved more. “Absolutely.”
Maybe if they repeated their mad coupling, he could figure out who exactly had surrendered to whom.
Chapter Seventeen
“You seem uncomfortable. Do you regret that your aunt could not join us?”
Maura wrinkled her nose at Rowan’s question. It was not his company or their lack of chaperone that troubled her. When Rowan had appeared in the breakfast room full of charm and suggested that they explore the park further by horseback, Maura privately winced. Having willingly surrendered her virginity the previous evening, she found the thought of being perched on a side-saddle as a punishment her nether regions could not bear.
Before she could think of a clever reason to refuse his kind offer, Aunt Georgette accepted on Maura’s behalf. His invitation also included her aunt, but the countess refused. Worrington’s health had not improved, and she wanted to go to Covent Garden to procure some herbs her gardens lacked.
“Not at all. Aunt Georgette’s place is at your father’s side,” she said, happy to focus on matters other than her soreness. “There has been some discussion about summoning a physician; however, my aunt is determined to cure him on her own.”
“Well, despite the dreadful flavor of her tinctures, I must confess I was never ill while residing at Worrington Hall.” He shot her a teasing glance. “You will not tell Georgette that I called her concoctions ‘dreadful,’ will you?”
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