Guilt would come tomorrow, though not regret. No matter what happened here, he could never regret hearing that she thought him handsome, when he’d thought she’d never viewed him as more than a friendly neighbor. And when she’d said she wanted to see him unclothed, his trousers had tightened over his swelling groin and he could only think of releasing her breasts and worshipping them as he’d longed to do. Of revealing her curves to his gaze and being able to touch her soft skin.
He smirked as he squeezed her hand. ‘So, you think I’m handsome?’
She laughed and gave his hand a tug to hurry him along. ‘Discussions like that would be better held in private, don’t you think?’
A laughing couple rushed past them, stopping every few steps to kiss and giggle, before they urged each other up the next level. Lillian hoped there was an abundance of rooms on the higher levels of the house, because she’d seen many couples, and threesomes, race up the stairs as if they’d suddenly decided to savor every minute of the hours left until dawn. And idea that held a lot of appeal, considering the man she’d admired…, no, the man she’d wanted in her bed for a long time was currently gripping her hands and urging her up the steps too.
CHAPTER THREE
BRENT PULLED LILLIAN TO A HALT when they reached the first floor balcony and swung her around and into his arms. He held the back of her head while he dipped his mouth and kissed her, soundly. ‘Better to get our first kiss out the way so there’s no embarrassment when we find an empty room.’
When he slowly pulled away, she sucked in a deep breath and stared up at him with wide eyes. Seeing that their first kiss affected her so much was an aphrodisiac, and his erection throbbed and made itself known. He pressed one thigh between hers and tilted his pelvis so she could feel how much she aroused him, how much he desired her. Their next kiss was hungrier, more demanding, and as he drew back, he breathed in her familiar citrus scent and rejoiced at her ragged breathing and the quick rise and fall of her chest pressed against his.
Good, she sounded as abstracted as he felt, and after only two kisses. A night of these stirring kisses and touches might kill them both but, damn it all, they both deserved one night of happiness, one night of sin. His mind raced with a dozen ways he’d please her, in addition to the dozen ways he wanted to claim her body.
Face to face so he could see her when she climaxed, from behind so he could lick her spine and play with her nipples, and yes, since the moment she’d mentioned kneeling before Geoffrey he’d envisioned Lillian on her knees. Though unlike her brutal husband, he’d ensure that she enjoyed offering herself because he’d gladly do the same. Kneel before her and worship her body, bringing her to peak after peak and demonstrating that a man and woman could explore sexually, push the boundaries, but as equals. Displaying trust in each other and having faith that neither would be hurt.
Taking Lillian’s arm, he hurried her down the corridor and past closed doors on each side. ‘We need to find an empty room before anyone else comes along here. It’s narrow enough that we cannot avoid coming into close contact with people and therefore there’s a bigger risk of someone seeing us together and connecting us.’
At each door he stopped, and listened. Squeals and giggles and moans made it easy to distinguish which rooms were occupied and what they were doing and he didn’t want to linger and cause embarrassment for Lillian, though from what she’d revealed about her late husband, Lillian’s innocence had been stripped from her during her sham of a marriage. Geoffrey had been a bastard who deserved to rot in hell for the damage he’d done to his sweet wife, and Brent longed to erase her bad memories and replace them with more amicable ones.
No noise came from beyond the last door on the left so Brent knocked softly and paused, enjoying the feel of Lillian’s hand gripping his and the warmth of her body pressed against him as they waited. No one answered his knock and there were no voices, or squeals, so he opened the door and gestured for Lillian to enter. She walked past him and towards the bed, stopping to run her hand over the plush covering and swiveling around to obverse the rest of the room’s furnishings. He leant against the closed door and smiled.
‘It’s a beautiful room.’
‘I’m not looking at the room, or Browning’s furnishings, but what I see is certainly beautiful. Stunning, in fact.’
Lillian laughed, but then covered her mouth with her hands. ‘You don’t need to compliment me or seduce me with words, Brent, because I came with you willingly. In fact, I should be seducing you out of your worries.’
He stood in front of her and spread his arms wide, grinning, and feeling lighter of heart than he had in a long while. ‘Please, feel free to do what you want with me.’ He shrugged out of his coat and tossed it over his shoulder towards the door, careless of where it landed. His entire focus was one the extraordinary lady who stood before him, biting her lower lip, and frowning. He held out his hand and when she took it, he tugged her closer. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘I…I’ve realized that I don’t know how to seduce a man, any man, and especially not you.’
He brushed his lips lightly across Lillian’s. ‘Why especially me?’
‘Because…because I want to make you happy. To make this perfect.’ She pulled off her gloves and put them onto the bedside table. ‘This might be the only night we have together, so I want it to be …memorable.’
He copied her movements and put his gloves on the table beside hers, smiling at the picture of their belongings touching each other and was seized by a yearning to view that small intimacy more often, perhaps on a permanent basis. Sliding his bare hands around her waist was also an unexpected delight, as it’d been more than four years since he’d touched a woman who wasn’t a family member. ‘Anything and everything we do will be memorable, and as for seducing me, you accomplished that the moment you asked me to come upstairs. I’m entranced by your loveliness and in thrall to your proposal.’
Kissing her stopped her from answering for a moment, and when he lifted his head her gorgeous gray eyes were glazed and her cheeks flushed a becoming pink. Slipping his hands around her head, he pulled out her pins, one by one, and dropped them to the carpet. A mass of curls tumbled to her shoulders and he groaned. ‘I haven’t seen your hair down since we were children.’ He lifted a long lock to his face and inhaled. ‘I recognized your citrus scent. Though at first I imagined one of your sisters, Candace most likely, had inveigled an invitation to the ball, or had been escorted here by an ungentlemanly rake.’
‘Oh. You didn’t know it was me?’
‘Not at first, no, but when I came closer and saw--’
‘What?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘This is a little embarrassing, but your breasts are quite… unique.’ As he spoke, he rolled his thumbs across her bodice and stroked her nipples through the fabric. ‘Unique and quite exquisite.’ He turned her and started on the back buttons, stopping as he released each one to ease her gown aside and nibble a path across her shoulders. Lillian moaned and his prick jumped and swelled.
She pushed her bottom back until she found his arousal and then she wriggled. His turn to moan, aloud, and grip her waist to hold her still. ‘Sweetheart, as amazing as that feels, I need you naked before I lose control, toss you on your back and take you, hard and fast.’
‘I wouldn’t mind.’ She pulled her bodice down her shoulders and bared her pale skin.
His mouth went dry. ‘But I would mind. Later, I’ll have you bent over the dressing table and plough you from behind.’ She hissed in a breath. ‘And hard and fast up against the wall. Then with your bare back to the window and the curtains open so that anyone standing in the courtyard can watch and wish they were the lucky bastard having unrestrained sex with the most skilled courtesan at the ball. They won’t know that by day you’re the daughter of a duke observing the conventions of mourning, because they’ll hear you scream out your climax and spread tales of witnessing the spiciest bird of paradise in the whole of Britain in action.’
Lillian’s breathing was a series of pants and she slumped against his chest. ‘Brent, please, I need you. Hurry … hurry.’
‘Shush, my love. We have all night.’ He worked on the ties and clasps of her remaining clothing, letting everything puddle at her feet before helping her step away from her coverings and into his arms. Her thin chemise hid nothing from his hungry eyes and when she crossed her arms over her chest, he gently pulled them aside. ‘Let me look, my sweet. After all these years of wondering, and longing, I finally get to feast on these.’ He hefted her breasts in his palms and moaned. ‘Superb. Truly magnificent.’
He slipped his hands under the hem and slid the lawn upwards, inch by inch, while she quivered under his hands. The chemise joined her other discarded clothing and he stepped back, still holding her hands, and surveyed the splendor he’d unveiled. She shivered and burrowed into his chest. ‘Are you cold?’
She shook her head.
‘Excited?’
She nodded.
‘Good. So am I, and a little nervous.’
She chuckled. ‘I’m sure you’re very knowledgeable and not at all nervous.’
‘I haven’t been with a woman since my wife died.’
‘Four years?’
He nodded. ‘And even more than that. After she’d admitted to being unfaithful, several times, I could no longer stand being in the same room as her, let alone the same bed.’ Unable to resist her upturned face and her red lips, he wrapped his hands through her hair and poured all his newly-revealed feeling into his kisses. ‘Tell me how to make this good for you.’
She licked her lips. ‘Take off your clothes, Brent. Please.’
He grinned as he peeled off his cravat, vest, and shirt as quickly as he could, sitting on the side of the bed to tug off his boots and stockings and rising again to step out of his smalls. Her eyes were as wide as saucers and her mouth hung open, making him feel like a god. ‘See anything you like?’
She nodded. ‘I like everything I see. Can I…can I touch you?’
Lillian reached towards his erection and ran a tentative finger down the length. He closed his eyes and savored the light touch, knowing nothing had ever felt as good as having the person he was closest to, apart from his daughter, put her soft hands on his body. His penis bobbed and she laughed. He covered her hand with his and wrapped them around his shaft, hissing in a breath and squeezing. Showing her what he liked. ‘That’s so good,’ he murmured, ‘And yet not enough. Not nearly enough.’
He nudged her back wards towards the top of the bed. ‘Lie down.’ Holding her wrists, he eased her back onto the thick quilt, leaving her legs dangling over the side, but when he pressed her thighs apart with his palms she jumped and her head rose from the bed.
She stared at him. ‘What are you doing?’
Brent frowned. ‘I assumed your husband would have done these things with you.’ He waved towards her exposed sex and her swollen labia. Unable to help himself, he ran a finger through her crease and sighed when he found her soaking wet. ‘If he didn’t bring you to orgasm this way, Lillian, then he robbed you of one of the most pleasurable things a woman can experience. Let me show you.’ Her muscles relaxed and he gently used his thumbs to spread her wide enough to give him a better view. Blood raced to his groin and he swelled, harder than when he’d sighted her rounded breasts. His chest tightened as he looked his fill at her centre and admired her pink and swollen folds. ‘You want me.’
Her eyes were squinted and her answer was a whisper. ‘Yes. Please. Now.’
‘Look at me Lillian and tell me that you won’t regret this tomorrow, because in another few minutes I doubt I’ll be able to stop. Not when you’re spread open and ready to welcome me into your body. Not when you’re all I can see and think about.’
She swallowed and nodded. ‘I do…’
She cleared her throat and his own tightened with emotion. Never had he imagined that he’d have the chance to make love to his best friend, and never had he wanted a woman more. When he’d married he’d been infatuated with his wife, though it had taken only a few months to discern that the sweet and congenial Marion he knew was a façade and nothing like the nasty and conniving female she revealed herself to be after she wore his ring and carried his name.
Her voice was stronger the second time. ‘I do want you and there will be no regrets tomorrow. Not from me, at least.’ She looked at him with a question in her eyes.
He shook his head. ‘I’m honored that you want to be with me and no, I’ll never regret any time we have together. This night is already the best I’ve spent in many moons.’ He bent and ran his tongue up her outer wetness before dipping the tip into her crevice. “You taste good and you feel amazing.’ He slid two fingers inside and wiggled them. She gave a soft squeal of astonishment and, hopefully, enjoyment, so he did it again and again until she writhed on the bed, hips lifting, and breathing shortened. ‘So beautiful and so close,’ he murmured, ‘feeling like a king for rousing so much passion in someone trained from birth to show no public displays of emotion.
His lover’s mouth opened and he knew she was about to shatter with her release, his level of excitement rising with hers. Nothing would please him more than to hear her scream his name as she orgasmed, long and hard.
‘Bloody hell.’ He withdrew his fingers, pushed her legs together, and straightened, all in one movement. Grasping her wrists, he tugged her upright. ‘Someone’s coming,’ he hissed beside her ear, ‘And our masks are gone.’
Her hand half-smothered her gasp but her eyes were wide with fright, and her cheeks had lost all their previously-pink color. Thinking fast, Brent kicked what clothing he could reach with his foot under the bed, scooped Lillian up and tossed her over his shoulder. The room had no where to hide but a large wardrobe at one end of the rectangular room and he prayed that it wasn’t filled with clothing. On the way, he grabbed other garments from the floor and strode to the cupboard, wrenching open the doors.
‘Thank God,’ he muttered, as he tipped Lillian over to stand on her feet inside the half empty hanging space. Clothing was tossed to one side and he stepped in with Lillian, having to press tightly against her to close the door behind him. Shivers wracked her body and he glanced at the floor, using his toe to shift the garments in the hope of finding something to cover her nakedness. The chattering of her teeth sounded loud in the silence and he put his finger to her lips to urge her to muffle the sound. She nodded and put her finger between her teeth. ‘Jesus, don’t bite yourself.’ Worry for her had his mind spinning but he spotted a scarf draped over a hanging nail and used it to wrap her neck and slide it between her teeth.
She gave him a grateful smile but dropped the scarf from her mouth when the door was flung open so hard that it hit the wall. Tucking the scarf between her teeth, he lifted his white shirt from the floor and eased it over her head, sliding each arm into the sleeves slowly and carefully. Lillian sensed his caution and followed his lead until the short hem dropped to her thighs. Relief overwhelmed him and he thanked the deities that at least she’d be covered if one of the intruders opened the wardrobe doors.
Taking one end of the silk scarf, he indicated how it could be pulled across her face as a replacement to the mask and she gave a nod of acknowledgement. Her easy acceptance of the situation and his instructions boosted his opinion of her intelligence, though he’d always known she was exceptional for a lady of the peerage. The duke, her father, had a low opinions of females who showed initiative and intellect and his censure had pushed Lillian to spend most of her time at the duke’s country estate, for which Brent had always been thankful.
Her face creased with worry lines and, thinking she was still cold, he rubbed her arms from wrists to shoulder with his bare hands. A head shake told him he was incorrect, and a finger pointed at his bared chest, and his exposed groin, led him to the answer. Sweet Lillian, his Lillian, was worrying about him, rather than her own predicament. His face split into a huge grin, which also puz
zled her as she frowned harder.
‘Later,’ he whispered in her ear.
When they were out of danger from discovery, he’d explain how much he admired her and her compassion for others. Few tonnish ladies would have coped in a wardrobe and would most likely be screaming loudly enough to bring every guest running. His late wife would have berated him, loudly, if they’d been caught in this situation, although with him she’d acted conservatively and almost prudishly for most of their marriage, another reason her affairs had been such a shock to him. Marion acting impulsively, slinking off to clandestine assignations that made no sense to him, leading him to the miserable conclusion that something lacking in his character had pushed her into affairs with married men. His cross to bear, and his alone.
Loud voices sounded in the bedchamber and he and Lillian put their ears to the wooden panel to listen. A woman, or perhaps two, were giggling and shrieking while at least two male voices issued orders, though with a hint of amusement lightening their gruff commands. The handle lifted from the catch silently and Brent opened the wardrobe door a fraction, allowing them to catch more of the silly conversation and to sneak a glimpse of their unwanted intruders.
Damn his stupidity for not checking that the door from the corridor was properly locked, and for being so caught up in thoughts of Lillian’s luscious curves that he must have neglected to turn the key fully in the lock.
‘Lucky I have a key to all the rooms,’ a male voice announced, and he could see a key dangling from the fingertips of a gentleman.
He grimaced, and at Lillian’s look of concern whispered, ‘Browning. Master key.’ Thankfully the scarf covered her shocked gasp. How unlucky could they be that their host would bring his friends to this particular room, and how stupid of Browning not to notice their remaining garments, including masks, scattered across the floor. Their host most likely didn’t care that other guests may be secreted in the room and playing voyeur, or else he knew they were in the wardrobe and wanted to provide some extra entertainment.
Seven Nights of Sin: Seven Sensuous Stories by Bestselling Historical Romance Authors Page 39